Ex-cop, four others guilty of participating in drug crew

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Officer Glenn Lewellen at federal court at the Dirksen building in Chicago. | Al Podgorski~Chicago Sun-Times

Updated: March 2, 2012 8:16AM

A former Chicago Police officer was convicted in federal court Tuesday of participating in a drug conspiracy with an admitted narcotics kingpin who once worked for him as a police informant.

Glenn Lewellen, who resigned from the department in 2003, was partners in crime with Saul Rodriguez, a drug trafficker who was his informant from 1996 to 2000, prosecutors said. They also were real-estate partners.

The case against the 55-year-old Lewellen included a 2004 rip-off of 70 kilograms of cocaine from a man who delivered the drugs in a tractor-trailer to Lewellen’s warehouse in south suburban Frankfort, prosecutors said. Lewellen allegedly drove up in a fake squad car outfitted with police lights and the man ran away, allowing Lewellen and other crew members to steal the drugs. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on whether Lewellen also participated in a racketeering conspiracy that included kidnappings and robberies spanning a decade from 1998 to 2009.

Four other defendants were convicted of various charges Tuesday.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald hailed the guilty verdicts, saying it was a “very significant case.”

A sixth defendant, Manuel Uriarte, 34, was found not guilty of participating in two murders in 2000 and 2001, officials said. Jurors could not reach a verdict on a racketeering charge against Uriarte and prosecutors would not say whether he will be retried on that count.

Uriarte’s attorney, Keith Spielfogel, called the jury “incredibly conscientious.”

Spielfogel said he thinks the jury found his client not guilty of the murder charges in part because a witness testified that the two shooters in the 2000 slaying were dark-skinned but Uriarte is light-skinned.

Rodriguez, 36, a key government witness during the more than two-month trial, pleaded guilty. He faced a life sentence but will receive 30 to 40 years in prison for his cooperation. Also convicted of various charges were Anthony Sparkman, 25; Robert Cardenas, 32; and Uriarte’s brothers Hector, 33, and Jorge, 31.