Ex-DEA agent helped bust international drug rings

• Reprints

Perry Felecos

Updated: February 2, 2011 2:40AM

As a special agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Perry Felecos worked undercover to nab international drug lords who were part of some of the most significant drug trafficking outfits in the world.

Mr. Felecos, who grew up in the Roseland neighborhood, worked in the Bahamas, Europe and the Middle East — in addition to the Chicago area, where he helped investigate onetime cocaine kingpin John Cappas and late Chicago Heights mob boss Albert Tocco.

“He ran the whole gamut from small cases ... to messing around with the mob to being a boss at a major international office,” said his friend Fred Sloan, a retired northwest Indiana police officer. “He had one hell of a career.”

While on vacation in Greece, Mr. Felecos died unexpectedly Jan. 10 from a series of mini heart attacks, according to his sister, Sylvia Felecos. He was 54.

Born in 1956, Mr. Felecos began his career in the late 1970s as a police officer in Munster. During lunch on his first day on the job, he spotted a man robbing a pharmacy and followed him in a car chase to Hammond.

“He was always a very solid and loyal police officer,” former cop Jim Valand said.

After six years with the force, Mr. Felecos joined the DEA, assigned to the Chicago Field Division. Four years later he transferred to Athens, Greece. As a first-generation Greek-American, Mr. Felecos could read, write and speak Greek fluently.

In his first undercover operation in Greece, an informant led Mr. Felecos to a small fishing village where he acted as an interested buyer. Once the drug dealer showed him 500 kilos of hash behind a house, Mr. Felecos flashed a sign and a swarm of officers jumped out with machine guns and hand guns.

Inside the house, they found a 75-year-old grandmother sitting on a couch. Though she pretended to be innocent, she turned out to be the mastermind behind an elaborate system of drug trading.

“Perry said that was the funniest thing to see this grandma as a criminal,” Sylvia Felecos said.

Coming face to face with criminals to bust their operations was a dangerous job, though he never seemed afraid, his sister said. At one point while in Greece, though, Mr. Felecos found out that a terrorist had ordered a hit on him. For about three weeks, Mr. Felecos had to go into hiding in Austria until he finally ended up back in the United States, his friends said.

Mr. Felecos served as the country attaché in Cyprus, where his area of responsibility included Cyprus, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. He also worked at the DEA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he was the coordinator of international operations for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

But “no matter how much rank he got or who he met, whenever he came back he was always just Perry,” Sloan said.

Known for his smiling face and sense of humor, Mr. Felecos retired early a few years ago so that he could spend more time with his parents and sister.

“Family meant a great deal to him,” Valand said. “And not just his family, but the family of his friends, too.” On Christmas, Mr. Felecos would make the rounds to his friends’ houses to wish everyone a happy holiday.

Mr. Felecos was also passionate about Chicago, his friends said. It was not unusual for him to call up a buddy at 3 a.m. just to go for a cruise around the city on one of his prized Harleys or Corvettes.

“He loved to see the skyline of Chicago, to go through the old neighborhood and reminisce,” Sloan said. “He loved the night, the sereneness and beauty of the city, and sometimes we’d stop at an all-night restaurant. It was all just for the ambiance.”

“If there was ever a town or city that called him home, it was Chicago,” Valand said. “He was truly a Chicago kid.”

Aside from his sister, Mr. Felecos is survived by his mother.

Services have been held.

ObituaryChicago.com