COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — The Walter White of the West Side?
A Chicago man was busted with $4.5 million worth of a methamphetamine precursor chemical during a raid that played out on the West Side at 8 p.m. Sunday, just as fans of the AMC series "Breaking Bad" were sitting down to watch the fictional exploits of White, a meth cooker.
Police found almost $5 million worth of controlled substances in total, including about 13,600 grams of a liquid mixture used to make meth, in the apartment in the 5400 block of West Wellington Street, cops said.
They had a warrant for Joseph Frank Ruzicka, 20, who lives in the apartment, according to court records. There police found roughly $4.5 million worth of suspect "meth precursor," about $1,700 worth of marijuana and a few dozen hits of ecstasy.
A Cook County judge order Ruzicka held on $200,000 bond Monday. The judge also issued an order to prevent Ruzicka or anyone else from using suspect drug money to bail him out of jail.
Ruzicka already has a pending drug case from May when he was accused of possessing between 30 and 500 grams of marijuana, according to court records.
On Sunday, after Ruzicka's arrest, a special response team with the Chicago Fire Department was called in to handle the dangerous chemicals because of the close proximity of other residences.
