DEL.ICIO.USBlack Mafia’s Hummer limo hid $875,000 in cash
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thursday, October 30, 2008
The Hummer limousine seized from the drug-dealing Black Mafia Family almost four years ago had been sold at auction, then sold three times more. It had been carrying teenagers to proms and brides and grooms to weddings.
But as federal officials prepared for a June trial, they “debriefed” other BMF members and learned agents missed something when they searched the Hummer.
U.S. Attorney's Office
The Hummer H2 stretch limousine was seized in 2004 during a raid of one of the Black Mafia Family’s stash houses in northwest Atlanta.
In August, agents tracked down the car, looked underneath the seats and found $875,000 in cash and seven brand new semi-automatic weapons, believed to be proceeds from BMF cocaine transactions.
The four “innocent owners,” according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert McBurney, knew nothing.
Information about the money and guns found in two “traps” was discussed this week as members of the BMF charged in Atlanta were sentenced.
Federal agents seized the black 2003 Hummer H2 stretch limousine in November 2004 when they raided one of BMF’s stash houses, “Space Mountain” on Paran Place in an upper-class northwest Atlanta neighborhood.
BMF members had cleaned out and fled the house, but they left the Hummer because they did not have keys to a car blocking the limousine.
McBurney said agents searched the limo and nothing found. The limo changed hands several times, finally ending up with Atlanta’s Comfort Limousine.
The Hummer was one of the extravagances BMF enjoyed with profits from its violent drug organization.
Brothers Demetrius “Big Meech” and Terry “Southwest T” Flenory created BMF in the mid-1980s by selling crack cocaine in Detroit. Within a few years, the BMF controlled crack and cocaine distribution in 11 states. Atlanta became a key city in the nationwide organization, according to prosecutors.
BMF began to unravel in November when the brothers pleaded guilty in Detroit. Sixteen people were indicted in Atlanta, and of those 11 have pleaded guilty; 10 were sentenced on Wednesday and Thursday. Indictments have been returned in Orlando, Louisville, Greenville and Los Angeles
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