In the newspaper series, which focuses on the criminal career of Melvin Williams, Simon depicts Barksdale as a ruthless killer and a drug addict. ", He said they came away from the meeting and offered Mr. Williams the role of the deacon on "The Wire.". United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the DEA Baltimore and Los Angeles Field Offices, Maryland Natural Resources Police, the Baltimore Police Department and the Baltimore States Attorneys Office for their work in the investigation and prosecution. He offered a slightly different answer on Thursday. If this claim is anything to go by then, these rappers are in deep sh*t. Richard Byrd says that he partied with top stars while at it with his cross-country marijuana distribution and [] It was not done as a gang, a member noted, as distributors instructed them in the Reagan-era ethos of going into business for yourself. The gang progressed from car thefts to owning cars, from fistfights to firefights. Turning cheap and plentiful cocaine into smokable rock was something nearly anyone kid could do. All this enforcement rewarded Baltimore with the nations highest rates of drug addiction throughout the 1990s. He appeared with Maj. Gen. George Gelston, the commander of the Maryland National Guard, on the front page of The Baltimore News American. As the Inquirer reported from the Badlands, "Many corners are divided into four distinct retail outlets: crack cocaine at $5 a vial; heroin in $10 and $20 bags; power cocaine in 'dime' ($10) and '25-cent' ($25) bags; and cocaine 'in weight' or wholesale amounts of a half-ounce or more." You can make donations by clicking the link below https://www.gofundme.com/tony-2times This post is a part of my summer series on Baltimore drug kingpins, but it's also a part of a larger series about the different types of power. [2]Legends of the Unwired consists of dramatizations of alleged events in Barksdale's criminal career, interviews with his family and friends, and interviews of Barksdale by actor Wood Harris, who plays drug kingpin Avon Barksdale on The Wire. As police and federal agents began to crack down, by the mid-90s the kingpin model turned into a crew or clique of individuals, even though there were plenty exceptions. What started in South Baltimores Locust Point and areas near downtown, is slowly expanding into other sections of the city, especially places near key city attractions. When Mayor Schmoke asked an audience at a community meeting to disarm, he was greeted by laughter and jeers. Deemed a "super kingpin" by law enforcement, Williams was found guilty of seven drug-related charges and an eighth federal charge for conspiracy. Investigators witnessed Kinney, Nauls, and Rhodes make regular trips from Houston to Baltimore where they would then offload large quantities of narcotics into a safehouse that was being maintained by the organization. ", Additional reporting by Victoria Bekiempis, Join half a million readers enjoying Newsweek's free newsletters. BALTIMORE Sandwiched on the line between three police districts, regular patrols may not have detected the signs of a major drug distribution ring, but people who live there did. But the city of Baltimore is destined for a change, especially with the location of Baltimore having much prosperity and much to offer, from its close location near the shore, to the being just a hour or two away from Washington DC and other major East Coast cities. [10] Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Beautiful Struggle (New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2008), 29-30. Frank Matthews was a Black drug kingpin originally from Durham, North Carolina, who operated from the late 1960s to 1973. 201 47 r/Mafia Join 28 days ago I've got guys who would eat your fucking eyes out of your head! According to Simon, this name was not associated with Barksdale in any official document, and Barksdale has failed to produce any documentary evidence of having any middle name. New cell phones were used on each trip to further conceal their illegal activities. [citation needed], In March 1999, he was convicted of a new offense. On Wednesday, Feb. 15, the AG's Office announced charges for six suspects who were involved in the drug conspiracy that led to the seizure of nearly $500,000 worth of narcotics in Maryland. [4] It is directed by Bruce Brown, and Drew Berry is the writer and producer. (LogOut/ The Baltimore drug scene, as seen through the eyes of drug dealers and law enforcement. As mentioned, many were first introduced to the Baltimore hoods and streets through David Simons The Wire. Viewers were able to witness a fictional and fabrication of what life was like growing up in the streets and urban community of Baltimore, from policing, to politics, to lifestyles, to a look inside the dealings of Baltimore kingpins. He attended Garnet Elementary School and spent some time at Frederick Douglass High School before transferring to City College. He had been through it all because he had grown up on the