DETROITS NOTORIOUS GANGS DOWNFALL
Street gangs in Detroit, Michigan. Gone are the days back in the 1960’s and before when gangs were social organizations and were geographically related. Beginning in the 1970’s these street gangs grew into criminal organizations. They are the initiators of murder, drugs, robbery, etc. They are pure savages craving fast money and a fast life style. This week let’s take a look at Detroit.
One of the earliest gangs was the Errol Flynns. They took the name from the white movie star. It’s funny because Errol Flynn was a Nazi supporter and a complete bigot. The Flynns developed a good structure on the eastside of the Motor City. Like most gangs the members had creative nick names and hand gestures that would provide quick identity. Their specialty was heroin. They became quite wealthy and had 400 members at their height of activity. A lot of smaller gangs began to pop up, especially on the west side. Gangs such as Dexter Boys, Schoolcraft Boys, 7 Mile Boys, 8 Mile Sconys and just about every major street soon had a representative gang. The new gangs eventually started cutting into the Errol Flynns market share. Everybody wanted a taste of the money and life style. When crack cocaine hit the city and became a much cheaper alternative to heroin, the Flynns started to flounder and eventually faded away. Soon the rise of Young Boys Inc. (Y.B.I.) came about. This gang was classier and showed organizational prowess. They eventually controlled more than 80% of the Detroit heroin business between 1978 through 1982. That didn’t satisfy their greed as they started opening franchises in other cities. Young Boys Inc. invented the scheme of having under age youth to move their crack cocaine throughout the city. If caught by the police they would not snitch and were too young to prosecute. They were making $250,000 per day in Detroit. One of their more successful franchises was Boston where they were netting over $50,000 per day. Eventually, their top captains started arguing and the organization fell apart. Not only that but the Detroit police department started catching up to them and long prison sentences were given to key members. Their legacy was their organizational structure and new gangs began to copy it. While all of the gang activity was growing in the Black community, there was something out of the ordinary. A growing population of Arabs was taking shape in Detroit. These Catholics were mainly from Iraq and are known as Chaldeans. They are commonly known for owning small supermarkets throughout Black neighborhoods in Detroit. They eventually grew into real estate, dry cleaners, and gas stations and so on. They filled the emptiness and lack of entrepreneurship among the black population. They also began to enter the dark side of business. Some from this community started a drug cartel. Unlike the Black gangs, the Chaldeans jumped into the drug business in a very serious way. They took the name Chaldean Mafia. Somehow, they linked up with Medellin Cartel from Columbia, the Sicilian Mafia, Tijuana, and Sinaloa cartels from Mexico. The drugs would come through Phoenix or San Diego and then make their way to Detroit. They were making millions. Their leaders became ruthless and were not exempt from murder, kidnapping, or arson. Just like the Italian Mafia the leaders of the group began having differences and murder contracts on each other started becoming a routine. Drug Enforcement Agency, FBI, local police and others finally went after the group and made 111 convictions. They have toned down but they still exist. Another popular gang was The Chambers Brothers. They caught the widespread of crack cocaine at the right time. The Chambers Brothers worked a “factory” out of a vacant apartment complex, known as the “Trap House” today. They also had the nickname Cash Money Brothers. If that sounded familiar it’s because the movie New Jack City was based on the Chambers Brothers. The film makers used New York City as the place but they channeled this Detroit operation. The novel Warpath by Jeffry Scott Hansen writes about The Six-Mile Syndicate which is based on the Chambers Brothers to. Another notorious drug trafficking gang in Detroit was the Black Mafia Family (BMF). The Flenory brothers, Demetrius, nick name Big Meech and Terry, grew an elaborate criminal empire. They grew so large that they decided to spread out all over the nation. Their source was the Mexican cartels and they made a partnership with the Crips street gang network to distribute the heroin. These guys made over $270 million. The Atlanta authorities broke them down and the brothers along with 150 members received long prison terms. Big Meech and Terry are doing 30 years in prison today. |
-Pictures Shown above are a visual aide to help you picture the amounts of drugs they had and shipped all around the United States, Mexico, and Colombia.
- A trap house is a older style home with one way in and one way out (the front door). It is reserved as a house where you can typically buy crack or any other type of drug. -The final picture is a photograph of Assad Kalasho who is the Chaldean Mafia is a criminal organizations leader. Assad operated narcotics distribution networks from Phoenix and San Diego to Detroit. Involved in violent crimes such as homicide, assault, kidnapping, armed robbery Butch Jones Leader of Y.B.I.
Documentary Full Story of BMF (Black Mafia Family)
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RUIN OF MOST NOTORIOUS GANG IN DETROIT:
"THE BEST FRIENDS"
Gangland #1 Real Hitman from Detroit Nate "Boone" Craft
Gangland #1 Hitman Boone Craft Part 2 | Maserati Rick and the Best Friends of Detroit
Detroit: "The Best Friends"
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Nate Craft had his way. He would be living under a new name in a new city far from Detroit. Instead he's stuck in his Michigan home, looking out the window, wondering whether the next person he sees will try to kill him.
