In a lab in an undisclosed location in downtown Chicago, a brick of cocaine awaits testing by Oliwia Nazaruk, a forensic chemist with the Drug Enforcement Administration.

The sugary, compressed white cocaine is stamped with an “L.A.” logo. The plastic packaging that wraps the brick also has an L.A. label in blue-and-white Dodgers colors — likely a Mexican drug cartel’s trademark.

Anthony Vazquez / Sun-Times

Cardboard boxes containing millions of dollars of cocaine are stacked in a cavernous vault at the lab. Rising quantities of the drug have been seized so far this year by the DEA and other law enforcement agencies in the Chicago area and surrounding states.

“Right now, cocaine seems to be coming back,” says Leah Law, a DEA supervisory chemist.

Anthony Vazquez / Sun-Times

Outside th

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