All language subtitles for The.BMF.Documentary.Blowing.Money.Fast.S01E04.720p.WEB.h264-OPUS.[eng]

[Scott] Meech wanted to be
bigger than Detroit.

He wanted to control
the whole country.

[gunshot]

[person] Atlanta's to the point

where the S-H-I-T is
about to hit the fan.

[Scott] So, at the same time,

the Caribbean cocaine route
had been completely dried up.

Meech and Terry needed to find
new supply lines really fast.

Green Eyes--he brought me
1,500 kilos in one day.

The dam broke. [laughs]

And the floodgates are open.

[Chad] Money just was coming
from everywhere.

We love to spend our money.

We can't take none
of this shit with us.

Meech is like,
"Man, we Black Mafia Family."

[person] Now you got a title.

Police want to know,
who the fuck is that?

[Chad] We was at the club.
I look down.

I see, like,
five guys drinking they beer,

looking at us like this.

From that point on,
I knew it was problems.

[chill music plays]

[person, echoing] Ev-everybody
move like brothers.

♪ ♪

[echoing] Everybody shining
like new money.

♪ ♪

[echoing] It ain't nobody cool
like this in the world

and never will be.

♪ ♪

[Scott] By the early 2000s,
there were 23 branches

of BMF operating
around the country.

And each one of those cities
had stash houses,

cut houses, packaging houses

that were headquartered
in Atlanta.

At the height
of the BMF movement,

well over 400-plus members.

And that's just the ones
that I saw.

We were everywhere--
in California,

St. Louis, Detroit,

Miami, Texas.

There were members everywhere.

When these guys started
to come together

from these different cities,
it was all about

that opportunity that Meech
was making available to them.

And then you go out,
and you can see

the greatest show on Earth.

[all] Coming to a camera near
you,

death before dishonor,

the greatest show on Earth!

[bass-heavy beat plays]

♪ ♪

BMF!

BMF!

[Cavario] It was definitely
bringing a level of opulence

that was
only fantasized about prior.

[Curtis]
What I have experienced

during that time period
from hustling

and coming up
the way I came up is,

like, page three
in the drug dealer pamphlet

tells you not to show everybody

how much money
you actually have.

And they did it
exactly the opposite.

They did it way bigger
than everybody else.

[Chad] We going out
six days out of seven.

Ten-plus cars pulling up,

bottles everywhere,
girls everywhere.

And we spending
people's salaries for a year

in one night.

It just was--
it was unbelievable.

[Meech] When we go out
at night, whatever we spend,

50,000, 100,000
in the motherfucking club,

we can afford to do it,

'cause we ain't bring it all
with us.

[Kialana] Everybody was eating
off of them.

Every business,
every hairdresser,

every restaurant, every club.

Everybody was eating,
every stripper.

♪ ♪

[T.I.] BMF galvanized
the strip club industry

here in the city

and made Atlanta a destination

for strip clubs.

Man, I seen Meech throw
a half a million

in the club one time...

just 'cause.

This shit is stupid, really,
but, man, it's--

it's a part of our culture.

It's what we do.
You know what I'm saying?

[crowd shouting indistinctly]

[Kialana] BMF guys,
they were lit, okay?

Fun. They were lit.

I mean, I was seeing them
with all the foreign cars--

Ferraris, Lambos.

They had a oversized T-shirt
with a chain that say "BMF."

[Maurice] In any other
hustling community

where you were doing any kind
of illegal activities,

you would remain somewhat
with your head down,

because you didn't want
to attract attention.

But that's not the case
in Atlanta with BMF.

[T.I.] I could tell
that bro had a vision,

and he had definite intentions

on making a mark in a world

that would have
otherwise ignored him.

You dig?

[Scott] Meech had become

the biggest cocaine dealer
in America,

but to his own detriment,

he wants the spotlight,

wants all the glory.

And this put him on the radar
of law enforcement.

[Jack] I'd pretty much
always focused on cocaine,

in the Atlanta area.

I never left Atlanta.

