A Northwest Side man is accused of starting a lucrative street-level narcotics business in grocery store parking lots and selling a weapon to an undercover officer only one day after pleading guilty in an unrelated felony case and being given the opportunity to have the conviction removed from his record.
John A. Gonzalez, 28, is now facing armed violence and ten felony narcotics counts after prosecutors said he regularly sold cocaine, ecstasy, and other drugs to undercover cops in the parking lots of two Northwest Side grocery shops before giving an officer a gun.
The plan allegedly began on November 18, the day after Gonzalez pleaded guilty to felony theft and got a year of court supervision. That deal, which allows charges to be removed from a defendant’s record, was just hours old when Gonzalez allegedly sold over $2,000 in cocaine to an undercover cop in the parking lot of Tony’s Fresh Market, 4137 North Elston Avenue, Irving Park.
Prosecutors claim Gonzalez then moved his business to the parking lot of Jewel-Osco, 4042 West Foster Avenue, in North Park, where he made a number of additional sales. On November 3, he allegedly sold fifty ecstasy tablets. On November 10, prosecutors claim he sold an additional $1,866 worth of cocaine. On November 24, he allegedly sold 30 ecstasy pills, 50 Xanax tablets, 1 ounce of hashish, and $1,750 in cocaine.
The transactions became more serious on December 2, when Gonzalez allegedly sold $3,725 in cocaine, as well as a pistol and six bullets, outside the Jewel. On December 15, he allegedly went to the Jewel-Osco parking lot for one last time to sell $1,825 in cocaine.
Gonzalez was held after a hearing with Cook County Judge Ankur Srivastava.
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