Chicago Drug Gang Takes Hit Eight Convicted In Initial Test Of ‘Operation Headache’ Probe

Eight members and associates of a gang that used a corporate approach and strict street discipline to build a multimillion-dollar drug business were convicted of drug conspiracy on Wednesday.

The case was the first test of the federal government’s six-year “Operation Headache,” which used wiretaps, informers and even a tiny recording device tucked into a prison visitor’s badge to infiltrate the Gangster Disciples, Chicago’s largest street gang with a murderous history dating to the 1970s.

“We view this as a great first step,” U.S. Attorney Jim Burns said after the verdict was read. “But I can assure you that the battle has just begun.”

Police say the grip of the Gangster Disciples extends over much of the city’s South Side and suburbs and beyond, with thousands of members working strictly defined territories in the sale of crack and other drugs.

Among those convicted was Sonia Irwin, a former officer with the Chicago Police gang crimes investigation unit. Her lawyer said she was snared unjustly when she followed her heart and became involved with a top gang leader.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Ron Safer said a small seafood joint Irwin owned, June’s Shrimp on the Nine, “became Gang Central.” Secret recordings showed that drugs and gang affairs were the restaurant’s main business.

“It was egregious, it was criminal,” Safer said of Irwin’s involvement.

All eight defendants were convicted of drug conspiracy, which carries a possible life sentence.

Four high-ranking “governors” of the gang, Keith McCain, Sherman Moore, Russell Ellis and Eric Wilson, also were convicted of conducting a criminal enterprise, which carries a mandatory life sentence, and using minors to further their business. They were acquitted on several lesser charges.

Defense attorneys said they planned appeals.

Reputed gang kingpin Larry Hoover, currently in prison for murder, was among 39 people indicted last summer. A second trial is to begin in May and a third trial, for Hoover and several other defendants, is scheduled Oct. 5.

Jurors listened to hours of tapes during the trial, including several of Hoover’s conversations, which were recorded with a tiny transmitter tucked into a visitor’s pass at an Illinois prison. The tapes caught Hoover bragging that his gang was so powerful it could corrupt officials at will, even persuading a prison worker to make keys at the gang’s request.

Prosecutors described a tightly organized gang hierarchy that included two boards of directors - one on the street and one in prison. Ranking members, titled “governors,” “associate governors” and “regents,” commanded thousands of less powerful gang members, most of them street-corner drug peddlers.

One day a week, all profits made on the street went to the gang - up to $300,000 in a business that netted hundreds of millions of dollars each year, prosecutors said.

When gang members got out of line, they were “disciplined” or beaten for their lack of respect, testimony indicated.

The gang’s reach also extended beyond drug dealing to a political organization, 21st Century VOTE, which registered hundreds of young voters and led large political rallies for two losing candidates in last year’s City Council race.

The group includes former gang members among its leaders, but denies any connection to the gang.

Burns said the Gangster Disciples have been developing much like the Cosa Nostra developed. “They try to infiltrate legitimate organizations and they try to infiltrate the world of politics.”