Police arrested a man after finding $100,000 in cash, a slew of drugs, including over 12,000 pills, and a loaded gun in Zion during a Winthrop Harbor shooting investigation.
Jeremiah D. Molcz, 49, of Zion, was charged with four counts of unlawful possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, eight counts of unlawful possession of a controlled substance, two counts of felon in possession of a firearm and child endangerment.
Winthrop Harbor Police Department detectives obtained a search warrant for a single-family home in Zion.
Winthrop Harbor police officers and Zion police officers served the search warrant and cleared the residence, which is owned by Molcz, according to police and prosecutors.
Investigators recovered a Glock .45 caliber pistol with three magazines and ammunition. Molcz is a convicted felon and not allowed to possess a firearm.
Investigators also seized over $101,000 in cash and a slew of drugs, prosecutors said.
The drugs included 1,965 Oxycodone pills, 6,159 Xanax pills, 4,122 Amphetamine pills, 127 grams of cocaine, 150 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, 409 grams of cannabis, 60 MDMA pills, 46 grams of MDMA powder and 31 grams of Xanax powder.
Additional drug items including scales, packaging material, a cannabis grinder and four glass cannabis pipes were also found.
The search warrant was the result of an ongoing shooting investigation, police said.
On Sunday, two vehicles were traveling northbound on Sheridan Road near 4th Street in Winthrop Harbor around 7:45 a.m.
A male offender in the front passenger seat of one moving vehicle at the other moving vehicle four times, police said.
The driver of the targeted vehicle sustained a gunshot wound to his shoulder. The offending vehicle fled northbound on Sheridan Road into Wisconsin.
The gunshot victim drove himself to the Winthrop Harbor Police Department.
He was stabilized by paramedics and transported to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville. He underwent surgery and was released two days later.
The Winthrop Harbor Police Departments Crime Scene Investigative Unit was activated, located the crime scene, began collecting evidence and is conducting an investigation.
The Winthrop Harbor Police Department was assisted by the Pleasant Prairie and Zion police departments in closing portions of Sheridan Road to process the crime scene on Sunday.
Village officials said the shooting was targeting and an “isolated incident between two criminal elements with no ties to the Village of Winthrop Harbor.”
Molcz was arrested during the search warrant and transported to the Lake County Jail on Tuesday.
Lake County Judge Theodore Potkonjak ordered him held on a $1 million bond during a Wednesday bond hearing.
Molcz has not been charged with the shooting itself, court records show.