streets," he said. Melvin Williams, whose life as a West Baltimore drug kingpin in the 1960s and post-prison redemption earned him a place in HBO's "The Wire," died Thursday at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Participation in a criminal organization; Possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute; Use of firearms in a drug trafficking crime; Possession of a machine gun for an aggressive purpose; Use of firearms in a drug trafficking crime. [2] In 1985, Barksdale was sentenced to 15 years in state prison for battery. Drug arrests continued to make commerce more anarchic. Required fields are marked *. He came with me to Chester, Pa., and Atlanta to help people get out of gangs. "He was one of the most unusual clients because he was so straightforward and honest with me, the courts and police," said Howard L. Cardin, another attorney who represented him. Blackwell and his conspirators laundered drug money by buying casinos chips, winning lottery tickets, luxury items and real estate. However, he appealed his sentence and it was overturned due to the sentence being outside of the mandatory guidelines. "I am proud to call Little Melvin a friend of mine," said the Rev. Drug kingpin says he worked with Kanye, partied with Diddy and used Baltimore attorney's help to hide fortune Justin Fenton, Baltimore Sun 12/11/2021 Arrest, warrants were issued 8 years after 43 . BALTIMORE (WBFF) A national drug trafficking organization accused of pumping drugs into the Baltimore region has been dismantled, officials say. I started doing interviews and reporting on urban entertainment news about a little over a year ago and to my surprise it's doing better than I thought. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Baltimore, MD - A 16-month investigation by the Baltimore OCDETF Strike Force into drug dealing in Baltimore has led to eleven alleged wholesale drug suppliers being charged in a federal indictment for conspiracy, drug distribution, and firearms charges. October 10, 1985. While the Baltimore ghetto, along with the metropolitan area as a whole, has always had one of the country's worst drug problems, which was often displayed on The Wire, the HBO series also showed corruption and poor police tactics that took the reign as the city's biggest problem. "He was a fascinating man in terms of Baltimore and what the drug war was going to do to this country.". While the Baltimore ghetto, along with the metropolitan area as a whole, has always had one of the countrys worst drug problems, which was often displayed on The Wire, the HBO series also showed corruption and poor police tactics that took the reign as the citys biggest problem. "I knew of his notoriety and his antics on Pennsylvania Avenue," Mr. Hamm said. He is not Melvin Williams, or Warren Boardley, or Linwood Williams, or Peanut King. Theyre not based on real people, individually, but a character might be a composite". [citation needed], Williams died on December 3, 2015, at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Baltimore Police also says its detectives are working diligently to crack down on illegal drug activity and trafficking, citing the recent federal indictment of 29 alleged drug dealers from. Joe Satran. On Wednesday, Feb. 15, the AGs Office announced charges for six suspects who were involved in the drug conspiracy that led to the seizure of nearly $500,000 worth of narcotics in Maryland. Owings Mills, The Most Devastating Deaths On The Wire. [14] Some applauded the actions, but the weary dismissed such efforts as publicity stunts. After a couple of days, it will all be the same again, a 25-year-old sighed. While the other sections of the West Side are the Northwest hoods of Park Heights and Liberty Heights, or Southwest Baltimore with hoods like Irv Town and Yale Heights. They stopped selling drugs. Like Williams, however, they pointed to a culture of racism in the city. My goal is to work with as many artist, entrepreneurs, creatives, and anyone who's doing something positive as much as possible to grow my channel to the point I can use it as a platform to help others believe in themselves, community, and their ability to be noticed and make a difference in the world. Each era was different, the 1970s was more a chain of command and only chosen few were involved, to the 1990s was the rise of violence, people standing on the corner and when many were involved. