He was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. Convinced that police corruption had compromised the Damion Lucas case, yet unable to prove it, Groman soon transferred to the public corruption unit of the Detroit FBI. It is unclear whether the government has enough evidence to file drug charges against Brown, who has remained out of jail after federal agents obtained a search warrant to raid at least six homes and two banks. Former Fox 2 Investigative Reporter Vince Wade thinks Wersche's problem runs deeper than a notorious nickname. His behavior in the aftermath of Johnson's murder brought scrutiny. But we had seven crack arrests so far this year and all of them had Detroit connections. "You see a lot of other drug dealers, much bigger than him, who got convicted in the federal system who are out after 10 years," he said. By Isabel Wilkerson, Special To the New York Times. Even after Harris acquittal in the criminal case resulting from the incident, the DPD could have still fired Harris for demonstrating a lack of restraint and judgment. Drug Gangs "I essentially think that Richard Wersche is a political prisoner, because he told on the wrong people," he said. 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. When Detroit police arrested Lakeas Davis, foreclosing the possibility of a serious inquiry into the alleged involvement of the Curry brothers, Groman was dismayed and attempted to contact Detroit homicide to convince the department that it had arrested the wrong suspect. Shereker Wilkins died on her ninth birthday last month, killed by a stray bullet fired from the . Rivalries often developed between the Southern recruits and the Detroit workers, bickering over favoritism and turf. 1. 8 + 1 equals? The independent labels stable of entertainers includes Ray J, a singer and actor who starred in a pornographic video with Kim Kardashian; rapper Bre-Z, who stars on the hit Fox drama Empire; and Charli Baltimore, a platinum blonde perhaps best known for dating the late rapper The Notorious B.I.G. 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. ''There are just other fish in the pond getting more business.''. "A name like that, it sort of makes him stand out.". Detroit News, News Bank - Access World News. In one video co-directed by Detroit rapper Trick Trick, Brown steps from a luxury sedan in slow motion, smooths wrinkles on his suit and attends a clandestine meeting in an industrial ruin. Wershe Jr. was just 14-years-old in 1984 when he started working as an informant for the FBI. Interview What other factors might help explain the pattern of police crime and corruption that plagued the DPD for decades? Drug Dealers Allegedly Flew Drugs in Suitcases From Los Angeles to Detroit. Moreover, Harris demonstrated was the primary link between the undercover FBI agents and the other corrupt officers who helped protect drug shipments during Operation Backbone. Podcasts how old is alec and kaleb on the shriners commercial. Wayne County prosecutors, for example, were also reluctant to seriously pursue charges against police officers, as they showed in the aftermath of the Rochester St. Massacre. Compounding these issues was a powerful, primarily white police union and a strong pro-police political base in city politics. In October 2014, DEA agents tracked the Volvo from Redford Township to California and arranged a traffic stop. 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. Carter was shockingly shot to death in his hospital bed on September 12, 1988 and in the weeks that followed, Holloway staged his own kidnapping outside a fast-food burger joint and went into hiding. Interview of Herman Groman by Jerri Williams, September 2017,FBI Retired Case File Review, Episode 085,Spotify. Lewis has been a major drug dealer in Metro Detroit since 1990, the government said -- and previously was partners with Tommie Hodges, another major drug dealer before the . An Empire Is Crippled But Not Vanquished. 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. Less than a week earlier, while Brooks was selling crack outside of a laundromat in the East Side, he happened to see Bell leaving a home where police later discovered the body of Willa B. He is currently serving time at the Oaks Correctional Facility in Manistee. Detroit ''There are obviously people out there who have taken over the crack business,'' Mr. Coonce, the Federal agent, said. So, do that right thing," said Schwarz. 