'SUPREME' COURT
SLAY-RAP DRUGLORD FACES DEATH PENALTY
By TOM HAYS, AP

January 10, 2007 -- A legendary druglord with ties to the hip-hop industry was back on trial yesterday, charged in a federal death-penalty case with paying $50,000 to have two rivals gunned down in 2001.

The case against Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff "is about a man with the power and the will to get people murdered," prosecutor Jason Jones told jurors in opening statements in Brooklyn.

In the 1980s, McGriff founded the Supreme Team, a notoriously profitable and ruthless drug crew that became legend on the same Queens streets that later produced rap stars like Ja Rule and 50 Cent.

McGriff could face the death penalty if convicted of murder conspiracy, drug dealing and other charges.

Defense attorney David Ruhnke claimed that after his client served several years for an earlier drug conviction, he went straight in the late 1990s and pursued his dream of producing movies and music by teaming with Irv "Gotti" Lorenzo, a neighborhood friend who headed the successful Murder Inc. record label.

"This was an effort to make money legitimately, to change the direction of his life," Ruhnke said in his opening argument, with McGriff at the defense table in a suit and tie.

But authorities allege that, behind the scenes, McGriff resumed his drug dealing operations in New York and Baltimore, and used Murder Inc. to launder more than $1 million in proceeds.

The bloodshed also returned: When a little-known rapper named E-Money Bags shot and killed one of McGriff's friends in a dispute in 1999, the defendant allegedly hired a Harlem hit team two years later to kill the rapper and an associate he feared might retaliate.

"He wanted those men erased to settle an old score" and to show "Supreme was not to be crossed," the prosecutor said.

Ruhnke said both victims were known thugs who were armed at the times of their deaths. He also argued that the government had built its case on the false testimony of admitted criminals hoping to see their prison time reduced.

McGriff, 46, was originally indicted along with Lorenzo and Lorenzo's brother Chris, a Murder Inc. executive. After being granted a separate trial, the brothers were acquitted in 2005 of money-laundering charges.

SUPREME 'REVENGE'
By STEFANIE COHEN

January 12, 2007 -- Notorious Queens drug kingpin Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff set up hits on two men in 2001 for beating up a powerful friend of his - hip-hop producer Irv "Gotti" Lorenzo, a witness testified in Brooklyn federal court yesterday.

"[Supreme] said a couple of guys had smacked up some friends of his and that they had to be dealt with," cooperating witness Emanuel Mosley told jurors.

McGriff, 45, faces a possible death penalty for murder conspiracy, drug dealing and money laundering.

He said the "smacked" friend was Lorenzo, the head of the Murder Inc. record label, and the targets - worth $25,000 a head - were "Big Nose" Troy Singleton and Nathan "Green-Eyed Born" May.

McGriff told Mosley he also wanted another member of Big Nose's crew killed - a small-time rapper named Eric "E-Money Bags" Smith. The rapper had killed one of McGriff's friends.

Mosley said he organized a crew of hit men and they'd whack "whoever they found first," he said.

In July 2001, Mosley's crew hit Smith and three months later they shot Singleton. They never found May.

Mosley has pleaded guilty to murder and is awaiting sentencing.

stefanie.cohen@nypost.com

Wacky judge: Who needs jury?

Makes bizarre statements discounting need
for death-penalty phase in trial of notorious thug

BY JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Brooklyn Federal Judge Frederic Block and (below) Kenneth (Supreme) McGriff, who faces death penalty.
A Brooklyn judge notorious for shooting off his mouth ridiculed federal prosecutors seeking the death penalty for notorious druglord Kenneth (Supreme) McGriff - saying their actions are "absurd" and a waste of taxpayers' money.

"Kindly advise Washington that, in this judge's opinion, there's not chance in the world there would be a death penalty verdict in this case," Federal Judge Frederic Block told the feds Wednesday out of the presence of the jury.

"If I'm wrong, I will have egg on my face, but I will not be incorrect."

McGriff, 46, is charged with ordering the killings of two rivals. If convicted, the jury would have to decide whether he should be executed by lethal injection or sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Block, 72, told prosecutors to consult with the attorney general in Washington and reconsider going forward with the penalty phase of the trial if McGriff is convicted.

According to a transcript obtained yesterday, when prosecutors objected to Block's instructions, the judge ranted: "If I feel, as an officer, as a judge, that this is an absurd prosecution based upon what I have heard, I think I have a responsibility to let authorities know."

Block said he had reached his conclusion based on the evidence, the jurors' intense interest in the defense's closing argument and his belief that the defendant - an admitted former crack kingpin who has been referenced in song by rapper 50 Cent - was "humanized" by his lawyers.

Block did not say whether he believed McGriff was guilty or innocent. But the judge said it would be a "total misappropriation" of taxpayers' money and "pathetic" to conduct a penalty trial if McGriff is convicted. His comments got even more bizarre when Assistant U.S. Attorney Carolyn Pokorny revisited the issue later, expressing her concern that if his remarks appeared in the newspaper, the jurors might read them and know that he had expressed an opinion about the outcome of the case.

"I told them not to read the paper," he said. "And the truth of the matter is, because of the [cop killer Ronell] Wilson trial on the fourth floor, nobody from the press has been here today and we're flying under the radar screen for sure."

The jury weighing McGriff's fate deliberated yesterday without reaching a verdict, and Block once again instructed them not to read the newspapers. Courthouse insiders said Block, who has been on the bench for 12 years, is generally liked by defense lawyers, while some prosecutors believe he is overly liberal with his comments and decisions.

Prosecutors have abandoned charges that McGriff laundered illicit money through the Murder Inc. record label run by Irving (Irv Gotti) and Chris (Chris Gotti) Lorenzo. The Lorenzo brothers were acquitted of money-laundering charges in 2005.

McGriff's attorneys have argued that he gave up drug dealing in the 1980s to produce movies and music. Asked about Block's comments, McGriff's lawyer David Ruhnke said, "His remarks speak for themselves. We certainly hope the message has been conveyed."

Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, said it would be rare, though not unprecedented, for the attorney general to decide not to seek the death penalty after a guilty verdict in a capital case.

"I don't think the judge's comments are inappropriate, but sometimes these things get out to the jury and that would complicate things," he said.

Bizarre Bench-Remarks

Brooklyn Federal Judge Frederic Block's reputation among lawyers is summed up in the Almanac of the Federal Judiciary. "He has a professional demeanor, but he is sometimes inappropriate and out of touch," the Almanac reads. "He doesn't appreciate the seriousness of his comments for the litigants."

Block was appointed to the federal bench in Brooklyn by then-President Clinton in 1994. Here's a look at some of his most memorable comments:

* Contemplating bail for a Korean-American defendant, Block said he was concerned about having "egg foo young on my face" if the defendant did not return to court.

* During testimony by an expert witness discussing the mental abilities of a person with an IQ of 96, Block interjected that his IQ happened to be 96 and wondered whether that made him unqualified to be a judge.

* Block told an unruly defendant that U.S. marshals would gag him with duct tape if he didn't calm down in court.

* At the retrial of Lemrick Nelson for allegedly killing a Hasidic man, Block asked a black witness to define the slang term "'chillin' for somebody who is not a brother."

* Furious over leaks in a mob case, Block expressed concern that a newspaper reporter was bugging his chambers.

John Marzulli


Originally published on January 26, 2007

Man Convicted in 2 Killings; U.S. to Pursue the Death Penalty

By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
NY Times
Published: February 2, 2007

A jury in federal court in Brooklyn yesterday convicted a notorious crack kingpin with ties to the rap music industry of hiring a hit team from Harlem to murder two rivals in 2001, crimes for which he could face the death penalty.

Shortly after the verdict was delivered in United States District Court, the mothers of the two victims told reporters in the courthouse hallway that they would be uncomfortable with a death sentence for their sons’ killer.

The jury’s decision came just two days after a jury in the same courthouse voted in an unrelated case to execute Ronell Wilson, who had been convicted of killing two police detectives. That was the first time a federal death sentence had been handed up in New York in more than 50 years.

In the case decided yesterday, the jury, after a three-week trial, found the convicted trafficker, Kenneth McGriff, guilty of racketeering, conspiracy to distribute narcotics and other crimes. The jury acquitted him of murder in aid of racketeering and gun charges.

During the roughly 10 minutes it took for the jury forewoman to read out the verdicts on each of the 17 counts against him, Mr. McGriff, wearing a dark olive green vest and trousers, white shirt and tie, appeared relaxed and unmoved. He leaned back in his chair several times, then watched intently as the court clerk polled each juror.

After the panel, which had deliberated for three and a half days, left the courtroom, Mr. McGriff smiled broadly at friends and family members in the courtroom gallery and pursed his lips together as if to blow kisses.

The aunt of one of the victims wept as she left the courtroom.

Minutes later, standing in a hallway waiting for the elevator, the mothers of the two victims, still breathless and appearing shaken by the jury’s verdict, suggested that they hoped the panel would spare Mr. McGriff’s life.

“Death is not the answer — there’s been enough death,” said Karen Cameron, whose son, Eric Smith, was one of the men slain by the hit team Mr. McGriff hired six years ago for $25,000 for each killing.

“I don’t want anybody’s death on my hands,” said Bessie Singleton, the mother of the other man, Troy Singleton.

The assistant United States attorneys who prosecuted the case — Carolyn Pokorny, Jason Jones and Jeffrey Rabkin — had presented evidence that Mr. Smith was killed in retaliation for the slaying of Mr. McGriff’s friend, Culbert Johnson. They alleged that Mr. Singleton was slain because Mr. McGriff feared he would retaliate for the killing of Mr. Smith.

