13 people charged with selling narcotics on NW Side, west suburbs

Thirteen people are facing drug charges for allegedly helping distribute cocaine, heroin and fentanyl on the city’s Northwest Side and west suburbs.

Agents from the FBI and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration have investigated the group’s drug trafficking activities since 2015, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office. They seized about 52 kilograms of cocaine, 45 kilograms of heroin, more than 13 kilograms of fentanyl and a pound of methamphetamine.

The investigation found that Chicago residents Aurelio Abrego, 45, and Jose Miguel Perez, 54, received wholesale quantities of cocaine and heroin from Chicago residents Javier Moreno, 49, and Richard Alvarado, 28, and distributed them to wholesale customers, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Fernelly Llanos, 51, and Pedro Saavedra-Fitz, 28, both of Chicago, served as brokers who would supply smaller quantities of narcotics to wholesale customers on credit and collect proceeds after they were sold, prosecutors said. One customer was identified as 30-year-old Fernando Gomez of Schiller Park.

Numerous illegal drug transactions were uncovered in the investigation, including the distribution of 3 kilograms of cocaine on a Melrose Park street and 5 kilograms of fentanyl at an Aurora gas station, according to prosectors.

Abrego and Perez distributed between $49,000 and $54,000 worth of heroin to one of Saavedra-Fitz’ customers in a July 2015 transaction on the Northwest Side, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Abrego also allegedly distributed a kilogram of heroin to Llanos in September 2015 in an alley in the Belmont Gardens neighborhood on the Northwest Side, prosecutors said. Authorities later seized the heroin after Llanos distributed it to another person.

Abrego, Perez, Alvarado, Gomez and Llanos were arrested Wednesday on charges of drug distribution, the U.S. attorney’s office said. Their detention hearings were scheduled for July 28, Aug. 1 and Aug. 2.

Saavedra-Fitz and Moreno, and another man, 41-year-old Rolando Estrada from Elmwood Park, are considered fugitives, the U.S. attorney’s office said. They face drug distribution charges and are being sought by law enforcement.

Four other defendants — 31-year-old Ricardo Castaneda of Peru, 32-year-old Santos Godina of West Brooklyn, 44-year-old Eugene Alexander of Bensenville, and 33-year-old Jennifer Reppin of Peru — are awaiting trial on drug distribution charges from May, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Carlos Fuentes, a 40-year-old Riverside resident, was charged with drug distribution in an indictment and has been held in federal custody since his arrest in January, the U.S. attorney’s office said. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.