Convicted on eight counts, including theft and drug charges, a former Chicago police sergeant was recently sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for participating in a robbery and extortion crew.
During the 1990s, Chicago Police Sergeant Eddie Hicks participated in a four-man crew that used fake search warrants in order to rob suspected drug dealers under the guise of police investigations. Along with Chicago Police Sgt. Larry Hargrove, Illinois Department of Professional Regulation employee Matthew Moran, and civilian CPD electrical mechanic Lawrence Knitter, Sgt. Hicks utilized fake search warrants and municipal plates from out of service police vehicles to pull over drug dealers and rob them at gunpoint or beat them if faced with resistance.
Between the early 1990s to 2001, Hicks and his robbery crew stole thousands of dollars in cash, multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine, hundreds of pounds of marijuana, and several firearms.
All four crew members were arrested and charged in federal court. Hicks fled Chicago in June 2003 while free on bond and awaiting trial. He remained a fugitive until his arrest in Detroit, Michigan, in September 2017.
Hargrove was sentenced to 13 years in prison. Moran received a sentence of seven years and ten months in prison, while Knitter was sentenced to nine years and four months in prison.
During Hicks’ trial, Knitter was the government’s key witness against the former police sergeant. According to federal prosecutors, Hicks was the mastermind behind the criminal operation.
In March 2019, a federal jury
convicted Hicks on all eight counts against him, including conspiracy to commit
racketeering, drug
conspiracy, possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute,
carrying a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense and crime of
violence, theft of government funds, and failure to appear for a judicial
proceeding. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow sentenced him
to 13 years in federal prison.
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