Suburban Chicago Man Charged with Trafficking Firearms and Drugs
CHICAGO — Sheila G. Lyons, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Chicago Field Division, and Acting U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual for the Northern District of Illinois announced that a federal grand jury has indicted a suburban Chicago man for allegedly trafficking firearms and drugs.
An indictment returned Thursday in U.S. District Court in Chicago charges Efrain Jacobo, 42, of Prospect Heights, Illinois, with federal firearm and drug offenses. He pleaded not guilty to the charges during his arraignment this morning in federal court. Jacobo is currently detained in federal custody.
According to the indictment and a criminal complaint previously filed in the case, Jacobo dealt six handguns, a rifle, ammunition, and narcotics in a series of transactions last fall in Joliet, Illinois. The drugs in the deals included methamphetamines and cocaine. Unbeknownst to Jacobo, the individual to whom he sold the guns and drugs was an undercover law enforcement officer, the charges allege.
During the investigation, law enforcement seized approximately 150 kilograms of methamphetamines from a truck that had traveled from Texas to Bolingbrook, Illinois. Law enforcement also seized fentanyl and cocaine from a storage facility used by Jacobo in Wheeling, Illinois, and additional cocaine from Jacobo’s vehicle, the charges allege.
Joining DEA Chicago SAC Lyons and Acting U.S. Attorney Pasqual in making the announcement were Christopher Amon, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, and Mike Rompa, Chief of the Bolingbrook Police Department. The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret A. Steindorf.
The public is reminded that an indictment is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
