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An alert Brookfield resident who passed on license plate information after a recent home burglary is being credited with helping police track down three people believed to be involved in a large-scale, gang-directed west suburban burglary ring.
Brookfield used the information to put out a call to the west suburban Major Case Assistance Team. On Monday, police were able to arrest three Berwyn residents suspected of committing daytime residential burglaries in several suburbs, including Berwyn, LaGrange, Downers Grove, Western Springs and Brookfield.
The suspects, who were apprehended at the intersection of Circle Avenue and Madison Street in Forest Park, were driving in a car that police had under surveillance since the Oct. 26 burglaries in Brookfield.
Two of those arrested have since been charged by Brookfield police. Javier Granados, 19, of 3631 S. Clinton Ave., was charged with two counts of residential burglary and one count of possession of stolen property. Julian Cortez, 17, of 3627 S. Ridgeland Ave., was charged with one count of possession of stolen property.
Both will appear in court at Maybrook on Nov. 18.
Granados and Cortez have also been charged by Western Springs police with residential burglary.
Berwyn police have charged all three men apprehended in Forest Park. In addition to Granados and Cortez, Berwyn has charged Shawn Cassell, 22, with one count of residential burglary.
Riverside Detective Sgt. David Krull, who was a member of the MCAT team searching for the burglary suspects, said that police learned the vehicle was parked at the Berwyn home of one of the suspects.
Police set up surveillance at that location, said Krull, and noticed the suspects throwing items into the alley behind the home. When the suspects left the home in the vehicle, police followed it while other officers inspected the alley, where they reportedly found items connected to a residential burglary reported in Berwyn.
When police following the suspects received that information, officers apprehended them.
Lyons police, meanwhile, believe that the trio from Berwyn was operating in that village on Monday morning. Commander Brian Kuratko said Wednesday that the men have not yet been charged by Lyons police, but that a vehicle matching the one the men were driving when they were apprehended was seen on the 4500 block of Warsaw Avenue at 10:20 a.m. on Nov. 2.
Around the same time, Lyons police also received a call of burglary in progress in the 4500 block of Joliet Avenue. The witness told police three offenders had fled in a maroon Buick, which police located unattended in the 4500 block of 45th Place.
A short time later, police learned of an attempted break in at a house in the 8100 block of 45th Court. The three subjects police found hiding behind a garage in that area tried to flee the scene, but were apprehended after a two-block foot chase.
The three juveniles, all Chicago residents ages 15 and 16, were running back toward the Buick parked in the 4500 block of 45th Place. The vehicle had been reported stolen in Lyons the previous day, according to Kuratko.
Lyons charged all three juveniles with possession of a stolen motor vehicle, residential burglary and attempted residential burglary. Western Springs police have reportedly charged one of the juveniles arrested in Lyons with criminal damage to property.
Initially, police believed that the three juveniles and the three adult suspects were part of the same burglary ring. However, Kuratko said, Lyons investigators believe that the suspects belong to two different burglary rings who, by coincidence, happened to be working in Lyons at the same time.
Whether the two groups are connected remains unresolved at this time.
Krull said that all six of the suspects are gang members and that the adults arrested told police that gang leaders would send out as many as 30 gang members a day to commit burglaries.
Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel called the burglary operation “widespread.”
“I’ve been here 25 years, and this is the first time I’ve gotten a statement from active gang members that the gang would send out juveniles, specifically, because they know police and the courts will give them a slap on the wrist,” Weitzel said. “None of these arrests could have been done without task force participation.”
Riverside police say that a burglary reported in the 3600 block of Harlem Avenue may be linked to the three adults. They are still sifting though evidence before bringing additional charges.
Eventually, Weitzel said, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office likely will end up indicting the suspects, since the charges involve so many communities.