CHICAGO -- Narcotics officers seized 53 kilograms of cocaine, worth $13 million on the street, and arrested an 18-year-old man with suspected ties to an international drug ring during a raid on the West Side, police said Thursday.
Along with the drugs, police Wednesday night also confiscated $200,000 in cash, a van, a boat, a motorcycle and a car, said Police Superintendent LeRoy Martin, who dubbed it 'the biggest drug bust we ever had in Chicago.'
'It's bigger than the French Connection was in New York,' Martin said. The cracking of the French Connection in 1962 netted New York police 112 pounds of heroin.
In May 1988, Chicago police and federal Drug Enforcement Agency officials teamed up to confiscate $150 million worth of cocaine and heroin. Officials stressed Thursday that the latest seizure was exclusively a city operation.
The cocaine was tested by police and determined to be 98.9 percent pure, investigators said.
The raid grew out of surveillance following the May seizure, police said.
Silvestri Valdez, 18, was charged with possession of a controlled substance and held pending a bond hearing. He also was ordered to appear in Narcotics Court on Feb. 15., authorities said.
The police raiding party also seized a pistol, and Silversti was charged with unlawful use of a weapon.
The cocaine seized Wednesday, as well as the narcotics intercepted last spring, were linked to the notorious Herrera drug trafficking family of Durango, Mexico, said Narcotics Unit Commander Ray Risley.
'They are the principal distributors for the Chicago area and probably for all of the Midwest,' Risley said.
When asked why an international drug ring would have entrusted such a large consignment of cocaine to an 18-year-old, Gang Crimes Lt. Ronald Kelly said, 'That is an indication of just how much is out there.'
