The Infamous...Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo

by Ran

Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo was born on January 8, 1946 in Mexico.

Like his future business partners, Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto Fonseco, Gallardo moved to Culiacan, the capital of Mexico's Sinaloa state, from rural Mexico. All three initially resided in the impoverished Tierra Blanca section of the city. Gallardo began his business career selling sausages and chicken from a bicycle. He later became a police officer and later a bodyguard until ultimately entering the drug trade.

While the majority of drug shipments from Colombia to the U.S. in the 1970s entered the country through Florida, Colombian cartels also established routes through Mexico. Medellin Cartel leader Benjamin "Black Pope" Herrera Zuleta, father of Cali Cartel leader Helmer "Pacho" Herrera Buitrago, forged a business relationship with Mexican drug trafficker Alberto Sicilia Falcon after the two were introduced by Cuban-born drug kingpin Juan Matta-Ballesteros. Shortly after Sicilia Falcon's arrest, Gallardo filled his position as point-man for the Mexican end of the transportation network.

Gallardo's influence spread to legitimate business as well. He held a seat on the Board of Directors of the Mexican state-owned investment bank SOMEX and invested in the Mexican resort city of Puerto Vallarta. 

According to eyewitnesses, DEA agent Enrique S. Camarena was kidnapped in Guadalajara by four men while heading to meet his wife for lunch on February 7, 1985. The bodies of Camarena and his pilot Alfredo Zavala were discovered that March near a ranch in Michocoan. In mid-March, 13 former and then-current law enforcement personnel, six of whom were members of the Jalisco state judicial police, were arrested in connection to the killing. One, Gabriel Gonzalez Gonzalez, died from acute hemorrhaging of the pancreas while in custody. Gonzalez was a former Guadalajara metropolitan section commander assigned to the homicide division. While Gallardo was widely suspected of ordering Camarena's death, fellow Guadalajara cartel founders Rafael Caro Quintero and Ernesto "Don Neto" Fonseco Carrillo were charged in connection to the murder. The murders of Camarena and Zavala were widely believed to be retribution for the shutdown of some of the cartel's marijuana plantations that resulted from the former's undercover investigation.

In 1986, Gallardo reportedly attended a quinceanera in Culiacan, the capital of Mexico's Sinaloa state, accompanied by a caravan of 12 green vans, each filled with at least four armed men. The city's governor, Antonio Toledo Corro, who died July 6, 2018 at the age of 99, was alleged by U.S. sources to be actively protecting drug traffickers in the region. U.S. officials also alleged that Gallardo had spent time as a guest at Toledo Corro's ranch, though the latter denied having ever met the former. However, it was reported that Gallardo's nephew, Antonio Toledo Felix, happened to be Toledo Corro's illegitimate son with Gallardo's sister.

Photo via Proceso

Sinaloa was plagued by violence in 1986. There were 1,400 killings in the state that year.

Following a three-month criminal investigation, Gallardo was arrested at his home in Guadalajara on April 8, 1989. However, Mexico Attorney General Enrique Alvarez del Castillo believed that Gallardo disapproved of murdering Camarena. Approximately 80 local police officers were arrested as well, though most were released after being questioned. The suspects included Arturo Moreno, director of the Sinaloa State Judicial Police, and Robespierre Lizarraga Coronel, chief of the Culiacan municipal police.

Undeterred by his incarceration, Gallardo continued to lead the cartel from prison, giving orders via mobile phone. In 1991, however, he was transferred to the then newly-constructed Altiplano maximum-security prison (Mexico's first) located in the Mexican town of Almoloya de Juarez. Following Gallardo's transfer, the Guadalajara Cartel was divided into smaller organizations -- the Sinaloa Cartel, run by his former lieutenants, Hector Palma Salazar and Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera; the Juarez cartel, led by Amado Carrillo Fuentes; and the Tijuana Cartel, headed by Gallardo's nephews, the Arellano-Felix brothers.

On August 23, 1994, Gallardo's kidnapping charge was vacated by the First Unitary Criminal Court of Guadalajara.

However, he was sentenced to 40 years in prison for homicide, cocaine possession, bribery and carrying a weapon. Quintero was convicted for the same crimes and received the same sentence. 

In 2013, Rafael Caro Quintero's conviction was overturned and he was released from prison. However, he is still being pursued by U.S. authorities, who have offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture. In 2016, a judge ordered that Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo be allowed to complete his sentence under house arrest due to his deteriorating medical condition. That same year, Gallardo requested that Jalisco's Fourth District Court in Federal Criminal Proceedings allow him to be transferred to home detention as well, citing failing health, specifically, hearing loss, a hernia, cataracts in one eye, the loss of the other eye, and a ministroke. Though Gallardo's request for home confinement was denied the following year, he was granted a transfer to a medium-security prison in Guadalajara, Jalisco. 

On August 23, 2017, following a retrial ordered in the early 2000s, a Mexican federal judge handed Gallardo a 37-year prison sentence for the murders of Camarena and Zavala. Gallardo was also ordered to pay $1.18 million in damages.

At its peak, the Guadalajara Cartel is estimated to have shipped upwards of four tons of cocaine to the U.S. monthly.

Related:

The Infamous...Pablo Escobar





The Infamous...Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela

The Infamous...Jorge Ochoa

Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez was born on September 30, 1950, the year after his brother Juan David. His brother Fabio was born seven years later. 

All three brothers and their sisters worked as waiters/waitresses, cooks and busboys/busgirls in the family's restaurant after school. 

Jorge eventually picked up the nickname "El Gordo" (Spanish for the Fat One), a reference to his physique. 

Jorge has stated in an interview that his first drug shipment to the U.S. consisted of 20 kilograms of cocaine. 

By 1979, the Ochoa brothers had established a lucrative cocaine distribution network in Florida. They raised their public profiles by attending horse shows and financing bullfights. 

In 1981, Jorge was accused of illegally importing fighting bulls into Colombia from Spain -- a minor Customs violation. Around the same time, the Ochoas formed an alliance with Pablo Escobar, Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha and Carlos Lehder. The participating organizations began to collaborate with regards to manufacturing and shipping cocaine as well as laundering the profits derived from the sales of the drug. The association itself would come to be referred to as the "Medellin Cartel". 

On November 12, 1981, Jorge's sister Marta Nieves Ochoa Velasquez was abducted from the campus of Medellin's University of Antioquia by Colombia's M-19 guerrilla group, which demanded $1 million for her release. The Ochoas responded by arranging a meeting of the most powerful drug traffickers in Colombia at the family's Medellin restaurant, La Margarita. The meeting resulted in the creation of the group Muerte a Secuestradores (Spanish for "death to kidnappers"), dedicated to "the public and immediate execution of all those persons involved in kidnapping." Following the subsequent murders of several M-19 associates, some of whom were hanged in public parks, Marta was released unharmed on February 19. After his daughter's release, Fabio Sr. debuted a new stallion that he'd named Ransom at horse shows.

