An investigation into suspicious packages being mailed to Chicago in the days leading to Christmas has led to the seizure of nearly $3 million in drugs and the arrest of a Chicago man, Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart announced Friday.
Leroy Scott, 42, of the 10100 block of South Winston Avenue, is charged with possession of more than 5,000 grams of marijuana – a class 1 felony. He has been housed in the Cook County Jail since he was arrested earlier this week.
The investigation began when the Cook County Sheriff’s Criminal Intelligence Unit – a team of investigators based at the Cook County Jail – received information about suspicious packages which Scott was picking up from Chicago offices of private shipping carriers. CIU investigators worked with Cook County Sheriff’s Police Gang Crimes and Narcotics Unit officers to carry out the investigation, along with cooperation from officials with the private shipping carrier. Because of that cooperation, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office is not identifying which private carrier was used to carry out the crime.
On Dec. 11, a large box was shipped to Scott’s address, in the name of an alias he used. That package was intercepted by investigators, who found it contained a 5-gallon bucket filled with 6,819 grams of “kush” or high-grade marijuana. On Dec. 18, two more identical buckets were shipped to Scott, containing a total of 13,620 grams of the same narcotic. When Scott picked up that package and placed it in his vehicle, he was questioned by investigators. As that was happening, a drug-sniffing dog positively identified drugs as being inside the packages. He was then arrested. As Scott was in custody and being processed, investigators received a tip that two more large packages had been mailed to Scott at a Bourbonnais facility. When those packages were intercepted, they were found to contain 13,620 more grams of kush packaged in the same 5-gallon buckets as the others.
A total of more than 34,000 grams of marijuana was seized from the five 5-gallon buckets shipped to Scott. Each bucket contained marijuana with a street value of more than $500,000.
Investigators determined that Scott had made multiple trips to the southwest United States in the days before each of the packages were shipped to him from the same area. Since September, they learned, he had made 19 trips to private shipping carriers in Chicago to retrieve large packages shipped to him from out of state.
Scott is being held on $150,000 bond. As part of the case, a motion was filed by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office requiring anyone who attempts to post bond for Scott to first provide proof of the source of those funds before it can be considered for use as bail.
His next court date is set for January 18, 2011.