Two reputed members of an Asian gang allegedly gaining control over the growing market for the club drug Ecstasy have been charged in the killing of a suburban high school student, the first known local slaying tied to trafficking in the drug.
In announcing the charges against Artit “R.T.” Changyaleket and Quang “Quasi” Nguyen, Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheahan suggested the killing last November signaled the emergence of gangs, particularly the Laotian Posse, in putting the drug on streets in Cook, DuPage, Will and Lake Counties.
“What we see now is a lucrative business for the street gangs,” Sheahan said. “They are young … and they are known to be very violent and mobile. What they have done is direct their operation toward the drug of Ecstasy because of the profit that is in Ecstasy.”
But other law enforcement officials questioned whether Chicago-area gangs were taking over from a collection of freelance drug dealers who federal and local authorities have said dominate the sale of Ecstasy and other so-called club drugs popularized along with the culture surrounding all-night “rave” parties.
Scientists say Ecstasy increases levels of a chemical in the brain, enhancing feelings of pleasure and heightening perception. But the active ingredient in the drug can lead to dehydration, high blood pressure, stroke, convulsions and kidney failure.
The deaths of a 17-year-old McHenry boy, an 18-year-old Naperville girl, and a 20-year-old Lisle man last year are attributed to a look-alike Ecstasy drug.
Changyaleket, 20, and Nguyen, 22, both of the 2100 block of West Granville Avenue in Chicago, were each charged with first-degree murder for the November slaying of Vu Anh Hoang, 16, of Morton Grove.
Cook County Sheriff’s police arrested Nguyen early Friday at a friend’s home in Wayne. Changyaleket was arrested Tuesday after police found him hiding in a Chicago apartment.
The victim, a junior at Maine East High School in Park Ridge who had recently transferred there from Chicago’s Lane Tech High School, did not belong to the gang, Sheahan said. Hoang did know some area gang members, he said.
Each suspect was being held in lieu of $1 million bail Wednesday. Changyaleket, Nguyen, Hoang, and Hoang’s friendwere at an Elgin apartment on the night of Nov. 10 just before the shooting, said Assistant States Atty. Mark Shlifka during a bond hearing for Changyaleket Wednesday morning.
Changyaleket asked Hoang and Hoang’s friend to go with them to a local restaurant, Shlifka said. Instead, they went to a farm field near Shoe Factory Road just outside Elgin. Police sources said Changyaleket and Nguyen were enraged over a missing stash of Ecstasy, $10,000 in cash, and various electronics equipment, such as a computer, television, VCR and stereo.
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With Nguyen driving, Changyaleket pointed a gun at Hoang’s head and demanded the missing items, Shlifka said. Unsatisfied with the friend’s answers, Changyaleket shot Hoang once in the right side of the head, Shlifka said.
Changyaleket then confiscated the friend’s driver’s license and gave him a week and a half to come up with the merchandise, the prosecutor said.
On Wednesday, the Drug Enforcement Administration said the sheer volume of Ecstasy making its way to the United States makes it clear that some sophisticated network exists for putting the pills in the hands of teenagers and young adults at dance parties and nightclubs. Exactly how the operation works is uncertain, said DEA Chicago spokesman Mike Hillebrand.
In 1997, 400,000 pills were seized by authorities, he said. The number jumped to 750,000 in 1998, and to 3 million in 1999. Through mid-year 2000, the latest figures available, authorities had seized 9.3 million tablets.
A police source familiar with Asian gangs said Sheahan may have overstated the role of the gang in dealing Ecstasy. The source said the two may have only been loosely associated with the gang, and their dealing in Ecstasy was more of a freelance operation.
Authorities believe the drugs are manufactured mostly overseas, namely in the Netherlands, with distribution to the United States controlled by European and Israeli organized crime. Sheahan said the drug, which sells for between $25 and $30 on the street, is often shipped directly to Chicago.