Kirk joins police in raids

The money in this instance is $250 million in anti-gang funding that Congress is set to appropriate for next year's federal budget.

So on Wednesday night, the Winnetka Republican joined officers of the Waukegan Police Neighborhood Enforcement Team as they sought guns and drugs on the city's south side.

"As much as $1 million or $2 million could be available to the 10th District in a combination of funding for police and faith-based groups to fight the spread of gangs," Kirk said. "We are aware that gangs are starting to target suburban teens with the drugs they are selling and we are looking for the best ways to combat that movement."

Sgt. Dominick Capalutti told 12 officers assembled for raids on a pair of houses that drug sales to undercover officers from both had led to the issuance of search warrants.

The houses at 132 S. Park St. and 301 Powell Ave. were struck simultaneously just before 6 p.m. by officers carrying battering rams and automatic weapons.

"Residents of both addresses have links to gang activity and the Park Street location has been the target of a number of drive-by shootings and a firebombing," Capalutti said. "We are interested in recovering drugs from both locations, but we are also seeking guns and four specific individuals."

Violence between two gangs has flared in the last few weeks, he said, and police believed that guns were in the hands of younger people than they were accustomed to dealing with.

"The days of the drive-by shootings by 18- or 19-year-old kids in cars are over," Capalutti said. "Today, we have 14-year-olds on bicycles that are doing the shooting."

At the Park Street address, police did not find any drugs, but did find three pistols with serial numbers scraped off hidden in a basement bedroom.

Police said the weapons would be sent to a crime laboratory to be compared with evidence from recent shootings to see if the guns were used in any criminal acts.

An 18-year-old male in the house when police arrived was taken into custody but had not been formally charged as of late Wednesday.

Kirk spoke briefly with a 13-year-old boy who was in the house at the time of the raid.

"It is fairly shocking to see him and only goes to show that some drug houses are really drug homes where children are living," Kirk said. "He has to go to a school where the teacher has to has to deal with what he has been dealing with."

At the Powell Avenue address, police found a quantity of marijuana but were unable to locate any suspects named in their search warrants.

Kirk said he expects the federal money available next year will be split between law enforcement programs and church groups seeking to steer young people away from gangs.

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