Ex-Pole Nabbed for Whacking Ex-Cop

By Shannon in News on Oct 21, 2006 4:00PM

Chicagoist loves when our fair city makes a mark on the international scene, but maybe not for reasons such as these: on Friday a Glenview man was arrested for allegedly putting a hit out on Poland's former national police chief back in 1998.

Marek Papala had resigned his post, roughly the equivalent of FBI director here in the States, a few weeks before being gunned down outside of his house. Papala had spoken out many times against organized crime in Poland. The murder caused a huge controversy in the government and the media, so much so that we actually kind of remember hearing about it, and if we remember something that happened in Warsaw eight years ago, it must have been pretty big. What we didn't know is that a Polish immigrant living in Glenview might have had something to do with it. 59-year-old business investor Edward Mazur apparently kept the home ties strong, for he's been considered a suspect in the crime for several years. Prosecutors say Mazur offered two hitmen $40,000 in exchange for assassinating the ex-chief.

Mazur was arrested in 2002, but released shortly thereafter for unknown reasons. His current arrest warrant has been on the books since February 2005. There's no clear justification for why Mazur hasn't been arrested up to this point; he never hid from the authorities. Chances are very good that he will be extradited to Poland and tried there. Mazur is said to be the most successful Polish-American businessman in the country. Speculation runs rampant on whether the arrest was merely politically motivated. We feel that if a person has been seriously investigated for eight years in a crime involving the mafia, there's probably more than one skeleton lurking in that closet.

Image via divine midnight council.