Woman pleads guilty in massive Kane County heroin bust

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Claudia A. Chagoya / photo from Kane County State's Attorney's office

Updated: January 16, 2012 10:24AM

A Texas woman will serve at least 15 years in prison after admitting she was a drug mule, responsible for bringing millions of dollars worth of heroin to Illinois.

Claudia Chagoya, 42, of El Paso, Texas, was stopped in April, when an alert officer noticed suspicious behavior and unusual car maintenance during a routine traffic stop. On Wednesday, Chagoya agreed to a 20-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, the Kane County state’s attorney’s office said.

Chagoya must serve at least 75 percent of the sentence. She was given credit for more than 200 days she has already served in the Kane County jail.

Chagoya was pulled over at 9:45 a.m. April 25 for failing to signal as she exited I-90 at Route 25.

Kane County Sheriff’s Deputy Ron Hain, an experienced drug investigator, was patrolling the area when he noticed a blue Dodge Dakota pickup with Texas plates fail to signal. Hain stopped the truck and began to question Chagoya, who was alone, prosecutors said.

During his conversation, Hain learned that Chagoya did not have a valid license. He contacted Texas authorities and learned the truck had crossed the border into Mexico at El Paso on April 18, and returned to the United States at the same border crossing on April 21, prosecutors said.

Hain conducted a search of the truck and noticed clumps of mud on bolts that held the drive shaft to the rear axle, but no mud anywhere else under the car - indicating the car may have been altered, prosecutors said. Hain wiped off the mud and determined that the drive shaft had recently been altered and filled with heroin, prosecutors said.

The vehicle was towed and a search revealed that the drive shaft contained more than seven kilograms of heroin, worth more than $2.1 million.

The bust represents one of the largest in Kane County history, prosecutors said.

“This case is proof that there is no such thing as a routine traffic stop,” Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon said.

Following her arrest, Chagoya told authorities that she was paid $1,000 up front to drive the heroin from Mexico, through El Paso, to the Chicago area. She said that when she arrived in the Chicago area, she was to drop off the vehicle at a hotel, that the truck would be taken to another location, the heroin removed, and then the truck would be returned to her at the hotel. Chagoya said she was to be paid more once she returned to Texas.

“Thanks to Deputy Hain’s specialized training, keen observation skills and excellent detective work, a large amount of a highly addictive and deadly narcotic - which no doubt would have been distributed not only throughout the Chicago area but through the region - was removed from circulation before it could be ingested,” McMahon said. “It is highly probable that Deputy Hain’s work saved a few lives.”