In March of 1983, drug-smuggler Barry Seal, who transported cocaine to the U.S. for the Medellin cartel, was arrested in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He was charged with money laundering and smuggling Quaaludes. Seal attempted to negotiate a deal with assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Zimet, promising to give information on high-ranking Medellin cartel members Jorge and his brothers Juan David and Fabio Jr. When Zimet refused, Seal contacted the office of Baton Rouge U.S. Attorney Stanford O. Bardwell, Jr., who attended Baton Rouge High during the same time as Seal, but Bardwell refused to meet with him. Seal did, however, eventually manage to become an informant for the DEA.

Seal flew to Medellin, Colombia on April 8, 1984 and met with Escobar and the Ochoa brothers to make plans to ship a 1,500-kilogram load to the U.S. During the meet, Jorge Ochoa divulged to Seal that the Sandinistas had sold him a 6,000-foot landing strip in Nicaragua and had agreed to allow him use the location as a refueling stop during trips from Colombia to the states. 

Following the April 30, 1984, murder of Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, Jorge Ochoa and Pablo Escobar met with former Colombian President Alfonso Lopes in Panama in May. The two attempted to negotiate with then Colombian President Belisario Betancur for amnesty via Lopez. Ocha, Escobar, Carlos Lehder, Frederico Vaughan and seven other individuals were indicted on drug trafficking charges by a federal grand jury in Miami on July 27, 1984. The indictment alleged that 1,452 pounds of cocaine was shipped from Nicaragua to the U.S., while $1.5 million was delivered to Escobar and Vaughan by the pilot of the aircraft ferrying the narcotics. The two subsequently requested that the pilot ship 2,200 pounds of cocaine back to the U.S. from Nicaragua.

Both Jorge Ochoa and his childhood friend, high-ranking Cali cartel leader Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, who was travelling with him, were arrested in Spain in November of 1984. While both the U.S. and Colombian governments requested to have both men extradited, Colombia won out, amidst suspicions that the Spanish judge who approved the extradition had accepted a bribe. 

While Ochoa was released without being tried by the Colombian court, Rodriguez, who'd been caught with a Venezuelan passport in Spain, was put on trial with fellow Cali cartel leader Jose Santacruz Londono in Cali. However, the presiding judge refused to admit evidence submitted by the DEA in connection with U.S. indictments in LA and New York City and the two were acquitted.

  

In November of 1985, paramilitary troops believed to be financed by the Medellin cartel killed 11 of 24 Supreme Court justices during a raid on Colombia's Palace of Justice. On November 15, Jorge Ochoa and fellow drug trafficker Huberto Rodriguez were arrested by Interpol in Madrid, Spain due to an extradition request from the U.S. government.  

On January 21, 1986, a Madrid court ruled that there were sufficient grounds to extradite Jorge to the U.S., where he was charged with shipping 3,300 pounds of cocaine into the country via Nicaragua in 1984. After a battle between the U.S. and his home country to determine who could claim him, Jorge was extradited to Colombia in March -- following the February 19, 1986 murder of Barry Seal, who was scheduled to testify against him -- and released. 

On August 13, 1986, Judge Fabio Pastrana gave Jorge a 20-month suspended sentence, a $1,000 fine and probation following his conviction for falsifying documents in connection with importing fighting bulls from Spain. He was released after posting a $11,500 bond. At the time he was still sought by U.S. authorities for exporting 659 kilograms of cocaine to Florida. 

In 1987, the U.S. government seized Juan David's Florida ranch along with 39 Paso Fino walking horses. That same year, Forbes magazine listed Jorge among the world's richest people, with an estimated net worth of $2 billion. 

That June, Colombia's Supreme Court voted 13-12 that a 1979 extradition treaty between the U.S. and Colombia was unconstitutional. On November 21, Jorge was arrested for speeding in Bogota after being stopped driving a Honduran diplomat's car in the Valle del Cauca province. Following the traffic stop, he was unable to locate the registration that for the white 1987 Porsche. On November 23, the U.S. government formally requested that he be extradited in accordance with the 1933 Montevideo Inter-American Multilateral Convention. Cartel-associates subsequently attempted to break into the home of Medellin mayoral candidate Juan Gomez Martinez but were chased off by Gomez and one of his sons, armed with handguns and a hunting rifle. The cartel leaders, The Extraditables, later released a statement that read, "We want the government to know that if citizen Jorge Luis Ochoa is extradited to the United States, we well declare total and absolute war against the entire political leadership of the country. We will execute without any hesitation the main political leaders of the traditional parties." In December, Colombian Justice Minister Enrique Low Murtra ruled that Jorge was ineligible for extradition as a Colombian citizen citing the absence of an extradition treaty between Colombia and the States. Ochoa was released from La Picota prison, accompanied by his lawyers and Warden Alvaro Camacho, on December 30 and quickly driven to a private Bogota airport where he flew away in a private jet. The following week, Murtra issued warrants for Ochoa; his brothers Juan and Fabio; Escobar; and Gonzalo Rodriguez. 

Another consequence of Jorge's release was made public on January 14, 1988, when U.S. Customs Commissioner William Von Rabb announced a new policy wherein all vessels and aircraft entering U.S. waters or airports after departing Colombia were subject to in-depth searches. 

On January 24, 1988, a group calling themselves "The Extraditable Ones" announced that they'd kidnapped Bogota mayoral candidate Andres Pastrana the previous week -- January 18. Pastrana also happened to be the son of former Colombian president Misael Pastrana Borrero. The following day, "The Extraditable Ones" took credit, via a statement released to local media, for the murder of Colombia's attorney general, Carlos Mauro Hoyos. The group relayed, "We announce that we have executed Atty. Gen. Carlos Mauro Hoyos for the crime of treason against the fatherland...You can inform that the war will go on." Hoyos was intercepted by 10 men in four vehicles -- a car and three jeeps -- at about 7:30 a.m. on his way to the Medellin airport after spending a week in the city investigating two judges and five other officials suspected of having a hand in Ochoa's early release from prison. Hoyos' Mercedes-Benz was run off the road and his pair of bodyguards were killed during the ensuing gun battle. Altogether, the two had been shot 19 times. Hoyos, who'd also been shot to death, was found blindfolded and handcuffed near the site of the shootout. A police officer who witnessed the attack said that it appeared that Hoyos had been shot in the throat. Authorities searching the hillside hours after the shooting inadvertently found Pastrana in a farmhouse where he'd been held after being flown there via helicopter. The Extraditable Ones, who vehemently opposed being extradited to the U.S. to face drug trafficking charges, included Escobar and Juan David and Fabio Ochoa, Jr. 

Jorge also made Forbes' list of the world's richest people again in 1988. 

In January of 1990, CBS News reported that the Medellin cartel was planning to target U.S. President George H.W. Bush aboard Air Force One with anti-aircraft weapons upon his arrival for the February 15 summit on the international drug trade involving the heads of Colombia, Bolivia and Peru. Bush's security measures for the trip included: U.S. Navy vessels patrolling Colombian waters, including a submarine and a helicopter carrier -- the USS Nassau. 

