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City worker seized as heroin ring boss See comments on link between Hired truck scandal and this corruption See link to book (required reading for FBI Grant and DOJ Fitzgerald et al interested in history of organized crime involvement with City of Chicago)

By Matt O'Connor and Dan Mihalopoulos, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune staff reporters Laurie Cohen, Gary Washburn and Ray Gibson contributed to this report
Published June 9, 2005 See DOJ press release on indictments

 
A veteran employee of the city's troubled Department of Water Management was arrested Wednesday on charges he headed the Chicago distribution cell of a Colombian heroin-trafficking ring while making $30 an hour in his city job.

George A. Prado was captured on wiretaps two weeks ago threatening to kidnap and possibly kill a courier who had about two pounds of heroin confiscated by police after a traffic stop, authorities alleged.

Two other city employees, Prado's brother-in-law, Anthony C. Ritacco, and Michael D. Hart, also were charged with heroin trafficking, which often took place during weekday hours when they were supposed to be at work for the city, officials said.

Another city Water Management Department employee turned informant after being arrested while possessing more than 100 grams of heroin earlier this year, according to the charges, but that employee hasn't been charged yet in the FBI-led investigation.

In all, the indictments led to the arrest of eight people Wednesday in New York and Chicago. A ninth person--the alleged courier--was arrested last week for his own protection, authorities said.

The Water Management Department has been hit by scandal on multiple fronts. Last week the department's commissioner, Richard Rice, was fired and the city moved to dismiss nine underlings after an alleged time-sheet scam was discovered. One of those facing dismissal was Frank Ritacco, whom a source identified as the brother of Anthony Ritacco, who was charged Wednesday.

Also, the department has been among those targeted in the ongoing federal probe of corruption in the city's Hired Truck Program, which has resulted in charges against 27 people.

But at a news conference Wednesday, U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald said the heroin charges were unrelated to the Hired Truck investigation. "This arose completely independent of Hired Truck," Fitzgerald told reporters.

Mayor Richard Daley saw no special significance to the alleged involvement of city employees in the ring, saying that heroin dealing takes place virtually everywhere.

Asked if there is a culture of corruption in the water department, Daley replied, "I don't think so. Heroin is all over. ... They can be a public employee, a private employee. People are selling heroin right now out on the streets in your neighborhood and any neighborhood in the metropolitan area."

Daley became angered when asked if he was embarrassed by the alleged involvement of city employees. "No, I didn't sell it," he shot back. "I didn't sell it. ... Don't ever accuse me of selling heroin."

The city's Law Department said dismissal proceedings had begun against Prado, 47, who as a hoisting engineer operated a backhoe and did excavation work, and Hart, 39, a laborer for the water department. Prado has been with the city since late 1990, and Hart started in 1988. Both live in Chicago.

As a seasonal worker, a cement mixer in the Transportation Department, Ritacco, 45, of Chicago was fired immediately. He has been with the city on and off since 1997.

Prado's name appears on a Chicago Board of Election Commissioners list of individuals sponsored to register voters by the Hispanic Democratic Organization. Known as HDO, it supports candidates backed by Daley and is run by one of the mayor's former top aides.

But Thomas Knight, an attorney who said he was hired by HDO to answer questions from the Tribune, said Prado has never been involved with the group. Knight said Prado's name apparently turned up on the list along with more than a thousand other deputy registrars because Prado went through training sponsored by HDO.

In court, Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael Gurland said the government intended to seek to detain Prado and co-defendant Javier Hernandez as dangers to the community for their alleged plot to kidnap and beat the courier for losing the heroin.

They will remain in custody at least until a bond hearing Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan.

Also charged were Vito J. Renteria, the alleged courier who was threatened; Sandra Stewart, 31, of Bensenville, an alleged leader in the conspiracy; Alexander Millan, 42, of Jackson Heights, N.Y., and Nora Rivas, 36, of Chicago, both alleged heroin suppliers; and Joseph R. Cortez, 48, an alleged courier from Chicago, officials said.

Fitzgerald said authorities recovered a quarter kilogram of heroin, 16 kilograms of cocaine, $50,000 and a gun in searches Wednesday of defendants' properties.

Attorney Joseph R. Lopez, who represented Prado, Ritacco and Hernandez at their initial court appearance, said he expects all three to plead not guilty to the charges.

 

According to criminal complaints unsealed Wednesday, a longtime FBI informant tipped agents that a Water Management Department employee was involved with heroin.

With the informant's help, the employee was arrested last March in possession of about 135 grams of heroin, the charges said. The employee then identified Prado as the supplier of the heroin and agreed to cooperate against him, the charges said.

Using wiretaps, investigators learned last month that Millan delivered about one kilogram of heroin to Prado's courier, officials said. Working with the FBI, the Illinois State Police stopped the courier, Renteria, for speeding 15 m.p.h. over the posted limit on May 24, the charges said.

Renteria was taken into custody for driving on a suspended license, and his truck was towed to a nearby impoundment lot, authorities said. FBI agents seized the bag containing the heroin from the truck, officials said. Within hours, Renteria was released on bail and retrieved his truck--then discovered the heroin was gone, authorities said.

Renteria was captured on the wiretaps telling Prado how he had lost the narcotics, but Prado didn't believe him and feared his courier had stolen the drugs, according to the charges.

In a May 25 call to one supplier, Prado told of plans to have Renteria beaten up "to see if he talks," the complaint said.

"They beat up the guy, he does not talk, that guy is probably telling the truth," Prado was quoted in the complaint as saying. "But if he talks ... they will get the knives out and they will [mess] him up and that will be real fast."

The city-worker-turned-informant told authorities that Chicago police found weapons in a search of Prado's home about a year ago, but he said Prado told him that officers missed enough narcotics "to put him away for life," the charges said.

Lopez, Prado's lawyer, said that Prado had been charged by the city with a firearm owner's identification card violation, but that the case was dismissed. Lopez said officers from a special operations group searched Prado's home. "If there was anything in that house, those Chicago police officers would have recovered them," Lopez said.

Lopez also said Prado had no involvement with HDO.

Judith Pedraza said she was the landlord of the home where Prado grew up in the Taylor Street neighborhood. Pedraza said Prado tried to coax her to sell her building for $1.2 million last year.

"He was standing there next to his Mercedes," she said Wednesday. "He had found out that my husband had just died."

The offer came around the time that Pedraza was in a dispute with a neighborhood association closely tied to Oscar D'Angelo, a lobbyist and friend of the mayor. D'Angelo said late Wednesday that he did not know Prado. "I never met the man in my life," he said.

As for Pedraza, he added: "She should have taken the $1.2 million because it's worth $400,000."

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mo'connor@tribune.com

dmihalopoulos@tribune.com
 

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