Two and a half years after Aurora police and federal agents found almost 20 pounds of heroin and cash stashed in Modesto Alarcon’s Grove Street garage, a judge found the 44-year-old Aurora man guilty of possessing and distributing the drug.
Kane County Judge D.J. Tegeler, who presided over Alarcon’s bench trial Wednesday, also convicted the landscaping business owner of one count of money laundering. Alarcon, who has been in Kane County Jail since April 2014, faces a minimum of 15 years in prison when he is sentenced Feb. 1. The nine kilograms of heroin with an estimated street value of $1.35 million that was seized has been described as possibly the largest bust of its kind in county history.
During testimony Wednesday, police officers and Department of Homeland Security investigators described the events of April 1, 2014, which included surveillance in an Aurora laundromat parking lot, a traffic stop on Chicago’s North Side and the discovery of a makeshift loft inside Alarcon’s garage. Members of the Aurora police special operations group, along with others involved in a Department of Homeland Security drug task force, collectively explained suspicions about an exchange between occupants of a Jeep and Saturn near Grove and Ohio streets in Aurora which prompted the Jeep to be followed into Chicago. The Jeep was stopped and a search uncovered a hidden compartment filled with $190,000 in bundles of $10,000.
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About three hours later, officers began to arrive at Alarcon’s home in Aurora. One Aurora officer found a loaded handgun, digital scale and various storage bags and plastic wrap considered “packaging material” in the basement. A second Aurora officer recalled checking out the garage loft where he eventually discovered “large chunks of drugs,” later determined to be heroin, packaged into bricks and cylinder containers, between wall studs. Officer Erik Swastek also helped find a black bag which held approximately $84,000 in cash, a money counting machine and what police called armor-piercing bullets.
Addison Police Sgt. Jose Gonzalez, who was assigned to the task force at the time, testified about Alarcon’s admissions during initial interviews. Alarcon said he was associated with a person named “Chino” who would contact him about drug and cash exchanges, and that he was paid $2,000 to store heroin in the garage of the home he had moved into a couple weeks earlier, Gonzalez said.
Alarcon told Gonzalez he had done multiple pick ups, with as much as 10 kilograms in drugs and cash amounts of $20,000 and higher involved in nearly two dozen exchanges. Gonzalez testified that Alarcon acknowledged he received $200,000 in cash and a large quantity of drugs in the days before authorities came to his door.
“He said he had about seven or eight kilos of heroin,” Gonzalez recalled, adding Alarcon thought there was about $40,000 in the garage.
Alarcon’s attorney, Robert Rascia, pushed Gonzalez during cross-examination on the handling his client’s interviews, including the timing of when Alarcon was notified of his Miranda rights. Rascia also questioned why the initial part of the interview – which involved Gonzalez and two federal agents – was not recorded, while a shorter subsequent conversation between Gonzalez and Alarcon conducted in Spanish was recorded.
A pre-trial ruling determined Alarcon’s statements to police were voluntary, but Rascia’s questions suggested Alarcon might have been enticed by the idea he could benefit if he made certain admissions.
Dan Campana is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News