Those barriers made it hard for anyoneincluding Mayor Coleman Young, who initially ran on a platform of police reformto make meaningful changes that could have promoted accountability within the department. The 44-year old Lattner once led what was known as the World Domination Gang, a drug crew operating out of Detroit's near Westside in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Errol Flynns evolved, like other Detroit street gangs such as their Westside Detroit counterparts in the late 70's the Nasty Flynns (later the NF Bangers) and Black Killers" or drug consortiums of the 1980's such as Young Boys Inc., Pony Down, Best Friends, Black Mafia Family and the Chambers Brothers, out of the racial and economic unrest . White Boy (2017), directed by Shawn Rech (Transition Studios, 2017). Mifflintown, PA 17059. FOX 2 Detroit (WJBK) - Richard Wershe Jr., known since the late 1980s by his street sobriquet of White Boy Rick, claims he got his start in the drug trade as a 14-year-old informant for the FBI. You will not have too much time for parties and concerts. He was prosecuted and convicted under the state of Michigans 650-lifer lawa statute that required a mandatory life sentence for anyone convicted of possession of over 650 grams of heroin or cocaine. ''You look at their track record. Initially based in Southwest Detroit, brothers Terry and Demetrius Flenory, the founders and ringleaders of the group, began their drug trafficking careers selling $50 bags of crack during their high school years in the mid-1980s. She sat at her post 24 hours a day, sleeping ''when the traffic would slow down,'' she said, and taking turns on busy days with her 14-year-old sister, Alicia. It's like an alternative to Little League. The multi-tiered organization would grow even bigger in the years to come. Deadline Detroit Editor Allan Lengel believes Wersche's nickname has worked against him. Using the wiretap, Groman had heard Curry talking to an associate about a recent homicide of a 13-year-old bringing heat on his organization. During the 1980s and 1990s, as the War on Drugs intensified in cities across the United States, narcotics corruption in Detroit seemed to flourish. "These police officers, ladies and gentlemen, committed a breach of trust to the community that can ill afford such a breach. Twice in 2014, Brown allegedly arranged to have a large amount of cash picked up and sent to a large drug ring, according to the DEA. The story of that murder and the subsequent accusations of a police coverup are detailed at length elsewhere in this exhibit, so abasic summary will suffice here. ''We didn't have crack two years ago. Uncategorized Wershe was caught smuggling more than 17 pounds of cocaine from Florida to Michigan. Early in his career Harris actions initiated the Rochester St. Massacre, a deadly shooting between undercover DPD officers and a group of off-duty Sheriff's deputies. Sports Brown pursued her for his rap label because he has a penchant for big boobs and butts, Knight alleges. For Detroiters who regularly read the local news, Operation Backbone would not have been the first time they heard about DPD officers involved in the drug trade. Brown said that the money was going to be delivered by a man driving an older model gold-colored Buick, Popp wrote. During that meeting, Johnny Curry allegedly told Groman that he had met with Gil Hill shortly after Damion Lucas was killed and given him $10,000 dollars with the understanding that Hill would protect the Curry organization. In February 2014, an undercover DEA agent negotiated with Brown to pick up money at an Olive Garden restaurant in Livonia. The DEA case started with a confidential informant. Why was drug corruption such a ubiquitous feature of policing in Detroit during the second half of the 20th century? Holloway teamed with his childhood best friend, the flashier and more impulsive Richard (Maserati Rick) Carter, to expand his territory and make contacts in the entertainment and pro sports scenes. Harris refused to do so. In October 2014, DEA agents tracked the Volvo from Redford Township to California and arranged a traffic stop. James Harris is arrested at the conclusion of Operation Backbone. Area code. In January 1988, he was incarcerated at the age of 17 for a non-violent drug crime. ''Fifty thousand here. Two months later, while free on bond, Brown allegedly beat one of his rappers, Charli Baltimore, whose real name is Tiffany Lane-Jarmon. A fourth, Carl Young, was arrested in California recently and charged with conspiracy in Michigan. In 1987 the multi-agency investigation into the Curry drug organization began to close in on its targets. Examining Johnny Currys phone records prior to the wiretap, Groman found that in the immediate aftermath of the Lucas murder Curry had made several calls to unlisted numbers