Crime & Safety

Feds: Shorewood Teen's Drug Ring Rung Up

The FBI and local police departments arrest 13 — including a Shorewood man — while supposedly taking down two massive drug operations.

There was Pork, Lay Lay, Thig, Rico LeFlare, K.O., Foo Foo — and Alexander Lys?

Lys, an 18-year-old living with his family at 525 Carla Drive, is locked up in the county jail on charges he was a foot soldier in a massive drug ring with tentacles stretching from the tough towns of Robbins and Harvey to his own sleepy village of Shorewood.

As far as Nicholas "Pork" Lacy, Lawrence "Lay Lay" Scott, Derrick "Thig" Thigpen, Resean "Rico LeFlare" Ridgner, Marcus "K.O." Gillespie and Chaunice "Foo Foo" Lovings, they all have problems of their own stemming from the same mess.

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Federal agents picked up Lys at his home Tuesday, said Shorewood police Chief Robert Puleo.

"The feds came in and asked us for a uniformed cop" to stand by, the chief said, adding that he was "not familiar" with Lys.

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Lys, a car wash attendant, might not have made a name for himself in his hometown, but he did catch a battery case in Kendall County for allegedly kicking a jail guard last month.

Lys got himself in a position to be accused of kicking a jail guard after he was locked up on charges of underage drinking and driving without insurance, a front license plate or rear registration light.

Now Lys is in the Will County jail, where he has yet to allegedly kick anyone, but is facing a felony charge of possession of a controlled substance.

But Lys was a small part in the wide-ranging enterprise the FBI detailed in a press release. According to the release, A 30-year-old Sauk Village man, Jose Sandoval, supplied whosesale quantities of heroin — upwards of a half-pound — to Pork Lacy, 32, also of Sauk Village.

Lacy allegedly ran a distribution outfit in Robbins. The feds said he repackaged the smack into tenth of a gram bags which he and his gang sold in the area of 138th Street and Kedvale Avenue.

Lacy also ran a side business into Harvey, according to the FBI, where he was supplying wholesale heroin to Eric "Torry" Ridgner, 31, of Dyer, IN. Ridgner was allegedly repackaging and peddling the heroin in Harvey.

While a dozen men  — including all the ones with the cool nicknames — are up on federal charges, Lys and three others have state cases. FBI Special Agent Ross Rice said Lys was nothing more than a "street seller."

Lys and the other three — Mildred Gassensmith, 31, of Joliet, and Neil Lester, 30, and William Woods, 26, of Orland Park, were caught up in "Operation J Down," in which the feds tapped telephones used by the four suspects and reportedly seized 500 packets of heroin and $200,000 cash.

Lys faces one to three years in prison.  No one from his home would discuss the matter Wednesday night.


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