Elgin man implicated in high-grade pot scheme

An Elgin man has been charged in a plot to bring more than $1 million of high quality marijuana from the Pacific Northwest to sell in the suburbs.

A Kane County grand jury Friday indicted Mario Hernandez, 36, of the 700 block of South Street, with cannabis trafficking, possession of cannabis with intent to deliver and possession of cannabis.

Hernandez was arrested Jan. 18 on lesser marijuana charges after authorities went to his Elgin home and seized a pound of pot, police have said.

His bail was set at an unusually high $2 million and this week’s upgraded charges of cannabis trafficking, which carry a possible prison term of 12 to 60 years, help explain why.

Kane County Sheriff’s Lt. Patrick Gengler said authorities were led to Hernandez after he tried to file a missing-person’s report for one of two men arrested a few days beforehand.

“(Hernandez) was supposed to meet with them and he called to report one of them as missing. Obviously, we knew where they were,” Gengler said.

On Jan. 14, deputies pulled over two men after they failed to pay a toll at I-88 and Route 31 in North Aurora and found 56 pounds of high-grade pot in their trunk, police said.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested Pablo Galeana-Rueda, 34, of Aberdeen, Wash., and Jose Hernandez-Calderon, 41, of Santa Rosa, Calif., and charged them with cannabis trafficking and other offenses, reports said.

A deputy became suspicious when the two men didn’t know each other’s last names, were driving a car with an Oregon registration and both had soft, non-callused hands despite telling authorities they were headed to Chicago and Elgin to find construction work, sheriff reports said.

Bail for both men was set at $1 million each and they are due in court on Feb. 16.

Mario Hernandez is due in court on Feb. 9.

All three are being held at the Kane County jail.