Addison man gets 12 years for suburban heroin trafficking

The last of four men charged with trafficking heroin after police found $1.4 million worth of narcotics in 2014 has been sentenced to prison.

Orlando Pacheco-Ramos, 30, of the 400 block of West Stevens Drive in Addison, was sentenced to 12 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections during a hearing Friday before Judge John Kinsella, according to a statement from the Dupage County state’s attorney’s office.

Authorities began investigating in July 2014, after Homeland Security Investigations officers in Chicago were tipped off to an out-of-state currency seizure, prosecutors said.

On July 23, they began surveillance on an Elgin home connected to the seizure. The next day, Pacheco-Ramos, along with brothers Jose Hernandez and Andres Hernandez and their father Luis Hernandez, conducted a narcotics transaction in Addison, prosecutors claim.

Police pulled over Pacheco-Ramos’ vehicle and found seven kilograms of heroin with a street value of about $1.4 million, prosecutors said. A large amount of cash was also recovered from his Addison home.

All four men were arrested and charged with manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance, a Class X felony, prosecutors said.

Elgin residents Luis Hernandez, 48, and Andres Hernandez, 25, both pleaded guilty to drug charges in February and May of 2015, respectively, the state’s attorney’s office said. Both were sentenced to six years in prison.

In July 2015, 28-year-old Jose Hernandez was sentenced to 20 years in prison following a bench trial in front of Judge Kinsella, prosecutors said.

Pacheco-Ramos must service 75 percent of his sentence before being eligible for parole, prosecutors said.

“The conviction of these four men demonstrates that we will continue to aggressively prosecute drug dealers who peddle this poison to our children,” DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said in the statement. “Make no mistake however, we still have a long way to go to rid our neighborhoods of the pain, heartache and death caused by drugs.”