I worked for about 27 years

as a DEA agent in Atlanta.

I grew up as the son
of an FBI agent.

I wasn't intending to be
involved in law enforcement,

but I just found that I liked
the challenge of the job.

I first heard of an individual

who was being called Meechie

back in the late '90s.

It was a few years later
when I started hearing

more stuff
about his drug business.

They were calling themselves
uh, the BMF.

[Rand] I always wanted
to be a lawyer.

[dramatic music plays]

I started my first year
as a DUI defense attorney.

Eventually, in Fulton County,

I was part
of the Major Narcotics unit.

I was a senior assistant
district attorney.

I'd started to get
to know agents,

and they knew that,
you know, I would--

I had a reputation of not being
able to say no to anything.

When we first heard about BMF
back in the early 2000s,

we'd hear about some cop
in South Carolina

pulls over a guy,

and he has a kilo of cocaine.

And the guy said,
"I can give you BMF."

We're like, "Who? Who?"

You know, "BMF? Who?"

Names may be getting dropped,
but nobody knows what it is,

we couldn't get
any information.

It was all rumor.

I had U.S. attorneys
passing on it.

DEA was passing on it.
The FBI was passing on it.

Nobody wanted to touch it.

But this was Jack's
white whale at the time.

[tense music plays]

♪ ♪

[Bryant] I became
an Atlanta police officer

because I wanted
to make a difference,

because I saw that
my community needed that.

They needed more people
that look like me.

♪ ♪

My father, his ultimate goal
was to be a police officer

in the city of Atlanta.

[indistinct shouting,
whistle blowing]

But during that time,
Blacks could not join

the Atlanta Police Department.

So, by the time Blacks
could join

the Atlanta Police Department,

he had already found
gainful employment,

and he had had a family.

So, one day,
at the age of six years old--

I will never forget it--

he sat me down and said, "Hey,
you have to do this for me.

"I wanted to be an Atlanta
police officer all of my life,

and you have to do it."

I just took that
and ran with it,

and at six years old,

I began to mold myself
into whatever it took

to become
an Atlanta police officer.

Seeing these guys in Atlanta

in all these highline cars,
with the jewelry on,

the hair on the back
of your neck stands up,

and I just knew
that the city of Atlanta

is not ready for this.

[Jack] I liked Bryant right
from the get-go,

'cause he was a worker,

and I was always
looking for guys

who would work crazy hours.

[muffled dance music playing]

[Bryant] There were countless
nights that I spent

in Magic City
doing surveillance.

Meech, I pictured him
being this huge guy,

maybe bald, uh,
just look like he would just--

just choke you to death,

but when I started
to see this guy,

he was a small-frame guy,

tall, but not the typical
hit man type of guy

that I would visualize.

Just kind of sit back
and watch these guys

just tossing money up

and how everybody was
basically kissing their behind

when they came in,

because it's time for the BMF.

♪ ♪

[smooth music plays]

♪ ♪

[Latarra] At that point,

Meech and I had been together
a while.

I didn't mind him going out,
doing his thing.

He would just come
to my place afterwards.

I mean, I would go
every once in a while,

but that was something that
I never really enjoyed doing.

♪ ♪

I just wanted to leave
that lifestyle of Atlanta,

so I moved down to Miami.

And then, of course, that's
when I find out I'm pregnant.

[intriguing music plays]

♪ ♪

Meech was overjoyed,
very happy.

So I had a wonderful pregnancy.

I didn't see him very much,

but just being surrounded
by my family was enough for me.

♪ ♪

Demetrius was
born April 22, 2000.

[Nicole] Demetrius Jr.,

was just, like,
the light of his life.

That was, like,
the biggest joy,

Meech having a son, a junior.

It just gave Demetrius

a different perspective
on life.

[chuckles]

[Latarra] When it was time
to take our son home,

we strapped the baby in...

[rap music playing]
♪ We show up to show out ♪

...and Demetrius blasts
rap music.

♪ ♪

And I'm looking.
I said, "Are you crazy?"

