JOLIET, Ill., Sept. 7 (UPI) -- Homes in Chicago's suburbs are being used by Mexican drug cartels as wholesale "stash houses," complete with families hired to live in them, police say.
In one example in Joliet, Ill., authorities this summer found $1.4 million cash in the attic as well as 54 kilograms of cocaine, while neighbors where unaware anything was out of the ordinary with the family that was living there, the Chicago Tribune reported Monday.
"I never would've suspected it," said neighbor Tonya Butler. "I thought this was a good working-class neighborhood. We all get up in the morning. We all go to work."
Police say the family's father, Jorge Guadalupe Ayala-German, who was charged with maintaining a house where drugs were sold, was promised a $35,000 payoff by drug dealers.
In a related case, prosecutors say houses suburban Bolingbroke, Romeoville, Plainfield and elsewhere have been used to stash and distribute thousands of kilos of cocaine worth more than $50 million, the Tribune reported.
"Rarely do people recognize that their neighbors are involved in these larger (wholesale) distribution rings because they do everything they can to give the appearance of just being normal neighbors," said Joliet Police Chief Fred Hayes.
