Elmhurst cabbie gets 20 days for heroin possession

A taxi driver carrying heroin in his cab in Elmhurst was sentenced Tuesday to two years probation and ordered to serve 20 days in a work release program.

Edward A. Spadafino, 29, of Franklin Park was arrested just before 11 p.m. May 7 after Elmhurst patrol officers say he was acting suspiciously at a gas station. Officers followed Spadafino to a local strip club where they spotted Spadafino engaged in a drug deal. A short time after he left the strip club, he was pulled over.

Officers reported finding an open beer can in the taxi, along with heroin and drug paraphernalia. Just outside the passenger door they found marijuana, prosecutors said at Tuesday's sentencing. Prosecutors said the amount of heroin seized from Spadafino was less than 15 grams.

In exchange for his guilty plea to heroin possession, prosecutors dropped driving with open alcohol container and failure to signal charges. This was Spadafino's first arrest in DuPage.

As a condition of his sentence, Spadafino will have to submit to random drug testing throughout the two years of his probation and attend counseling sessions. He will join a crew of the DuPage County Sheriff's Work Alternative Program, which perform roadside cleanups, gang graffiti removal and beautification projects in communities and parks.