of two members of the DPD: a Seargant named James Jimmy Harris, and the then-head of Detroits homicide section, a future Detroit City Council member named Gil Hill. He said the presence of the media, and "the presence of a lot of kids in the courtroom created the atmosphere of almost like being a circus" every time they left the court. By Guy Gugliotta and. The alleged reality show Lifetime officials did not respond to a message seeking comment has a name. During the raid, agents found heroin and fentanyl, a synthetic substance that makes smaller doses of heroin more potent. Once in prison, Wersche returned to his roots as an informant, this time helping the FBI bust dirty cops. Inventories of what, if anything, was seized during the raids are sealed in federal court. Many other major cities at the time, including New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, to name a few, also had major scandals featuring police involvement in the drug trade during that same period. The sly, cultured and fastidious 32-year old Holloway was gunned down inside The Broadway, a trendy urban clothier in downtown Detroit, on October 8, 1990. In 1988 and 1989, the Detroit News ran several stories noting increases in high profile police crimes, many of which involved drugs and drug corruption. One witness testified that he saw a gang leader put the body of a rival drug dealer into a trash bin. Rivalries often developed between the Southern recruits and the Detroit workers, bickering over favoritism and turf. Were asking our informants, who is this guy?, where did he come from? Just as the FBI had suspected, Volsan-Curry told the undercover agent, whose real name was Mike Castro, that she could use her connections in the DPD to provide police protection for him to bring cash and drugs into Detroit. In November, U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds gave Brown additional freedom. It was very difficult for us to track.. People The guy could have taught a class on how to make your dirty money work for you and become clean money. That is especially true when, like the Brown investigation, the probe spans states, delves into financial records and relies on informants, search warrants and wiretaps, said Jones Day law firm partner Louis Gabel. Nestel On 12/18/18 at 3:11 PM EST. An Empire Is Crippled But Not Vanquished. October 14, 1990. It's. The brothers came here in 1983 after the eldest, Willie Lee, got a job as a mail carrier. As before, Wersche the friend of law enforcement soon found himself on the wrong side of the law. Johnny Curry sat down with Local 4 Defender Kevin Dietz with no topics off-limits. Both Kincaid and Holloway were schooled in street affairs as youngsters on Detroits eastside by the old Murder Row crew, also known simply as the Detroit Black mob. BMB Records owner Brian Peanut Brown also is responsible for selling heroin laced with fentanyl, the synthetic pain medication fueling the nations deadliest addiction crisis, according to court records that chronicle a sprawling drug investigation involving Browns wife, a girlfriend, millions in drug profits and a mansion with a secret Narnia room. In May 2014, DEA agents interviewed a drug dealer who was ordered to travel from Los Angeles to the Chicago area and stay at a home in Skokie, Ill. A new series from Starz captures a slice of Motor City life as vividly as the HBO mob classic interprets Tony Soprano's New Jersey. She was an unemployed mother of four and $540,000 in debt when she filed bankruptcy in 2009, the year before her husband finished his prison sentence. Regions Movies Federal drug agents already were investigating Black in the deaths of two rival drug dealers in Detroit. News The rap mogul and wife Akia Brown have established several businesses, including BMB Records, to hide and disguise drug profits, the DEA alleges in the search warrant document. By Isabel Wilkerson, Special To the New York Times. Both groups of law enforcement officers apparently mistook each other for criminals and a gun battle broke out between them resulting in the death of one of the Sheriffs Deputies and the permanent paralysis of another. ''What you have is four guys coming up from Arkansas who wander around and decide to take over the dope business in Detroit,'' said Mr. Bunting, the prosecutor. The list of properties included Browns home in Warren, the house on Tracey, a Detroit riverfront loft and a home on West Parkway in Detroit used by Brown. The roster also includes rapper Kash Doll, a former exotic dancer. Though one condition of his release was that Brown was not supposed to commit any new crimes for five years, Brown allegedly resumed his drug-dealing career, graduating from cocaine to heroin, according to court records. "A name like that, it sort of makes him stand out.". I dont want to say these people