Anselmo Zepeda, 52,a "major" cocaine trafficker in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois was indicted in December 1998 as part of Operation Crackshot. A Mexico native, he was a fugitive until 2005, when FBI agents and the Chicago police made a series of drug arrests. They noticed his name, compared notes and determined it was Zepeda, the man who trucked in millions of dollars worth of cocaine from the Southwest to the Midwest.Mihm noted that Zepeda was the main source of drugs for the Gangster Disciples and the Vice Lords street gangs. In Chicago, he supplied the Four Corner Hustlers."You were in the big business of drugs," noted Mihm, before noting that U.S. probation officers linked Zepeda alone to more than 500 kilograms of cocaine."That's more than 1,000 pounds of cocaine. That's a staggering amount," the judge said.Zepeda pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court as part of a rare, fully negotiated deal with federal prosecutors. Such deals are not common in federal court, where a person's sentencing range is often determined after an investigation by the U.S. Probation Office.The 210-month sentence would run concurrently to two similar 210-month sentences he is serving from federal drug convictions in Indiana and northern Illinois.Kelly of Chicago was convicted in late 1996 and sentenced to 24 years in federal prison for moving hundreds of pounds of cocaine in the Peoria area between 1988 and 1995.Involving local, state and federal authorities, Operation Crackshot took aim at the Gangster Disciples in Peoria and produced charges against about 160 defendants. More than 100 gang members went to prison as a result.
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