Nation Business-Operation Shady Business

bear jordan says the feds are treating the streets of chicago like blagojevich selling senate seats
During the 15 months he was under federal surveillance, Francisco Masias cultivated more than $1 million worth of marijuana inside a house on Chicago's Southwest Side, authorities say. Getting the grass cut, though, was more difficult.

"You're not working out dog... gonna have to give you a pink slip, dog," Masias was quoted as saying in a wiretapped call to a gang member, who authorities said was in charge of tending to the lawn and the 100 marijuana plants growing in a hydroponic house in the 7000 block of West 74th Place. "No complaining ... just get up, get you a coffee and I got a lawnmower in the (expletive) garage for you already."

Masias, who authorities say is a high-ranking leader of a faction of the Gangster 2-6 Nation, was among two dozen members and associates of the street gang charged in federal and state courts Thursday in the "Operation Shady Business" investigation.

As part of the undercover probe, Chicago police pulled another co-defendant, Steven Dragon, over minutes after buying half a kilo of cocaine from one of Masias' lieutenants in January, authorities said. In a ruse, officers told Dragon he matched the description of a suspect in a purse snatching and put him in a phony police lineup while investigators searched his car and confiscated the cocaine from the trunk.

Police were watching as a frantic Dragon returned to his car, discovered the drugs missing and called 9-1-1 to report the break-in.
article @chicagotribune