Original Article 2 officials arrested in E. St. Louis Corruption inquiry of city government Jim Salter Associated Press Jan. 22, 2005 12:00 AM EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. - The police chief and the director of regulatory affairs were among four people arrested Friday as part of a federal corruption investigation into the government of this impoverished Mississippi River city. Indictments against the regulatory affairs director, Kelvin Ellis, and Police Chief Ronald Matthews were unrelated, but both men were arrested within hours of each other, and the arrests were announced during a news conference involving officials from several federal agencies. Ellis, 55, was accused of seeking to have a federal witness killed. According to the indictment, when Ellis learned that a woman had helped federal authorities investigating alleged election fraud, Ellis first tried to have crack cocaine planted on her, then tried to have the woman killed. He was also charged with tax evasion. The arrests followed investigations aimed at rooting out corruption in East St. Louis and elsewhere on the Illinois side of the St. Louis area. Meanwhile, Matthews, 55, his secretary Janerra Carson-Slaughter, 28, and businessman Ayoub Qattoum, 40, of Belleville, Ill., were accused of obstructing justice. Additional counts charged Qattoum with being a felon in possession of a firearm. Police allegedly confiscated the gun but gave it back to him in violation of the law. All three were indicted for hindering an investigation into the incident.