On January 29, 1990, former customs judge Fabio Pastrana Hoyos was convicted on the charge of obstruction of justice and given a six-year prison sentence for ordering Jorge's 1986 release from Cartegena. He was fired from his position as a judge prior to the conviction. 

Accepting the Colombian government's September 5 promise not to extradite drug traffickers who turned themselves in and confessed to at least one crime, Fabio Jr. surrendered December 19. On January 15, 1991, Jorge turned himself in to Colombian authorities at Caldas and subsequently detained in an Itagui jail. 

All three brothers were incarcerated together and ate meals prepared by their mother. 

Meanwhile, Fabio Sr. opened another restaurant, La Margarita del Ocho, near Bogota in 1994.

Jorge, Juan David and Fabio Jr. were released from prison in 1996.

After being arrested on drug charges again in 1999, Fabio Jr. was extradited to the U.S. in September of 2001. In 2003, he was convicted of drug trafficking, narcotics conspiracy and distribution of cocaine in the U.S. and sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.  

Juan David returned to ranching following his release from prison. On July 25, 2013, he died of a heart attack in a Medellin medical clinic.

Related:

The Infamous...Pablo Escobar





The Infamous...Gilberto and Miguel Rodriguez Orejuela

The Infamous...Lorenzo "Fat Cat" Nichols

by Ran

Lorenzo Nichols was born on December 25, 1958, in Birmingham, Alabama. He was raised by his grandmother in Bessemer, AL until he moved in with his mother, Louise Coleman, in Queens, New York at the age of 10. Nichols and his mother, a nurse's aide (his father was a plumber), lived in the Ozone Park neighborhood, located in the southeast section of the borough.

Nichols dropped out of middle school. He began his criminal career committing armed robberies. His first arrest came at 13-years-old and he was arrested again in 1976. Nichols eventually moved on to selling cocaine and heroin, supplied by Italian Mafiosi. He later obtained his heroin from a Chinese supplier whom Nichols' associates referred to as "John" after finding his real name difficult to pronounce. 

The bulk of Nichols' organization's profits stemmed from hand-to-hand sales of $10 and $25 amounts of narcotics. Working 15-hour shifts was common practice for street dealers under his employ.

While incarcerated in a New York state prison, Nichols met Howard "Pappy" Mason, who, after initially serving as one of the former's security guards upon the pair's release, eventually formed his own cocaine trafficking gang. Nichols would routinely supply Mason's organization, the Bebos, with product. 

In 1982, Nichols' older sister, Viola, went to work for her brother, processing cocaine into crack. Viola was paid approximately $3,500 per week to cook 250 grams of powdered cocaine into 10,000 vials worth of crack for the Bebos. She would eventually develop a destructive drug habit. 

Nichols controlled drug sales on Jamaica's 150th Street.

In 1985, Nichols was arrested following a raid on his mother's apartment which resulted in weapons and narcotics charges. Following his conviction, he was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison. That same year, Nichols' parole officer, Brian Rooney, was shot to death. Nichols' who gave the order to have Rooney assaulted but, according to him, not killed, was subsequently charged with second-degree murder. Rooney became a target of Nichols' because he had him sent back to prison for a parole violation. 

While Nichols was incarcerated, he gave the order to have rival drug trafficker Isaac Bolden murdered. Bolden, who'd robbed members of Nichols' organization, was killed in November of 1986. In 1987, Nichols was indicted and charged with second-degree murder in connection to Rooney's killing.

In May of 1987, Nichols' wife, JoAnne, was kidnapped and held until a $77,000 ransom was paid for her release. Initially, the kidnappers demanded a ransom of 10 kilograms of cocaine. After two days as a captive, JoAnne, who had been taken from the Elmont, Long Island home she shared with Nichols, was set free. 

In December, 19-year-old Bebos-associate Todd Scott shot a woman, whom he'd suspected of stealing some of his cash and drugs, in the chest on 157th Street in Queens. 

In late December of 1987, the mother of Nichols' son, 20-year-old Myrtle Horsham, was shot to death in a car in Jamaica, Queens. Nichols, who was incarcerated at the time, later testified that he'd ordered the murder because he'd discovered that Horsham had stolen some of his cash and had subsequently spent it on another man. Horsham had blamed the missing money on a robbery. Nichols had given the assignment to kill Horsham to one of his enforcers, Brian "Glaze" Gibbs, whom he'd recruited after the latter was acquitted of murder than June. Gibbs delegated the job to two of his subordinates. The two triggermen, who'd been surveilling Horsham, waited until she left her mother's Springfield Gardens home and got into another woman's vehicle with her son and then rushed into the back seat of the car themselves. The pair then forced Horsham's friend to drive to a dead-end street at gunpoint. Ignoring Horsham's pleas for her life and her offer to pay them $100,000 to walk away, they shot both women. The gunmen then placed the 3-year-old in Gibbs' car, who'd been supervising the entire incident. Gibbs in turn drove back to Horsham's mother's residence, left her grandson on the front lawn and called from a payphone to tell her where he could be found. While Horsham succumbed to her headshot, the other woman's injuries proved to be non-fatal.

That same month, Gibbs orchestrated the shooting death of Maurice Bellamy at Nichols' behest. The triggerman, sent by Gibbs, shot Bellamy in the head at the Linden Ave. Laundromat, where the latter worked. Maurice was targeted because Perry Bellamy, Maurice's son, had cooperated with investigators probing Rooney's murder. Perry himself, a member of Nichols' organization, was out of reach as he'd been given protection by law enforcement. Following the shooting, Nichols called Bellamy's home and told his relatives that he wasn't responsible for the killing. The murder was intended to lure Perry out of hiding in order to attend the funeral. The plan was abandoned when Perry was escorted, chained, to the funeral by police. He is still incarcerated following a state murder conviction stemming from his time as a member of the organization. 

Nichols was convicted of weapons and narcotics charges in January of 1988. 

At about 3:30 a.m. on February 26, 22-year-old Officer Edward Byrne, of Jamaica's 103rd Police Precinct, was fatally shot five times in the head as he guarded the home of a witness from his patrol car on South Jamaica, Queens' Inwood Street. Todd Scott, serving as a decoy, distracted Byrne by getting his attention while standing on the passenger side of the police vehicle. The triggerman, David McClary, positioned on the driver's side, shot Byrne at close range using a nickel-plated revolver. Scott, McClary and Scott Cobb, the getaway driver, then fled the scene in a yellow Dodge. Mason, who was incarcerated at the time for his role in the murder of his parole officer, had sent a message through Phillip "Marshal" Copeland that a police officer should be murdered. Copeland, Scott, McClary and Cobb split the $8,000 payment for the killing. Each member of the foursome was apprehended during the first week of March. Cobb, who'd subsequently made a videotaped confession, was eventually given a sentence of 25-to-life alongside the other three. 

On May 12, Richard Frejomil of Brooklyn was convicted in connection with JoAnne Nichol's kidnapping.

