DETROIT – A Chicago man, who has been on the run for more than 14 years after allegedly posing as a federal law enforcement task force officer to steal from local drug dealers and then resell the drugs, was arrested Tuesday morning in Detroit, officials said.
Eddie C. Hicks, 68, had been the subject of an international manhunt coordinated by FBI Chicago since June 2003.
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Hicks, a police officer for 30 years, was wanted for his alleged involvement in a conspiracy to steal drugs and money from known drug dealers and then sell the drugs to other drug dealers in the Chicago area, police said.
Hicks and four other accomplices would allegedly pose as Drug Enforcement Administration task force officers, prepare false search warrants to gain entry to stash houses of known drug dealers, confiscate drugs, money, and other valuables, and then take the drugs to another dealer to be sold, according to authorities.
The profits were split among the people involved in the scheme, officials said. Hicks is the only member of the group that has yet to stand trial for these charges, officials said.
Hicks was charged with RICO conspiracy, narcotics conspiracy, extortion conspiracy, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a narcotics conspiracy and theft of government funds.
He was found in Detroit and taken into federal custody without incident.
Hicks appeared Tuesday afternoon before Executive Magistrate Judge R. Steven Whalen in the United States District Court of Eastern Michigan and was ordered to be held pending his next court appearance in Chicago.
Hicks was scheduled to appear for trial on June 9, 2003, but he failed to appear, officials said. A bench warrant for his arrest was issued the same day by the United States District Court, the Northern District of Illinois and the Eastern Division.
Hicks was arrested by the FBI Detroit Violent Crime Taskforce, which is made up of FBI special agents and members of several Metro Detroit law enforcement agencies.