And he goes,
"He has to get used to this."

♪ ♪

So I just turned, like,
my face to the window.

And, like,
tears rolling down, like,

"My baby, poor baby."

♪ ♪

I was like,
"I can't believe this guy,"

but that was just
how much music was in his soul.

And he--he said,
"He has to get used to this,

so we're gonna
start it day one."

[piano music plays]

♪ ♪

[Scott] Demetrius and Terry

were enamored
with the music industry.

You know, they had music
in their blood from early on

that had been
kind of instilled in them

from their father.

They weren't just fans.

They wanted
to be a part of it.

When they finally had
the money

that they could throw around,

they wanted to throw a lot
of that money towards music.

And they became financiers.

[hip-hop beat playing]

♪ ♪

[Cavario] Hip-hop has been tied

to the streets
from the beginning.

This wasn't a new model.

Guys in the street
with the finances

providing those finances
to talented young people

so that they could have
a opportunity to produce music.

And then, of course,
the music itself

was very, very profitable.

Meech is running around

with some of the biggest
hip-hop label heads

in the game...

[crowd clamoring]

...Puffy, Suge Knight,

Jermaine Dupri.

It's right in front of him--
the way that these guys

are building
these hip-hop empires.

That was his real passion.

He just really wanted to tap in
and be, like, a music mogul.

[chuckles]

[Maurice] And, of course,

Atlanta's booming
as a place for music,

and it's just ripe
with really talented artists.

[Kid] And the winner is...

[all] Outkast.

[Maurice] In 1995,
Outkast, from Atlanta,

win Newcomers of the Year.

And the tensions were so high

between East Coast
and West Coast...

they're being booed
on the stage,

because it's like,
well, you know,

you all really aren't
in the game.

I'm tired of folks,
you know what I'm saying?

Closed-minded folks,
you know what I'm saying?

It's like we got a demo tape,
and don't nobody want

to hear it, but it's like this,
the South got something to say.

-That's all I got to say.
-[crowd booing]

[Maurice] And what he's
actually saying is that like,

"You all forget where most
of you all come from.

We got our own style and
our rights right here, too."

[2 Chainz] That was a pivotal
moment where André, Big Boi,

they were fighting
to create a name

for what we were doing
down here in the South.

When André said what he said,

he caught a lot
of people's attention

and also installed confidence

in the artists that were
coming up under him.

When he said that,
I just felt like,

"Hell, yeah, it's about time
somebody said something."

You know what I mean?

I knew how they thought
about cats from the South.

They called it country.

It turned a page in Atlanta

and for Sou- for Southern music,
I think, all around.

[Maurice] And by 2000,

Atlanta is the new Motown
of the South.

It becomes a hip-hop capital
of the world.

[2 Chainz]
This is a no-hate zone.

You see artists
rubbing elbows,

you know, eating together,
breaking bread together,

building together.

Legacies being built.

[Scott]
Jeezy was making the music.

Meech would promote the music.

And Jeezy was rapping
about Meech.

So it was- it was art imitating
life imitating art,

all in real time.

[Curtis] Selling drugs was
his whole theme,

and that made
whatever he was saying real

to the audience at that point.

[2 Chainz]
Meech was so respected,

and he also paid
like he weighs.

When he came to the club,

he used to create
his own playlist

to whatever he wanted
to hear for the night.

[2 Chainz]
And I do remember hearing,

"We Getting Money Over Here"
by Jeezy and Bun B.

I heard it seven times in a row
in Magic City one night.

[hip-hop music playing]

Yeah!
BMF in the building, nigga.

[Latarra] Jeezy's career,
I think, was catapulted

to another level
because of Big Meech.

A lot of musicians were
interested in working with him.

You know,
let's call a spade a spade.

They had more money than a lot
of artists at the time.

I think that's what attracted
artists around that.

[Scott] Gucci Mane, Nelly...

these were the guys
that they were partying with.

The lifestyle and the music
are tethered together.