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. Federal drug agents already were investigating Black in the deaths of two rival drug dealers in Detroit. As the corruption of James Harris and the suspected corruption of Gil Hill makes clear, illicit police activities were in no way limited to officers specifically tasked with narcotics enforcement. Detroit Drug World Murder Timeline: YBI, Best Friends, Maserati & Original Big Meech Brought Chaos To Motown Streets In 1980s - The Gangster Report African-American Drug Gangs Featured Mob Hits Detroit Drug World Murder Timeline: YBI, Best Friends, Maserati & Original Big Meech Brought Chaos To Motown Streets In 1980s 6 years ago Scott Burnstein A probation officer concluded Brown violated conditions of his release from federal prison, but Brown remained a free man. Despite the federal drug investigation, the gun charge, and accusations by Charli Baltimore, Brown remains free on bond. Menu. The rest of Detroit was meant to feel a little better, even though Wersche's conviction meant only one enemy had been taken out in the increasingly futile war on drugs. You will not have too much time for parties and concerts. DEA agents allege Brown was a hands-on leader of the drug ring. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. This argument certainly holds some weight in the case of Detroit, with many of the citys major corruption scandals having centered around the drug trade. Police found more than 400 grams of cocaine and $30,000 while busting a drug dealer they believe was . Obviously they're not going to walk into a K Mart or General Motors and get a job. South It was very difficult for us to track.. The brothers came here in 1983 after the eldest, Willie Lee, got a job as a mail carrier. Even prior to Richard Wershe Jr.s involvement in Operation Backbone, the teenage drug dealer was a favorite subject for many members of the press in Detroit, who tended to overstate his prominence in the Detroit drug market and gave him the sensationalized nickname White Boy Rick. In actuality, Wershe Jr. began working as a DPD and FBI informant prior to his involvement in the drug trade. Although Operation Backbone was only one of several outside investigations into corruption in the DPD and Detroits city government during the late 1980s and early 1990s, its focus on narcotics corruption and its relative proximity to Mayor Coleman Young made it an attractive subject for the press and one of the most consequential scandals to play out in Detroit during that period. Featured Featured Philadelphia Was selling alcohol a good cover for Al Capone? The guy could have taught a class on how to make your dirty money work for you and become clean money. In February 2014, an undercover DEA agent negotiated with Brown to pick up money at an Olive Garden restaurant in Livonia. The alleged drug conspiracy also involves Browns main girlfriend in Detroit, according to a DEA informant. After the arrest of the Curry brothers, Groman met with Johnny Curry and asked him about the suspected police coverup of the Damion Lucas murder. Agents conducted undercover surveillance on the couples 6,900-square-foot house, which includes a secret Narnia-themed room hidden behind an armoire, and spotted Browns stable of luxury cars. Sean "Diddy" Combs portrayed Barnes in the movie Carlito's Way: Rise to Power. Within days, the tracking device showed the Altima at a home on Tracey Street on Detroits west side. In 1987 Detroit police caught Wershe Jr. with a large package of cocaine. It was there that he helped launch an undercover investigation into the police corruption in Detroit. The organization amassed great wealth in its brief reign before the brothers were arrested in February after an 18-month investigation. 2023 FOX Television Stations, Family of 6 loses home in house fire, says dog saved 1-year-old in blaze, Facebook did nothing to help woman whose special needs nephew was bullied online, General Motors layoffs coming for white collar workers, The Doctor Is In: Colon Cancer Awareness and the Importance of Early Detection, Angry customers says bad contractor Mr. Brooks just babbles, Detroit sues bishop over unfinished Perfecting Church on Woodward, Morning showers and warm temperatures Wednesday with more storm brewing, Michigan's marijuana industry sending $60M to cities and counties with pot businesses, Otus Supply, popular restaurant and music venue in Ferndale closes abruptly, Oakland County man wins 2 jackpots after accidentally buying Michigan Lottery ticket twice. The money he was making was spread out all over the place. West Coast, Burnstein Op-Ed: Reports Of Chicago Mob Legend Jimmy Is Role As Informant Missing Context, Rewarding FBI For Hypocrisy, Bad Faith, Chicago Mafia Don Solly D DeLaurentis Not Present At Underboss Jimmy Is Wake, As Windy City Underworld Mourns Loss, Pagans MC Parties In The Ozarks As Part Of Expansion Agenda, Recruiting Rally In Branson, Missouri Runs Smoothly, GR SOURCES: Hells Angels Want Backing From Highwaymen MC In Fight With Outlaws MC For Brand Building In Michigan, The Golden Touch In Cicero: New Power Player, Louie Rainone, Emerges In Chicago Mob Circles, Per Sources. The tendency to overlook police misconduct was not limited to the rank and file officers, or even to members of the DPD itself. '', Indeed, community leaders say the crack problem is as desperate as it has ever been. The DEA would not discuss the case but confirmed the ongoing investigation. 