“Biggest bust in a decade” nets 30 lbs of cocaine

Lake County officials credit the tenacity of a sheriff's deputy with turning a routine traffic stop into the largest seizure of cocaine in at least 10 years.

Deputy Lorne White stopped a Ford Freestar van for speeding on the Tri-State Tollway around 7 p.m. Sunday and wound up depositing $405,000 worth of cocaine in the evidence room.

Pedro Valdovinos, 19, of the 200 block of Delaware Drive in Bolingbrook, is held on $500,000 bond and is refusing to cooperate with investigators, officials said.

Sheriff's Lt. Christopher Thompson said White stopped Valdovinos' van on the tollway and became suspicious of his behavior during what should have been a rather mundane encounter between police officer and citizen.

“(White) must have felt something was wrong with the situation, because he asked for permission to search the van,” Thompson said. “We do not ask every driver we stop if we can look around in the vehicle, so this suspect must have done something to engage Deputy White's curiosity.”

White found a doorway to a hidden compartment in the rear of the van, which Thompson said revealed 15 packages of cocaine weighing 2.2 pounds each.

Officials said Valdovinos told White he was trying to get from Plainfield to Rockford and had gotten lost, but refused to answer any other questions once the cocaine was found.

“Unfortunately, we can only speculate on the ultimate destination of this shipment,” Thompson said. “The suspect asked for a lawyer and our detectives stopped trying to question him.”

Assistant State's Attorney Suzanne Willett, chief of the drug prosecutions division, said exact records are not kept but the interception of Valdovinos' cocaine was the largest seizure in at least 10 years. Each package has a street value of $27,000, Willet said, making the total value of the contraband $405,000.

Valdovinos appeared in bond court Monday morning and was ordered held on $500,000 bond, which will require him to post $50,000 in cash to get out of jail.

He is due to appear in court Feb. 10 to report on his progress in hiring an attorney.

Willett said Valdovinos faces a mandatory prison sentence of 15 to 60 years in prison if convicted of possession of a controlled substance with the intent to deliver.

“This is quite a substantial seizure of cocaine,” Sheriff Mark Curran said in a statement. “We are pleased with the outcome of the traffic stop and the tenacity of Deputy White to have obtained consent to search and discovered the hidden compartment.”