Police charge four in Naperville Ecstasy ring
BY BILL BIRD wbird@stmedianetwork.com October 11, 2011 10:00PM
Gilda L. Ruales 25 Aurora Oct. 2011
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Updated: October 18, 2011 12:02PM
Two women from Aurora were among four people arrested and charged in a major narcotics case, in which at least 500 Ecstasy pills were allegedly sold to undercover Naperville police officers.
Timothy N. Morris was identified by police as a local drug dealer who acted as a “go-between” for dealers in Chicago and his associates in the Naperville-Aurora area.
Morris was held in DuPage County Jail in Wheaton on $1 million bail. He is charged with calculated criminal drug conspiracy, according to jail records.
His alleged accomplices include Gilda L. Ruales, 25, and Teresa I. Sanchez, 19, both of Aurora; and Ian E. Lona, 28, of Berkeley.
Bail for each of the three was set at $750,000. Jail records stated they will stand trial on two counts each of the manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance, namely, 200 but less than 600 Ecstasy pills.
All of the charges are Super X felonies, which carry mandatory sentences of nine to 40 years in prison upon conviction.
Morris was arrested at 12:01 a.m. Thursday near the intersection of Madison Street and Pulaski Road on Chicago’s west side, according to written Naperville police reports. Jail records showed that day was his 28th birthday.
Lona, Ruales and Sanchez were arrested 14 hours later on the 1600 block of North Route 59 on Naperville’s far northwest side, the reports indicated.
Naperville police Sgt. Nick Liberio said Ruales was arrested in August for selling cocaine in the Kane County portion of Aurora. That triggered an investigation by members of the police Special Operations Group, Liberio said Tuesday night.
Detectives learned Ruales and Sanchez were allegedly selling drugs in Naperville and Aurora. Investigators put the pair under surveillance in August and September.
Liberio said police first made a “controlled buy” of cocaine from Ruales. In the ensuing weeks, they made a total of six purchases of Ecstasy involving Ruales, Sanchez and Lona, including a Sept. 22 “buy” of approximately 200 Ecstasy pills at a location on Route 59 Liberio declined to identify.
The final purchase of 300 Ecstasy pills was made just before 2 p.m. Thursday in a parking lot near McDowell Road and Route 59.
Lona was also charged with resisting or obstructing a police officer. Liberio said that was because “he tried to pull away from our officers” and briefly struggled with them before being subdued and taken into custody.
“We were thrilled to get the numbers we got,” Liberio said, referring to the unusually large quantity of Ecstasy seized. He said agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Chicago Police Department were instrumental in helping Naperville police arrest Lona, Morris, Ruales and Sanchez.
Documents on file in DuPage County Circuit Court indicated none of the suspects have significant criminal records here. All four were scheduled to be arraigned today.
Katie Foutz contributed to this report.