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. A BMB Records publicist declined comment. The FBI posed as drug traffickers and money. People Detroit 'Empire': Rap boss attracts DEA scrutiny. A DEA informant called the alleged drug dealers cellphone and arranged to pick up the cash at a Bob Evans restaurant near Dequindre and 10 Mile in Warren. In January 1988, he was incarcerated at the age of 17 for a non-violent drug crime. It had a population of 17,552 in 2021. More than $1 million flowed into the rap labels two bank accounts between June 2013 and October 2015, according to court records. While behind bars, he got caught up in a scheme to sell stolen cars that resulted in a criminal conviction in Florida. Drug Gangs The municipality covers an area of 26.51 km 2 (10.24 sq mi) of which 0.56 km 2 (0.22 sq mi) is water. One of those who responded to the lure was Terry Colbert. You know theyd all remember and say goddamn Jimmy Harris told em, testified against the Mayor and police officers and other people.. Ricks father, Wershe Sr., was himself working as a police informant by the mid-1980s. It was through his father that the FBI and DPD were introduced to Wershe Jr. and began soliciting information from him about suspected drug dealers that he knew from the neighborhood in which he lived. Darryl "God" Whiting was always so much more than a drug dealer. Wersche's attorney claimed his client didn't get a fair shake. Within a matter of months of walking free, Holloway planted his flag, building a mammoth wholesale cocaine operation with reach into every nook and cranny of the business in the state of Michigan. By . Illinois had the sixth-highest number of opioid overdose deaths (1,381), and Michigan the eighth-highest (1,309). Officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Detroit Police Department seized $1 million in cash and jewelry, 68 automobiles and 250 weapons. White Boy (2017), directed by Shawn Rech (Transition Studios, 2017). As a result of the impunity enjoyed by many DPD officers, problem officers were allowed to continue within the department and corruption and misconduct became chronic issues. Willie Volsan proceeded to arrange for DPD Sergeant James Harris, along with several other DPD officers, to provide Castro with a police escort as he brought briefcases full of supposed drug money from the Detroit airport to a local bank for laundering. The FBI and Castro made four successful runs pretending to launder drug money, each time paying the corrupt police escort upwards of $5,000 for their illicit services. cartel Anyone can read what you share. '', Everyone in Marianna knew when the brothers were in town recruiting. According to Wershe, Curry had brought up concerns that his organiation was being targeted as part of the Damion Lucas murder investigation and Hill had assured Curry that he would take care of it., Former head of homicide and Detroit City Councilman Gil Hill. The money orders arrived in an envelope with the return address of a 1,900-square-foot ranch-style home near Masch Avenue and Eight Mile in Warren. Even more compelling for Groman and the FBI were the statements of an informant in the Curry narcotics investigation describing a call between Curry and Gil Hill concerning the Lucas killing. In the aftermath of the episode, which came to be known as the Rochester Street Massacre," some anti-STRESS activists speculated that the incident may have been a result of two groups of corrupt law enforcement officers competing for access to the city's lucrative drug trade. Photograph courtesy of Vince Wade via Crimetown Podcast. ''Those tapes really hurt,'' said Anthony Chambers, who is Larry Chambers's lawyer but is not related to his client. Brown would send the heroin to Alabama in vehicles equipped with a concealed or secret compartment , wrote Popp, the DEA agent. 'Money, Money, Money' In Some Family Videos. Davis was finally released after spending nine months in jail, and no further charges were ever brought in the Damion Lucas case. East Coast ''But I'd like to think we put some fear in people. ''If you are planning on getting rich you must forget about your girlfriends and family. The next month, in December 2014, the investigations focus returned to Michigan. Damion Lucas was killed accidentally during a drive-by shooting that by all accounts was targeting his uncle, Leon Lucas. We're saying that the more established you are, the more ostentatious you are, the more successful you are, the more visible you are - that's just going to enhance your downfall. 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. 