Tagged: East St. Louis

An East St. Louis police detective is in federal custody today on charges that he and six other men helped distribute more than five kilos of cocaine in St. Clair and Madison counties over the last month.

Orlando Ward, 41, has been with the department for more than a decade. He will remain in jail until a hearing on May 15.

The citizens of East St. Louis once believed their town was destined for greatness.  They thought the town was poised to outdistance Chicago as the premier industrial giant and railroad freight node of the Midwest.

According to Andrew Theising, political scientist at the Institute for Urban Research at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and series editor of the East St. Louis Sesquicentennial series, “In the 19th century residents really did think it would be the new Pittsburgh. (Early) documents are just gushing with civic pride.”