BMF
In the early 1990s, Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory and his brother, Terry “Southwest T,” rose up from the slums of Detroit to build one of the largest cocaine empires in American history: the Black Mafia Family. After a decade in the drug game, the Flenorys had it all—a fleet of Maybachs, Bentleys and Ferraris, a 500-man workforce operating in six states, and an estimated quarter of a billion in drug sales. Ruthlessness fueled BMF’s rise to incredible power; greed and that same ruthlessness led to their downfall.by Mara Shalhoup
BMF: The Rise and Fall of Big Meech and the Black Mafia FamilyThe Black Mafia Family, ostensibly a hip-hop record label, was actually an urban midlevel drug-distribution network. Originally based in Detroit, the operation expanded through the genius of the Flenory brothers. Demetrius “Big Meech” was the flamboyant personality behind the Atlanta operation, and Terry was the low-profile and conservative operator of the L.A. operation. With major direct cocaine sources out of Mexico, these brothers escalated their distribution to more than $250 million wholesale value before their downfall. They operated for a period apparently with immunity in Atlanta but were eventually caught through the persistence of a couple of local police and two nationwide federal drug-enforcement networks. Before their fall, the Flenory brothers managed to spread their taint of violence and drugs to reach several prominent people, including Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin and singer Bobby Brown. The rapper known as “Baby Blue” fell as part of the BMF crew, and rapper Young Jeezy escaped by the skin of his teeth. Shalhoup, an award-winning journalist, offers an insightful look at the street-drug industry, which casts a wide net of beneficiaries as well as victims.by Mara Shalhoup
