FBI Seeks Fugitive Dad Of Teen At Center Of City-Sticker Controversy
CHICAGO (STMW) -- Two days after a 15-year-old boy's winning city sticker design was pulled over concerns it contained gang signs, the FBI issued an alert for the teen's father who is wanted for distributing cocaine to a street gang.
Herbert Pulgar, 42, of the 2700 block of West Wilson is wanted for conspiracy to distribute more than 50 grams of mixtures containing cocaine base in the form of crack cocaine, a wanted flier from the FBI said.
Pulgar has been the subject of a nationwide manhunt coordinated by the Chicago FBI's Joint Task Force on Gangs since March 2008, when he was charged in a criminal complaint for violating federal drug laws, a release from the FBI said.
A previous reward has been increased to $10,000, the release said.
Pulgar was among 17 known and suspected gang members and associates charged with drug violations in a two-year combined federal and state investigation, which ended on March 20, 2008 with the arrest of seven Chicago area defendants, the FBI said. He was one of two defendants who escaped capture and is the only one still at large.
Due to his criminal record and the nature of the charges against him, he's considered armed and dangerous.
Anyone recognizing Pulgar or having any information should call the Chicago FBI office at (312) 421-6700.
Pulgar is the father of Herbert Pulgar, the 15-year-old student artist who submitted a winning design for Chicago's 2012-2013 city sticker. But earlier this week, City Clerk Susana Mendoza pulled the design after some authorities said one of its elements, a depiction of hands, could be gang signs.
Mendoza said she would personally pay an equivalent cash prize to the teen, saying she doesn't want the negative publicity to discourage him.
The teen's attorney, Blake Horwitz, said Friday he isn't sure why the FBI would publicize the elder Pulgar's fugitive status so soon after the controversy. He says the father has not had contact with the teen.
"At the end of the day, it's very painful and difficult for this little boy, who did nothing else other than develop a really beautiful image for the city with his whole heart," the attorney tells CBS 2.
The FBI did not return phone calls Friday.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2012. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
