A delivery van carrying nothing more suspicious than printer paper rolled up to Cook County Jail on October 13, and correctional officers who searched it found a lot more than office supplies. Hidden inside, investigators say, was a ghost gun loaded with a magazine, and a second search of the vehicle turned up a pair of brass knuckles as well.
According to the Cook County Sheriff's Office, correctional officers were the ones who intercepted the cargo van as it delivered printer paper to the jail that day. Once the ghost gun turned up, the Sheriff's Office's Department of Investigations and Intelligence was called in to dig deeper, and that is when the brass knuckles surfaced during the follow-up search of the vehicle. The searches uncovered both items.
Investigators Trace the Contraband to a 64-Year-Old Chicago Man
Investigators determined the contraband belonged to Jeffery Burks, a 64-year-old Chicago resident, the sheriff's office said in its post. The Cook County State's Attorney's Office went on to approve felony charges against Burks on October 13 for bringing a firearm into a penal institution, bringing a weapon into a penal institution, and aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon.
Burks had his first appearance hearing at the George N. Leighton Criminal Courthouse on October 14, the day after the charges were approved. As with any pending case, the office stressed that defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Paper Has Been a Jail Security Flashpoint for Years
The printer paper angle in this case lands against the backdrop of a security issue Cook County Jail has wrestled with for years. Back in April 2023, the jail declared paper itself to be contraband, a move the Chicago Sun-Times reported stemmed from concerns that illicit substances carried on paper had contributed to several overdose deaths inside the facility. Before the near-total ban, the jail had historically allowed five books per cell, including religious and educational titles, along with 10 photographs and stationery, per the same report.
Cook County Jail has restricted paper brought inside.
Not the First Time a Weapon Has Threatened to Reach the Jail
This is not the first time a firearm has nearly made it into Cook County Jail through unconventional means. ABC7 Chicago reported that 23-year-old Philip Robinson was accused of trying to bring a gun in while being booked on misdemeanor charges, with the sheriff's office saying the 9mm Taurus, loaded with 13 rounds including one in the chamber, was recovered before it could enter the secure facility. Robinson ended up facing additional felony charges as a result.
An earlier case went even further inside the building. The Chicago Tribune reported that in 2017, Quentin Jones was accused of bringing a loaded .32-caliber handgun into a jail receiving area for prisoners and ditching it in a trash can, an incident that triggered a full lockdown so sheriff's officers could search the complex. Compared with that episode, the October 13 discovery was caught earlier, in the delivery van itself, before the ghost gun or brass knuckles ever reached the jail's interior.
