June 9, 2005
BY
FRANK MAIN, MARK
J. KONKOL,
FRAN SPIELMAN
AND
CAROL MARIN
Staff Reporters
A politically connected Water
Management
Department employee
and two other city
workers were
arrested Wednesday
on charges of
conspiring to sell
heroin, prompting
Rep. Jesse Jackson
Jr. (D-Ill.) to call
on Mayor Daley to
"drain all the
sewage out of the
Water Department and
his entire
administration."
George A. Prado -- a $62,000-a-year
hoisting engineer
for the Water
Management
Department and a
deputy registrar for
the Hispanic
Democratic
Organization -- was
also a heroin
distributor with
ties to Colombian
traffickers, federal
prosecutors said.
The five-month drug investigation was
separate from the
federal Hired Truck
corruption probe
that has led to 27
criminal charges and
11 guilty pleas,
said U.S. Attorney
Patrick Fitzgerald.
But that did not
stop Jackson, a
potential challenger
to Daley in 2007,
from ripping the
administration.
"The fraud and corruption happening
right under the
mayor's nose is
apparently winding
up in the veins of
too many
Chicagoans," Jackson
said.
Asked if the arrests of three city
employees on drug
charges embarrassed
him, Daley said
bluntly, "No, I
didn't sell it." The
mayor rejected the
notion that the
arrests demonstrate
a continuing culture
of corruption at
City Hall.
"It's an epidemic," he said of heroin
dealing. "You have
federal and state
and local employees
selling it. You have
private employees
selling it."
HDO not involved,
lawyer says
Prado is charged with eight other
people, including
his 45-year-old
brother-in-law
Anthony C. Ritacco,
a cement mixer in
the city Department
of Transportation,
and Michael D. Hart,
39, a Water
Management employee.
On Wednesday, the
city fired Ritacco
and moved to fire
Prado and Hart.
Sources said Ritacco is the brother
of Frank Ritacco,
one of nine Water
Management employees
fired last week
after a city
investigation found
they were being
punched into a
time-card reader at
the Jardine
Filtration Plant
even though they
were not on duty.
The scandal led to
the ouster of Water
Management
Commissioner Richard
Rice.
Prado, Ritacco and Hart appear to
have been conducting
their alleged drug
activity during
normal business
hours, Fitzgerald
said. But federal
investigators "have
not checked their
punch-in, punch-out"
status to confirm
they were on city
time, he said.
Prado, 47, was hired by the city in
1990. In 2001, he
contributed $850 to
the campaign of
state Sen. Antonio
"Tony" Munoz, a
leader of the
Daley-created
Hispanic Democratic
Organization,
records show.
"HDO does not have anything to do
with this case,"
said Prado's lawyer,
Joseph Lopez. "He's
been involved in
politics for many
years. This case
does not deal with
[political]
corruption. This
case deals with
something else other
than their city
jobs."
Indeed, federal prosecutors painted
Prado as a ruthless
drug dealer who
threatened to kill a
courier who lost a
one-kilogram heroin
shipment.
The dope was seized May 24 from a
truck driven by the
alleged courier,
Vito Renteria. State
Police had stopped
him for driving 45
mph in a 30 mph
zone. His license
was suspended
because of a DUI,
officials said.
Prado was furious that his shipment
was seized, and he
did not believe
Renteria's
explanation that he
was stopped for
speeding,
prosecutors said.
Prado was secretly
tape-recorded
telling Renteria "he
is f------ with the
wrong people" and
needed to come up
with $60,000 to
cover the loss,
according to an FBI
affidavit.
Co-worker a key
witness
In a separately recorded conversation
with a New
York-based heroin
supplier, Prado
allegedly said that
if he decided
Renteria was lying,
"they will get the
knives out, and they
will f--- him up."
Fearing for Renteria's safety,
authorities quietly
arrested him soon
after that
conversation.
Lopez scoffed at the notion that
Prado threatened to
kill Renteria,
noting that they
were "friendly to
each other in the
courtroom"
Wednesday.
An unidentified co-worker of Prado's
became a key witness
for investigators.
He allegedly
accepted one heroin
delivery outside
their city work
place March 10 after
Prado contacted him.
Prosecutors did not
disclose the
address.
Search warrants executed Wednesday at
five Chicago
addresses yielded
about a quarter
kilogram of heroin,
16 kilograms of
cocaine, a gun and
$50,000 in cash,
officials said.
Last year, Prado was arrested on a
misdemeanor charge
of failing to have a
state firearm
owner's
identification card
after Chicago Police
executed a search
warrant at his home
and said they
recovered four guns,
including a
military-style
Norinco SKS
7.62-millimeter
semiautomatic
weapon. The case was
dismissed in March.
The government witness who worked
with Prado told
investigators he and
Prado had discussed
the 2004 search,
according to the
FBI.
Prado told the witness that at the
time of the search,
he had enough drugs
in his home "to put
him away for life,"
but the police did
not find the stash,
the FBI said.
'Thought he won the
lottery'
The allegation does not make sense,
said Lopez, who also
represents Anthony
Ritacco and alleged
heroin distributor
Javier Hernandez. A
special police unit
used drug-sniffing
dogs during the
search, Lopez said.
"The police officers were diligent
and professional,"
he said. "If there
were drugs in that
house, they would
have found them."
Prado, a fixture in the neighborhood
along Taylor Street,
had operated a bar
there and a
restaurant in
southwest suburban
Summit, Lopez said.
"He's always been a businessman," he
said.
In one of his real estate forays,
Prado unsuccessfully
tried to buy the
Taylor Street home
of Judith Pedraza
for $1.2 million in
2004, the
75-year-old widow
said. Prado's
parents were tenants
in a building that
Pedraza's parents
had owned at Bishop
and Taylor, she
said.
Last year, he drove up in a black
Mercedes and tried
to buy her building,
which houses
Chiarugi's Hardware,
she said.
"My husband just died, and I was
vulnerable," she
said. "He told me he
would call that
night. But I did not
answer his calls."
Even though he moved to a different
neighborhood on the
South Side, he was
frequently seen
along Taylor Street.
Prado did not seem
to hold any ill
feelings toward
Pedraza for not
selling her home,
she said.
"I see him at the White Hen buying
coffee in the
morning," she said.
"He says, 'Hi,
Judy,' and I say,
'Hi, George.' He's
real nice."
Still, Prado's alleged wheeling and
dealing was somewhat
of a mystery in the
neighborhood.
"We knew he had a lot of money, but
everybody thought he
won the lottery,"
Pedraza said.