In 1994, the former hit man testified against a Detroit drug gang in return for prosecutors reducing a first-degree murder charge for the killing of a drug dealer. Released from prison in April, Craft thought he would enter the Witness Protection Program. Not only was he rejected, but his probation requires him to live in Michigan for the next two years. By forcing him to live in the same place as the people he testified against, many of who were paid killers and already have been released from prison, Craft said his probation amounts to a virtual death sentence. "You might as well pull the trigger and shoot me now," said Craft, who doesn't want to say where he lives in Michigan because he doesn't want to be found. The handling of his case raises questions about just how far prosecutors should go to protect criminals, even murderers, who help convict other crooks, legal experts said. Craft, 51, admits he was no angel. He was one of the most ruthless members of the vicious Best Friends, a hired hit man who killed 30 people in the mid 1980s. He was never charged with the other deaths. Now the tables have been turned. The hunter thinks he is hunted. Craft's federal and state probation officers also believe he's in danger. "He's in a situation where he's vulnerable," said George Murphy, a Michigan probation officer. "It's not surprising reprisals would be sought by others." For Craft's safety, both probation officers visit him at home rather than make him travel to their offices. Still, it didn't take long for Craft's old running mates to learn he was out of prison. On his second day of freedom, he was walking out of a grocery store when a man called out his name. He turned around to spy a former accomplice. The man said he would tell Craft's old cohorts that he was back on the street. During his 17 years in federal prison, Craft was in the Witness Protection Program, kept separate from the general population. On his release, he applied for the next part of the program, which would give him a new name and new life somewhere in the United States. But his request was rejected by the Justice Department which didn't give a reason. A department spokeswoman declined to comment. Bill Soisson, an assistant U.S. attorney who supported Craft's request, said a Justice Department official told him the reason Craft was rejected was that he had told a prison psychologist he was going to blow up a federal building. Soisson didn't know which building or why Craft made the threat. Craft said he never made such a remark. "Why would I say something that ignorant?" he asked. "Do I look like a fool? I ain't no fool." If anyone thought Craft was a fool in the mid-1980s, they kept it to themselves. He was an imposing figure: 6 foot 1, 300 pounds, bald and bearded, with a permanent scowl. By age 10, he committed his first robbery, records show. By 21, he was a twice-convicted felon. By 35, he had spent nearly half his life in prison. In 1984, Craft caught the eye of brothers Reggie and Terry Brown after winning a Toughman boxing contest at Cobo Center. The Browns were the leaders of a burgeoning drug gang, Best Friends, which was about to ignite a ferocious drug war in Detroit, prosecutors said. They wanted to know whether Craft could help prepare them for the battle that would follow. Best Friends began as enforcers for drug gangs, later ripped them off and finally killed some of them, Soisson said. Its 25 members didn't know each others' names, only their nicknames: Boogaloo, Ghost, KO, Lunchmeat. Craft was known as Boone because, like Daniel Boone, he was good with a knife. Flush with cash from the sale of crack cocaine, they drove around in Volvos, BMWs and Corvettes. They drank $100 bottles of Dom Perignon. Craft said he tried to teach some discipline in the gang, who often got high before attempted murders, and then go on wild shooting sprees that left holes in each other's clothes. "They would fire 15 shots and only hit the person with one," he said. "They would be throwing their gun around and shooting innocent bystanders." Craft taught the gang how to set up a hit by learning the target's daily travel patterns. That way, they could ambush the victim as he left or arrived at home or at work. Dressed in bulletproof vests and body armor suits, they packed M-16 and AK47 rifles and Uzi submachine guns. The gang killed 80 people, which included snitches, competitors, customers who owed money and sometimes family members, prosecutors said. Members received $10,000 to $30,000 per murder, depending on how much the Brown brothers wanted a target dead. If the price was right, Craft said, he would kill anyone. But then he turned on the gang after it killed his brother over a drug debt. During his 1994 testimony against Best Friends, Craft said the gang kept a running list of the people it wanted to kill. "There was a whole big list of them," he said. "Half the time I wasn't paying too much attention to it. We would just go out and start popping people." Craft's testimony helped end the decade-long dominance of the gang, Soisson said. Dozens of gang members and associates were convicted of offenses ranging from peddling drugs to murder. When he was trying to get parole in 2002, an assistant Wayne County prosecutor wrote a note on his behalf to the state Department of Corrections. "He provided invaluable assistance, at great risk to himself, in achieving convictions of a number of individuals in a notorious murder for hire case in federal and state courts," wrote Bob Donaldson. After his rejection for Witness Protection, however, law enforcement officials said there's little they could do for him. Contacted by a reporter, Donaldson said he wasn't involved in Craft's negotiations for the Witness Protection Program and that there was little he could do for him. Soisson, who supported Craft's bid, inquired about a possible appeal but was told by the Justice Department that the chances were remote. As for Craft, he now knows what it's like to live scared, to live like a snitch, the type of person he would have killed in the 1980s. Stuck indoors, he said he feels like he's still in prison. For money, he relies on help from struggling relatives. With the curtains drawn, he sits inside his darkened living room, watching a lot of TV. He occasionally peeks out the window, watching people as they walk by. |