Beginning Tuesday, the jury will hear evidence in the penalty phase, and will then weigh whether to vote to execute Mr. McGriff or sentence him to life without parole.

One of his lawyers, David A. Ruhnke, said he was disappointed with the verdict but was “pretty confident” the panel would spare his client’s life.

“We’re certainly grateful to learn that the victim’s families are not interested in a death sentence in this case, and we’ll be discussing with the government whether that changes their minds,” Mr. Ruhnke said later.

The verdict came a week after the judge in the case, Frederic Block, in unusually blunt remarks from the bench, called the government’s effort to seek the death penalty “absurd” and a waste of taxpayers’ money. Outside the presence of the jury, he urged the prosecutors to forward his remarks to their Justice Department superiors in Washington and to ask them to abandon the endeavor.

The prosecutors told the judge earlier this week that they had passed on his concerns to the United States attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, but that they were going to pursue the death penalty.

The defense had argued that Mr. McGriff, after serving a federal prison term of six years, had abandoned crime and drugs and sought to produce music and movies with Irving and Chris Lorenzo, two rap producers for the Murder Inc. label who were known professionally as Irv and Chris Gotti.

Mr. McGriff was originally indicted in January 2005 along with the Lorenzos, who were charged with laundering drug money through the label. Their cases were separated from Mr. McGriff’s, and they were acquitted in December 2005.

Chris Lorenzo was in court yesterday, and after the verdict said only, “I was here for a friend I’m supporting.”

Notorious crack kingpin facing death after murder conviction
By TOM HAYS
Associated Press Writer

February 2, 2007, 1:27 AM EST
NEW YORK -- After convicting a notorious crack kingpin with hip-hop industry ties of paying $50,000 to have two rivals gunned down, a jury will now face the question of whether to sentence him to death.

Jurors will return next Tuesday to deliberate Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff's sentence in the same Brooklyn courthouse where another jury imposed the death penalty this week on the killer of two undercover police detectives. It marked the first time a federal defendant had been sentenced to death in New York City since 1954.

Click to learn more...
At best, McGriff would face a sentence of life in prison without parole.

"We're pretty confident this jury will spare his life," McGriff's lawyer, David Ruhnke, said after his client was found guilty Thursday of murder for hire and drug dealing. Acquitted on lesser drugs and weapons charges, McGriff looked back and smiled at his supporters when the verdict was issued.

One victim's mother, Karen Cameron, told reporters outside court that she opposed a death sentence for McGriff. "Death is not the answer," she said.

In the 1980s, McGriff founded the Supreme Team, a notoriously lucrative and ruthless drug crew that became legendary on the same Queens streets that later produced such rap stars as Ja Rule and 50 Cent.

The defense had claimed that after serving several years behind bars for an earlier drug conviction, McGriff went straight in the late 1990s and pursued his dream of producing movies and music by teaming with Irv "Gotti" Lorenzo, a neighborhood friend who headed the successful Murder Inc. record label.

Prosecutors alleged that McGriff, 46, instead resumed his drug dealing operations in New York and Baltimore, and used Murder Inc. to launder more than $1 million in proceeds. After a little-known rapper named E-Money Bags shot and killed one of McGriff's friends in a 1999 dispute, the defendant allegedly paid a Harlem hit team in 2001 to kill the rapper and a second man who McGriff feared might retaliate.

"That man sitting in the courtroom is one of the most dangerous, feared, ruthless gangsters in all of Queens," prosecutor Carolyn Pokorney said during closing arguments. "And when Supreme gets in a fight with somebody ... he doesn't go to the cops. He doesn't hire a lawyer. He hires a hit team to assassinate them, to blow them away, so that their moms can barely recognize them when they go down to the morgue."

The defense told jurors that both victims were known thugs who were armed when killed. It also argued that the government had built its case on the false testimony of admitted criminals hoping to see their prison time reduced.

McGriff was originally indicted along with Lorenzo and Lorenzo's brother Chris, a Murder Inc. executive. After being granted a separate trial, the brothers were acquitted in 2005 of money-laundering charges.

McGriff succeeded in making a straight-to-video film, "Crime Partners 2000," that featured Ja Rule, Snoop Dogg and Ice-T. The movie, about two hit men, was released in 2001.

For an ex-convict to produce a film is "an achievement," said Ruhnke. "They will never take that away from him."

At the Supreme Team's peak, McGriff and his nephew, Gerald "Prince" Miller, employed scores of crack dealers in and around a Queens housing project and took in $200,000 a day, authorities said.

The team used rooftop sentinels with two-way radios to thwart police. It inflicted violence against rivals and traitors, resulting in at least eight murders in 1987 alone, authorities said.

"Yo, when you hear talk of the south side, you hear talk of the team," 50 Cent said in one ode to the crew. "See (people) feared Prince and respected 'Preme."

McGriff's was among an unprecedented three death penalty trials occurring simultaneously at one federal courthouse. The others were the case involving the slaying of the two detectives, and a third case in which a gang member was convicted of murder. His life was spared when a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict on a death sentence.

U.S. District Judge Frederic Block surprised prosecutors last week by advising them to ask Department of Justice officials to reconsider seeking a death sentence for McGriff, saying a penalty phase would be an "absurd" waste of time and money. The prosecutors told him this week that the officials had not changed their minds.

Added a profile of black drug boss Roland Bartlett to the site.
Read the profile here: http://gangstersinc.tripod.com/Bartlett.html

Strange thing is that the Black Mafia members are muslim.

'Supreme' effort couldn't take drug lord from New York to Hollywood
The Associated Press
Published: February 4, 2007

NEW YORK: It was the mid-1990s and Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff — well-schooled in crack cocaine, dirty cash and body counts — was tackling a new subject: pulp fiction.

Serving a decade behind bars, the drug lord from New York City's Queens borough killed time by devouring novels by Donald Goines, a one-time junkie and inmate turned author. McGriff became convinced that one Goines tale, about the exploits of two hitmen, could provide his ticket to Hollywood legitimacy.

"He was passionate about making the film," recalled Bentley Morris, a veteran Los Angeles publisher who sold McGriff the rights to the book "Crime Partners" for $135,000 (€104,000) after McGriff left prison.

But as the fledgling film producer hung out on location in 2000 with Snoop Dogg and other rappers featured in his low-budget flick, prosecutors say he was leading an underground life that closely imitated his art — right down to the killings.

On Thursday, a federal jury convicted McGriff of paying $50,000 (€38,000) to have two rivals killed in 2001. He was also convicted of drug dealing, and faces the death penalty when the jury reconvenes Tuesday.
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"The defendant wanted these men dead in part to maintain his reputation as a feared and ruthless gangster," prosecutor Jeffrey Rabkin during closing arguments.

McGriff, 46, sat a few feet away at the defense table, looking neither frightening nor frightened. Dressed in a three-piece suit and tie, he occasionally smiled and flashed peace signs to supporters, including the rap star Ja Rule — a demeanor befitting McGriff's reputation.

As head of the Supreme Team drug gang, McGriff was known as a charmer quick to pass out wads of cash to those in need. Those who betrayed him received a rush-order of bullets — dirty work he left to his now imprisoned nephew and enforcer, Gerald "Prince" Miller.

The emerging rap scene in their South Jamaica neighborhood, which put a premium on street credibility, took notice.

"Yo, when you hear talk of the south side, you hear talk of the team," 50 Cent rapped in one song. "See (people) feared Prince and respected 'Preme."

Authorities suspect a beef led to McGriff ordering the 2000 shooting of 50 Cent, which launched the rapper's career to superstardom. 50 survived nine bullets, but no charges were brought. The rapper later based the villain in his autobiographical movie, "Get Rich or Die Tryin'," on McGriff.

Supreme "became, right or wrong, a legend," said his attorney, David Ruhnke.

As a young man, McGriff transformed a group of local guys into a lucrative and brutal drug crew serving a grim legion of crack addicts in and around a sprawling housing project. At their peak in the 1980s, McGriff and his nephew Miller employed scores of dealers, taking in $200,000 a day, court documents said. It inflicted violence against competitors and traitors, resulting in at least eight murders in 1987 alone, authorities said.

For kicks, McGriff sponsored basketball tournaments where his crew bet thousands of dollars. One night, a referee was beaten to death after a disputed loose-ball foul with time running out.

After a federal raid McGriff pleaded guilty in 1988 to narcotics conspiracy charges. "No one has tried to deny that it happened," McGriff's lawyer said at the sentencing of his client's notorious background.

But the attorney also insists that McGriff, once freed from prison in the mid-1990s, was older and wiser — still a hustler, but determined to go straight after seeing many of his peers "go to jail for the rest of their lives."

After moving back home with his father and three siblings, McGriff tried starting a mail-order service offering revealing photos of women to prisoners. A hair salon for his sister also failed, even though "a lot of people were coming there on the strength of his name," she said.

The ex-con turned to an upstart from the neighborhood to help pursue his "Crime Partners" movie project: Irv "Gotti" Lorenzo, founder of the Murder Inc. record label, a subsidiary of the publicly traded Universal Music Group and home to multiplatinum artists Ja Rule and Ashanti. Lorenzo agreed to market the film and finance the soundtrack. The cast included Ja Rule, Snoop Dogg and Ice-T — an impressive lineup for a first-time executive producer like McGriff.

The straight-to-DVD movie — billed as the story of "two small-time gangstas" contracted to "handle a high-profile hit" in Harlem — was released in 2001. By McGriff's account, it was a testament to his evolution from crack kingpin to rap industry insider.

(Page 2 of 2)

But prosecutors say another type of film, made by security cameras at a Queens hospital, told a different story.