are washed up, but. They were convicted of the hit a decade later. The informant was a teenager by the name of Rick Wershe Jr. who had started working as an undercover informant for both the FBI and Detroit police when he was just 14 years old. 1. Detroit Brown would send the heroin to Alabama in vehicles equipped with a concealed or secret compartment , wrote Popp, the DEA agent. When agents found the man, he had the same Nissan Altima linked three months earlier to Browns wife Akia. Gangster Report, Copyrightdocument.write(new Date().getFullYear());Deadline Detroit, Inc. - All Rights Reserved, 'Detroit In Black And White:' Why We Got Kicked Off 910 AM, Randy Wimbley Leaving Fox 2 After a Decade on the Air. Mafia Insider And two, Terry actually had a bullet graze his eye and the doctors messed up the surgery. Case Files Bikers For countless other problem officers, a lack of accountability similarly enabled continued misconduct and corruption. ''It was hard to sort things out because so many people did so many things.'' During the 1980s and 1990s, as the War on Drugs intensified in cities across the United States, narcotics corruption in Detroit seemed to flourish. Drug Gangs Detroit A prominent Detroit music mogul allegedly is one of the largest heroin dealers in the Midwest and using his rap label to launder drug money, according to sealed federal court records. Investigators seized 1 kilogram of heroin, three firearms, $2,365 and three Harley-Davidson motorcycles, according to court records. The operation began in 1990 and ended in May 1991 with the arrest of 11 police officers and 5 civilians. The home is owned by Akia Browns property management company and is the address on Brian Browns drivers license, according to Warren property records and the search warrant affidavit. One day hes in prison, the next hes out here making moves, running the city. The FBI estimated that they sold anywhere between $150 to $200 million worth of drugs in the 1980s. In March 1972, a group of STRESS officers conducted an impromptu raid on an apartment filled with off-duty Wayne County Sheriffs Deputies. 32 charged in Detroit drug ring July 20, 2005 - detnews.com Federal prosecutors say suspects netted $178 million, making it the largest drug case in Michigan history. Darryl "God" Whiting was always so much more than a drug dealer. Accumulating more than a million dollars a month in heroin sales, these childhood friends lived lavish, privileged lifestyles, that today's nickel and dime street hustlers could only dream of. With hard work and dedication, we will all be rich within 12 months.'' 2023 The Detroit News, a Digital First Media Newspaper. Police towed the car and opened the trunk. On social media, Brown portrays himself as a successful hood hero and last month posted a billboard near McNichols and I-75 promoting an upcoming self-help book. The car collection cost $519,000, or about 14 times as much money as Brown reported on his 2011 taxes, according to the search warrant affidavit. Brown was a familiar face to Detroit drug investigators. Wershe Jr. agreed and set up the meeting. Paul Lir Alexander is known as one of the richest Brazilian drug lords. The lawsuit appears to adopt scenes from the critically acclaimed movie Straight Outta Compton, Browns attorney Alanna ORourke wrote in a court filing. First, through a meeting with Willie Volsan, they attempted to bring Gil Hill on board with their phony drug operation. While behind bars, he got caught up in a scheme to sell stolen cars that resulted in a criminal conviction in Florida. Mr. Supervisors, conscious of the need for quality control, would go to the crack houses posing as buyers, accord-ing to testimony at the trial. Brown buys the drug from a group in California that has direct ties to Mexican drug cartels, the informant said. Detroit Police Sgt. BMBs videos are cinematic, dramatic and occasionally star Brown. Featured A month later, in January 2015, the investigation led to Birmingham, Alabama, where agents raided a home and arrested Eric Young, who banking records showed had wired money to Brian Brown. Yet Wersche remained in prison. The gun belonged to Brown, his girlfriend told agents, court records show. In order to understand the emergence of high-volume policing in the mid- to late-1980s, understanding the infrastructure of organized gangs and the conversion of youth . James Harris actually moved up in the ranks after the Rochester Street Massacre. Archives Documentary In the early 1990s, Wershe cooperated with the FBI while behind bars in Michigan, and helped set up a sting that netted a string of crooked cops. During the mid-1980s Groman was involved in a multi-agency investigation into the Curry drug organization and had reason to believe that Leo Curry and his brother Johnny Curry were involved in the murder. ''If