Illinois Lottery: Illionois lottery winner arrested on gun charges
A northwestern Illinois man who is a member of a group that says it holds a lottery ticket worth $35.7 million was arrested Thursday on federal gun trafficking and drug charges.
Eric Wagner, 32, of Freeport was indicted after a six-month undercover investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and several police departments. The federal indictment charges Wagner with eight counts of selling a firearm to a felon and eight counts of illegally distributing marijuana, police said.
Wagner's apparent lottery windfall "was just a side-note to the investigation," agent Thomas Ahern said.
Illinois Lottery officials said Wagner is a member of a partnership that claimed it bought the winning ticket April 25.
A lawyer representing the partnership phoned lottery officials and confirmed serial numbers on the ticket, said Courtney Hill, a spokeswoman for the state lottery.
"There have been a few instances where we've had winners who were incarcerated, and we have made payments," Hill said. "But it's up to that prison system to see if they want to garnish winnings."