McGriff pushed a wheelchair carrying a bleeding man into the emergency room. The victim was Colbert "Black Just" Johnson, a close friend whose death that night in 1999 ignited a vengeful chain reaction.

By then, prosecutors say, McGriff had already jump-started his drug-dealing career, now buying cocaine and heroin in quantity in New York for distribution in Baltimore and elsewhere, in effect "switching from a retail business to a wholesale business."

In 2001, prosecutors say McGriff decided to knock off two rivals: a little-known rapper named E-Money Bags who had killed "Black Just," and another man who smacked around some of his Murder Inc. friends outside a nightclub.

A hit team from Harlem did the job for $50,000. McGriff allegedly gave them directions via two-way pager.

A raid on an Owings Mill, Maryland, house where McGriff stashed his drugs produced a surveillance videotape of one of the victims. Another tape offered behind-the-scenes footage from "Crime Partners" showing the executive producer "stuffing what appears to be large amounts of cash down his pants."

McGriff went on the run in 2002, authorities said. Investigators caught up with him in a Miami hotel, where he had checked in using a $1,000 cash deposit and an alias.

Inside a room with McGriff were a younger woman and a small stash of Ecstasy and Viagra.

At best, McGriff will now spend the rest of his life behind bars. At worst, he'll receive a lethal injection — a final chapter even the mother of one his murder victims doesn't want written.

"There's been enough death," she said.

Supreme killer squirms as vic's son spills grief

BY JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Convicted killer Kenneth (Supreme) McGriff had a hit team kill Troy Singleton Sr. - but didn't have the stomach to look the slain man's son in the eye.

Fourteen-year-old Troy Jr. tearfully testified yesterday how much he misses his father, who was shot to death on orders of the murderous drug lord.

McGriff, who was convicted by a federal jury last week of paying a hit team $50,000 to kill Singleton Sr. and another man in 2001, looked everywhere in the courtroom but at the witness stand.

The prosecutor asked Troy to tell the jury about his father and the words spilled out quickly. "He was a wonderful human being," the teen said. "He took care of me. Some days I always think that if he was here, my life would be much better. When he's not here, all I can do is cry."

Troy then began to cry, and so did several jurors, who must decide whether McGriff should receive the death penalty or life in prison.

"At school I think of him all the time," the teen continued. "One time I waited for him to see if he was going to come pick me up. He never did."

"My birthday was Feb. 1, [and] all I could think of was him not being here. I miss him so dearly," Troy said, then began sobbing uncontrollably.

McGriff looked down at the defense table as Troy returned to the gallery, where his mother and grandmother consoled the weeping boy.

The next witness called by the government was Karen Cameron, the mother of murder victim Eric (E. Money Bags) Smith.

McGriff's hit team left eight children without a father when they cut Smith down in a hail of gunfire.

"I've been told I'm the saddest person on Earth," Cameron said.

The feds are pressing on with their call for the death penalty despite controversial comments two weeks ago by Federal Judge Frederic Block in which he predicted the jury would not call for McGriff's execution.

Prosecutor Jason Jones reminded jurors how immediately after Smith's murder was carried out, the defendant sent an associate the cold-blooded text message: "You missed the party."

But several witnesses testified for the defense that even when McGriff was pushing drugs in the 1980s he tried to help the downtrodden in his southeast Queens neighborhood.

Originally published on February 7, 2007

'SUPREME' ANGUISH FOR KID
COURT IN TEARS OVER SON OF SLAY VICTIM
By STEFANIE COHEN

February 7, 2007 -- A weeping teen brought Brooklyn jurors to tears yesterday when he testified in the death-penalty case of drug kingpin Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff, convicted of ordering the murder of the boy's dad.

"Some days I always think that if he was here my life would be much better," said 14-year-old Troy Singleton Jr. before breaking into sobs - and causing many spectators and several jurors to cry along with him.

"When he's not here, all I can do is cry. At school I think of him all the time. One time I waited for him to see if he was going to come pick me up. He never did."

The slight teenager testified during the opening day of the penalty phase of McGriff's trial, where jurors will decide if the murderous crack dealer should face life in prison or death by lethal injection.

"My birthday was Feb. 1. All I could think of was him not being here. I miss him so dearly," the boy said before walking from the witness stand in tears and collapsing into his waiting relatives' arms.

McGriff last week was convicted of killing reputed drug dealer Troy Singleton and rapper Eric "E. Money Bags" Smith in 2001.

Prosecutors said McGriff hired a hit team to take down the two men after Smith shot and killed one of the druglord's associates.

The cold-as-ice McGriff, 46, who watched much of his trial reclining in his chair, hand on his chin and his legs casually crossed, kept his eyes down during the boy's gut-wrenching testimony.

Smith's mother, Karen Cameron, told jurors how she visited the crime scene where her son was pumped full of bullets while attending a barbecue.

Although his body had already been removed, she knew her son was dead when she caught a whiff of his favorite incense in the air.

"I know my son's smell," she said before starting to cry.

"I laugh a lot, but I have so much anger and it comes out at the weirdest times," the grieving mother said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Jones painted McGriff as a heartless killer who celebrated his victims' deaths.

"You missed the party," McGriff text-messaged to a friend after Smith was shot.

"It was like the Fourth of July," he told a friend when describing the attack on Smith by four armed hit men.

McGriff's lawyer, Jean Barrett, told jurors they should "stop the cycle of grief" by sending McGriff to life in a federal prison.

"There is enough grief going around this courtroom," she said.

stefanie.cohen@nypost.com

Hip-Hop Drug Lord Kenneth 'Supreme' McGriff Gets Life Without Parole for Slayings

Friday, February 09, 2007
AP

Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff is seen in this undated photo provided by the U.S. attorney's office.

NEW YORK — A remorseless drug lord with ties to hip-hop and Hollywood was spared the death penalty Friday by a Brooklyn jury that instead sentenced him to life in prison without parole for orchestrating a pair of cold-blooded murders.

The jury, which last week convicted Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff of murder for hire, deliberated just over 2 1/2 hours on the sentence.

The forewoman said the panel was split on the death penalty, leading to the sentence of life without parole.

McGriff, 46, who had listened calmly as federal prosecutors called for his death, showed no reaction as the jury announced he would not receive a lethal injection.

McGriff was the founder of the Supreme Crew, a brutal drug gang that operated during the 1980s on the same Queens streets where platinum rappers 50 Cent and Ja Rule emerged years later. At its peak, the Supreme Team's network of dealers was making $200,000 a day, authorities said.

After McGriff did jail time on a drug conviction, he was released in 1997 and aligned himself with neighborhood friend and music mogul Irv "Gotti" Lorenzo.

Defense attorneys claimed McGriff's alliance was part of his plan to create movies and music. The one-time street thugs produced one film: "Crime Partners 2000," a straight to video affair that featured Ja Rule, Snoop Dogg and Ice-T.

But prosecutors insisted McGriff returned to the drug business, operating in New York City and Baltimore. Lorenzo and his brother, Chris, were indicted with McGriff but acquitted at a separate trial on charges of using their label Murder Inc. to launder $1 million in drug money.

McGriff was convicted Feb. 1 of murder for hire and drug dealing. The 2001 slayings, which cost McGriff $50,000, involved an obscure rapper named Eric "E-Money Bags" Smith and Troy Singleton; Smith was killed for his fatal 1999 shooting of a McGriff associate, while Singleton was targeted because McGriff felt he might retaliate on Smith's behalf.

After Smith's slaying in a hail of gunfire, McGriff text messaged a friend: "You missed the party."

Troy Singleton Jr., now 14, sobbed on the witness stand during the penalty phase as he described growing up without his father. Smith left behind eight children, including one born a month after his death.

McGriff sat impassively during Singleton's testimony. The youth was one of three witnesses called by prosecutors in the death penalty phase of the case.

Both the trial judge and Smith's mother said they felt the death penalty was inappropriate for McGriff.

"There's no chance in the world there would be a death penalty verdict in this case," U.S. District Court Judge Frederic Bloch told prosecutors. Karen Cameron, although she testified for the prosecution in the penalty phase, agreed with Bloch.

"Death is not the answer," she said of her son's death.

The jury's decision followed another panel's Jan. 30 vote to execute the killer of two undercover police detectives -- the first federal defendant sentenced to death in New York City since 1954. Both cases were heard in the same federal courthouse.

Black Mafia Family trial set for late summer

List of defendants shrinks as suspects plea — and become state witnesses

BY MARA SHALHOUP

Published 02.21.07

DeKalb County Sheriff's Office
ALLEGED DON: According to the feds, Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory is one of two leaders of the Black Mafia Family crime ring.

An August trial date has been set in the 41-defendant federal prosecution of the Black Mafia Family, an alleged multistate cocaine ring whose operation spanned more than two decades and generated an estimated $270 million.

The storied BMF crew, which is said to have run a central hub in Atlanta and has publicly aligned itself with such hip-hop stars as Young Jeezy, was nabbed in October 2005 after a years-long investigation. The investigation was the subject of a three-part series published in December by CL.

The ring's Atlanta enterprise was allegedly led by Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory, a flashy Atlanta-based hip-hop entrepreneur who is accused of using his record label and glossy magazine as a front for drug money. Meech's brother, Terry "Southwest T" Flenory, allegedly led the organization's L.A. hub.

At times, the probe was complicated by a code of silence that blanketed crew members. The silence, however, has been broken by several alleged witnesses -- many of whom recently were identified in court documents for the first time. The documents, filed last month in federal court, offer the most detailed view to date of the government's case against BMF.