On May 21, Nichols' South Jamaica residence was firebombed, resulting in the death of his 50-year-old sister, Mary Nichols. A perpetrator fired 16 rounds from a semi-automatic weapon at the front of the three story home a little after 12:30 a.m. He then proceeded to throw a bomb through one of the ground-floor windows before fleeing in a gray Buick sedan with three accomplices who'd remained in the car. Mary, who was wheelchair-bound as a result of a stroke years earlier, was discovered by firefighters in a bedroom on the second floor of the house. Her 10-year-old son, Wynell Nichols, was transported to Jamaica Hospital before being taken to New York Hospital for treatment of second and third-degree burns on his face and both arms. Mary's daughters, Tamika Nichols and Ida Nichols, fled the house unharmed. Nichols' 70-year-old mother, Louise Coleman, and his stepfather, Amos Coleman, also escaped without injury after unsuccessfully attempting to pull Mary to safety. At the time of the fire, Nichols was incarcerated at the Shawangunk Correctional Facility located near Kingston, NY.

On August 11, 1988, a federal taskforce comprised of 400 agents conducted raids on homes in three states in the most wide-ranging response to Officer Byrnes' murder six months prior. Louise Coleman, who was accused of making drug sales, and Amos Coleman were arrested in Birmingham; JoAnne Nichols was arrested in Norfolk, Virginia. Mason's mother, Claudia Mason, was arrested as well. Nichols himself was arrested in his cell at the Wallkill Correctional Facility; Mason was also arrested while serving time in upstate New York. Five buildings, including Louise Coleman's home, loaded machine guns, cash, heroin and cocaine were all seized during the sweep.

Gibbs, who was also arrested on August 11, was apprehended on drug trafficking charges by federal agents at a McDonald's restaurant in South Carolina. Seeking leniency, Gibbs agreed to cooperate against Nichols. Though he pleaded guilty to five murders and two attempted murders, he served less than 10 years in prison. Gibbs did his time at the federal facility located in Otisville, NY and FCI Sandstone, a low-security prison in Minnesota. 

Following Viola Nichols' arrest, she eventually pleaded guilty as part of a deal with prosecutors that required her to cooperate against her brother. She was entered into the federal Witness Protection Program for her safety. In July of 1989, Viola testified in open court against Claudia Mason and Bebos third-in-command Char "Shocker" Davis, both charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine base. (10) As a consequence, Davis was convicted and subsequently sentenced to 33 years in federal prison by Judge Edward Korman in 1990. 

On September 28, 1989, Nichols pleaded guilty to two counts of racketeering-related murder in connection to the deaths of Bolden and Horsham. As part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Nichols gave testimony explaining his role in the killings in the chambers of Federal District Court Judge Edward R. Korman. The agreement also required that he cooperate against members of his organization, including Mason. Nichols was already serving a 25-year-to-life sentence stemming from drug convictions in state court. 

In 1992, Nichols pleaded guilty to ordering Rooney's murder and was sentenced to a term of 25 years to life in prison for his role in the crime. He was also given a 40-year sentence in connection with federal racketeering, murder and narcotics convictions. 

Following his July 1997 release from prison, Gibbs entered the witness protection program and now lives under an assumed name in the Southern U.S. He makes nearly $100,000 per year.

At its peak, Nichols' organization generated $20 million annually in drug sales. 

A two-year criminal investigation, nicknamed Operation Road Runner, exposed both Nichols' and convicted Detroit drug trafficker Richard "White Boy Rick" Wershe's involvement in an auto theft ring, which sold over 250 Florida vehicles to 14 other states from 1999 - 2005, grossing $8 million in the process. Nichols pleaded guilty to racketeering for his role in the scheme in December of 2006. Nichols, who, along with Wershe, was incarcerated in Florida and in the witness protection program, received a 10-year sentence after confessing to heading the ring. 

In March of 2010, Nichols became eligible for parole. However, he declined to appear before the board. He is currently incarcerated at the Clinton Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison located in Dannemora, NY.

Nichols (far left) and Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff (far right)

Brian "Glaze" Gibbs and Lorenzo "Fat Cat" Nichols

The Infamous...Steven Sealey

by Ran Britt

Steven Sealey was born in 1964 in Boston, Massachusetts. He grew up in the Columbia Point housing projects, located in the city's Dorchester neighborhood.  During his childhood, Sealey began a lifelong friendship with fellow Boston native and future pop superstar Bobby Brown, who grew up in the Orchard Park housing projects located in the city's Roxbury neighborhood.

In 1981, a teenaged Sealey began a working for Dwayne "Wonderful Wayne" Davis, one of the co-founders of Detroit-based Young Boys, Inc. drug organization. Earlier that year, Davis had led his faction of YBI, dubbed "the H2O crew", into making inroads into Indianapolis, Indiana, Cincinnati, Ohio, Seattle, Washington and Boston. Sealey worked as Davis' driver and bodyguard after the latter established a satellite operation in Columbia Point. On September 28, 1982, months after a return trip from Boston alongside other associates, including Sealey, Davis was shot to death in Northwest Detroit. Following Davis' murder, Sealey and the other members of H2O returned to Boston, renamed the H2O crew "the Bomb Boys" and picked up where Davis left off. 

At some point Sealey picked up the nickname "Stevie Shots". 

In 1988, Bomb Boys leader Toby "Big Blood" Johnson was killed, reputedly by other members of the organization, and Sealey subsequently changed the group's name to the Columbia Point Dawgs. On June 20 of that year, Bobby Brown's sophomore solo album, Don't Be Cruel, was released and went on to sell 7 million copies. Don't Be Cruel, featuring Brown's signature song, "My Prerogative", which reached the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, became the best-selling album of 1989. Following the 1991 life sentence of Roxbury drug kingpin Darryl "G-d" Whiting, the CPD rushed to fill the vacuum left by the former's 100-man New York Boys organization. 

In 1993, Sealey began serving a two-year prison sentence following a conviction for weapons violations. 

Sealey eventually became engaged to Brown's sister, Carol and when Brown hired him as a bodyguard, Sealey moved to Atlanta, Georgia.

Bobby Brown

In 1995, Sealey is alleged to have ordered the robberies of local drug dens and stash houses operated by rival organizations. 

On September 28, 1995, Sealey rode with Brown, who was driving pop superstar Whitney Houston's (his then wife) $400,000 cream-colored Bentley, to Boston's Biarritz Lounge, located a block from the Orchard Park housing project where Brown grew up. Brown signed several autographs for fans before the two decided to depart. Minutes before 1 a.m., as the pair were seated in the Bentley preparing to leave, a triggerman with a shaved head shot Sealey at least three times in the face, head and chest using two firearms and relieved him of a gold chain before fleeing the scene. Brown was uninjured. When paramedics arrived, they gave Sealey emergency treatment on the sidewalk before transporting him to Boston City Hospital, where he was pronounced dead five hours later.  Firefighters at the station across the street from The Biarritz witnessed the shooting and reported that an individual, believed to be another of Brown's bodyguards, returned fire. Local police searched for the lone assailant in the Orchard Park housing development, where Brown's mother resided at the time. 

