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Read the press release here.

South Side Clothing Store Running A Drug Ring, Feds Say

By Joe Ward | May 24, 2016 7:17pm

CHICAGO — A two-year-long federal investigation has uncovered a South Side store that was operating as a front for a drug ring, federal authorities said Tuesday in announcing charges for the traffickers.

Officers uncovered the operation while working on the case dubbed "operation cornerstone," where federal agents targeted drug and gun traffickers on the South Side, the Department of Justice said in a news release Tuesday.

Agents made several arrests connected to the investigation Tuesday, and many of those arrested were ranking members of the Black P-Stone Nation gang as well as other gangs, the Justice Department said.

The arrests were made possible because of a government informant who bought drugs from the gangs, including at the South Side clothing store, the government said.

The informant bought 225 grams of heroin for $15,700 at an Englewood home on Nov. 6, 2015, the government said. A meeting to arrange the transaction was held at a Back of the Yards restaurant, according to the government.

In summer 2015, a cooperating source paid $72,000 for more than 1,000 grams of heroin from the owner of the South Side store.

At the store, customers would buy drugs by going to the counter with an item of clothing. The customer would then buy the item, and the owner or an employee would hand over a bag containing the clothing and a separate bag containing the drugs, either heroin or cocaine, the Justice Department said.

The name of the store or its address was not released by the Justice Department. It is not known if the store has been forced to shutter.

Two federal agents were shot while trying to arrest a suburban Park Forest man accused of participating in the drug ring.

Melvin Toran, 50, shot at Federal Bureau of Investigations agents Tuesday outside his home. Toran, a high-ranking member of the Black P-Stone Nation, was then found dead inside his home.

The officers' injuries are not considered life threatening.

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