Illegal Alien charged in drug-related triple slaying

A Chicago man recently convicted of weapons crimes was charged in the drug-related murders of three men whose bodies were found inside an abandoned car last year on the Southwest Side, authorities said.

Roberto Cerda, 24, of the 5600 block of South Trumbull Avenue, was charged Wednesday night with first-degree murder in the slayings of Andres Butron, 34, Ernesto Aleguin, 42 and Hector Romero, 28, whose bodies were discovered in May 2010 near West 48th Place and South Whipple Street.

Cerda was part of a robbery crew involved drug-trafficking, but also robbed and killed some of its potential buyers, law enforcement sources said.

The crew was led by Arturo Ibarra, who allegedly was also involved in those slayings.
 late February, Ibarra, Raul Segura-Rodriguez and Augustin Toscano slit the throats of three men in an Egdewater apartment building, killing two of them, authorities have said.
Immediately after that, Ibarra, Segura-Rodriguez and Toscano were involved in a shooting nearby that left a Chicago police officer wounded in the leg, authorities have said. The trio then led police on chase into the Rogers Park neighborhood, where police eventually shot and killed Ibarra.

Sources have said Ibarra, Segura-Rodriguez and Toscano could be connected to as many as a dozen killings. Cerda, however, is only charged with the May 2010 triple slaying.

Segura-Rodriguez and Toscano are charged in the February slayings. But Segura-Rodriguez was also charged last month in the slayings of four men who were found dead last September in a Southwest Side garage, crimes that Ibarra and Toscano may have also participated in, law enforcement sources have said.

Cerda was already awaiting sentencing in the Cook County Jail after being convicted recently of felony weapons charges.
Butron was charged with drug conspiracy after federal agents found $192,413 in cash in a bedroom closet during a 2004 raid, records show. He later confessed to being a bagman in a drug operation, transporting cash collected in drug sales to Mexico. He was released from federal prison in October 2008.

Alequin was convicted in 1995 in Cook County of the manufacture and delivery of more than 900 grams of cocaine and sentenced to 21 years in prison, according to court records.

Romero, a father of three, who had numerous arrests dating to 1999, including convictions for drug possession and weapons, had briefly used his gang ties to help calm gang tensions as a peace mediator for CeaseFire Illinois.

Cerda is set to appear for a bond hearing Thursday on the new murder charges.