DuPage traffic stops yields $500,000 drug bust

What began as a routine traffic stop in Bloomingdale resulted in DuPage County sheriff’s deputies finding cocaine and methamphetamines with an estimated street value of $500,000 hidden inside a car, authorities said Thursday.

Now the 26-year-old Calumet City man who was driving the vehicle is facing several felony drug charges.

Jesus Gonzalez-Carrera, of the 1300 block of Burnham Avenue, has been charged with one count of manufacture/deliver of a controlled substance of 900 grams or more and one count of possession/deliver of methamphetamines.

Both offenses are Super Class X felonies, officials said.

Gonzalez-Carrera was pulled over by a sheriff’s deputy about 3:40 p.m. Wednesday while he was driving east on Army Trail Road at Springfield Drive, authorities said.

During the traffic stop, it was discovered Gonzalez-Carrera didn’t have a valid driver’s license, so he was taken into custody.

After getting permission from Gonzalez-Carrera to search the car, police found four kilograms of cocaine and half a kilogram of methamphetamines hidden under a seat.

“Every day my agency aggressively fights to keep dangerous drugs out of the hands of our children and to make DuPage County a safe community,” Sheriff John Zaruba said in a statement. “Together we can win this war on drugs.”

Gonzalez-Carrera was being held Thursday at the county jail on a $1 million bond. If he does post bond, he must prove the money doesn’t come from ill-gotten gains.

Speaking through a Spanish-language interpreter, Gonzalez-Carrera said in bond court Thursday that he is unemployed.