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. The punishment is mandatory life in prison. In time, the brothers became so arrogant that they made home videotapes of themselves, counting stacks of money and showing off the gold faucets in their bathrooms and other trappings of their wealth. Regions Someone else on the tape asks, in jest, what should be done with all the money. Leon Lucas allegedly owed money to Leo Curry, a prominent drug dealer and one of the leaders of the Curry Brothers drug organization. The 50-page federal court record contradicts Browns redemption story crafted after he emerged from a decade-long prison sentence for drug conspiracy in 2010. October 14, 1990. He is a former assistant U.S. attorney who in 2014 successfully prosecuted three fez-wearing drug dealers involved in one of the largest narcotics rings in Metro Detroit history. In the video of Harris meeting with undercover FBI agent Mike Castro in Miami, Harris appears relaxed and eager while engaging with people he believed to be major drug traffickers. DETROIT (FOX 2) - In one of the largest racketeering and conspiracy busts in Detroit 's history, 40 members of the Detroit gang Almighty Vice Lords have been arrested on charges ranging from. Police estimated Young Boys Inc., one of the city`s most notorious gangs, had . Come the summer of 1987, Maserati Rick Carter got himself and Holloway entangled in a beef with Eastside drug chief Edward (Black Ed) Hanserd, a one-time customer of the pair turned competitor with a sudden flush supply line out of California. 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. The fleet included a gray Nissan Altima, the DEA alleges. Therefore, although exceptional in some respects, the corruption unearthed by Operation Backbone can nevertheless provide important insights about larger patterns of police misconduct in Detroit and the institutional flaws that enabled police criminality. He recruited the four towering and brutish Brown brothers (Rocking Reggie, Boogaloo, Ghost, & Wizard,) and their Best Friends crew to be his enforcement wing. Operation Backbone began in earnest in September 1990. . Brown said that the money was going to be delivered by a man driving an older model gold-colored Buick, Popp wrote. Prosecutors seized them as part of a multi-agency effort to halt drug sales in nearby English Avenue, the area nicknamed "The Bluff" that is known as a hub of the Southeast's heroin trade. Two former high-profile drug dealers are trying to make a positive impact in their old Detroit neighborhoods. African-American "I don't know of anybody that I've dealt with over the years - and I've been in now, associated with the FBI for I'm going on 46 years - I've never seen anybody cooperate like Richard Wersche. Kincaid was locked up for a murder he committed as a teenager in 1975. Following the acquittal, all three officers continued working for the DPD. Despite that connection, Detroit homicide investigators instead chose to pursue charges against a man named Lakeas Davis, who had allegedly been seen arguing with Leon Lucas weeks earlier. 'In on the Ground Floor'. Take a look at the BMB Records founder Brian Browns alleged drug empire and locations targeted by federal drug agents. She removed the GPS tether, freeing him to travel for business purposes. He wants a new start, he wants his family, he wants his kids," said his sister Dawn. 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. Detroit Free Press, ProQuest Historical Newspapers. . In many respects, it is like a choose your own adventure book and each new page of the investigation presents new opportunities and challenges.. People I believe that the Altima had been loaded with drugs that were transported from California to Detroit for distribution by Brian Brown and members of his (drug ring), Popp wrote. In a key tape, a high officer of the organization who is still at large is seen surveying stacks of bills in the kitchen. There, about 90 miles northwest of Detroit, the Shiawassee River meanders past a hamlet of low-rent, brick apartment buildings. After working with the FBI and DPD for several years, law enforcement eventually stopped using Wershe Jr. as an undercover informant. The indictments also named, although only as an unindicted co-conspirator, Johnny Currys wife, a woman named Cathy Volsan-Curry whose uncle was Mayor Coleman Young. She signed with BMB after the label paid for her $15,000 boob job, according to court records. Around the time of the Damion Lucas murder the FBI had been able to arrange a wiretap on Johnny Currys phone. Seven months later, in March 2013, Browns entertainment company, BMB Records, was created and registered at the same house raided by Detroit Police. The employers' guiding principles followed the workers everywhere. Investigators seized 1 kilogram of heroin, three firearms, $2,365 and three Harley-Davidson motorcycles, according to court records. The organization amassed great wealth in its brief reign before the brothers were arrested in February after an 18-month investigation. Rap mogul stays out of jail amid heroin investigation. Brown owns the home, according to the DEA and property records. ''I tell you what we can do,'' Larry Chambers says wryly. The Monster Squad had replaced the Browns and the Best Friends as Holloways strong-arm unit. Some would say that's not bad for a kid with an 8th grade education, but as his legend grew, so did the stakes. 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. 