Six men charged with mailing meth from California to be trafficked in Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Five Chicago men and a sixth from California have been indicted on charges that they shipped methamphetamine through the mail and distributed it in Chicago.
Stephen Jenkins, 44; Daniel Heise, 40; Donald Greiner Jr., 61; Jose Hernandez, 45; and William Koch, 36 – all of Chicago, and Keith McCormick, 51, also known as Keith Lopez, of Sacramento, have all been charged with a drug trafficking conspiracy.
Jenkins, Heise, Koch, and Greiner are also charged with different trafficking counts, and Heise is charged with possessing a firearm in furtherance of a gun offense.
The indictment alleges from February 2022 to February 2023, Jenkins and Heise directed McCormick to ship parcels full of methamphetamine through the U.S. Mail from Sacramento to Chicago. Law enforcement found more than 200 parcels of methamphetamine and recovered the drug from at least 10 parcels,– some of which were addressed to Greiner, McCormick, Koch, Jenkins, and Heise, prosecutors said.
Jenkins, Heise, and others involved in the drug trafficking operation, shipped the drug sales proceeds back to McCormick via private shipping companies such as FedEx and UPS, prosecutors said.
The drug trafficking counts carry penalties of five years to life in federal prison, and Heise faces and additional five years for the gun charge, prosecutors said.
