Wilmington Drug Dealer Must Stay Locked Up Under SAFE-T-Act: Prosecutors Insist

WILMINGTON, IL —A 51-year-old woman from the 2000 block of Wilmington's Roberts Street needs to be kept in the Will County Jail indefinitely under the SAFE-T-Act, according to the filing from the Will County State's Attorney's Office.

Prosecutors presented a petition to deny pretrial release for Tonya Veenstra, who was arrested this week by the Will County Sheriff's Office on charges of unlawful delivery or manufacture of controlled substances and unlawful possession of controlled substances.

According to the filing at Will County's Courthouse, the police officers used a search warrant to raid at Veenstra's house in Wilmington on Tuesday. Veenstra and several other people were inside the house at the time. Officers found proof of residency for Veenstra inside one of her bedrooms and they found two digital scales with white powder residue on a weight plate in the kitchen, court files show.

In addition, there were three glass smoking pipes in Scott Erickson's pocket; a pink calendar/drug ledger on the kitchen table and mail addressed to Veenstra in the southwest bedroom, court documents indicate. The police also confiscated a clear plastic baggie with an off-white rock substance, which was 1.6 grams of crack cocaine.

Two more plastic bags with suspected crack cocaine were located, weighing 28.1 grams and 14.2 grams. "The bags of narcotics were located in a pill bottle with Tonya Veenstra's name on it. The purse was found on the kitchen table," prosecutors pointed out.

As for Veenstra, she already has faces one pending felony drug case in Will County at the courthouse: 25CF425, prosecutors noted. "The people pray that this honorable court deny the defendant pretrial release," the petition stated.