If you were to look
at a drug dealer back then

and you were to look
at a rapper,

I don't think you'd be able
to tell much of a difference.

[Yolanda] So Meech started
BMF Entertainment

and Juicemagazine--

two legitimate businesses.

But he saw where
his record label can lead

to a lifestyle that
would still accommodate him

to remain at the same plateau
that he was at

and not have to downgrade,
you know.

[Curtis] They was hiding
in plain sight

because they had
a hip-hop aura,

who you would see
with that kind of jewelry.

If you looked up and you-
and you saw, oh, it's a label,

then you go, "Oh, okay,
so this is a hip-hop artist."

Like, if you're not culturally
in tune with hip-hop,

then how do you know
it's not a successful brand

that you're not aware of?

I believe that more- most labels
take so much time out

and focus on so many artists

that you can never get
the realness

out of the one artist.

We all here for my man,
Bleu Davinci.

[Yolanda] Meech could've
very well signed more artists,

but he wanted to focus in
on the one artist that he had.

♪ Yeah... ♪

[Meech] If he take off,
then we take off.

Make this a major label,

like Universal or Interscope
or Def Jam.

[all] ♪ Mad-rich niggas ♪

♪ Big trucks, little hoops
Nigga, that's my life ♪

♪ If I pull up to the club... ♪

[Chad]
Meech really believed in Bleu,

and Bleu was the one
that would be in Meech's ear

to get him to do things
that he really wanted to do

as far as music.

♪ I got some info that'll leave
Your whole career dead ♪

But, uh, Bleu Davinci
was terrible.

Uh, just--just horrible.

You'd listen to it,
and you'd be like,

"Nobody was getting paid
from this music.

There has to be
something wrong here."

[Jack] No one could figure out
quite, you know,

are they really
making any money?

Maybe Meech was thinking,
"They'll never figure out

"how I'm making money
through drugs

"if I go legit somehow

"with these rappers
and BMF Entertainment.

"So I'm gonna make
the transition

but still be making money
with drugs."

[Rand] Here's what I knew.

There was two brothers.

Demetrius Flenory
was in Atlanta at the time,

and then Terry Flenory,
who was out on the West Coast.

As far as we knew, Terry was
running the finances.

Big Meech was running
the day-to-day operations.

But there was no cracks
in their organization.

Nobody was talking.

[Jack] It's hard.
It's frustrating.

The drug dealing
was very secretive.

I conducted
this same interview

probably 50 times,
with people saying,

"Oh, you know,
they're selling drugs."

I'm listening, I'm going,
"That's all very interesting,

but I still need evidence
of that."

All we see is the partying,

the extravagance,
the flamboyance.

BMF in here with a couple mill,
you know what I mean?

[Cavario] And if a person
watched and they observed,

they would be like,

"I don't see 'em doing anything
but spending money.

Like, what the--
what's going on?"

Every day,
you could watch it every day.

All you gonna do is see
spending money.

You're not gonna see
anything else.

[Rand] All day long, a cop
or an agent could tell me,

"I know X, Y, and Z."

But it didn't matter
without any evidence.

So we needed Jack
to bring us some evidence.

[soft music plays]

♪ ♪

[Jack] The first domino to fall
was in September of '03.

[reporter] The story involves
high-dollar vehicles,

a high-end house,
and a homicide.

[Scott] All drug dealers
eventually come up

to this conundrum that making
money is the easy part.

The biggest issue is gonna be
what to do with that money,

how to hide it.

For BMF,

that's when Doc Marshall
enters the picture.

Doc Marshall did not look
like a gangster.

He had a luxury-car dealership

that he used
for money laundering.

And he was brilliant
when it came to hiding money.

They called him "Doc" because
he could doctor the books.

[reporter]
Sergeant Louis Torres

says he suspects
a home invasion

led to a shooting
at 409 Angier Court.

[Scott] Doc Marshall kept a lot
of money in his safe.

Someone got tipped off,
and during a home invasion,

trying to get a hold
of that money in that safe,

Doc Marshall killed
the intruder,

which was legitimate,
and it was self-defense.

