2 Convicted Of Drug Conspiracy Face Mandatory Minimum Sentences: Feds

CHICAGO — A federal jury last week found a pair of north suburban men guilty of a drug trafficking conspiracy. The two former Evanston residents each face at least a decade in prison.

Sheldon Morales, 40, of Morton Grove, and Eduardo Santana, 45, of Skokie, conspired with a narcotics supplier in Mexico and two inmates in a Texas prison to import cocaine, fentanyl and methamphetamine, according to prosecutors.

Morales was first charged in the case in November 2019, less than 21 months after he was released from federal prison after serving nine years behind bars. In December 2019, Santana was added as a defendant as the two were indicted on a conspiracy charge.

The indictment alleges that the men conspired with two prisoners in Texas who initially brokered transactions between Morales and his Mexican supplier.

Wiretapped conversations between Morales and the prisoners indicated that all three of them knew he planned to re-sell the drugs, according to an order from U.S. District Judge Mary Rowland, who presided over the case.

The judge said Morales was caught on tape telling the sellers that he "moves a lot of ice," and, "We gon' do something wit the ice for sure," while suggesting that he sells heroin in smaller increments.

"I don't have no people who's buying bricks of China, but I be ... like I said, I be moving it, and ... but I'll move it at a slow pace ... you know what I'm saying, in a week you know, just saying a hundred (100) grams here," Morales said, according to the judge.

---

---

Both Morales and Santana have previous convictions for drug dealing-related crimes, according to court records.

Morales was convicted of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance in federal court, while Santana was convicted of the manufacture and delivery of cocaine in state court.

As Patch previously reported, an Evanston police and Drug Enforcement Administration task force officer was told that Morales — a Gangster Disciples street gang members who established a narcotics trafficking venture Black P Stone members — operated a violent drug trafficking organization with his younger brother, who in June was sentenced to nearly eight years in prison on a gun charge.

Santana previously avoided prosecution because one of the Evanston police officers investigating him was himself convicted of a drug trafficking crime.

Fernando Gomez pleaded guilty to selling guns to a cocaine dealer while working in the suburb and assisted a Puerto Rican drug trafficking organization called Organizacion de Narcotraficantes Unidos, known as La ONU, or, in English, United Drug Traffickers.

Santana was arrested by Evanston police at his heavily fortified Custer Avenue home in October 2017, where they reported finding drugs, guns and cash. Federal prosecutors took over the case the next month. In April 2018, they abruptly asked to dismiss the four-count indictment against him.

According to a pre-motion filed last month by Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Mulaney, Gomez was the case agent in the case, and prosecutors in Chicago learned that the Evanston and Drug Enforcement Administration officer was under investigation by their counterparts in Manhattan.

"Because Gomez had not been charged yet, and that investigation was still covert, the government could not disclose the information to defense counsel without compromising the New York Investigation," Mulaney said.

Mulaney said Gomez was not a necessary witness and prosecutors were unaware of any evidence that he had any improper influence over the case, but the local U.S. attorney's office "understood that it could not move to exclude the investigation without disclosing the Gomez investigation to the defense, thus compromising a covert investigation into Gomez."

Gomez is currently serving a four-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in February 2020 to a single conspiracy charge in exchange for prosecutors dropping other counts.

Santana faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for his recent conviction following the weeklong trial.

Morales, who was also convicted of an additional charge of possessing at least 500 grams of methamphetamine and 400 grams of fentanyl on March 1, 2019, in Evanston faces a 15-year mandatory minimum sentence.

Rowland has yet to schedule a sentencing hearing for the two men.

Related: Gun Possession Sends Evanston Man To Federal Prison For Nearly 8 Years