John "Black" Tibbs, 23, was convicted for Sealey's September 1995 murder. Tibbs was subsequently sentenced to 27 years in federal prison. His getaway driver, Cedric "Cookie" Phillips, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in the killing. 

Sealey's shooting is believed to have been connected to a rumored drug war between the Point Dawgs, who were under investigation by the FBI, and Tibbs' rival organization from the Orchard Park housing project.

Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston

The Infamous...Clarence "Preacher" Heatley

by Ran

Clarence Heatley was born in 1953 in New York City and grew up in Harlem, located in the northern section of Manhattan. Heatley, who dropped out of school in the fourth grade, was sent to juvenile detention by the time he was nine-years-old.

Eventually, Heatley grew to 6'7". At some point Heatley acquired the nickname, "Preacher". His violent reputation also earned him the nickname, "The Black Hand of Death."

In 1983, Heatley established his criminal organization, which would come to be known as "The Preacher Crew". Organization members included: John "Big Cuz" Cuff, Derrick Hailstock, Paul "Nutsy" Weller, Raymond "Jerry Woo" Jackson, John "Apple" Porter, Curtis "Snowman" Medley, Darrel "Bright Eyes" Barner, Darryl Haskins, Leroy "Echo" Echols, Steve Fairley, Shaka "Heavy" Heatley, David "Popcorn" Collins, Sherman "Kendu" Baker, Yvonne "Mom" Miller, Adrienne "Adee" Bundy, Bernard Mitchell, Denise Dawson, Ganeene Goode, Anthony Boatwright, Alvin "Butch Cassidy" Goings, Greg "Sleep" Sorries, Clifford Randall, Farris Phillips, Ralph "Black" Wallace, Duane Beatty, Darnell Walker, Kenny Wilson and Freddy Hill. 

Heatley met his chief lieutenant, John "Big Cuz" Cuff, in 1983 when the latter was still employed as an officer in the now-defunct New York City Housing Authority Police Department. Cuff served as a driver and enforcer for Heatley even before he left the police department.

The organization's base of operations was Manhattan's 144th and 8th Avenue. 

Heatley owned an apartment building on the Grand Concourse, a main thoroughfare located in the Bronx, in which people were allegedly tortured (and sometimes killed) in the basement. Heatley lieutenant Anthony Boatwright resided in the building.

Sometime in 1986, Heatley, aware that he was the subject of investigation by law enforcement, voluntarily went to Harlem's 32nd police precint to address his concerns regarding police inquiries with the chief detective.

Much of Heatley's income was derived by extorting local drug dealers, charging upwards of $10,000. In many cases, the payment was made with the understanding that the Preacher Crew would murder the dealers' rival.

The organization's enforcers were known as "janitors" and some of them were given tattoos depicting a bucket and a mop dripping with blood. 

Allegedly, Heatley was the architect of the 1989 kidnapping of Donnell Porter, 12-year-old nephew of Preacher Crew member Johnnie "Apple" Porter. A $500,000 ransom demand was delivered to Donnell's older brother, Harlem drug kingpin Rich Porter (see here).

Donnell was abducted while on his way to his school, P.S. 92, on December 5. The kidnappers demanded $500,000 ransom for 12-year-old Donnell's safe return by telephone. When Porter insisted that he didn't have the half million dollars the kidnappers lowered the ransom to $350,000. On Dec. 6, the abductors directed the family to a nearby McDonald's restaurant located at West 125th Street and Broadway, where they found a coffee cup containing Donnell's index finger, two of his rings and an audio cassette in the men's bathroom. According to police, the cassette tape contained a recording of Donnell pleading to his older brother Rich to pay the ransom, stating, "They cutted my finger off...Please help me...Get the money. I love you, Mommy." Porter's sister Pat contacted the FBI against his wishes and was directed to the NYPD, who placed taps on the family's phone lines. On Dec. 10, a local boy delivered a note to the family's West 132nd Street apartment in Harlem given to him by an unknown woman stating that Donnell was badly in need of medical attention.

Rich Porter was murdered a little less than a month later on Janurary 3, 1990 in his native Harlem. He suffered several gunshots to the head and chest and was found in the bushes in Orchard Beach Park with $2,239 in cash in his pockets. On January 28, Donnell Porter's body was found in City Island less than a mile from where Rich's body was discovered. The corpse was found inside 14 black plastic garbage bags.

But his biggest source of revenue came from trafficking crack and cocaine, most of which was done between 1990 and 1996.

Heatley's organization, sometimes known as "The Family", truly was a family-affair that included his son, daughter and girlfriend.

According to former Preacher Crew member David Collins, Heatley and his associates abducted R&B superstar Bobby Brown at gunpoint in April of 1993. Associates of Heatley introduced themselves, at his behest, to the recording star at a Manhattan nightclub before convincing him to follow them to an apartment in the Bronx. After being beaten, Brown was taken to another apartment and held captive -- naked, gagged and hogtied except for when he was permitted to place a call to then-wife Whitney Houston in order to relay the the kidnappers' demand of $400,000 in cash in exchange for the singer's release.

Brown supposedly had an outstanding debt of $25,000 with a New Jersey-based dealer who'd supplied him with cocaine. Heatley is said to have assumed the crooner's debt after giving the dealer the amount owed.

The day after Brown's phone call, Houston complied with the kidnappers' order to show up alone with the money at an abandoned building. She wore a wig and dark glasses, so as not to be recognized by the general public, and turned the cash over to Heatley himself. Heatley kept half and the rest was divided amongst his associates.

Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston

On March 21, 1994, John Cuff murdered Heatley's chief enforcer, Anthony Boatwright. After Cuff shot Boatwright in the head in the basement of Heatley's apartment building, Heatley supervised as his associates used a circular saw to dismember the corpse. The severed arms and head were then burned disposed of in an abandoned building in Manhattan.

The Preacher Crew was enventually targeted by the FBI's C-11 Squad, a task force specifically formed to investigate heroin and cocaine trafficking organizations operating in New York City (10). The squad was comprised of 12 FBI agents, three DEA agents, 12 NYPD officers and three IRS agents.

After one of the organization's members was arrested by C-11 Squad members and agreed to cooperate with investigators, Heatley and three associates, including Cuff, attempted to abduct the informant as he left a New York City courthouse. Following a brief chase, the van in which Heatley and the others rode was stopped by police, who seized 3 lead pipes, 4 gorilla masks, duct tape and rope from the occupants. Heatley was not convicted in connection to the incident.

On July 15, 1996, Heatley was indicted on three counts of murder and conspiracy to murder in the aid of racketeering. On August 12, he was found in the Bronx and placed under arrest by the NYPD and transported to Harlem's 32nd precint. John Cuff, who'd been arrested by the FBI that same day, was detained in the same cell with Heatley. Less than two hours later they were both placed under federal custody.

In November of 1996, a 47-count federal indictment charging Heatley and 17 associates with narcotics trafficking, 11 murders and 11 murder conspiracies was unsealed. By November 14, 14 of the suspects had been arrested.

