I-Team: Breaking the K-Town drug code

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Federal law enforcement agents needed a dictionary of street-talk terminology to comprehend cell phone conversations between suspected West Side drug lords and their underlings.

Armed with court-authorized eavesdropping warrants, investigators secretly listened in on dozens of phone calls that they say were aimed at setting up drug deliveries. Apparently fearing that law enforcement agencies might be monitoring their phones, the suspects spoke in a K-Town drug code, according to federal court records.

Some of the street language referred to in a federal complaint charging 35 people is normal drug slang, but other terms are less familiar and require translation in the court records.

For example, narcotics are referred to as "food" by drug suspects. In keeping with that theme, cocaine is sometimes called "chicken." The illicit powder is also described during quoted conversations as "white folks" and "Chevy."

In discussions about varieties of cocaine, the powder form is separately designated as a "whole chicken-soft," while crack cocaine (a rock-like substance) is known as "half-a-chicken hard."

Heroin had its own shorthand according to federal investigators. It went by the term "diesel" or sometimes "Oldsmobile."

When a person being monitored used the phrase "new rims" he or she wasn't talking about their car. Authorities say it meant that they had a fresh supply of drugs on hand.

Suspects, who frequently expressed paranoia concerning law enforcement according to court records, would refer to a police vehicle as a "Tahoe." Many uniformed Chicago police units patrol in Chevy Tahoe-model SUVs.

Finally, in the coded language of K-Town, one suspect would sometimes say to another: "You dead." It didn't mean the obvious. According to investigators, that phrase simply meant that the person had no more drugs to sell.