Suburban men sentenced after federal investigation into Mexico-to-Chicago drug pipeline

FOX32 Digital Team has reported that Sheldon Morales, 42, of Morton Grove and Eduardo Santana, 47, of Skokie, were each sentenced after being found guilty of conspiring with a supplier in Mexico and two inmates in a Texas prison for drug trafficking, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Thursday.

Both had been convicted in Chicago in 2022 on a charge of drug conspiracy.

According to prosecutors, both men trafficked in meth, cocaine & fentanyl from Mexico to Morton Grove & Evanston in 2019.

Their illegal drug activity was discovered after authorities tapped their cellular phones, seized packages & acquired surveillance video.

Santana was sentenced this past Tuesday to 16 years and eight months in prison. Morales was handed his sentence on April 16 of 19 years and seven months behind bars, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Two other defendants were also convicted in the drug investigation – Demetrius Shavers, 42, of Chicago & Darius Morales, 34, of Evanston

In 2021, Shavers was sentenced to over six and a half years in prison for trafficking heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl in Chicago, according to court records.

Morales
was sentenced in 2022 to nearly eight years in prison for illegally
possessing a semi-automatic handgun in Evanston, authorities have stated.