14-year sentence for Aurora drug dealer who fled after arrest
An Aurora man who fled to Texas while free on bond on drug charges from a 2002 arrest was sentenced Thursday to 14 years in prison.
A jury in January convicted Pedro Giles, 37, of the 300 block of Old Indian Trail, of delivery of controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, both felonies. Giles faced 12 to 80 years in prison on the charges.
Judge Linda Abrahamson issued the 14-year sentence, which can be cut in half under Illinois law for good behavior behind bars.
Giles also gets credit for nearly 2.5 years at the Kane County jail while his case was pending, meaning he could be released from prison in 4.5 years.
Members of the North Central Narcotics Task Force, a unit of the state police, arrested Giles and two others in December 2002 after undercover officers arranged to buy 3 ounces of cocaine.
Authorities made contact with two Aurora men - Javier Perez, 50, and Ricardo Lopez Megallon, 44 - but they didn't have enough cocaine to sell. Megallon called Giles, who brought 86 grams of cocaine and sold it for $2,400, according to prosecutors.
Giles and Megallon were arrested and officers met Perez at another location, bought $75 worth of cocaine from him before arresting him. A search of his house turned up more than 400 grams of cocaine and $1,400, authorities said.
All three posted bond and fled the area, prosecutors said.
Giles was picked up in October 2014 by authorities in Montgomery County, Texas. He was extradited to Kane County the next month.
Warrants for Perez and Megallon are still active. Anyone with information can leave an anonymous tip with the North Central Narcotics Task Force at (847) 608-3242 or on the task force's website at ncntf.org.