On December 17, 1997, a federal indictment was filed charging Heatley and 11 others with 86 counts of racketeering. Additionally, Heatley and Cuff were charged with murder in aid of racketeering, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder, participating in a narcotics distribution conspiracy, and unlawful possession of a firearm. Heatley was also charged with participating in murders while acting as the principal administrator, organizer and leader of a continuing criminal enterprise involving narcotics, robbery and extortion. Cuff's charges also included participating in murders while working in furtherance of a continuing criminal enterprise involving narcotics and extortion.

Heatley became the first defendant to be charged under the federal "drug kingpin law" in New York and thereby eligible for capital punishment. The government filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty against Cuff and Heatley on January 8 and August 11, 1998, respectively.  

On February 5, 1999, Heatley pleaded guilty to federal racketeering, participation in 13 murders in aid of racketeering, one attempted murder, participation in a continuing criminal enterprise involving narcotics, robbery and extortion, using and carrying firearms in relation to crimes of violence, assault with a deadly weapon. He also admitted to ordering associates to commit arson. His plea deal called for U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White to seek life in prison as opposed to a death sentence. He was represented by both Joel S. Cohen and David A. Ruhnke. The deal allowed Heatley to avoid being the focus of the first federal death penalty trial in Manhattan since the 1950s.

On March 22, Cuff pleaded guilty to participation in 11 murders in aid of a racketeering enterprise, conspiracy to murder in aid of a racketeering enterprise, participation in a continuing criminal enterprise involving narcotics and using and carrying firearms in relation to crimes of violence. 

Heatley's life plus 225 year-sentence was handed down on May 14 by Judge Michael B. Mukasey. 

Related:



The Infamous...Rich Porter

The Infamous...Chambers Brothers

by Ran Britt

Larry Marlowe Chambers was born in 1950 in Marianna, Arkansas to Curtis and Hazel Chambers. Larry was the third-born son after Curtis Jr. and Willie Lee. Larry was soon followed by Danny. Billy Joe, nicknamed "BJ", and his twin brother, Joe, was born in 1962 and followed by Otis Bernard Chambers. Curtis and Hazel, both of whom were Lee County, Arkansas natives, began dating when they were teens. They would have 16 children in all. The brothers grew up in a dilapidated trailer home on the family's 44-acre farm in the impoverished majority African-American town where their parents moved in 1948 -- the year that they married. Marianna is also the county seat of Lee County, which boasts the second-highest unemployment rate in the state and is the sixth poorest county in the U.S. The poverty-stricken siblings would, at times, wait outside the residences of their white neighbors in the evenings and ask for the leftovers of their dinner meals. In 1967, however, Curtis and Hazel opened The Tin Top Inn bar and restaurant on their property, which the boys frequented. 

The first Chambers brother to run afoul of the law was Larry. On December 23, 1969, he was arrested and charged with auto theft after stealing a pair of cars in Marianna so that he and a childhood friend could use them for joyriding. Larry had moved in with his maternal grandparents in St. Louis years earlier with his brother Danny and was only in town for a holiday visit. On December 31, Larry escaped from the Lee County Jail after physically overpowering a guard who'd entered his cell in order to fix the toilet. After hiding in a church that night, Larry stole the pastor's car the following day and embarked on a two-day armed robbery spree. He was nearly apprehended by state troopers after a routine traffic stop in Arkansas' Ouachita County. However, Larry shot one of the patrolmen who approached the vehicle and ran off. He was finally caught the next morning and charged with assault with intent to kill. 

After being convicted of shooting the Arkansas state trooper, Larry was sentenced to nine years in prison. Following five months of incarceration, he escaped and was subsequently apprehended in Phoenix, Arizona. Larry made yet another prison break -- from a chain-gang -- after bribing a guard to look the other way. During his time as a fugitive, he committed several gas station holdups and drove to Pittsburgh in a stolen car. Larry was arrested again in Wynn, Arkansas attempting to rob a jewelry store.  

After serving six years and being released, he helped his brother, Danny Chambers, and their associate, James Cooper, to burglarize a post office in Helena, Arkansas. After the three were arrested, both Danny and James, both of whom's fingerprints were found at the scene, confessed. While Larry, who was still on parole, had refused to make a statement, the other two, who didn't have criminal records, told police that he'd been with them. The sheriff's office offered Danny and James suspended sentences in exchange for testifying against Larry. When the attorney Danny and Larry's father hired, Mike Etoch, relayed the news, Larry decided to plead guilty to charges of burglary and theft along with his brother and James. Because Cooper couldn't afford his own lawyer Etoch was appointed to represented him as well. Larry made three jailbreaks from the police station in which he was held and ultimately received a three year prison sentence. However, the Arkansas State Supreme Court found his hand-written appeal so persuasive that they overturned his conviction in 1977. 

Willie Lee Chambers served two years in the U.S. Army after graduating from Lee High School in 1972. In 1974, he moved to Detroit, Michigan, where his brother Danny had relocated four years earlier. After arriving in Motown, Willie took a job as a mail-carrier for the U.S. Postal Service. 

Billy Joe, nicknamed "BJ", who would stop growing at 5'5", followed in his brothers' footsteps and moved to Detroit in 1978, two years after his parents divorced. Having left Marianna during his junior year of high school, BJ enrolled in Detroit's Kettering High School. He got an after-school job as a janitor for the Eastown Shoes company to bring in some money. BJ also began selling marijuana for Lee County native L.C. "Big Terry" Colbert out of the latter's convenience store -- The T and T. BJ met Colbert through Danny, who worked with Big Terry at a Dearborn, Michigan automobile plant. Colbert, who'd already established a marijuana business to supplement his income, opened the store after losing his job at the auto plant. 

That same year, Larry was found in possession of several weapons stolen from a Marianna gun store and sent back to prison. Following his release the following year, Larry embarked on yet another robbery spree that he himself has estimated to have exceeded 100 Arkansas jewelry stores. His preferred method was gaining entry by drilling a hole through the store's ceiling after hours and subsequently stealing the goods from the deserted shop throughout the night. 

In 1980, after BJ's girlfriend Niece (pronounced Neesey) gave birth to his son, Billy Chambers Jr., he dropped out of school and quit his job at the shoe store in order to sell marijuana full-time. The following year, Niece gave birth to BJ's daughter.  Though some of BJ's client base consisted of adults who resided in Grosse Pointe, Michigan due to his apartment's proximity to the predominately white city (which is located eight miles east of downtown Detroit), the majority of his customers were minority high school students from Detroit. He routinely generated between $200-$400 per day from marijuana sales. 

Otis Chambers

In September of 1981, Larry and a fellow-parolee stole a money order machine from an Arkansas post office and proceeded to sell money orders themselves. The following month, he joined Willie and BJ in Detroit. Larry was arrested by an undercover U.S. Postal Inspector at a motel in Highland Park, Michigan at a would-be meeting to sell stolen money orders which actually turned out to be a sting set up by his accomplice. After being convicted of stealing government property, Larry received a four-year prison sentence and was sent to USP Leavenworth (United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth), a medium-security federal prison located 25 miles northwest of Kansas City, Kansas. Determined to be productive during his stay, the illegal businesses that Larry established in prison (including organized gambling and extortion) brought him about $50,000.  During one of his many prison stints, Larry scored a 140 (which denotes an intelligence approaching genius levels) on an IQ test administered by a psychiatrist.  

