Seven alleged current or former Latin King gang members were charged Wednesday in a drug conspiracy that officials said involved kidnapping, torture with heated coat hangers and the theft of more than 500 pounds of marijuana.
The charges filed Wednesday in federal court also detail how a Chicago police officer allegedly helped steal a stash of drugs and cash from two Latin King leaders who had just stolen the drugs and money themselves.
Charged Wednesday were brothers Richard and Jerome Carman, reputed leaders of a West Side faction of the Latin Kings that dealt narcotics near Humboldt Park. Also charged were alleged gang members Natividad Calderon, Alberto Rodriguez, Cesar Casiano and Daniel Perez, as well as alleged former member Charles States.
The police officer, Mario Morales, was not among the seven people charged on Wednesday but has been held on related federal extortion charges since September.
Sources said the investigation, which began about 18 months ago, was expected to bring similar charges against two dozen more Latin Kings, as well as two dealers and a suburban client of the dealers.
Richard Carman, Casiano, Calderon, Perez and Rodriguez appeared in court Wednesday, where Assistant U.S. Atty. Lori Lightfoot asked that they be held until a detention hearing next week.
An attorney for Jerome Carman said his client was expected to surrender, while States was still being sought.
According to the charges, in February 2001, Richard Carman was tipped off about a Bucktown drug dealer and went to his home under the pretense of making a buy. Carman drove the man to his brother Jerome Carman’s home, and began threatening him unless he gave up his stash of drugs and money, the charges said.
The man told Carman where to find about a half pound of marijuana and $100,000 in cash inside his home, authorities said.
A few weeks later, the Carman brothers, along with Perez, Casiano and Calderon, decided to rob the same dealer, the charges said. This time, according to the charges, they used a “police spotlight to simulate a police stop,” curbing the dealer’s car near his home.
They again took him to Jerome Carman’s apartment, where his legs and genitals were burned with a heated hanger until he led them to another 20 pounds of marijuana and $20,000, the charges alleged.
Still unsatisfied, the Carman brothers threatened more torture if he didn’t call his supplier and set up a large buy, the charges said.
That led to the kidnapping of the supplier, who also was taken to Jerome Carman’s apartment and threatened, the charges said. A search of the supplier’s home turned up 500 pounds of marijuana and $100,000 in cash, according to the charges.
The charges alleged that Rodriguez was not happy with his share of the money and hatched a plan with two of his friends and Morales, the police officer, to rob the Carman brothers.
Carrying a gun and wearing his badge around his neck, Morales showed up at a South Side building pretending to be on a police call, the charges said. No one was home and the four stole 300 pounds of cocaine and a large amount of money, the charges said.
The robbery touched off a rampage by the Carmans, a police source said.
Gang members broke into two apartments looking for the drugs and over the next 12 hours the Carman brothers allegedly tortured the residents–six men and a woman–pistol-whipping some of them and beating and burning others, authorities said.
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