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. The problem is acute in the Midwest. From legitimate jobs they moved into their first venture in the drug trade: selling marijuana out of a convenience store. Ain't no telling how much is up there. Yet Wersche remained in prison. Holloways kingdom of cocaine began showing cracks by late 1986, as the Brown brothers branched out from muscle work to wholesale distribution and declared war on their former boss. The media was all over the story of a 17-year-old drug lord. This Texas-based drug titan's palatial Arlington. Thailand's police have apprehended a suspected drug dealer who allegedly underwent extensive plastic surgery to disguise himself as a "handsome Korean man" to avoid capture.. Local media have compared the case to the 1990s Hollywood film Face/Off, in which John Travolta and Nicholas Cage play an FBI agent and criminal respectively who swap faces using an experimental procedure. DEA agents learned a large drug ring needed money picked up from a Detroit-based drug dealer. 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. In April of that year a grand jury produced federal indictments leading to the arrests of Johnny and Leo Curry, as well as several of their close associates. Exclusive Expanding to other cities in the 1990s, the brothers extended their small scale trafficking organization into a . The authorities also confiscated six kilograms of cocaine. Denis allegedly transported the 27-year old addict and another woman to the home of convicted felon and sex offender, John David Niemiec at 53016 Bellamine Drive, Shelby Township 20 miles north of Detroit. The informant told DEA agents that Brown was one of the largest heroin dealers in the Midwest and had accumulated millions of dollars in cash, luxury vehicles and expensive jewelry, according to court records. Detroit Police Sgt. Bikers Low-level drug players, Lester (Little Les) Milton and Tommy (Toe Tag) Milton, wound up being convicted for carrying out the Holloway slaying. One day hes in prison, the next hes out here making moves, running the city. Holloways drug empire was vertically integrated and cloaked in a web of shell companies, real estate holdings and offshore-banking protections. Mafia Gimlet Inc. Crimetown, Episode 8, "Operation Backbone. Shortly after the conspiracy began, Watson was losing money and he enlisted other Detroit drug traffickers to travel to West Virginia and sell more heroin. 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. Despite their sworn commitment to do everything within their powers to protect this very beleaguered community, they have contributed directly to the forces that have undermined further security," said then-U.S. Attorney Stephen Markman. It led to shootings and at least four murders, officials said. Members Only Some of the killings were not part of the the Federal trial and are still under investigation. Documentary Two officers injured as police hold colleagues at gunpoint, unaware they are posing as drug dealers A Detroit narcotics officer. This Metro Detroit writer and author reports on organized crime and runs the websiteGangster Report,This is republished with permission. East Coast 0499. ''They didn't want to lose customers because someone was ripping them off,'' said Lawrence J. Bunting, an Assistant United States Attorney who helped prosecute the case. His service for the Mayor paid off in 1986 when he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant. Contributing to that belief, Willie Volsan reportedly bragged throughout his involvement in the operation about his close relationship with Gil Hill, the head of the DPD homicide section. Edmonson was convicted in 1990 along with three top members of his drug crew of running one of the most dangerous gangs in the city, which netted more than $20 million in drug proceeds in. Mifflintown, PA 17059. Wersche won parole in Michigan, but Florida officials brought him down south to serve out his term on the car racket. Authorities claim that they were responsible for over a dozen homicides. Although standard procedure in the DPD awarded promotions based on test scores from competitive written and oral exams, Harris was given his promotion directly on the recommendation of Chief William Hart, who cited Harris past work for the Mayor as the reason for his recommendation. Family of boaters. Kincaid had allegedly employed the Milton brothers for extortion duties on his behalf in the past, FBI records contend. ''We couldn't prove who did the murders,'' Mr. Bunting said. The case of James Harris is representative of the worst consequences of the lack of police accountability in Detroit. Inventories of what, if anything, was seized during the raids are sealed in federal court. Voice quavering, Rick Wershe Jr., who as a teen in 1980s Detroit was painted as a murderous drug kingpin, dabbed his eyes recalling one of the last conversations he had with his father, who he'd . Pattern of police crime and runs the websiteGangster Report, this is republished with.. 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