In 1982, BJ decided to apply what he'd learned under Colbert's mentorship and opened Willie's Retail Store with Willie on the corner of Detroit's Kerchival and St. Clair. Using the money he'd saved while working for the postal service, Willie also opened a car wash next to the store. For his part, BJ, who was supplied by Colbert, sold both marijuana and heroin out of both locations. 

In January of 1983, Willie opened a convenience store on the Lower East Side of Detroit and employed BJ, who used it as a base for selling marijuana. Following a police raid of the store, renamed BJ's Party Store, BJ relocated his operation to low-priced houses that he'd purchased. BJ's operation soon expanded to include not only Willie but his brothers Danny, Joe and David as well as his best friend Jerry "J-Man" Gant and Terry "Little Terry" Colbert, Colbert's little brother and son, respectively. BJ paid Little Terry, a native of Hughes, Arkansas, who'd initially moved to Detroit in April in order to work for his father, approximately $400 per week to sell marijuana. BJ also recruited Willie "Boogaloo" Driscoll and Perry "P-Boy" Coleman -- two of Niece's brothers. In 1984, BJ started selling crack cocaine, which Coleman (Niece's older brother) had introduced him to. Following the switch to crack, Colbert worked his way up from making $1,000 weekly to $3,000. With the drug's explosion in popularity in Detroit, the Chambers quickly established a large-scale crack-cocaine operation on the city's lower east side. 

That August, BJ was arrested and charged with assault after he and Joe, nicknamed "Yo-Yo", fought a pair of Detroit police officers who'd pulled BJ over in front of his home. On September 1, Officer John Autrey, working undercover, purchased three bags of crack from Elayne Coleman Lucas at BJ and Danny Chambers' two-family Gray Street home. On September 3, Labor Day, BJ, Danny, their cousin Alvin "Frog" Chambers and Lucas were arrested following a raid of BJ and Danny's Gray Street home during which 2,000 packages of crack were seized. On September 10, police conducted another raid of the home, though no arrests were made. Seeking a respite from the increasing police scrutiny, BJ soon moved back to the Marianna farm, where he remained for the following 10 months, leaving his brother David and Grant in charge of day-to-day operations. 

Unable to ignore the fact that the business suffered in his absence, BJ moved back to Detroit in 1985 and fired almost all of his non-familial employees, including Driscoll and "Little Terry" Colbert. He recruited Detroit natives Anthonty "Tony the Tiger" Alexander and Eric "Fats" Wilkins and Marshall "Cadillac Mario" Glenn from Marianna. Glenn, who subsequently enlisted other Marianna youth, including James McKinney, to work for the organization, oversaw crackhouses and conducted pick-ups and drop-offs. The staff changes subsequently helped BJ to expand his operation from six crackhouses to 50.

That same year, Larry relocated to Detroit following his April 29 release from prison and in July founded the "Wrecking Crew", the enforcement arm of the organization. Larry recruited Arkansas-natives Roderick "Hot Rod" Byrd and William "Jack Frost" Jackson and the trio became the heart of the crew.
Known for their brutality, Larry and two members of the Wrecking Crew once attacked an employee with a lamp, two-by-four and a television set for fraudulently passing off plaster chips as $8 crack pieces to customers. Following the assault, the trio poured hot grease on the offender.

By contrast, BJ's management style was marked by lavish trips to Las Vegas and Florida for his employees, and more frequently, to Cincinnati, Ohio's Kings Island water park Sandusky, OH's Cedar Point amusement park. 

Unsatisfied with limiting himself to physical pursuits, Larry enrolled at Wayne State University, Michigan's third-largest, where he studied music history and Spanish. He also began a relationship with Detroit teenager Belinda Lumpkin, whom he moved into the home he shared with David on the corner of Detroit's Gratiot Avenue and Knodell Street. 

As the organization grew, the amount of product required to satisfy customer demand exceeded the quantity of cocaine that Terry Colbert was able to supply. As a consequence, BJ and Larry bypassed Colbert and began obtaining the coke, via an introduction by Perry Coleman, from the duo who provided the latter with his drugs in the first place - Sam "Doc" Curry and Art "AD" Derrick. 

Willie Chambers

In March of 1986, the Chambers purchased the red-brick four-story, 52-unit Broadmoor apartment building located at 1350 East Grand Boulevard in Detroit for $75,000 and used it as a base of operations, overseen by Larry. The building's apartments were taken over for use as drug processing labs, sales centers and/or storage spaces by either muscling or paying off the residents. Patricia Middleton, building manager David Havard's girlfriend, was hired to do Larry's bookkeeping and to do the cooking in the bar and grill that the latter established on the Broadmoor's first floor.

The building itself was divided into different departments. Buyers were escorted to the appropriate floor upon entering the structure on the first floor, where aside from the bar and grill, a pawn shop was housed. Powdered cocaine was sold on the third and fourth floors. Prostitutes could be found on those floors as well. A lounge could be found on the second floor where buyers could consume their products. Free shots of tequila were offered to buyers on weekends. At its peak, the Broadmoor was estimated to have brought in $100,000 in profit per day. 

The youngest brother, Otis, spent his summers working with his brothers in Detroit while still a high school student.

The organization attracted customers with buy-one-get-one-free sales and by issuing discount coupons. Quality control checks were performed by having workers make undercover buys at crack houses where they weren't familiar to that location's employees. 

Employees, a large number of whom were high school students recruited from Marianna, were provided with photo ID cards. The typical pay was $100 per day and workers were expected to be on-call 24 hours a day. As a result, many cut school to work 12-hour shifts in crack houses with chains on the doors and barred windows. They were expected to adhere to a strict set of rules posted in the crack houses, which included prohibitions against various actions such as: driving over the speed limit; wearing gold chains and expensive sneakers when transporting cash or drugs; and carrying drugs and cash simultaneously. Fines were levied against workers for committing various infractions, including: $50 for playing loud music while collecting or dropping off drugs and/or money; $100 for neglecting one's duties and failing to follow instructions; $300 for stealing and for getting high on the job; and $500 for discussing organization business with outsiders, bringing outsiders to work and for lying. Much of the organizations' workforce, upwards of 150 employees, was recruited from the brothers' native Marianna. The teens were hired in various capacities, including couriers, enforcers, cooks and sellers. These and other labor practices helped the Chambers to amass $55 million a year. They were so wealthy that they were nicknamed the "Cash Money Brothers".

At their peak, the Chambers' crack sales totaled an estimated $3 million per day, they employed 500 workers and ran 50% of Detroit's crack houses -- approximately 200. They supplied another 500. The organization averaged $42 million in profit per year from 1983 to 1988. The foursome also had plans to branch out to Flint, Michigan and Toledo, Ohio. 

