Paul Koroluk, a leader of a
mob-connected crew on the Near West Side, has been sentenced to 18 years in
prison for racketeering.
Frank Main
@FrankMainNews | email
An Outfit-connected career criminal has been sentenced to 18
years in prison in a high-profile racketeering case brought by Cook County
prosecutors.
Paul Koroluk, 57, pleaded guilty on June 13 to a felony
racketeering charge. He’s currently in Stateville penitentiary.
His wife, Maria Koroluk, was also charged in the
investigation, dubbed Operation Crew Cut.
Since she was charged in 2014, she’s been on unpaid leave
from her $103,707-a-year job as director of technical review for Cook County
Assessor Joe Berrios, according to a spokesman for the office.
Maria Koroluk, 55, was charged with possession of cocaine
with intent to distribute — a felony carrying nine to 40 years in prison.
Police searched her home on the Near West Side and found 200 grams of cocaine
packaged for sale in baggies, along with $12,000 in cash, according to court
records.
But on June 13, prosecutors dismissed the drug charge and a
felony charge of receiving stolen property. She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor
charge of criminal trespass to a vehicle and was sentenced to court
supervision.
The assessor’s office hasn’t determined whether she can
return to her job, said Tom Shaer, deputy assessor for communications for
Berrios. A misdemeanor conviction isn’t an automatic disqualifier, he said.
“It is important to note that Ms. Koroluk’s position is not
Shakman-exempt,” he said. “Shakman oversight limits our latitude in hiring and
firing such non-exempt employees.”
Paul Koroluk is connected to the Outfit and the C-Notes
street gang in “The Patch” along Grand Avenue just west of the Loop — home to
some of the city’s most infamous mobsters, prosecutors say.
His alleged partner in crime, Robert Panozzo Sr., continues
to face racketeering charges in Cook County Criminal Court and a separate
extortion charge in federal court.
Operation Crew Cut was the second racketeering case that
Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez brought under 2012 state statute
modeled after the 1970 federal racketeering law used to target the Mafia.
“We now have the legal tools that our federal partners have
enjoyed for a very long time and we are putting them to work to systematically
crack down on violent organized criminal activity as charged in this particular
investigation,” Alvarez said in a statement Thursday.
The probe by the Chicago Police and feds was launched in
October 2013 after Panozzo and others tried to have a state witness killed, officials
say. The witness was preparing to testify against members of the crew in a
kidnapping and home invasion case.
Prosecutors say Panozzo and Koroluk ran the “PK street
crew,” which allegedly committed home invasions, armed robberies, residential
burglaries, insurance fraud, prostitution and other offenses.
The crew used information from gang members to rob drug
dealers. The crew members allegedly posed as cops — wearing badges — to steal
narcotics from dealers, prosecutors say.
Paul Koroluk and Robert Panozzo Sr. are convicted burglars
and have been in the news for years for their reputed connection to the Chicago
Outfit.
They have longtime ties to Grand Avenue mob boss Albert
“Little Guy” Vena, 68, and imprisoned mob boss Joseph “The Clown” Lombardo, 87,
officials say.
They were busted in July 2014 when they raided what they
thought was a Mexican drug cartel’s stash house on the Southeast Side. It was
actually a police sting. Paul Koroluk has pleaded guilty to that July 2014 attempted
holdup, as well as a January 2014 drug rip-off on the Southwest Side and a
November 2012 drug rip-off in south suburban Crete.
Four other defendants, William Feliciano, Kevin Koonce,
Donald Hines and Jose Contreras, have pleaded guilty to charges in the probe.
Feliciano got 18 years in prison; Koonce, 47 years; Hines, 17 years, and
Contreras, 22 years.