40 Top Chicago Drug Dealers Charged

Story By Pam DeFiglio

Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez Thursday announced charges against more than 40 leaders and key players in the West-Side Chicago "Black Souls" street gang.  

Suburban law enforcement officials have said in the past that gang drug sales in Maine Township and the Niles-Des Plaines area are linked to West-Side Chicago gangs. 

This was the first time the state's attorney's office used Illinois RICO law, passed a year ago, to charge top-tier players in what it called a violent street gang. Alvarez had said in the past the law would be a powerful new legal tool. 

RICO-related charges were brought against 23 of the defendants. 

Earlier: Alvarez comes to Maine Township, says new law will fight gangs, drugs

The State’s Attorney’s Office, the Chicago Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation all participated in the investigation.  

The following information comes from a State's Attorney's office statement.

The 23 defendants have all been charged with Racketeering Conspiracy and Calculated Criminal Drug Conspiracy, both Class X felony offenses.  Among those charged is gang “chief” Cornel Dawson, 38, also known as “Corn”; and the gang’s second in command, Teron Odum, 34, also known as “Ty.”  Also charged were the gang’s top four “princes,” or “top runners,” who each manage one of the gang’s street drug market locations.

They are identified as Antwan Davis, 30; Ulysses Polk, 32; Clifton Lemon, 41, and Jeff Thompson, 44.  The charges were unsealed today in an affidavit and criminal complaints filed by the State’s Attorney’s Office in Cook County Criminal Court.  

“Operation 40 Cal” targeted top gang leadership as well as key members, gang enforcers and gang supervisors who have been operating an open-air, 24-hour-a-day criminal drug enterprise with the primary street sales spots for both cocaine and heroin located in a two by three block radius in the vicinity of Madison and Pulaski. 

Selling primarily small packets of heroin in hand-to-hand transactions with drive-by customers, law enforcement authorities estimate that the operation could have been taking in as much as $11 million annually in cash proceeds.

The RICO charges enable prosecutors to target organized gang activity and gang leadership and charge each defendant with a criminal conspiracy based on the patterns and practices of the gang’s criminal enterprise.  

In this case, the RICO charges are based on the previous violent criminal conduct of the gang leadership and members dating back to May of 1999. The underlying charges in “Operation 40 Cal” consist of multiple counts of murder and multiple counts of attempted murder, including the attempted murder of two Chicago police officers.

Additional underlying charges include the murder or intimidation of witnesses, murder of other gang members as a form of punishment, drug trafficking, bribery, kidnapping, armed robbery, burglary and various weapons offenses.

State’s Attorney Alvarez, whose administration wrote the new RICO law, said the elements of the statute will now enable local prosecutors to tackle gang cases much like federal-style prosecutions targeting gang violence. While the federal government has successfully used RICO to combat criminal gangs for more than 40 years, Illinois was one of few states that lacked a modern state RICO law.

“The new Street Gang RICO law has enabled us to launch an unprecedented attack on the leadership of this violent and notorious Chicago street gang,” Alvarez said.  “It is a Game Changer for law enforcement in our war against Chicago street gangs.”