Naperville cops make another $1M drug bust
BY BILL BIRD wbird@stmedianetwork.com October 26, 2012 6:14PM
Ronald C. Sanchez 32 Listed addresses in Chicago and Morton Grove Charged with the manufacture / delivery of marijuana. |Courtesy of Naperville Police Department
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Updated: October 27, 2012 6:02PM
For the second time in two days, Naperville police have put million-dollar narcotics smugglers out of business.
A man from Chicago’s north side has been arrested and charged with growing more than 300 marijuana plants inside his home, an operation investigators said produced nearly $1.2 million worth of the drug.
Ronald C. Sanchez, 32, was held Friday night in DuPage County Jail on $100,000 bail. Police said he faces trial on a Class X felony count of possession of a controlled substance with the intent to deliver, as well as unlawful delivery of cannabis and production of cannabis plants.
Written Naperville police records indicated Sanchez was arrested about 4:07 p.m. Thursday near Diehl Road and Freedom Drive on the city’s far northeast side. That intersection lies just south of Interstate 88.
Police Cmdr. Brian Cunningham said members of the department’s Special Operations Group, as part of their investigation, secured a search warrant and went to Sanchez’s home on the 3200 block of North Oleander Avenue in Chicago.
“Upon entering the residence, a sophisticated cannabis grow operation was discovered,” including more than 300 mature plants and several large, plastic bins filled with processed marijuana, Cunningham said late Friday in a release. The marijuana had an estimated street sale value of $1,197,800, Cunningham said.
It could not be learned Friday how the Diehl Road and Freedom Drive location figured in the investigation or Sanchez’s arrest.
The marijuana bust came just two days after police arrested two men from Iowa near North Aurora Road and Route 59 for allegedly transporting 19 pounds of methamphetamine valued at nearly $1 million. Both men are in jail on cash bonds of $1 million each and awaiting trial in that case.
Police Chief Robert Marshall expressed his thanks to the DuPage County and Cook County state’s attorney’s offices for their assistance in the “multi-county, cooperative effort” that ended in Sanchez’s arrest.
Sanchez also listed an address in Morton Grove. An examination of court documents indicated he has no criminal record in DuPage, Kane or Will counties.
A Class X felony carries a mandatory sentence of six to 30 years in prison upon conviction.
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