A Chicago man has been charged with trying to take possession of heroin
concealed in a picture frame he had had shipped from Kenya to the downtown hotel
where he worked.
Taiwo Obayemi, 34, of the 5100
block of South Blackstone Avenue in Chicago, was arrested Wednesday near his
home after the picture frame had been shipped to his work place, the W Hotel,
644 N. Lake Shore Dr.
U.S. Homeland Security agents investigated six packages
supposedly containing picture frames or framed prints sent to the hotel from a
children’s home in Nairobi,
Kenya.
The last one, which Obayemi eventually was arrested with, had been
sent with a little less than 5 ounces of heroin concealed in it.
Five
previous shipments, which also were made via DHL, went from the children’s home
in Nairobi to fictitious people at the W Hotel starting in November 2011.
Federal agents intercepted the sixth package in
Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 31.
About 4.75 ounces of heroin were found in
the frame and the frame was sent on to Chicago, where agents took the heroin out
and replaced it with fake heroin.
The frame was sent on to the W Hotel,
where Obayemi eventually took it and was driven by someone else to his
neighborhood.
When Obayemi got out of the
car, agents approached him, and when they identified themselves as police, he
began to run and dropped the package.
After
his arrest, Obayemi told agents he had a person in Nigeria send the packages to
him, and told agents “he accepted the illegal package because of greed and the
things he wanted,”. Text messages to and from Obayemi
indicate he was dealing heroin and discussing the price of the drug with
customers.
In an interview with one of the people who received deliveries
at the W Hotel, agents were told that Obayemi had received about five packages
in the last year similar to the one he received Wednesday.
Obayemi was
convicted in 1999 of possessing heroin with intent to distribute and conspiracy
to import a controlled substance, and sentenced to 87 months in prison. He was released from federal prison in 2004
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