Judge gives member of Black Mafia Family a break

A federal judge Thursday sentenced a 10th member of the drug distribution ring known as the Black Mafia Family to six months in a federal halfway house.

Franklin Nash received a lighter punishment than nine others who were sentenced Wednesday because he had less involvement in the drug ring that reached from Atlanta to Detroit to Los Angeles, authorities said.

“I think Mr. Nash deserves a break,” U.S. District Judge Orinda Evans said, explaining why the punishment would be less that federal sentencing guidelines recommend.

Nash, 57, pleaded guilty in June to conspiring to distribute drugs. His time in the halfway house will be followed by four years on probation.

Federal prosecutors had wanted him sentenced to more than three years but conceded his role was not significant and he had turned his life around in the four years since he was a courier, moving a total of 510 grams of cocaine for the Atlanta branch of the organization.

On Wednesday nine others who also pleaded guilty in June to the conspiracy got prison time ranging from four years to 16 1/2 years.

They were some of the last remaining members of an organization that controlled or had a hand in cocaine and crack cocaine sold in Atlanta.

The Black Mafia Family began with two brothers — Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory and Terry “Southwest T” Flenory— selling crack cocaine in Detroit high schools in the mid 1980s, authorities have said. Within a few years, their Black Mafia Family had moved into 11 states, making money through distribution rather than direct street sales, authorities have said. BMF was firmly established in Atlanta before local and federal authorities realized they were here. By then, Atlanta had become a key city in the nationwide organization, according to prosecutors.

But the gang began to unravel in November when the brothers pleaded guilty in Detroit. Others followed. Sixteen were indicted in Atlanta.