The armed parolee whom Chicago police Officer Krystal Rivera was chasing when her partner unintentionally shot and killed her last year is now facing federal drug distribution charges, one of five men charged in a major undercover federal drug investigation that, according to a law enforcement source, was prompted in part by Rivera’s on-duty death in June 2025.
Jaylin Arnold, 28, is accused of conspiring with four other men to distribute fentanyl and cocaine from an apartment building in the 8200 block of South Drexel Avenue between January and June 2025, according to federal court records. The crew allegedly distributed business cards for “Nova’s Exotic Beverages” to advertise the fentanyl and cocaine they sold from the Chatham apartment while storing drugs, cash and firearms, including machine gun conversion devices, at a nearby stash house.
On June 5, 2025, Arnold was on parole after serving time for being a felon in possession of a firearm, his third gun conviction, when Rivera and her partner, Carlos Baker, saw him carrying a firearm with an extended magazine in his waistband near the apartment building…