The Chambers used their vast wealth to purchase, among other things, vacation property in Jamaica. They even made video recordings parading examples of their fortune. One such recording features an exhibition of gold bathroom fixtures in one of the brothers' homes and huge stacks of cash. Another recorded scene features a high-ranking member of the organization saying, "Money, money, money. Fifty thousand here. Ain't no telling how much is up there. I'm going to buy me three cars tomorrow -- and a Jeep." Larry Chambers can also be seen commenting sarcastically about the cash, "I tell you what we can do. We can give it to the poor."

In February of 1986, Joe Chambers was released from federal prison after serving a two-year sentence stemming from a conviction for the theft of food stamps and postal order slips. On March 29, he was killed when a freight train collided with his vehicle in Marianna. Joe's funeral, attended by most of the organization's members, was held in Arkansas on April 4. 

That May, his older brothers showed up in Marianna for Otis' high school graduation in three chauffered limousines. 

Also in 1986, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) initiated "Operation: No Crack" in an effort to curb the popularity of the drug. A tip hotline, 1-800-NO-CRACK, was launched and fielded 1500 reports of crack sales in the first month alone. 

Larry Chambers

In early August, Patricia Middleton began working as a confidential informant for the DEA. At 1:30 pm on August 25, police conducted two simultaneous raids on property connected to the Chambers. In October, "Little Terry" Colbert also began working as a confidential informant for the DEA and provided information that directly led to a police raid on Larry's two-story Albion Street residence. A subsequent raid of a Knodell Street crack house yielded the discovery by police of a list of the organization's rules for employee conduct, nicknamed "the crack commandments".

However, business continued to prove fruitful and Larry showed his appreciation by treating his associates to a luxury cruise in Jamaica on New Year's Eve.

On April 24, 1987, at about 4:00 p.m., Otis and his girlfriend, who was driving with no license, were pulled over by police after failing to stop at a stop sign in Hughes, Arkansas on the way to Marianna. Following a search of the blue Corvette, which Otis said he'd borrowed from a friend, a green plastic bag containing $59,624 in cash was found behind the passenger seat by Hughes Police Chief Herbert Neighbors and his partner, who'd made the stop. Both Otis and the driver were taken to the police station. Chief Neighbors drove the Corvette to the station as well. The cash was ultimately seized by the IRS. 

In September of 1987, local television station WXYZ-TV ran a program about the organization entitled "All in the Family". The program's host, Chris Hansen, would go on to host the popular reality series "To Catch a Predator" from 2004 to 2007. A videotape (one of nine) confiscated during a police raid of Larry's home and featuring he and associate M.C. Poole counting cash and discussing their wealth was aired during the week-long series. One videotape featured Larry's associate William "Jack" Jackson shaking a laundry basket filled with cash and declaring, "Fifty thousand here, ain't no telling how much up there. I'm going to buy me three cars tomorrow and a Jeep." Jackson asks Larry, who is off-camera, "Should we throw these ones away, man, since we've got $500,000?". 

On September 12, David Chambers succumbed to AIDS-related complications. Members of the Wrecking Crew were arrested in mid-December following the unsealing of federal grand jury indictments. Larry was arrested on December 19 when police executing a search warrant on an apartment on Detroit's East Outer Drive found him in the bathroom. They also discovered cocaine on the kitchen table and a gun in an open cabinet above the stove. He was denied bail after being deemed a flight risk.

BJ was arrested at his home on Detroit's Beaconsfield Street on January 31, 1988. He was found in possession of a handgun and seven ounces of cocaine.

Following an 18-month long investigation, the brothers were taken into custody in February of 1988. During the arrest, Detroit police officers and DEA agents seized 250 weapons, 68 vehicles, six kilograms of cocaine and $1 million in cash and jewelry.

BJ's book "Prodigy Hustler"

Twenty-two members of the Chambers Organization were named in a 15-count indictment on February 29, 1988. The defendants named included: Larry Chambers; BJ Chambers; Willie Lee Chambers; Otis Chambers; Jerry Lee Gant; Eric Lamar Wilkins; Marshall Glenn; Belinda Lumpkin; and Elayne Coleman Lucas, who was arrested September 3, 1984. The charges included: running a continuing criminal enterprise; conspiracy with the intent to possess and distribute controlled substances; possession with the intent to distribute and distribution of controlled substances; possession of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime; and tax evasion. 

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Roy C. Hayes oversaw the prosecution of the group. By the time the trial proceedings began, four of the defendants had entered guilty pleas and four others remained at large. Though most of the defendants were tried by a jury, Willie Lee Chambers was tried by a judge. During the September trial, former Chambers employee, 19-year-old Felicia Gilchrist, who was given immunity by the government, testified that she worked 24-hour shifts selling crack through a hole cut into a wall. She explained that she sometimes shared shifts with her 14-year-old sister, Alicia, and took her newborn to work with her when the baby was a week old. "Little Terry" Colbert testified that he jumped out of a window after being beaten with a baseball bat and shot in the left leg on Otis' orders following a July 1987 argument between Colbert's uncle and Chambers. The attack ended Colbert's career as a crack dealer pulling in a $3,000-a-week income. After fleeing his assailants, Colbert was treated at Detroit Receiving Hospital. Both Colbert and James McKinney testified to Glenn's involvement in the organization. Perry Coleman testified on behalf of the government for a half-hour as part of a plea agreement that would reduce his conspiracy sentence from 25 years to 5. However, on his second day of testimony he recanted, which led to the dismissal of the indictment against two defendants. Coleman cited his fear for the safety of his own and his wife's safety as the reason for his retraction.

Later in 1988, one of the organization's lieutenants, Carl Young, was arrested in California and subsequently charged with conspiracy in Michigan.

The charges against four of the defendants were dismissed and another was acquitted. On October 28, all four brothers and five other members of their organization were convicted on conspiracy charges. In addition to the conspiracy charges, Otis was also convicted of cocaine possession and Larry and B.J. were also convicted of operating a continuing criminal enterprise. Wilkins and Lumpkin, both minors, were found guilty of conspiracy to distribute, and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, crack and marijuana.

The nine co-defendants were sentenced on  March 25, 1989. Willie Chambers was given 21 years in prison and a $350,000 fine; Otis received a 27-year term and a $350,000 fine; Billie Joe was handed 45 years and a $500,000 fine; and Larry was sentenced to life in prison and a $250,000 fine. Eric Wilkins was sentenced to 34 years in prison to be served after the completion of a 13 1/2 to 20-year sentence for a state conviction; both Marshall Glen and Jerry Lee Gant received 30-year sentences; Belinda Lumpkin was given a 25-year prison term; and Elayne Lucas was sentenced to 10 years in prison. 

In 2006, BJ published his book "Prodigy Hustler" while still incarcerated. Willie was released from prison in August of 2007. BJ was released in December of 2010. In November of 2011, Otis was released as well. Larry remains incarcerated at USP Terre Haute, a high-security federal prison located in Terre Haute, Indiana. 

Billy Joe Chambers