But when
the task force showed up,

they saw bits and pieces
of some larger conspiracy.

[reporter] Atlanta police found
about a kilo

of suspected cocaine
in the house,

but Major James Sellers
says police also discovered

evidence
of a complex fraud operation

involving hiding the true
owners of high-end cars.

[Jack]
They didn't arrest anyone,

but they seized a bunch
of records.

The BMF were arranging for
straw purchases of vehicles

through a car-brokering outfit
known as Exquisite Empire.

[reporter] Last night police
executed a search warrant

on the 15th floor
of a Buckhead building

in the offices
of Exquisite Empire.

We found documents
that had cars,

and they had
the straw purchaser,

and then they would have
"BMF-M" as the end user.

BMF-T.

These documents
would be huge to the DEA.

I get a call from Jack Harvey.

He said, "Hey, this search
was invaluable."

He says, "Let me call
the U.S. Attorney's office

and tell 'em what we have."

Next morning, I think I got
to my office at six o'clock,

and they were sitting there,
you know,

and they were all excited.

Brian connected Doc
to BMF using, like,

little pieces of information
that were out there.

Now we started
to have these connections

to a home invasion.

We found guns and cocaine

with a rumored connection
or link to BMF.

Now you put a name
with a face.

So it started
making more sense.

[Cavario] But at that point,

Meech had this sense
of invincibility,

so he did the opposite

of what anybody else
would have done--

keeping
this very, very high profile.

He thought that he was
beyond approach.

He's just always been
the type of person,

he just got what he wanted,

and he would do anything
to get it.

[Scott]
Demetrius reached a point

where he wanted to be iconic,

putting out, you know,
DVD mixtapes...

Bleu, man, this man is
interfering with my business.

You need to get down here
and talk to this man.

I don't know what's going on.
I'm trying to cop this--

I don't know why somebody
let him in the room

to see what's
going on anyway, man.

[Scott] That would portray

Demetrius playing Big Meech.

And then you had
the billboards.

[tense music plays]

♪ ♪

[Yolanda] It was definitely a--

"Man, are you serious?
Billboards?"

He had, like, four
or five billboards up, I think.

And I was like,
"Bro, that's gonna bring us

some problems, man."

"Dude, do you think
that's a good idea," you know?

He's like, "Nah, Yogi,
it's for the brand."

[Jack] In the movieScarface,

there's that scene where
it said, "The world is yours."

So BMF puts
on their billboards,

"The world is BMF's."

"The world is BMF"?

Bro, we rubbing it in they
face, you know what I'm saying?

Like, you know, his--his
response, like, "Fuck them."

[Rand] BMF's modus operandi

actually fed into my disbelief
that--that they existed.

I didn't think anybody could
be this well put together

or this well organized

and this stupid
at the same time.

They actually had a billboard
right outside of our office.

Um, that's how arrogant
they were.

[Scott] The putting up
of the billboards sent Terry

through the roof.

He didn't want
this kind of publicity

and demanded those billboards
be taken down immediately.

They weren't.

He's in L.A.
telling everyone that,

"My brother in Atlanta's
gone crazy.

"He thinks that he can give

a big middle finger to the DEA
and not get a response."

[Bryant] He put himself
on a fucking billboard.

We--we can't have that.

They were like, "Man, we got
to get these motherfuckers now,

"because it might be too late

if they get
on the mainstream."

And that's when shit
really start happening.

They start following
motherfuckers and...

everything, you know.

[Yolanda]
It was drawing attention.

You know,
the bigger the crowd,

the more "white guys"
taking pictures, you know?

[Jack] Honestly, I didn't have
any extra motivation

to take them down
because of the billboards,

um, 'cause I-I had
all the motivation I needed,

especially after what happened
at Club Chaos.

[gunshots, crowd screaming]

That was a major incident

that did lead to something.

So I guess
the second domino to fall

would be what happened
at Club Chaos.

[siren wailing]

[dramatic music plays]

♪ ♪