A 40-year-old man on federal probation for a weapons conviction has been taken back into custody after Cook County Sheriff’s officers allegedly found him with a loaded handgun on a CTA Red Line train.
The arrest comes as the Cook County Sheriff’s Office recently began patrolling CTA trains following federal pressure to improve rider safety. Officials say the additional presence is already producing results.
Sheriff’s police were conducting routine patrols on the 95th Street platform when an officer spotted 40-year-old Carl Adams moving through emergency doors between train cars, a violation of CTA rules, the sheriff’s office said.
Officers took Adams into custody for disorderly conduct, but during a search of his backpack they discovered a loaded handgun, officials said. Prosecutors accused him of being a felon in possession of a gun, and Judge Deidre Dyer ordered him held pending trial.
Court records show Adams was placed on federal probation in August 2025 on a new weapons case. He was arrested in that case on February 1, 2020, after Chicago police found him with a loaded gun in his waistband in the 4500 block of West Jackson Boulevard.
Federal prosecutors have detailed a criminal history for Adams that spans two decades: shoplifting in 2020; burglary of a home and manufacture or supply of heroin in 2012; illegal recruiting activities in 2008 and 2005; possession with intent to supply cocaine and possession of THC in 2006; criminal trespass to a vehicle in 2005; possession of a controlled substance in 2003; and production or supply of cannabis in 2002.
Adams now faces the very real risk of not only having his current federal probation commuted to a federal prison sentence, but also having a new federal weapons charge filed against him in connection with the CTA allegations.
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