02/26/1993   CHICAGO (UPI) -- Two former Chicago Heights police
officers have been sentenced to 30 years in prison for selling drugs
to and protecting a mob-connected dealer.
   Gerald Werner, 47, and George Sintic, 41, both former detectives,
were sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court.
   "This case takes corruption to another dimension," U.S. District
Judge Marvin Aspen said. "It boggles the mind that this kind of
corruption could be openly performed on the streets in a community
in the United States in the 1980s."
   Assistant federal prosecutors John Gallo and Bradley Lerman said
the ex-detectives bought 77 pounds of cocaine from Manuel Jaramillo,
the Hispanic liaison to former Mayor Charles Panici, and sold it to
Otis Moore, the town's "most notorious" drug dealer, from 1983 to
1989.
   The two officers fed police information to another drug dealer,
Charlie Cruz, described as "organized crime's designated dealer" in
Chicago Heights, the prosecutors said. They sold drugs to Cruz, ran
a bookmaking operation and laundered drug profits through a bar they
owned, Gallo said.
   In addition, Sintic sold merchandise seized during police raids
to a tavern owner and committed perjury in testifying in his own
defense, Gallo said.
   It is the second time this week the federal court has dealt with
officials of Chicago Heights, a suburb South of Chicago whose
reputation for corruption dates back to the Al Capone days.
   On Monday, a jury convicted Panici and two former City Council
members, John Gliottoni Jr., and Louise Marshall, of taking
kickbacks in exchange for awarding city contracts.
   They were accused of more than $600,000 in bribes over 15 years
in return for city contracts. In court Thursday, the three agreed to
forfeit a combined $406,750 in assets to the government.
   During Prohibition, the nation's largest distillery was in
Chicago Heights. The city had at least 65 gangland killings within
two years in the 1920s.