Feds: Black Mafia Family stragglers arrested

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By Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Even though the Black Mafia Family has been pronounced dead and gone before, law enforcement officers are still picking up stragglers from the gang that at one time controlled or had a hand in virtually all the cocaine and crack sold in Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles and places in between.

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U.S. Attorney's Office In 2008, federal agents retrieved $875,000 in cash and seven brand new semi-automatic weapons, believed to be proceeds from BMF cocaine transactions, underneath the seats of a Hummer that had been seized from the drug-dealing Black Mafia Family.

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James Ergas with the U.S. Marshals Service said Thursday the Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force picked up two BMF members last Friday in Buckhead and two others earlier this month – one in Atlanta and the other in Dayton, Ohio.

“There are still people out there with BMF but they don’t have the money [the group once had]. They aren’t as dangerous. The aren’t as organized or have connections to the drugs.”

Ergas said Ernest Dennis, 37, and Johnathon Manigault, 26, were spotted in the parking lot of Fairfield Inn, heading toward a 2010 Lexus and a 2010 Mercedes Benz, both reported stolen. Together the two cars were valued at $130,000, Ergas said. The two allegedly also had fake IDs with “valid” credit cards to go with those names.

Dennis, who was on the Atlanta Police Department’s 10 Most Wanted list, was taken into custody on an outstanding aggravated assault charge. He also is wanted in North Carolina and South Carolina for auto theft, Ergas said.

“He has a history of being tied to BMF and [he has] an extremely violent history,” Ergas said.

Manigault was wanted for a Georgia auto theft charge and also for a probation violation in South Carolina.

On Feb. 1, the marshals picked up two others – one in Atlanta and the other in Dayton.

Tovis Raines was arrested in Atlanta and information led marshals to Ricardo Webb in Ohio.

While these four men are believed to aligned with the BMF, federal agents said in 2009 they had in custody the last member of the Black Mafia Family not already in prison

BMF was a group that operated nationwide but it was firmly established in Atlanta before local and federal authorities realized in 2003 that they were here. By that time, Atlanta had become a key city in the nationwide organization that ran a violent, lucrative, national drug distribution business.

Since then about 150 BMF members have been convicted on drug or weapons charges.