While searching for the suspect in last month’s armed robbery of Grumpy’s Café, officers from the West Suburban Directed Gang Enforcement Task Force (WEDGE), came upon a drug house in Riverside Friday night in which they stumbled upon 30 kilos of pure cocaine worth more than $1 million.

The drugs have a direct link to the Mexican drug cartel said Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel. He called the drug bust the largest he has seen in his 24-year career as a police officer in Riverside.

“The house was set up for distribution,” Weitzel said noting the house had just a few mattresses and a T.V.

Having received a tip that the Grumpy’s suspect occasionally stayed at a house located at 212 E. Burlington Ave., two members of the WEDGE task force, both Berwyn police officers, went to the house Friday night. They knocked on the door. Javier Villa-Orozco answered. While talking to Villa-Orozco the officers saw bricks of cocaine on a table in plain sight. The officers then got permission from Villa-Orozco to search the home which they did with backup from other officers. Inside they found the 30 kilos of cocaine, about $20,000 in cash, mostly small bills, an electronic scale and items used for packing drugs.

“The drugs have a direct link from the Mexican cartel,” Weitzel said. “It was still packaged in bricks of cocaine. His job was to cut it, package it for distribution here in the western suburbs and the West Side of Chicago.”

Weitzel said that Villa-Orozco has no prior criminal record. “He’s directly here from Mexico,” Weitzel said.

Weitzel said he believes the home was used only as a distribution point. “We don’t believe they were selling out of there because we had no neighbor complaints,” Weitzel. “He was there by himself.”

Weitzel said the case is still under investigation. “The case is still ongoing because we’re investigating whether the owner of the home has ties to the organization,” Weitzel said.

Villa-Orozco, 36, was charged with five counts of possession of a controlled substance, five counts of manufacturing and delivery of a controlled substance and one count of trafficking in narcotics.

A suspect in last month’s armed robbery of Grumpy’s Café was arrested Friday night in Berwyn and identified in a lineup Saturday at the Riverside police station. Cesar Vasquez, 21, of Berwyn was picked up, allegedly drunk, in Berwyn on Friday night after sharp-eyed Riverside police officer Jim Lazansky recognized him from a sketch. Lazansky, a member of the West Suburban Gang Enforcement Task Force (WEDGE), spotted Vazquez from an arrest in Berwyn.

Vazquez was out on bail after being charged in a robbery and stabbing in Berwyn in January. A composite sketch of the suspect was made and the victim in the Grumpy’s robbery identified Vazquez from a photo lineup, Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel said. Fingerprints from Grumpy’s also matched fingerprints from Vazquez’s Berwyn arrest.

On Friday night, Weitzel asked WEDGE task force officers to be on the lookout for Vazquez. After first going to a house at 212 E. Burlington in Riverside where officers came upon a large cache of cocaine, officers found Vazquez allegedly drunk in Berwyn.

Saturday he was identified in a lineup and charged with the armed robbery of Grumpy’s. Vazquez is being held at Cook County Jail on a $1 million bond for the Grumpy’s charge and no bond for the Berwyn charge.

-Bob Skolnik