Concerned caller leads DEA agents to largest meth seizure in Chicago region

 

The Drug Enforcement Administration Chicago Division recently seized 225 lbs of meth from duffel bags found along I-70 East.

DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Mike Gannon said an alert caller noticed six duffel bags along the highway and called authorities in Putnam County.

“We found 225 pounds of methamphetamine, which is the largest seizure in the state of Indiana and within the Chicago Division,” Gannon said.

The Chicago Division covers Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin. Gannon reported 225 lbs of meth has a street value of more than $10 million.

“You can guarantee that’s coming from one of two cartels, and that’s either going to be the Sinaloa Cartel or Cartel Jalisco New Generation, known as CJNG,” Gannon explained. “They’re the two Mexican cartels that are flooding our community and our country with methamphetamine.”

These drugs are now in a lab in Chicago, but the DEA still wants to hear from anyone with information about this bust. You can call the DEA at (812) 465-6457.

Brandi Moran is a case manager for the addiction recovery program at Wheeler Mission’s Center for Women and Children. She knows the journey of struggling with meth usage, but she is in recovery and helping other women achieve this goal.

“We can recover, we do recover, and you’re speaking to one right now,” Moran encouraged.

Wheeler’s Higher Ground program is a faith-based program which boasts an 86% success rate for graduates from the program staying sober. They have tracked this number from graduates over the last five years. Program director Lisa Hoffman said of 43 graduates, 12 of them identified meth as their “drug of choice.”

“If you’re finished and you want this to be the last day of the chaos and the stronghold that’s on your life, then there’s places like here that want to help you,” Hoffman said.

Recovery is possible, and the DEA wants to stop drugs en masse before they destroy our families.

“We all live in this community,” Gannon said. “Our job is to protect people and make the community a safe place to live. When you have drug dealers that are trying to destroy people’s lives and families by pedaling that poison in our community, we take it personal, and our job is to put them in jail where they belong.”

Source for above post  

Below is DEA Presser         

Observant bystander traveling through Indiana led DEA Chicago Field Division to historic 225 pound methamphetamine seizure

TERRE HAUTE – DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Michael Gannon said, “On September 15, 2020, an alert citizen noticed six duffle bags in the grass area off of Interstate-70 East by mile marker 37 (halfway between Terre Haute and Indianapolis, Indiana).  Upon receiving the information, members of the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office and the DEA Terre Haute Post of Duty responded to the scene, resulting in the seizure of 225 pounds of methamphetamine.  This amount of methamphetamine has an estimated street value of over ten million dollars and is the largest single seizure of methamphetamine for the state of Indiana and the DEA Chicago Field Division.  Taking this much methamphetamine off the street is a huge win.  DEA commends the concerned citizen who made this seizure possible.”

“The vast majority of low-cost, high-purity methamphetamine entering the United States is manufactured in industrial-scale labs in Mexico and ultimately smuggled into the United States. The two major transnational criminal organizations responsible for the production and trafficking of methamphetamine are the Sinaloa Cartel and Cartel Jalisco New Generation (CJNG), which are flooding our communities and country with methamphetamine,” Assistant Special Agent in Charge Gannon stated. “It is important for these drug trafficking organizations to know that DEA and our state, local, and federal partners are using all available resources to prevent them from peddling poison into our communities.”