Two of the 12 potential witnesses who are identified by name -- Charles Parson and Arnold Boyd -- are defendants who've pleaded guilty and are now cooperating in the federal investigation. Parson and Boyd are described as couriers who ran drugs and cash for the crew. (Three additional defendants have pleaded guilty as well, though their plea agreements do not reference any willingness to cooperate.) At least three other defendants who have yet to enter a guilty plea also are cooperating with the feds.

A document filed Jan. 16 describes Boyd's visits to a sprawling Lithonia home where the Flenory brothers allegedly lived. The crew called it the "White House." On one occasion, in the basement of the house, Boyd claims to have spotted seven alleged BMF members -- including Terry Flenory -- and 100 kilos of coke.

The document also states that a contractor doing work on the house occasionally observed people sleeping on the floor "with guns, money, and jewelry at their sides."

"The jewelry he recalled seeing included 'BMF' medallions," according to the document. "He asked a couple of these individuals what 'BMF' stood for. One told him that 'BMF' ... stood for 'Black Mafia Family.' [He] was told that if [he] had not yet heard of the 'Black Mafia Family,' 'he soon would.'"

The most damning statements to surface in the court file point to Terry Flenory. There is little in the witnesses' statements that directly implicates Terry's brother of running drugs or laundering cash -- aside from one witness who claimed Big Meech supplied him with cocaine in the late '80s and early '90s, and another who said Meech gave him $125,000 cash to write a check for jewelry.

Demetrius Flenory's attorney, Drew Findling, has said in court filings and in interviews with CL that the evidence against his client is weak. "Ninety-nine percent is Terry," Findling says. "We got a few names [of witnesses], but they just make general statements. That's it. There is no specificity."

Terry Flenory's attorney, William B. Daniel, of Detroit, was not available for comment. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit did not return CL's phone calls.

Perhaps the most illuminating of the witnesses' accusations are the ones offering new details on the crew's alleged ties to luminaries such as Jeezy; New York diamond purveyor to the stars Jacob "the Jeweler" Arabov; Grammy-nominated songwriter and Dreamgirls soundtrack producer Damon Thomas; and former son-in-law of Mayor Shirley Franklin, Tremayne Graham.

Defendant-turned-witness Boyd recalled a 2003 transaction in Atlanta between Terry Flenory and Graham. "Graham picked up $250,000 from Terry Flenory while Terry Flenory was at the 'White House,'" according to the court document. Boyd described the money as Terry Flenory's investment as a silent owner in 404 Motorsports, a high-end car dealership that Graham co-owned. "Boyd helped Tremayne Graham load the cash in Graham's vehicle, which was equipped with hidden compartments," the document states. Graham later pleaded guilty, in a separate federal case, to running drugs for BMF.

Another document, also filed in January, includes statements from Parson, the other defendant to sign a cooperation agreement. Parson described his frequent trips to New York with Terry Flenory: "Parson said that when Flenory traveled to New York City, he would always meet with 'Jacob the Jeweler' to drop off money for jewelry."

Another "cooperating defendant," Eric Bivens, described a 2005 traffic stop outside Cleveland during which he, Terry Flenory and other alleged BMF members were interrogated, and police seized $5 million in Arabov-designed jewelry. Terry had planned to take the jewels to Young Jeezy so that Jeezy could use them in a video that was supposed to be shot in St. Louis, according to Bivens. But the shoot never took place.

Shortly after the traffic stop, investigators -- who had a wire up on Terry Flenory's phone -- listened as he called Thomas, the music producer, and asked him to claim the jewels as his own. Thomas complied, and Arabov allegedly facilitated that and other fraud at BMF's request.

Several months after the BMF indictment was unsealed, Arabov -- one of the world's best-known jewelers, whose name is often invoked in hip-hop songs -- was added as a co-defendant and charged with money laundering. The government recently agreed to separately try Arabov and the five other defendants who face only money-laundering charges. A trial date for the alleged money launderers has not been set.

The trial for the other defendants is scheduled to begin Aug. 6 in the U.S. District Court in Detroit, the city where the Flenory brothers were born and raised -- and allegedly birthed one of the nation's largest cocaine rings of recent years.

If the case does go to trial in August, it will take place nearly two years after the Flenorys were arrested and the indictment against them unsealed.

MORE BMF: To read CL's three-part series on the Black Mafia Family, visit http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/bmf

B'KLYN KINGPIN'S REIGN OF CARNAGE
CONFESSES ROLE IN 30 MURDERS

HATCHET JOB: John Hatcher (above) was linked to a murder in East New York of a bus driver, whose body was found in a car trunk. The slaying helped authorities snare Hatcher.

March 5, 2007 -- HE WAS New York's killing machine.

John "Bloody Hatchet" Hatcher, the brother of a minister, has admitted to involvement in more than 80 shootings - including 30 homicides - while operating a notorious gang that made tens of millions of dollars selling crack, cocaine and marijuana.

During a two-decade reign of terror, Hatcher and his gang, The Rugby Boys, littered the streets in the heart of Brooklyn with victims and bodies, authorities said.

"He was the crack epidemic," said John Gilbride, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's New York Office, comparing him to murderers Lorenzo "Fat Cat" Nichols and Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff and infamous Harlem druglord Nicky Barnes.

But unlike the others' brief reigns as crack and heroin kingpins, Hatcher's ring flourished like no other, before the DEA finally mounted a six-year operation buying $10 bags of crack that snared him.

Rather than face a possible death-sentence prosecution, Hatcher, 43, spilled his guts.

Veteran federal agents and hardened homicide detectives were left slack-jawed with disbelief as Hatcher methodically detailed a litany of murder and mayhem that took him an astonishing four months to tell.

"There were times when we actually had to stop him and say, 'That's enough for today,' " DEA Special Agent John Profetti said, recalling a particularly grim session when Hatcher described an assault in which one of his henchmen was stabbed, shot, choked, set on fire and then doused with a pail of urine.

The victim survived, after pretending he was dead, and gave an interview to detectives and Star Jones, the former co-host of ABC's "The View" who was then a Brooklyn assistant district attorney.

When the man was released from the hospital, Hatcher paid two hit men $5,000 to finish him off.

Hatcher's brutality and sophisticated criminality belied his upbringing by loving parents who owned a record store in Canarsie and raised three other children, including a minister and a U.S. Naval Academy officer.

But by age 12, Hatcher was showing his propensity for crime, running with a crowd that committed robberies and burglaries and were tied to fearsome Jamaican drug dealers.

His fledgling talents were noticed by a local "Fagin-like" hood, who recruited him.

"It was like Oliver Twist with a gun," said Daniel Anderson, DEA associate special agent in charge in New York.

Added Profetti, "He was a natural, starting with pick-pocketing and escalating into robberies and burglaries."

By the end of high school, Hatcher was forming a gang of his own. He recruited kids, dubbed Rugby Boys, who played football and basketball when they were not selling drugs. One fearsome teen, Tyrone Hunter, was made Hatcher's deputy.

Coupling a businessman's acumen with an iron fist, Hatcher established control over several key crack dens in Bedford-Stuyvesant and East New York and skillfully built an empire with scores of workers in the heart of the city's most populated borough.

If a rival tried to poach his territory, someone would be pay. "He shot people just to make a point, leaving them wounded in the stomach and legs," Profetti said.

Hatcher lived large. He had a spacious apartment in Park Slope, hoards of women, "Superfly" clothes and flashy luxury cars and treated himself and his crew to lavish Caribbean trips.

But in 1991, he was with a couple of his henchmen and mistook undercover cops for rival dealers. One of his crew opened fire, grazing an officer.

Hatcher was the only one caught. He did not rat and spent eight years in prison.

When he was released, he quickly reclaimed his throne.

But two seemingly unrelated criminal matters - a murder in East New York and a credit-card scam in Alabama - ultimately toppled his empire.

On Jan. 27, 2000, a city bus driver made the mistake of being a go-between in a Colombian heroin deal with Hatcher, who shot and killed him and stole his drugs.

Rugby Boy Charles Thomas was identified as a suspect.

Seven months later, in Alabama, Thomas' nickname, "Boo," and his Brooklyn phone number showed up on a piece of paper linked to a ring ordering hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of merchandise from Home Depot.

The DEA joined U.S. Postal Inspector James Buthorn and NYPD detectives in early 2001 and starting with $10-bag buys, launched their probe that snared a "weak-link" lieutenant in Hatcher's operation. Fearing "Bloody Hatchet," the lieutenant cooperated, and Hatcher finally was scooped up in a massive roundup May 13, 2002.

Hatcher started spilling the beans, saying, "I am not going to do any one else's time. They will do their own," referring to his eight-year stint in prison over the cop-wounding case.

With a treasure-trove of cases to cherry-pick from involving Hatcher - some which had already been attributed to others by the NYPD - Assistant Brooklyn U.S. Attorneys Christina Dugger and Scott Morvillo and the federal agents zeroed in on five killings.

"It took six years to peel back layer after layer to unveil these horrific crimes," Gilbride said.

Investigators dug up old witnesses and other evidence they used during a three-week trial that ended last month with the racketeering and murder conviction of the final bosses of Hatcher's gang: Hunter and Adrian Payne.

Hatcher, who testified for two days, is being held in federal prison and, along with Hunter and Payne, is awaiting sentencing in May. He is expected to receive what amounts to a life sentence.

murray.weiss@nypost.com

`Jacob the Jeweler' to stand trial in Detroit, federal judge says


March 26, 2007, 11:03 PM EDT

DETROIT -- The celebrity jeweler known in the hip-hop world as "Jacob the Jeweler" will stand trial on money laundering charges here after a federal judge on Monday denied his request to move the case to New York.

