Chicago Police Recruit Charged with Possession of Crack Cocaine
A shocking incident unfolded at the Chicago Police Department academy this week as charges were filed against recruit Alfredo Saldana for possessing crack cocaine during a narcotics training scenario.
24-year-old Saldana is facing a felony charge of possessing a controlled substance after another recruit discovered eight baggies of crack in his pants pocket during a search training exercise on Monday morning.
During the exercise, when asked about the contents of the baggies, Saldana allegedly claimed, “These aren’t my pants.”
The training officer had provided Saldana with a small amount of simulated heroin for the scenario-based training involving narcotics offenses. Another recruit was then tasked with searching Saldana while the trainer observed the process.
To everyone’s surprise, the searching recruit found a knotted bag containing four baggies of suspected crack cocaine in Saldana’s cargo pants pocket, decorated with dollar signs instead of the simulated blue star baggies.
Upon being confronted about the baggies, Saldana reportedly dismissed them as garbage and claimed, “These aren’t my pants. They belong to my brother, he’s the police.”
Saldana was taken to an operations office to notify a supervisor and was formally arrested about four hours later. The suspected crack cocaine weighed 8 grams, according to the arrest report.
A CPD spokesperson mentioned that an internal investigation was also initiated following the incident.
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