'Only The Guys' Street Gang Sold Drugs In 'Safer' North Suburbs: Feds

CHICAGO — A north suburban drug dealer and gang leader was this week indicted on seven counts of narcotics trafficking and illegal gun possession, authorities said.

Omari Andrews Jr., 23, was arrested March 28 at his Mount Prospect home following an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and local law enforcement in Skokie and Evanston, according to federal prosecutors.

In addition to "distribution quantities" of fentanyl, cocaine, heroin and marijuana, arresting officers allegedly found over $9,000 in cash, three Glock pistols and an AR-15 rifle with no serial number, also known as a "ghost gun."

Starting last October, local and federal investigators began looking into a street gang known as "Only the Guys," or OTG, that operates in the Skokie and Evanston areas, according to an affidavit from Michael Honnessy, an agent with Homeland Security Investigations.

A source cooperating with law enforcement in exchange for cash told investigators that Andrews and his father supply narcotics to the gang to be sold across the northwest suburbs, Honnessy said.

According to the source, the younger Andrews is now "the leader of, and main narcotics supplier for, OTG and distributes narcotics in the north Chicago suburbs, including Skokie and Evanston, because he believes that this area is 'safer' for narcotics trafficking than other parts of the Chicago area."

Andrews' father was released from federal prison in 2020 following a 2006 conviction after Evanston police arrested him with crack cocaine in a stolen car two years earlier, according to court records.

While in prison, the father, an older member of the Black P Stones gang, allegedly supplied his son with drugs. The source claimed that the younger Andrews sells about two kilograms of cocaine and about 500 grams of crack every month, the HSI agent said.

Andrews used a phone registered to the name "Marlo Stanfieod" and an address in Fox Lake, according to the agent, who noted its similarity to a character on the television show "The Wire" — fictional Baltimore narcotics kingpin Marlo Stansfield.

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Five times in four months, Andrews sold heroin to undercover law enforcement officers, according to Honnessy.

In the first instance, an undercover officer got Andrews' phone number on Oct. 18, 2022, from a panhandler near the Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg who appeared to have just purchased drugs and began sending it text messages, the agent said. Within a few hours, the agent arranged to meet with Andrews in the parking lot of a Westmont Jewel-Osco and bought nearly 2.6 grams of heroin from him for $120.

On Nov. 7, 2022, Andrews and the undercover officer arranged to meet at a Walmart in Villa Park for another heroin purchase, according to the HSI agent's affidavit. That evening, Andrews allegedly sold the same officer nearly 5 grams of heroin.

In January, the undercover officer notified Andrews that he had referred him a new customer, and a second agent began arranging for a larger and larger purchases — again via text messages included in the affidavit.

On Feb. 2, Andrews met the second undercover officer in the parking lot of the Rosemont Hyatt, where Andrews told him to walk over to his car. Once there, Honnessy said, Andrews lowered his window and motioned to the officer to pick up a Starbucks coffee cup on the ground by his car.

The cup contained almost 10 grams of heroin, and the officer handed over $500 to Andrews. After the controlled buy, which was recorded on audio and video, cops followed him to a Des Plaines condominium complex, where he appeared to carry out a hand-to-hand drug deal, according to the HSI agent's affidavit.

On Feb. 13, the second undercover agent and Andrews made a deal to sell an ounce of heroin for $1,250. That afternoon, Andrews and the agent met in the parking lot of a Chase Bank in Hillside, where he handed the agent a Chick-fil-A bag containing a plastic baggie containing a 28-gram mixture of heroin, fentanyl and cocaine.

Two weeks later, the undercover officer set up another buy, according to text messages in the affidavit.

"Wassup my dude. Lookin at Wednesday," the agent said.

"Ok," Andrews replied.

"What u gone do for me? Gimme a deal bruh imma keep f____ wicha," the agent asked.

"Close to 50," Andrews said.

The next day, Feb. 21, they agreed to meet in the parking lot of the Target store in Hillside. During that deal, Andrews handed the undercover cop a heart-shaped candy box in exchange for $2,300.

Inside the box, investigators found a mixture of fentanyl, heroin and cocaine that weighed more than 57 grams.

Records show both Andrews and his father received $20,000 coronavirus emergency relief loans as part of the federal Paycheck Protection Program, listing themselves as owners of Evanston-based businesses.

According to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago, the Skokie Police Department "provided valuable assistance."

On Wednesday, a federal grand jury returned a seven-count indictment against Andrews, which includes five counts of distributing a controlled substance, one count of possessing with intent to distribute a controlled substance and one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, which carries a minimum prison sentence of five years.

Andrews has been held without bond since his arrest in March, initially on a single charge of distributing 40 grams of a fentanyl-heroin-cocaine mixture on Feb. 22. He is due back in court on June 20, when he will have an opportunity to enter a plea to the new charges.