Jacob Arabov was arrested in June 2006 at his store in Manhattan on a warrant issued in Detroit. Federal authorities accused him and 16 others of conspiring to launder about $270 million in drug profits for the "Black Mafia Family," a multistate drug ring that operated out of the Detroit area beginning in the early 1990s.

The 41-year-old Arabov has pleaded not guilty.

Arabov's attorney, Benjamin Brafman, argued that it would be prejudicial for his client to stand trial alongside drug-dealing suspects and too costly to defend himself in Detroit. But U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn disagreed.

"You should prepare yourself for a trial in the Eastern District of Michigan," Cohn said.

Arabov, a Russian immigrant also known as the "King of Bling," became popular among hip-hop and R&B artists in the mid-1990s. Notorious B.I.G., Madonna, Kanye West and Elton John have all worn his baubles.

'King of Bling' to stand trial in Detroit

Paul Egan / The Detroit News

The Manhattan celebrity jeweler sometimes known as the "King of Bling" will get his own trial on money laundering charges, but it will be held in Detroit, not New York City, a federal judge ruled today.

Jacob Arabov, who has sold watches and other jewelry to Madonna, Elton John and much of the hip-hop world, was indicted in June, accused of helping to launder some of the more than $270 million in drug profits allegedly reaped by the "Black Mafia Family" gang allegedly run by Terry and Demetrius Flenory, two former Detroiters.

Arabov, 41, has pleaded not guilty.

His lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, argued it would be prejudicial for his client to be tried alongside accused drug dealers and too costly for him to defend himself in Detroit.

Today, U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn agreed Arabov will get his own trial, but denied Brafman's request for a change of venue.

"You should prepare yourself for a trial in the Eastern District of Michigan," Cohn said, despite Brafman's promise to file another brief detailing the "extreme hardship" that would cause his client.

In all, 41 people are charged in the case.

Feds charge 17 more in Detroit 'Black Mafia Family' cocaine trafficking case
ASSOCIATED PRESS

1:15 a.m. March 30, 2007

DETROIT – Federal prosecutors have charged 17 people in a seven-year crackdown on a multistate cocaine trafficking ring known as the Black Mafia Family.
The indictments, issued Dec. 15 but not made public until Thursday, brings to 58 the number of people charged in the case, the U.S. attorney's office in Detroit said in a news release.

Advertisement

Charges in the latest indictment include money laundering and conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
The Black Mafia Family dealt cocaine in the Detroit metropolitan area beginning in the early 1990s, extending across the country.

Authorities pursuing the ring have seized about 1,100 pounds of cocaine and about $19 million in money and other assets since 2000, according to the statement.

Jacob Arabov, a New York celebrity jeweler known in the hip-hop world as “Jacob the Jeweler,” is awaiting trial in Detroit on accusations that he helped launder about $270 million in drug profits for the group. He has pleaded not guilty.

As far as streets go the blacks are the smartest in the business - look at the signals and the rap videos and you'll get my drift.

Profile of Nicky Barnes:
http://gangstersinc.tripod.com/NickyBarnes.html

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Sixteen indicted in alleged Black Mafia Family drug ring


ATLANTA -- Sixteen people have been indicted in an alleged drug ring run by the Black Mafia Family, which came to Atlanta several years ago seeking legitimacy by infiltrating the hip-hop industry here, federal authorities said Wednesday.

The indictment charges them with taking part in a nationwide cocaine distribution conspiracy that engaged in violence while moving thousands of pounds of cocaine worth an estimated $270 million.

"The government is one step closer to eradicating one of today's most violent and notorious drug trafficking organizations," said Rodney G. Benson, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement office in Atlanta. "The Black Mafia Family wreaked havoc from coast to coast."

Seven of the 16 defendants were arrested Wednesday. The names of seven of the remaining nine defendants remained under seal because they are still being sought by law enforcement, officials said.

Local law enforcement learned the organization existed after a 2003 double homicide in Club Chaos in Buckhead when an associate of hip-hop mogul Sean "P. Diddy" Coombs and another man were both shot after the club closed early one morning.

Officials claim the enterprise's leader in Atlanta was Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory, while his brother, Terry "Southwest T" Flenory allegedly ran the organization's Los Angeles hub.

Federal authorities say the Flenorys went from selling $50 bags of crack in high schools in southwest Detroit in the mid-1980s to masterminding a criminal enterprise operating in 11 states.

The two men, now in federal custody, were arrested in 2005 with seven associates in the first flurry of indictments for drug trafficking.

The group once rented a billboard in Atlanta that said "The World is BMF's."

"The Black Mafia Family once had billboards towering over Atlanta boldly proclaiming that the world was theirs," U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said. "This indictment is a rejection of that claim."

The defendants in the indictment unveiled Wednesday were: Lamar Fields, 39, of Atlanta; Victor Hammonds, 42, of Conyers; Franklin Nash, 56, of Decatur; Darryl Taylor, 46, of Stockbridge; Ramon Dobson, 27, of Lithonia; James Mitchell, 38, of East Orange, N.J.; and Dionne Beverly, 35, of Hurricane, W.Va.

Already in custody in other jurisdictions are Fleming Daniels, 34, of Roswell; and Derrek Pitts, 33, of Newark, N.J.

In a hearing in Atlanta Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Alan Baverman released Dobson and Nash on $25,000 bond and detained Taylor. Hammonds and Fields have a hearing scheduled for Friday.

Police raids linked to journalist's slaying
By MICHELLE LOCKE, The Associated Press
2007-08-03 23:02:20.0
Current rank: Not ranked

OAKLAND, Calif. - Police said they recovered firearm evidence connected to the slaying of an Oakland journalist during a series of early morning raids Friday, including one at a bakery linked to a black Muslim group.

Colleagues said Oakland Post editor Chauncey Bailey, 57, had been working on a story about Your Black Muslim Bakery before he was ambushed and slain Thursday morning near the Alameda County courthouse in downtown Oakland.

"The search warrant yielded several weapons and other evidence of value including evidence linking the murder of Chauncey Bailey to members of the Your Black Muslim Bakery," Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan said.

The pre-dawn raids followed a yearlong investigation into a variety of violent crimes, Jordan said.

Seven people were arrested, including the son of the bakery's founder, on charges including homicide, robbery and assault, Oakland police spokesman Roland Holmgren said. It was unclear whether those charges were tied to Bailey's slaying.

Joseph Debro, an Oakland businessman who writes a column for the Post, said Bailey had recently asked him for information about Your Black Muslim Bakery's financial troubles for a story Bailey was writing.

"To him it was just another story," Debro said. "He wasn't apprehensive or anxious about it at all. He said he was working on a bunch of stories and this was one."

Your Black Muslim Bakery was founded in 1968 by the late Yusuf Bey as a haven for struggling urban families. It sells natural baked goods alongside books by Malcolm X and other black leaders.

Bailey was a longtime reporter for the Oakland Tribune before becoming editor of the Post, a weekly newspaper geared toward the Bay Area black community, earlier this year. He had written stories for the Tribune about the bakery and its founder when Bey was facing rape charges in Alameda County. Most of those charges were later dropped, although one was still pending when Bey died in 2003.

Bey's son, Yusuf Bey IV, who was in custody Friday, took control of the original bakery and several franchises. In 2005, he was accused by police of being the ringleader in a group of black Muslims who smashed liquor bottles in Oakland corner stores and berated the Muslim owners for selling alcohol to the black community, because alcohol is forbidden by Islam.

Your Black Muslim bakery has been plagued with financial problems for several years, culminating in a bankruptcy filing last October.

In a declaration filed with the bankruptcy court on June 29, Yusuf Bey IV conceded he was "inexperienced in the business world," and had "received advice and consultation from those who had proven to me they did not have my best interests at heart."

Don Bolles, a reporter for the Arizona Republic, was the last reporter killed in the line of duty in the United States. He was killed by a car bomb in 1976 while reporting on organized crime.

---

AP writers Bob Porterfield and Sudhin Thanawala in San Francisco contributed to this report.

Inmate says he lied about police involvement in killing of Notorious B.I.G.


LOS ANGELES -- A prison inmate who implicated a former Los Angeles Police Department officer in the murder of rapper Notorious B.I.G. says he lied about the officer's involvement, a move that provides another twist in a complex and unsolved killing.

Waymond Anderson, a former R&B artist now serving a life sentence for murder in a separate case, said in an Aug. 20 deposition that he lied as part of a scam to win a monetary settlement from the city.

Anderson's deposition, first reported Wednesday in the Los Angeles Times, states that he was offered a portion of any settlement if he testified that former police Officer Rafael Perez told him that another ex-police officer, David Mack, was involved.

Both Mack and Perez have long denied any involvement in the March 9, 1997, murder of the New York rapper, also known as Biggie Smalls.

"I don't know David Mack, I don't know Rafael Perez," Anderson said in the deposition. "It was a lie, and I'm ashamed of it."

B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was 24 when he was gunned down while leaving a music industry party at a Los Angeles museum.

Wallace was one of the United States' most influential hip-hop artists, and theories have proliferated for years about who might have been behind his murder and why.

His family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit seeking damages from the city. It accuses the police department, and specifically Mack, of responsibility for Wallace's death.

In his deposition, Anderson accused the family and their lawyer of offering to cut him in for a portion of any award for falsely implicating the police.

Perry R. Sanders Jr., the Wallace family's lawyer, denied the allegation.

"This is wholesale, made-up-out-of-whole-cloth perjury," Sanders said.

Both Mack and Perez have long since left the police department.

