Federal Criminal Defense Blog : Georgia Federal Criminal Defense Lawyer & Attorney : Gillen Withers & Lake Law Firm : White Collar Crime, RICO, Trial : Atlanta, Savannah, GA

As reported in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Vernon Marcus Coleman, the last remaining member of the Black Mafia Family, or BMF, was arrested last Thursday. Coleman was apprehended at an apartment in north Atlanta by the U.S. Marshals' Southeast Regional Fugitive Task Force. Coleman had been wanted for over two years on cocaine charges, as well as on a traffic charge in Douglas County.

Coleman went by several aliases, including Jason Stevenson Parkinson and WU, a rapper. He claimed to be associated with The Life Records, The Illustrious Family and B-EZ Entertainment. Agents discovered fake documents in Coleman's apartment with his aliases, as well as drug paraphernalia. Coleman told agents that he knew he was wanted because he watched his fugitive profile on a cable channel.

The BMF operated a drug distribution business nationwide before coming to the attention of authorities in 2003. By that time, Atlanta had become a key city in the nationwide organization that ran a violent, yet lucrative, national drug distribution business. Atlanta was a key center for the organization and, at one point, the BMF controlled or had a hand in virtually all of the cocaine and crack cocaine sold in Atlanta, Los Angeles, Detroit and locations in between. The BMF would use limousines to transport cocaine between cities.

Approximately 150 BMF members have been arrested and convicted in several cities on drug and weapons charges. Coleman is the final BMF member to be apprehended. Last December, another BMF member, Fleming Daniels, was sentenced to 20 years in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia for distributing more than $1 million in cocaine. A total of 16 defendants have been indicted in Atlanta in relation to the BMF. 11 have pled guilty and Daniels' the only one of the cases to go to trial.
 

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Last week, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia unsealed two indictments charging 34 defendants in a nationwide drug trafficking and distribution network based in Colombia, Guatemala Panama and Mexico, known as the "Gulf Cartel." The defendants were members of "cells" which coordinated the distribution of millions of dollars worth of cocaine and marijuana. One of the network's cells was based in Atlanta, with other cells in several other cities, including Jackson, Mississippi; Memphis; Indianapolis and Austin, Texas. The traffickers shipped drug proceeds from Atlanta and other cities to Texas by tractor-trailer, and then to Mexico, concealing the money with legitimate cargo.

The indictments are the result of "Operation Confluence," a series of searches and arrests executed last week in conjunction with similar operations around the country, including “Operation Dos Equis,” “Operation The Family,” “Operation Stinger” and “Operation Vertigo, which are part of “Project Reckoning,” a multi-agency law enforcement effort designed to bring down the Gulf Cartel. Federal and state agents employed wiretaps, surveillance, police traffic stops and other techniques in the investigation, which culminated in nationwide arrests and seizures executed on September 16.  In all, Project Reckoning has resulted in the arrest of 332 individuals, the seizure of $57 million in U.S. currency, and the seizure of 51,147 pounds of marijuana, 16,347 kilgorams of cocaine and other quantities of drugs and guns.U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey announced the results of the project last week at the DEA's Atlanta Division headquarters.

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