WAUKEGAN, IL — A Zion man who has spent the past dozen years evading authorities on an active Lake County narcotics warrant was arrested Tuesday and charged with drug dealing, illegal firearm possession and obstruction of justice, authorities said.
Amado Palma-Yanes, 38, of the 2000 block of Hebron Avenue, is due to appear in court for a detention hearing Thursday, according to the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
Around early September, sheriff’s detectives got unspecified information regarding Palma-Yanes was selling drugs, Deputy Chief Chris Covelli told Patch.
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First they started surveilling him, but they soon found he had an active arrest warrant dating back to 2012.
In that case, Palma-Yanes was arrested by Waukegan police and charged with possession of a controlled substance and obstruction of justice for allegedly destroying evidence.
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He was also cited for driving without a license or insurance, according to court records in connection with the November 2011 incident.
Detectives determined that Palma-Yanes used various aliases to avoid arrest over his dozen years on the lam.
When they pulled him over to take him into custody on the warrant on Tuesday, he gave them a fake identification card, which bore the name of one of those aliases.
Then, a search of Palma-Yanes’ home turned up three illegal guns, one of which was a “ghost gun” that had been personally manufactured and had no serial number.
Though he had less than 10 grams of cocaine in his possession during the traffic stop, investigators found indications of far more at his house.
“There was evidence located at his home of movement of large amounts of cocaine, potentially kilos,” Covelli told Patch.
That included empty kilogram-sized wrappers — still with drug residue on them — various chemicals used by drug dealers to dilute their merchandise to increase profits, digital scales, a vacuum sealer and baggies, according to Covelli.
During the search, a police dog alerted detectives to possible drugs inside a safe they seized from his house, and they are seeking a warrant to crack it.
Lake County Sheriff John Idleburg said in a statement that his office’s special investigations group, a federally funded task force, showed “relentless dedication” to get drugs and guns off the streets.
“Their hard work led to the arrest of a suspected drug trafficker,” Idleburg said, “and the recovery of three illegally possessed firearms — three fewer guns that could harm the people of Lake County.”
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