Mack is serving a federal prison sentence for bank robbery.(AP)

Black Mafia Family Rapper Bleu Davinci Indicted For Cocaine Distribution
Posted: 10/12/2007 6:08:08 PM by Black widow


Black Mafia Family affiliate and rapper Blue DaVinci was reportedly indicted last week for participating in the distribution of multiple kilos of cocaine worldwide.

Black Mafia Family is an Atlanta based gang founded by Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory and his brother Terry "Southwest T" Flenory. The Flenorys were indicted and and arrested on drug trafficking charges in 2005.

The BMF enterprise is accused of laundered over $270 million in drug money via hubs accors major cities in the U.S. The gang was renowned in the Atlanta area for their lavish lifestyle and was well known in the hip-hop for their alignment with rappers Young Jeezy and Fabolous.

Bleu Davinci was the only artist on BMF’s record label, BMF Entertainment, and took over the label’s reigns after Big Meech was sent to jail. Davinci released an album tiled The World is BMF's Volume 2 via a deal with Koch Records. The disc featured appearances from Young Jeezy, Fabolous and Yukmouth, among others.

According to Creative Loafing Atlanta, Feds believe that BMF Entertainment was a front for BMF’s cocaine trafficking. Davinci was indicted along with five other men on Friday (October 8).

Davinci and the five other men have not been seized.

The Flenorys, who originally hail from Detroit, will be on trial in their hometown on November 5th.

Below is are videos of BMF flaunting their lifestyle prior to their arrests and indictments, plus a clip of Davinci’s single “Streets On Lock” with Jeezy and Fablous.

http://www.sixshot.com/articles/8151/

Added a profile of Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff to the site.

http://gangstersinc.tripod.com/index.html

http://nymag.com/guides/money/2007/39948/

Lords of Dopetown
Frank Lucas and Nicky Barnes once ruled the drug trade in Harlem. They came out of retirement to talk business.
By Mark Jacobson Published Oct 25, 2007

"During the Harlem heroin plague of the seventies, few dealers were bigger than Frank Lucas and Leroy “Nicky” Barnes. Both made millions selling dope, lived the wide-brimmed-hat high life, enabled the addiction of whole neighborhoods, and, eventually, got caught. Both were locked up and later cooperated with authorities—some might call it snitching. Now, with Lucas confined to a wheelchair and Barnes in some Witness Protection Program locale, each is the subject of a current film. Barnes reports on his life and times in the flava-full documentary Mr. Untouchable. Lucas hit the ultimate Hollywood jackpot, getting Denzel Washington, no less, to play him in American Gangster (reviewed this week in “The Culture Pages”).

SEE ALSO:
Mark Jacobson's 2000 Profile of Frank Lucas

And so, three decades after their heyday, these former street titans are still generating commerce. This makes sense, as both insist they were businessmen, first and foremost. The trick for an ambitious black man in the seventies dope game was to minimize the sway of the Italian distributors who had controlled the Harlem scene for decades. Using sheer volume as an edge, Barnes cut increasingly favorable deals with his Mafia partners. He had the biggest clientele—hundreds of thousands of repeat (and repeat) buyers. It was a captive market, and he was their low-cost retailer. Lucas, more of a boutique operator, managed to bypass the Italians altogether by establishing the grisly but exceedingly lucrative “cadaver connection”—a direct line from Asia’s “Golden Triangle” poppy growers straight to 116th Street, smuggling heroin inside the coffins of American soldiers killed in the Vietnam War.

When the possibility emerged that these two old-school street rivals might be willing to engage in what could only be called a historic conversation—they haven’t spoken in 30 years—it was easy to envision yelling, phone slamming, and maybe even a death threat or two. Lucas, as I knew well (from writing in this magazine the original piece upon which American Gangster is based), could go off at any moment. And Barnes, who likes to quote Moby-Dick and King Lear, mocks Lucas’s “country boy” lack of education and perceived lack of finesse in Mr. Untouchable. When it came down to it, however, the two old drug-kingpins-in-winter revealed a familiarity that bordered on a kind of love. Or at least respect for a fellow tycoon.

NICKY BARNES: Hey, hey, what’s up, playa?

FRANK LUCAS: Hey, Nick.

NB: I heard you’re in a wheelchair. What’s going on?

FL: Broke a leg, Nick. Two places.

NB: Damn.

FL: So what’s with you, man?

NB: Chilling, dude.

MARK JACOBSON: You two guys talking is something of an occasion. Ever think you’d be in the history books?

NB: I don’t know about history—

FL: Hey, Nick! I told everybody and their momma you’ll be hooking up with me in Harlem in the next two years.

NB: You won’t see me in Harlem … I gave up 109 federal felony offenses ’cause I had powder in Brooklyn and the Bronx. Too many people would be gunning for me in New York.

FL: Come on, Nick, you don’t give a damn about them little kamikazes out in the street. I been knowing you for fortysomething years.

MJ: Do you remember when you guys first met?

FL: When was it, Nick? The night you come outta jail. Was that 1970, ’69, ’68?

NB: Yeah, ’70. We met through Jimmy Terrell. Remember Jimmy Terrell? Remember Goldfinger?

FL: ’Course I remember the Goldfinger.

NB: We were in Smalls, drinking. You remember this dude Prat that had that habitual stool right next to—

FL: Yeah, Prat! He didn’t live long after that, did he?

NB: Somebody knocked him over. He owed somebody some money or something.

FL: Right. He was going at somebody’s woman…

MJ: You guys have been described as being competitors. Is that true?

FL: Well, Nick wasn’t gonna catch me—I was paying $4,000 a key. Nick, you was probably paying $65,000 or $70,000, weren’t you?

NB: During that time I was paying $35,000.

FL: And I was paying $4,000. So there was no fight then.¹

MJ: Which one of you guys had the best dope?

FL: Mark, here you go! Stirring shit up. Man, I had the best dope in the world. I had 98 to 100 percent pure.

NB: Frank had a nice package, no doubt. I had to get a pen and a pad and mediate my stuff. But when you took the mix out, my thing was close to his. Close enough for somebody not to wait on one when they could get the other. Frank, you were mostly on 116th Street, right?

FL: Yeah.

NB: Well, I had powder in all five boroughs. Not just uptown.

FL: You were big, Nick, all over.

MJ: Suppose each one of you got a pound. Frank Lucas’s business model against Nicky Barnes’s business model—head-to-head, who’s going to make the most money?

FL: That’s easy. The one who got the best dope, that’s who.

NB: Frank’s right. It is always about the product. Once I had a fight with a guy named Steve Austin. I had better dope. Steve knew it. He came up and knocked on the window of my car. “Yo, dude,” he said, “we don’t want you over here.” I said, “I’m gonna put my foot in your motherfuckin’ ass.” In those days, you didn’t shoot nobody because he was on your turf, you know. You had to have hand-to-hand combat. But the buyers didn’t care, because they followed the powder, not the guys who controlled the neighborhood.

MJ: When the movies come out, there’ll be a lot of controversy about whether you guys are being glorified. What about that?

FL: Nick is a good dude who should be glorified, not me.

MJ: Why do you say that?

FL: Because he’s a hell of a good guy.

MJ: But you were both in the same business.

FL: You in the same business as other writers. You don’t go to slit their throat. Do you?

MJ: Frank. I mean, c’mon.

NB: No one should be elevated because of what they did in the drug business. The way we operated—there was a lot of violence, like, ten to twelve homicides, to keep the whole operation running. You can’t glorify that. It’s not something Frank or I would tell any of our children to get into.

FL: Absolutely right, Nick.

NB: Heroin wreaked a lot of havoc and a lot of pain in the black community. I shouldn’t have done it. Maybe I was aware, but I just didn’t give a fuck. I wanted to make money, and that’s what I did. Looking back, I wouldn’t have made those decisions, but it’s a hell of a lot different and much easier to sanitize yourself after the fact.

FL: In our business, you get paid by fear. When the fear factor comes in, that’s when you start to make money. Violence is part of it. You ain’t gonna sweet-talk no motherfucker.

MJ: Who was more corrupt: the dealers or the cops?

FL: The cops was more corrupt. You shake hands with a drug dealer, you got their word. If they don’t do what they say, they’re gonna die. Everyone knows that.

NB: Yeah, yeah, I go with that.

FL: A drug dealer gonna live to his word. I’m not talking about a junkie. I’m talking about a man like Frank Lucas or Nicky Barnes.

MJ: Rudy Giuliani chased both you guys when he was D.A. What do you think about him running for president?

NB: Giuliani would make a good president because he’s a principled guy.

FL: When Giuliani tells you something, he means it. But I don’t think we’re ready for an Italian president. I don’t think we’re ready for a black president. I don’t think we’re ready for a woman president, but I tell you right now: I think Hillary Clinton will win this thing hands down.

NB: Hillary will be the next president.

FL: No question about it.

MJ: You guys have said some pretty harsh things about each other over the years. Nick, what’s your biggest bitch with Frank?

NB: Well, I read he had this multimillion-dollar contract on my life.

FL: Nick, hold on there! You know me a long time, and you know me well. If I had a contract on you, I’d have been hanged 20 or 30 years ago. You know doggone well that I wouldn’t do that.

NB: This was when they had the grand jury. I was with Matty Madonna and Herbie Sperling. You were on the third floor at the MCC.² Do you remember that, Frank?

FL: Absolutely.

NB: There was a corrections officer who said that Frank Lucas went to one of the other corrections officers and told him that Nicky Barnes was down there, and he was trying to set him up.

FL: You believe that? Nick! Listen to me, and hear me real good: Anybody tells you that, they’re a damn liar. You’ve been too close to me.

NB: Just what I heard.

MJ: Nick, when the New York Times called you “Mister Untouchable,” that even got the president’s attention.³ When you first found out about Carter seeing the paper, what did you think?

