110 Pounds Of Heroin, Cocaine Found In Apartment Man Claims He Kept For Girlfriends: Feds

CHICAGO, IL — A Chicago man faces federal drug charges after agents seized more than 110 pounds of heroin and cocaine from his South Side attic apartment last month, the U.S. attorney's office said. Marcelino Nunez-Hurtado, 47, was arrested Sept. 13, and he was charged with possession of a controlled substance with the intent to distribute. A detention hearing is set for Sept. 26, and Nunez-Hurtado could face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

Nunez-Hurtado had been under surveillance for drug trafficking by federal agents since July after investigators received a tip from a confidential informant, according to the criminal complaint filed in U.S. District court Thursday. On Aug. 22, agents saw Nunez-Hurtado allegedly hand a plastic bag suspected of containing a brick of cocaine to someone in a Cadillac Escalade parked in an alley behind a Gage Park apartment where he reportedly lived.

When asked to search the Gage Park residence, Nunez-Hurtado told agents that he didn't live there, claiming he only rented the attic apartment for his girlfriends, so his wife wouldn't know about them, the complaint stated. Eventually, Nunez-Hurtado consented to a search of the apartment, according to the complaint. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for the South Side and Chicago — or other neighborhoods. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

Once inside, investigators found a digital scale, rubber bands, rolls of vacuum-sealed plastic and other items commonly used to measure and package drugs, the complaint stated. Four small plastic bags containing a white powdery substance that field tested as cocaine also were discovered on a shelf of the bed headboard, according to the complaint. No clothing or personal hygiene products were in the apartment, and beer and small portions of food were all that was in the refrigerator.

The discovery of a Phillips-head screwdriver on the floor just inside the door of the attic apartment led agents to uncover an access panel above the stairs landing to the attic, according to the complaint. Agents opened the panel and discovered multiple bricks containing more than 90 pounds of heroin and more than 19 pounds of cocaine, the complaint stated.

Photo via Pixabay

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