you are planning on getting rich you must forget about your girlfriends and family. DEA agents in California hid a GPS tracking device on the Altima in June 2014 and traced the car to Browns wife, Akia, according to the court file. He did six years in prison for peddling cocaine and heroin and got out in 2010. The lawsuit repeats some of the same allegations contained in the sealed federal search warrant, namely that Brown is a large-scale heroin dealer in the Midwest and that he is using BMB Records to launder drug money. Brown also supplied heroin to a convicted felon in Baltimore, a confidential source told DEA agents. (WJBK) - Richard Wershe Jr., known since the late 1980s by his street sobriquet of White Boy Rick, claims he got his start in the drug trade as a 14-year-old informant for the FBI. The brothers themselves were brutal in their dealings with competitors. Yes, Taylor said. Their alleged corruption raises questions about the systemic lack of accountability that allowed bad apples to make careers as police officers and rise through the ranks to positions of power, even when there had been earlier signs of their misconduct. ''There are just other fish in the pond getting more business.''. Joe Harry Pegg was born Nov. 8, 1947 near Pontiac, Mich . The lack of accountability for Harris put him in a position to abuse his power to help drug traffickers launder money and smuggle cocaine into Detroit. The DEA informant traveled to the Bob Evans restaurant at the prearranged time and met with a man who handed over a green bag filled with $100,060. Although Hill hardly acted surprised by the request, telling agent Castro he would consider it, he ultimately did not take the bait. The heroin and fentanyl investigation coincides with a 57 percent rise in overdose deaths nationwide in recent years tied to synthetic opioids. Seven months later, in March 2013, Browns entertainment company, BMB Records, was created and registered at the same house raided by Detroit Police. More than $1 million flowed into the rap labels two bank accounts between June 2013 and October 2015, according to court records. The videotapes were confiscated by Detroit police officers in a raid of one of the organization's crack houses and later broadcast on Detroit television stations. Around the time of the Damion Lucas murder the FBI had been able to arrange a wiretap on Johnny Currys phone. Recently the brothers who founded the business, Billy Jo, Larry, Otis and Willie Lee Chambers, and eight associates were convicted of conspiracy in a trial that offered a rare glimpse into the phenomenal rise and inner workings of a drug organization that was run like a Fortune 500 company. Leon Lucas allegedly owed money to Leo Curry, a prominent drug dealer and one of the leaders of the Curry Brothers drug organization. Although the law was changed in 1998, Wershe Jr. was not granted parole until 2017, having already served nearly 30 years in prison for a non-violent drug offense he committed when he was still a minor. He wants a new start, he wants his family, he wants his kids," said his sister Dawn. Headline from the Detroit Free Pressshortly after the federal indictments against the leaders of the Curry drug organization. In the 1980s, Curry was one of. Groman, for his part, remained deeply concerned about the possibility of high level corruption in the DPD. New York He was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. They also found a loaded and stolen .40-caliber Smith & Wesson semi-automatic handgun on a nightstand in the master bedroom, a commercial money counter and drug packaging materials, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court. Detroit Free Press, ProQuest Historical Newspapers. The FBI made two unsuccessful attempts to prove that Gil Hill was also corrupt. Detroit drug kingpin released from life sentence is ordered back to prison By Joshua Rhett Miller February 9, 2021 9:15am Updated John Bass was initially set free on Jan. 22 on compassionate. Undercover FBI agent Mike Castro invited Willie Volsan and James Harris to meet with him in Miami. After the bus busts, Black headed south. I am not convinced that these artists are actually making him that much money. One former employee, Felicia Gilchrist, who is 19 years old, testified that she took her week-old baby with her to the crack house where she sold crack through a hole in a wall. Usergen Although James Harris and two other STRESS officers were charged with assault with intent to kill for their actions during the shootout, the Wayne County Prosecutors' case against them was notably weaker than it could have been given the evidence and a jury found all three officers not guilty. More than a drug dealer into a trash bin with Local 4 Defender Kevin Dietz with no off-limits. 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