NB: I thought I had made a mistake, but it was done then. I still thought that I had a really good chance of winning that case, because there’s a difference between a trial in a federal court and one in a state court.

FL: All the difference in the world.

NB: In federal court, they can railroad your ass, man. In state court, you can get a fair hearing and a fair jury.

MJ: A topic that comes up a lot—it came up at a showing of Nick’s movie, and it will when American Gangster opens—is that you can sell a lot of drugs and kill people—

FL: Stop right there. Nick ain’t ever killed nobody. Me either.

MJ: I know you’re a Gandhi kind of guy, Frank. I’m saying you can do all kinds of crimes, but a lot of people feel if you snitch, that’s worse. What do you guys think about that?

FL: I never in my life, not to this day, testified on nobody. Ain’t no sonofabitch in the world who’s ever gotten put in on account of me. Bad cops, yes. But rat that shit—no, no, no, no, no.

NB: When it comes to testifying, I testified against the guys who were in the Council along with me.4

FL: Like Guy Fisher.

NB: Yeah, Guy Fisher, Frank James, Wally, Coco, Kenny, and you know, a couple of other guys. When I went into the joint, I gave Guy Fisher a woman of mine and told him to look out for her, take care of her. I didn’t expect him to start fucking her.

FL: Guy Fisher’s a punk. What do you expect out of a fucking punk?

NB: I expected him to do what I was askin’ him to do. Not to betray me. Look, he had women of his own who were as attractive as mine.

FL: You had good-looking women, Nick!

NB: I don’t know why he had to bone her, and I don’t know why the other Council members let him live after they knew he did it. That’s why I cooperated. If I couldn’t get out, I could still pull those motherfuckers in with me.

MJ: Any second thoughts, Nick?

NB: No, man. When I realized they left me on the battlefield to die, I said, “Fuck it!” … I said, “I’ll pull those motherfuckers in, let them see what it’s like.” I would rather be out here in the witness program than to be in jail with them. Why would I wanna be in there with them kinda niggers? I don’t regret it. I saw this show on CNN, with Anderson Cooper. Cats were talking about “Don’t snitch, no matter what happens.” Well, I can’t see how a guy can be considered strong if he lets a bunch of assholes walk all over him and he doesn’t respond, just because of some code that a bunch of idiots have cooked up. Anderson Cooper asked this rapper, “Suppose a child was molested and you knew who this molester was. Would you tell the police?” He said, “No.” So that’s what I’m sayin’—the street guidelines are just moron bullshit.

MJ: Frank? Do you think there’s a time when it’s good to cooperate?

FL: I told you before. I never testified on nobody.

MJ: Some cases were made, Frank.

FL: Look! I have remorse about what I did.

NB: Frank, talk a little softer. You’re yelling.

FL: I have remorse. I never sold nothing to a kid in the street, but I found out that my people had. I didn’t want to sell to kids. I didn’t want to make them junkies. I didn’t want to be a part of it. I justify it by saying during my time, I couldn’t get a job on Wall Street, not even washing toilets. I went to school three days and the teacher wasn’t there two of them. I had to make a living. I didn’t want to be just a damn bum in the street. So that’s what I did. But it’s complicated. When you get there, every rat in the goddamned woods is gonna come running to you. And anytime you don’t got no money, everybody disappears. Tell ’em, Nick.

MJ: Most people say you guys hated each other, but it seems like you were buddies. What’s the story?

NB: I’ll tell you what a lot of people don’t understand. See, you read in the paper about people having shooting wars about turf. But both of us operated in that 116th Street area, and it was no problem. If only one of us had had powder out there, every time the police came out, they would have been able to surveil out that one group. But if there’s a lot of people out there …

MJ: Did you ever think there’d be this whole hip-hop thing? You guys are both mentioned in a million rap songs.

FL: Call them songs? When I came along, we had singing. They might make up songs about me, but I don’t have to like them.

MJ: What about you, Nick? You’re like a hip-hop folk hero.

NB: I never thought anything like this would happen. When hip-hop first started, everybody—I mean the music entrepreneurs—predicted that hip-hop would be dead in five years. They said, “Those motherfuckers ain’t gonna make no money.” But hip-hop rolled along, and look what they’re doing now. They got Jay-Z, Damon Dash, Kanye West, 50 Cent. These guys are doing something legitimate.

FL: At least Nick knows the names. I don’t know none of them. I know Puffy Combs, because of his father.

NB: Oh, Melvin! Melvin Combs.

FL: Melvin used to be at my house a couple of times a week. I’m proud to see Melvin’s son like that.

MJ: Nick, are you curious about how you’re portrayed in American Gangster?

NB: Yeah. But when I heard that Cuba Gooding was doing it, I thought it’ll probably be decent. He’s an Academy Award winner.

MJ: What about Denzel as Frank?

NB: I knew if Denzel played the lead, then it wouldn’t be a bullshit part or a fucked-up script.

FL: Denzel Washington did more than a good job, he did a hell of a job. Nobody in the world’s as good as Denzel.

MJ: Man, I thought you guys might be more at odds. This is a love-in.

FL: We are friends, so you’re missing the whole point.

NB: There were a lot of the people who we were both hooked up with who we both like. Jimmy Terrell, for example, and Turtle and Claude, Peter MacDougal, Frank Moten.

NB: What about the guy who died in the mob riot?

FL: Aww, what was his name? Got killed on the George Washington Bridge. What was his fuckin’ name?

NB: I forgot his name, too, but we knew all of these guys. I guess there’s some nostalgia in it.

FL: It was the good old boys back then, that’s what it was.

NB: Frank, are you taking anything for your broken leg?

FL: They gave me a whole bunch of shit.

NB: There’s a Website out there of a guy named Gary Null. He’s an alternative practitioner, and he offers all kinds of vitamin supplements to cure bone injuries. You really ought to go check him out.

FL: Yeah? I’m going to take this down, man.

MJ: The vitamin connect. Hey, what do you want to have on your epitaph? What do you want your legacy to be?

NB: I’ll tell you what I want them to say on mine. I want them to say, “Boy oh boy, he was old. God damn, he was old.”

FL: Fuckin’ old. "

SITE UPDATE:
American Gangster Myth: What's the Real Story Behind Hollywood's Portrayal of Harlem Drug Kingpin Frank Lucas?

Drug Kingpin Pleads Guilty to Drug and Money Laundering Charges

NOV 20 --Leader of the “Black Mafia Family” (BMF) pleaded guilty today to running a large scale drug organization and money laundering, United States Attorney Stephen J. Murphy announced.

Demetrius Flenory, 39, originally of Detroit of entered his guilty plea in United States District Court in Detroit before Judge Avern Cohn.

Specifically, Flenory admitted that from 1990 through 2005, he was the leader of a criminal enterprise involving the large scale distribution of controlled substances, mainly cocaine. Further, Flenory admitted to obtaining millions of dollars in cash from the sale of cocaine. He used the illegal proceeds of his drug trafficking to purchase real estate, vehicles and jewelry.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, Flenory faces a sentence of 30 years to life in prison. In addition, Flenory agreed to a money judgment in the amount of $270,000,000. A sentencing hearing was not set by Judge Cohn.

Demetrius Flenory’s brother, Terry Flenory and five other defendants are still scheduled for trial on November 26, 2007. Of the 41 defendants who were indicted along with the brothers, 32 have pleaded guilty.

###

Detroit drug dealer sentenced to 20 years
January 22, 2008

By DAVID ASHENFELTER

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

A prominent Detroit drug dealer was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison for his role in the violent cocaine gang that allegedly plotted robberies, kidnappings and killings of rivals in the 1990s.

U.S. District Judge John O’Meara sentenced Raymond Canty, 36, during a hearing in Ann Arbor. Canty pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to distribute cocaine and launder money.

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Canty was sentenced in part of his role in the 1997 slaying of Mischa Deandre Dorsey. The hitman, Eugene Mitchell, admitted in court that Canty paid him $10,000 to kill Dorsey, who had robbed Canty of $2,000. Canty didn’t admit paying for the killing, but agreed that Dorsey’s death was a reasonably foreseeable result of the drug conspiracy. Mitchell was sentenced in December to 25 years in prison.


A co-defendant, Milton “Butch” Jones, 52, of Detroit, founder of Young Boys Inc., a legendary Detroit drug gang that used underage boys to sell drugs, also pleaded guilty in the case and faces a possible sentence of 30 years in prison at sentencing on Feb. 20. Canty helped write Jones’ autobiography, Young Boys Inc.


Canty and Jones were among 14 people indicted in June 2001 on charges of selling heroin, cocaine and marijuana. Gang members operated out of houses known as the Dog Pound in the 3700 block of Monterey.

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/20...trange_cas.html

8 members of pot-sellin' gang guilty
By MELISSA GRACE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, March 6th 2008, 4:00 AM

Members of a violent Bronx gang that sold as much as $1 million worth of marijuana every week and used the proceeds to start a reggae label were convicted by a federal jury, prosecutors said Wednesday.

The gang, know as the John Shop Crew, used its illicit profits to open a recording studio and launch John Shop Records, which featured international reggae stars Sizzla and Wyclef Jean, officials said.

From 1997 to 2004, the crew flew 2,000 pounds of pot a week from California to New York and sold it to lower-level drug dealers.

Gang leader Anthony Patterson, 37, supervised the shipments - and sent cash back to purchase more drugs.

Five gang members, including Patterson, were convicted by a Manhattan jury Monday on drug and gun charges.

They face a maximum of life in prison.

