Addison man could face 60 years after trafficking charges, drug stash concealed at storage site

An Addison man faces charges for running a massive drug trafficking operation out of a DuPage County storage facility.

Henry Brown, 54, was arraigned Friday on charges including gun possession and distributing thousands of grams of cannabis and fentanyl, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said.

“Drug and gun trafficking lead to violent crime that has a devastating effect on communities throughout Illinois,” Raoul said.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service did the initial investigation and is collaborating with the attorney general’s office.

“Postal inspectors are committed to ensuring the U.S. Postal Service is not a mechanism for the distribution of illicit narcotics,” said Ruth Mendonça, inspector in charge of the agency’s Chicago division.

Charges against Brown include the following:

• Unlawful possession of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of cannabis with intent to deliver. Both are Class X felonies with the potential for up to 60 and 30 years in prison, respectively.

• Cannabis trafficking, a Class 1 felony.

• Unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, a Class 2 felony.

• Conspiracy involving unlawful delivery of cannabis.

Prosecutors allege Brown trafficked 2,500 grams of cannabis into Illinois in October 2021. He also is accused of stashing over 5,000 grams of cannabis, more than 900 grams of fentanyl, and two handguns at a storage building in Addison.

“The collaboration between my office and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service is essential to our work to hold perpetrators accountable and make our neighborhoods safer,” Raoul said in a statement.

“The criminal investigation and subsequent arrest in this case serves as a reminder that postal inspectors, along with our law enforcement partners, remain steadfast in our resolve to combat the flow of illicit drugs impacting our communities,” Mendonça said in a statement.

The prosecution involves Raoul’s Statewide Grand Jury Bureau, which is authorized to try multicounty cases and “focuses on complex, often large-scale, organized criminal activity,” officials said.

https://www.dailyherald.com/20250111/crime/addison-man-could-face-60-years-after-trafficking-charges-drug-stash-concealed-at-storage-site/