Gang members plead not guilty in Lake County RICO case

Several members of the notorious 4 Corner Hustlers pleaded not guilty in Lake County court Wednesday to various charges of racketeering and conspiracy on claims they were part of a street gang that conspired to carry out multiple murders, violent crimes and drug sales in Lake County.

All 13 alleged street gang members up for arraignment in front of Judge David P. Brodsky were charged under the Illinois Street Gang and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and can be sentenced to life in prison.

Assistant State's Attorney Reginald Mathews said all members charged with the 4 Corner Hustlers face life sentences because the gang as a whole committed multiple murders in Lake County between 2008 and 2014.

The alleged gang members also are charged with counts of criminal drug conspiracy, trafficking of a controlled substance or criminal street gang drug conspiracy. The sentence range for those charges is 9 to 45 years in prison.

"The way RICO works is that you can be on the hook for something that happened to the overall enterprise, if you contributed to the overall enterprise itself," Mathews said after the hearing.

Twenty-one members of the gang were arrested and charged Oct. 31 with violation of Illinois RICO laws. RICO laws allow prosecutors to file charges against members of a corrupt organization for a crime the organization committed.

The law was enacted in 2012 because prosecutors could only charge gang crimes as isolated acts, officials said. That allowed gang leaders to be shielded from prosecution for telling underlings to carry out violence in order to keep their hands clean.

This is the first time RICO laws have been used to prosecute gang members in Lake County, authorities said.

A yearlong investigation revealed the gang had been distributing and selling cocaine, heroin and prescription pills, in addition to committing violent crimes including murder in Lake County, authorities said.

The investigation into the case was led by the FBI, but included police from Mundelein, Zion, Waukegan, and North Chicago, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the state's attorney's office, the Lake County Metropolitan Enforcement Group and the Lake County sheriff's office.

Trial dates for the gang members are scheduled for January and February.

The bond amount for all 21 suspects range from $10 million to $100,000, of which 10 percent must be posted in order to be released.