Arrests! At last!

27 charged in heroin network that authorities say led to 5 deaths

By JOHN DIEDRICHjdiedrich@journalsentinel.comPosted: July 15, 2008

Twenty-seven people from Milwaukee, Chicago and Waukesha County have been charged with being part of a heroin ring that authorities say led to 11 overdoses, five of them fatal, according to federal court documents unsealed Tuesday.

The ring is similar to one charged in 2006 and 2007 that reached from Chicago through Milwaukee and into Ozaukee County, where at least four people died from overdoses. In that case, 16 people were charged and most have pleaded guilty.

In the current case, many of the suspects and victims came from Waukesha County, specifically the Village of Pewaukee. Because people died, the defendants face between 20 years and life in prison if convicted. All but one of the suspects is in custody and that person is being sought.
Village Police Chief Ed Baumann said he was shocked by how prevalent heroin was in his community.

"The questions are unanswerable," Baumann said. "They are the same questions Ozaukee County had. How did this group of kids get hooked on this poison? I don't know."

While five people died, the total might have been higher if not for life-saving medical procedures, authorities said. In four of the other six overdoses, a drug called Narcan was used to revive the users, several of whom were not breathing.

Dubbed "Operation Lake Effect," the investigation started in early 2007 when Milwaukee police pulled over Lonnie L. "G-money" Johnson, 31, who is identified as the Chicago-based supplier of the ring, according to a 70-count criminal complaint. Authorities already were working with informants on the ring, which was already being traced into Waukesha County, it said.
Last August, Valerie Luszak came to a house at N. 18th and W. Nash streets in Milwaukee to use heroin and died when she injected the drugs, the complaint indicates. Louis Brown told police he wrapped Luszak's body in a sheet and dumped it in a garbage cart where it was later found. Luszak's age was not listed in the complaint.

In December, law enforcement found Joshua Carroll, 26, dead from an overdose in a Town of Waukesha home. Friends said the heroin had come from Milwaukee.

In April, Luke J. Bandkowski, 28, of Genesee, was charged in Waukesha County Circuit Court with first-degree reckless homicide in Carroll's death. According to a criminal complaint, Bandkowski is accused of supplying heroin to Carroll in December. An autopsy showed that Carroll died of "opiate intoxication." Bandkowski is also charged in federal court.

Investigators learned that heroin was brought into Milwaukee every couple weeks and distributed through a network operated by Jermaine J. "Main" Stewart, 24, the complaint indicates. The drug was distributed to certain areas of Milwaukee, sometimes by couriers on bicycle, and users from Waukesha County would come into the city to buy, it said. Some of those buyers would then turn around and sell the drug to support their own addiction, according to the complaint.

Because the case has been charged as a conspiracy, all members would be culpable for the overdose deaths and face the stiff penalties if convicted.

On Feb. 21, Jeffrey Topczewski was found dead in a Muskego home by police, the complaint says. His age was not listed. Then on June 6, Andrew Goetzke, 19, was found dead at a Pewaukee home.

Finally, on July 3, David Knuth, 25, was taken by friends to the Aurora Healthcare parking lot in Pewaukee where he was found by police, the complaint said. He later died.

Earlier this month, Waukesha County Deputy Medical Examiner Kris Klenz said there had been four overdoses there as of June 30. Previously, the most heroin deaths recorded in the county came in 2006, when there were three.

James F. Bohn, assistant special agent at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said the purity of heroin sold on the streets has increased over the past 10 years, making it possible for users to snort the drug instead of injecting it. That has eliminated some of the stigma formerly associated with heroin, but it remains highly addictive, regardless of how it is used.

"Heroin is not a recreational drug," Bohn said. "Once you use the drug, you are on that path."
U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic said the investigation is ongoing, noting that in both the Waukesha and Ozaukee cases, the source of the heroin was traced back to Chicago.

"The source of the supply remains under investigation," he said.
Biskupic added that both cases show that heroin is not a Milwaukee problem, but a regional one.
"Law enforcement knows drug dealers aren't concerned about city borders," he said.

My God... They knew it was deadly, yet they continued using and letting their friends use. This drug is evil...

What Now

A sad start to the season of sun. Two young men down. Too much alcohol and drugs, and their promise and lives are gone. Smiles and energy, and then stillness. Both friends of my children. One of them I knew.. As kind-hearted a young man as you will ever have met.

These events strike closer to home than you can realize... How can our country allow such a free flow of heroin as we are seeing in this community? These two deaths are far from unique. There is a plague in this country that needs to be addessed.... We send young people off to a war at the cost of billions... terrorists are murdering brazenly at home under the guise of a killer drug.

Anyway.. It does not help to dwell in sadness and loss, though it is hard to tear away.

They have returned to the earth from which we all came. If there is a heaven, they will find it.