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lot. i think you're dealing with some guys that are moving enough. >> at chicago's cook county jail, investigators have recruited a new informant nicknamed elvis. so far, he's given up the names of a half dozen crack and heroin dealers on the mannheim strip. now it's time to share them with police officers building cases there. >> all of these guys you gave us, whatever you want, they come and give it to you? >> yeah. yeah. >> all of them have everything? >> any one of them. >> investigator sal maura and his partner, an undercover narc, consider putting elvis to work on the street. >> what's the most you usually can get from somebody at one time? what's the most you score? >> depends on what dealer. >> our main concern is that his connections know that he got arrested. he seems to think he says it shouldn't matter, but it usually does.
fast on the mannheim strip and that his informant will face a life or death decision. when authorities finally take down all 24 targets, many on the mannheim strip will put two and two together and realize that jefferson set them up. >> i've already talked to him about it and told him he would have to move after this operation's over. there's no way he could stay up here. if he stays up here, they'll kill him. will he move? i doubt it. twins. i didn't see them coming. i have obligations. cute obligations, but obligations.
they're jumping on the opportunity. >> walls spent three years as a patrol officer before joining the gangs unit. the mannheim strip frustrated him even then. >> the residents of the area would complain to me about the issues on mannheim, but i can only do so much. i can do traffic stops. there were times when i would have binoculars and i would be watching certain houses, certain motels, you know, doing my own quote unquote, narcotics investigations even in patrol. i figured that eventually i would have opportunity to eventually do something up there. then this year i was fortunate, they have given us opportunity to branch out and to do something different. >> something has to be done. you got good hard-working people in these communities up there and their kids are walking down the street past prostitutes and drug dealers every day.
they already had in play. so if you can go outside of that box, then we really don't need you. he's of no use to anybody. we're not trying to screw you, understand what i'm saying? you need something, you call, all right? that's keeping it real, all right? >> most all the arrests were for felony charges. it was a combination of the narcotics arrests, gun arrests, prostitution arrests. some of the prostitution arrests would be misdemeanors but the narcotics were all felonies as were the guns. >> on the heels of the room service raids, the police call in the local press to send a message to the public, and a warning to the bad guys on the mannheim strip. >> this is just a small tip of the iceberg. we're going to have to be up here just diligent like every day, all day, 24 hours. because their operation is a 24 hour operation that they have that's going on here. >> we have no delusions that the gangs and the like are going to vanish, the people involved with this are going away.
there's just no doubt about it. >> jefferson claims his motive is more personal than monetary. a close friend of his od'ed on heroin. he says he wants to drive the heroin dealers off the mannheim strip. >> all right, guys. i just placed a call to tiffany. he ordered four dime bags of heroin. >> tonight, walls will conduct surveillance while jefferson and an undercover narc make a buy. >> when they get to the end, they're going to call her and have her come outside. all right, guys. be advised i just talked to the uc, the ci talked to the target. she said she'll be down with the product in like five minutes. she's on her way downstairs now. >> it's a busy night and there's a line of customers. jefferson scores a good deal and sets up another for the coming week. walls knows that word travels
disaster. >> have to do it right, because if i make a mistake and blow my cover, then it will affect the whole operation because if they find out i'm a police officer, then people will start scattering. >> the target never arrives. back at the jail, investigators search for his name in police records, yet find nothing. >> i know you guys investigated him before. he's been operating. >> he's just a little bit more careful than you. >> coming up on "the squeeze" authorities declare open season on the mannheim strip. >> it's not over for you yet. but obviously the game has changed.
worked the mannheim strip for years. >> i was a heroin iv drug user. that's why i always manage to look at their arms, every time i got high i would pray that i could just fade on away. i wanted to disappear. >> when you're sitting in that chair and you got an opportunity to think about it, you want to get out, because there's no sin that i don't want to get out but then fear sets in all of a sudden and i'm like i don't know anything about this. >> about this other world. this is all i've done for ten years. >> if they're going to do what they say they're going to do, but i do know i can turn a trick. it's a comfort for a few minutes. i'm familiar with that. >> this is some of the ways women rationalize the continuation of what they do on a daily basis.
so-called mannheim strip because of its prevalent sex trade and cheap motels. its proximity to one of the nation's busiest airports also guarantees them plenty of customers. >> these are three rocks, those are $20 apiece. looks like four, six tins of heroin, they could be $10 or $20. they call them blows on the street. this is rocks and blows. >> this area, the mannheim area, has been high on our list of things to do. even before i became sheriff, it was -- everybody knew mannheim road, prostitution, drugs, the whole nine yards. >> 47 prostitution convictions. how long you been out here? 2002? >> we've run into a lot of road blocks. a lot of them because we decide to try to go civilly in some areas to try to close hotels, shut down buildings that are being used for drugs and
>> listen up! all right. i want to thank everybody for coming out. they came from other districts, friends from franklin park, melrose park. >> it's the day cook county authorities have been waiting for. >> we have 24 targets we got to round up. >> they're ready to hit more than 20 locations in a coordinated sweep that will cap off operation room service. >> the total stats for the whole operation, we have 40 that have already been charged and we have 24 where charges are pending. those are the ones we'll be looking for today. >> they plan to round up many of their targets on the mannheim strip at a hotel and an apartment complex. then they'll capture the rest in outlying neighborhoods. >> our informant is out there today. he's going to keep in contact with me in case there's some people that we can't locate. he'll be able to place calls to find out where they're at. so if we go to certain locations and we can't find some of these
prostitution and gangs. one of the things that will get us over the hurdle is making sustained buys and arrests out at some of these locations. >> our goal for today is actually these three, it's a friday, generally fridays, they're stocked up before the weekend. hopefully they'll be stocked up today. we should be able to get some buys. >> undercover dope buys. in a cook county sheriff's police operation known as room service, the case has been in the works for five months now. investigator walsh belongs to a team that's targeting 24 narcotics and firearms dealers, all of them based on the mannheim strip or in the surrounding township. >> we have to be careful because this guy is paranoid. if he sees a car sitting out there and people just sitting in it, he's going to automatically