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. In reality, as mentioned earlier in the article, the 1970s was the beginning era of the streets in the many neighborhoods of East Baltimore and West Baltimore and what was depicted in The Wire has not occurred in the streets of modern day Baltimore. The investigation, which was led by the Drug Enforcement Administrations High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Group 51 with assistance from the Attorney Generals Organized Crime Unit, revealed that at least as early as July 2022 through October 2022, Latrava Kinney, 39; Lawrence Nauls, 45;and Jayson Rhodes, 49, of Houston, Texas were serving as narcotics and money couriers for a national drug traffickingorganization, working in tandem to traffic multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine from Texas to Baltimore County, Maryland. Mr. Williams began attending services at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church more than two decades ago. Williams told his friends that he was suffering from cancer, The Baltimore Sun reported. [11] In a tumultuous environment, a weapon gave residents a feeling of control, especially for young men. Tommy Lee Canty became a boss in his early twenties, an age when dealers in the past would become lieutenants. A prominent anti-gun violence activist in Baltimore was fatally shot at a public housing project, police and city officials said. Editorial Credit: Nicole Glass Photography / Shutterstock.com. In his later years, Barksdale worked for the city Health Department in Baltimore, in the Safe Streets program and counseled young people to help them avoid his mistakes. These groups operate much of the heroin, cocaine and marijuana trade in Baltimore. [3] In 2003, he was acquitted of a federal charge of being a felon with a gun. [1], During the early 1980s, law enforcement waged an energetic, expensive effort to pursue these chiefs. The results in Baltimore and across the hemisphere have been a disaster, however, and criminal justice reformers general unwillingness to speak out about the catastrophic costs of high-level prosecutions have hindered their ability to reduce the harms not only of drug abuse, but of the drug war. BALTIMORE, MD In the 1990s, Baltimore's Linwood "Rudy" Williams was charged with trafficking 30 kilos of heroin with a street value of $10 million. Frustrated BPD officials claimed that in the mid-1990s perhaps three out of four murders had a narcotics connection, and prohibitions side effects also contributed to the bedlam. In 1990, the body of his 27-year-old son, Donald A. Williams, was found near the 10th tee of the Forest Park Golf Course. [19] Thomas Frazier, A Message to Citizens from the Baltimore Police Department, n.d. but c. February 1997, box 14, Kurt Schmoke Papers, Baltimore City Archives. The kingpins were undoubtedly ruthless, but they also enforced discipline. Barksdale was raised in the Lexington Terrace projects in Baltimore. Disrupting this large-scale, interstate drug trafficking ring is a tremendous step toward restoring peace and public safety, and I thank our partners in this case and applaud their hard work in obtaining these criminal indictments., Illegal drug distribution affects the very foundation of our families and communities so every time we take cocaine and firearms off the street, lives are saved, states Special Agent in Charge Jarod Forget, of the Washington Division Office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). (BALTIMORE) - - U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles, Jr. sentenced Garnett Gilbert Smith, a/k/a Abdule Jones a/k/a Brian Slack, age 44, of Baltimore, Maryland, to 25 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for conspiring to distribute and possession with intent to distribute cocaine. In addition to the name and the boxing background, for example, in Easy Money, Simon claims that Marlow Bates and Timmirror Stanfield were rivals of Barksdale's. Your email address will not be published. A judge complained that the city suffered under the tyranny of the children and neighbors instigated public marches to fight back.[9]. Smith sent money for the payment of the drugs back to California in concealed compartments on the car carriers. By Seth Ferranti (www.gorillaconvict.com) In the late 1970s and early 1980s, if you were in the drug game in Baltimore, then you answered to one man, Peanut King. He was in the early stages of writing his autobiography at the time of his death. After Peanut Kings territory in East Baltimore opened it descended into competitive chaos, while West Baltimore remained relatively placid under the thumb of structured operations. Drug kingpin. Baltimore had a proud history of black entrepreneurship licit and illicit and training programs tried to assist low-income people starting small businesses. The Baltimore County Police Department is proud to work alongside our federal partners to dismantle illegal trafficking operations like this and ensure our communities remain safe, states Baltimore County Police Chief Dennis Delp. Such is heroin's role in the city's history that the recent death at age 73 of "Little Melvin" Williams, the West Baltimore drug kingpin alleged to have grossed $1 million a day before being . Kids whose minds should have been on Teddy Ruxpin, Ta-Nehisi Coates recalled, now held in their hands the power to dissolve your world into white.[10] Baltimore, the city of neighborhoods, became the city of drug cliques, and if they controlled turf at all it only extended a few blocks. Linda L. 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