Three other gang members pleaded guilty and face 25 years behind bars.

chicagotribune.com

Paper claims Diddy, B.I.G. knew of plans to attack Tupac Shakur
March 17, 2008

In an article available exclusively on the Los Angeles Times Web site Monday, the newspaper claims that rappers Sean "Diddy" Combs and Christopher "The Notorious B.I.G." Wallace were aware, a week in advance, that Tupac Shakur would be ambushed in a 1994 New York attack.

"It was supposed to be a severe beating," journalist Chuck Philips is quoted as telling MTV. "But Tupac pulled a gun, and it went haywire."

Two years later, Shakur would be killed in Las Vegas. His death and the 1997 killing of Wallace remain unsolved.

Both Wallace and Combs said they had no part in any attack on Shakur.

The L.A. Times piece said the 1994 incident might have been meant to force Shakur to join a label run by Combs.

In 2002, a Phillips article claimed that Wallace offered the Crips gang $1 million to murder Shakur, a claim Wallace's family has denied.

----------

The information focuses on two New York hip-hop figures -- talent manager James "Jimmy Henchman" Rosemond and promoter James Sabatino, who is now in prison for unrelated crimes.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/...5627,full.story

LA Times Apologizes for Shakur Story

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Los Angeles Times apologized for using documents that were apparently fabricated in a story implicating associates of Sean "Diddy" Combs in a 1994 assault on rapper Tupac Shakur.

"The bottom line is that the documents we relied on should not have been used," Editor Russ Stanton said in a story posted Wednesday night on the newspaper's Web site. "We apologize both to our readers and to those referenced in the documents ... and in the story."

Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Chuck Philips, who wrote the story, and his supervisor, Deputy Managing Editor Marc Duvoisin, also apologized.

The apologies followed an investigation launched by Stanton after The Smoking Gun Web site reported earlier in the day that the paper was conned by a prisoner who doctored the documents.

Combs denied that he had any prior knowledge of or involvement in the robbery and shooting of Shakur at a New York recording studio. He and other subjects of the story claimed they had been defamed by the newspaper.

The Smoking Gun said the documents seemed phony because they appeared to be written on a typewriter instead of a computer and included blacked-out sections not typically found in such documents, among other problems.

The Web site claimed the documents were fabricated by a prison inmate with a history of exaggerating his place in the rap music world.

The Times said its March 17 story was based on FBI records, interviews with people at the scene of the 1994 shooting, and statements to the FBI by an informant.

None of the sources was named.

Philips said Wednesday that a former FBI agent examined the documents in question for him and said they appeared to be legitimate.

But Philips said he wished he had done more to investigate their authenticity.

"I now believe the truth here is I got duped," he said.

Marc Lichtman, an attorney representing rap manager James Rosemond, one of two men the story linked to the Shakur attack, had earlier demanded an apology.

"I would suggest to Mr. Philips and his editors that they immediately print an apology and take out their checkbooks - or brace themselves for an epic lawsuit," Lichtman said Wednesday.

The shooting triggered a feud between East and West Coast rappers that led to the killings of Shakur and Notorious B.I.G.

The story said associates hoping to curry favor with Combs - who was overseeing B.I.G.'s white-hot career at the time - lured Shakur to the studio because of his disrespect toward them.

The story and related features on latimes.com attracted nearly 1 million hits - more viewers than any other story on latimes.com this year, the newspaper said.

I heard something about the Black Mafia Family paying protection to the Gambinos in Atlanta Clubs. Does anybody know if thats true? Dont have a source from it but some dude from Atlanta was tellin me about it.

Huge narcotics probe nets gang 'prince,' police say
75 ARREST WARRANTS | Undercover buys, phone taps 'took down the hierarchy'

May 29, 2008

BY ANNIE SWEENEY Crime Reporter
For the past two years feared West Side gang leader “Shakey” Shawn Betts would hole up for a week at a time in his St. Charles home even as he kept close watch over his unusually organized drug empire in Chicago.

All the while, Chicago cops listened to his phone calls, bought his dope on street corners and watched as he snuck in and out of high-level gang meetings at a hardware store on West Madison.

This week, Betts and his notorious “Body Snatchers" faction of the Four Corner Hustlers street gang were taken down in one of the largest Chicago Police Department narcotics investigations ever. Seventy-five gang members were named in warrants, and 55 had been arrested by Thursday.

Betts, considered a “prince" in the Four Corner Hustlers, was arrested in his home Wednesday.

Several other high-ranking gang members were arrested, including convicted murderer and Four Corner Hustler “chief" Gregory Brown and Leroy “Soap” Palmer, a member of the Black Souls street gang who allegedly supplied drugs to Betts and was arrested at his Austin home with three handguns and an assault rifle. He’s already been locked up eight times for charges ranging from manslaughter to burglary.

“We took down the hierarchy," said Narcotics Cmdr. Nick Roti. “The people who are hard to take off the street because they are very insulated. We had them from the very top."

The investigation was launched in 2006 after crime numbers in the Austin District showed just how deadly Betts’ organization was. In 2005 when Betts was locked up in an Illinois prison, the district saw a record drop in homicides. In 2006 — the same year Betts was released and allegedly reestablishing himself — the homicides jumped by six.

“Both vicious and indiscriminate, the Body Snatchers are responsible for many shootings and homicides that plagued the West Side," said Frank Limon, the chief of Organized Crime.

Officers from the narcotics, gang intelligence and asset forfeiture sections listened to 22,000 phone calls and made 100 undercover buys at six drug spots Betts allegedly ran. Police say he controlled 75 percent of drug and gang activity in the Austin district.

Betts’ drug business —augmented by the sale of stolen cigarettes and morphine —stretched into the Harrison and Grand Central districts and allegedly brought in between $3,000 and $6,000 a week.

Betts, described as cocky and cautious, ran an organization noted for being highly structured similar to Larry Hoover’s Gangster Disciples. Such gang hierarchies have broken down in recent years as smaller neighborhood factions have emerged.

“Shawn Betts was feared, and still is, on the streets,” Roti said. “That’s why he was able to control these spots."

Corpse found in Queens was ex-Busta Rhymes bodyguard
By Caitlin Millat and Alison Gendar
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Saturday, May 31st 2008, 4:00 AM

A bullet-riddled body found in Queens this week was that of a one-time bodyguard for Busta Rhymes - the rap star's second enforcer to be murdered in two years, police and sources said Friday.

Police found the remains of Jermaine Williams, 35, wrapped in a blanket in a bloody truck parked on 79th St. in Ozone Park on Wednesday. He had been shot multiple times.

"We have all suffered a great loss and Jermaine Williams will be deeply missed," Rhymes said Friday through his lawyer, Scott Leemon.

Williams' family said the Bronx father of two had been visiting his grandmother, but didn't know what happened after that. No arrests have been made.

Another Rhymes bodyguard, Israel Ramirez, 29, was gunned down in 2006 during a celebrity-studded video shoot in Brooklyn - just feet from the rapper. The case remains unsolved.

"organized crime" is a very broad term, it can refer to a countless number of operations. When you say "black organized crime" what you're really referring to is African drug dealers. I no longer care for discussion about Lucas or Barnes, ever since that one movie came out. And that Mcgriff kid was small potatoes.

Rick Ross is one of my favorites, the 1980-90s cocaine trafficker who flooded much of the nation with the debut of crack. This guy is a respectable character and his foundation deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as any drug dealer's in history. Extremely interesting story, unbelievable success.

http://www.streetgangs.com/magazine/freewayrick.html

Check out info the guy named Waterhead Bo he made Ross look small. This african american in Los Angeles was responsible for movin a ton of coke a week with the colombians.

I heard that the Black Mafia Family has more money than an average LCN family. But are they more powerful than them. The Black Mafia Family Im talking about is the guys who are affiliated with the rap industry like Big Meech.

where are you hearing these things?

On the articles which said the BMF is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I dont know if they have a lot of power, but they do with money.

One of the darker aspects of the on-going FBI probe of corruption in Philadelphia circulates around a man named Shamsun-din Ali. According to FBI he, with the help of longtime friend and political ally Ron White, engineered a deal where he was paid to "collect" back real estate taxes from a prominant Chestnut Hill property manager.

According to the FBI, although the property manager had already paid the taxes in full to an aide of city council member Donna Reed Miller, White and Ali arranged for Ali to get a contract from the city to "collect" the back taxes. Ali was allowed to reduce the amount of taxes due to the city, giving the realty company a healthy discount and paying himself a handy commision in the process. Ali allegedly split this commision with Miller's aide who held onto the first check for payment in full and of the back taxes and later destroyed the check after Ali had gotten his second partial payment. The FBI has detailed wiretaps of negotiations of this transaction, ehich have been published in both daily newspapers.

Ali's wife and daughter are accused of running a no-work adult education scheme where various members of their family and church were paid for teaching adult literacy and GED classes that were never actually held.

The even more nefarious side of the FBI allegations claim that Ali had been a higher up in the Junior Black Mafia since his time in prison the 70's and that he contiues to be. According to reports in the Philadelphia Daily News, the FBI first found out about the real estate tax collection scheme indirectly because the were wiretapping the cell phones a drug ring, who were talking about having to drop off a "street tax" payment to Ali as boss in the Junior Black Mafia, which led to taps on Ali's cell phone and then to information on the tax collection scheme. The assumption is that the Feds don't have enough evidence for a succesful RICO prosecution of Ali but enough, they believe, for a succesful case on municipal corruption.

Some of the allegations about Ali are quite eye-opening. What do people make of this man, Shamsud-din Ali? Is he an innocent man of the cloth or a cold-blooded mobster with close ties to various players in city government? What about his close personal relationship both as a friend and personal religious advisor to Kenny Gamble?