All language subtitles for The.BMF.Documentary.Blowing.Money.Fast.S01E05.720p.WEB.H264-DIBS.[eng]

[Scott] Meech had become

the biggest drug dealer
in America.

But he wants the spotlight,

and this put him on the radar
of law enforcement.

We know they sell drugs,
but when?

All we see is the partying.

[Bryant]
There were countless nights

that I spent
doing surveillance.

I would just kind of sit back

and watch these guys
just tossing money up.

The hair on the back
of your neck stands up.

[Scott] Demetrius and Terry
were enamored

with the music industry.

When they finally had the money
that they could throw around,

they became financiers.

[Yolanda] So Meech started

BMF Entertainment
and JUICE Magazine.

[Bryant] He put himself
on a fuckin' billboard.

You got to be a real asshole...
[chuckles]

to be rubbing it in our face

if you're doing
something dirty like that.

[dramatic music plays]

[dramatic hip-hop music plays]

[Meech] E-everybody move
like brothers.

[echoing] Like brothers.
Like brothers.

♪ ♪

Everybody's shining
like new money.

[echoing] New money.
New money. New money.

♪ ♪

It ain't no other crew
like this in the world,

and never will be another.

[echoing]
Never will be another.

Never will be another.

♪ ♪

[dramatic music plays]

[Jocelyn]
Early 2000s in Atlanta,

this legend
known as Big Meech,

he saw Atlanta
as the place to be.

♪ I'm the man ♪

♪ Yeah, you know it
I'm the man ♪

♪ Yeah, I show it,
I'm the man ♪

[Jocelyn]
In Atlanta, we have Outkast,

Lil Jon is crunk,
snap music is hyped,

P Diddy is here now,

so there's a scene here
that he weaves himself into.

You know what I'm saying?

It don't get no better
than this.

Can't get no better than this.

[Jocelyn] Big Meech
was taking over Atlanta.

♪ What you talking
If I ain't the topic ♪

[Jocelyn]
Take over the strip clubs

and take over
Magic City Mondays.

Everybody is in the club
on Meech's tab.

[Cavario] Smoking, drinking,
popping pills,

and not sleeping for days
and days

and days at a time,
going hard.

Each time we went out,
I could feel more tense,

more volatility,

because not sleeping,
your- your mind is cloudy.

Even I was starting to regress.

♪ Can't be tamed,
I'm the man ♪

♪ Yeah, you know it
I'm the man ♪

[Scott]
Demetrius, at this point,

was seeing life through a--

kind of a hazy lens
of his own making.

[upbeat jazzy music plays]

♪ ♪

Terry was running
the organization

from the West Coast

and overseeing what was going
on in the rest of the country.

The operation was running
like a well-oiled machine.

This was the apex.

And to think BMF did it
without one bullet shot,

without one body dropped,

the vision
is kind of perfected.

[recording]
This call is from...

[Meech] Demetrius Flenory.

[recording] ...an inmate
at a federal prison.

[soft vocalizing]

By this point, we were partying
every single day

for 21 days straight.

21 days straight, bro.
Right? Going hard.

Then that night,
it changed everything.

[Yolanda] Meech was like,

"Call everybody,
tell 'em we going out."

Everybody's on the chirp,

chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp,
chirp, chirp, chirp.

♪ ♪

So we were in Club Chaos
this particular night

and one of Meech's friends,

Wolf, was there.

So Wolf and Meech
knew each other

because he was Puffy's
ex-bodyguard

and Puffy and Meech
were close.

[Scott] Anthony Wolf Jones
had been in the news

quite a bit in the late '90s
when he was with Puffy

and Puffy's girlfriend
at the time, Jennifer Lopez,

where there was a shooting
at a New York night club.

Hip-hop mogul
Sean Puffy Combs--

Puffy Combs
and Jennifer Lopez--

Were involved
in a wild shooting.

[reporter] Combs and Lopez
fled the scene

with bodyguard
Anthony Wolf Jones.

[Scott] But also Wolf Jones,
in 1995,

murdered
Jake "The Violator" Robles,

who was Suge Knight's
bodyguard.

So Wolf Jones could have been

personally responsible

for the igniting of the
East Coast-West Coast rap war.

He became somewhat notorious.

♪ Feel like
The champ already ♪

♪ I'ma win it,
I can feel it ♪

♪ When I step up
In the building ♪

♪ And they know
I'm finna kill it ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

[Yolanda]
So we're in Club Chaos.

They greet each other
with love as always.

Wolf sees his ex-girlfriend,
but she's not with Meech.

You know, she's standing
on the back wall.

Wolf reaches past Meech
and mushes her,

and Meech was like,
"Nah, that's not going down.

"Whatever y'all got going on,

"you can handle
that privately with her.

"But if she's standing
here with me,

I can't have you
disrespect her like that."

[Scott] That led to verbal
altercation,

a physical altercation,

which led to Wolf Jones
ejected from the club.

So now,

the whole vibe in the club,

totally changed.

Meech is not feeling
the energy in here.

He's like, "Let's go."

[Scott] Demetrius
and his bodyguard Bull Hight

were on their way
to their vehicle

when they encountered
Wolf Jones and Riz Girdy

waiting for them
with guns drawn.

Wolf Jones started shooting.

[gunfire]

All hell broke loose.

[gunfire]

Gunfire's coming
from everywhere.

[gunfire]

They all pile in the car.

-I hop in my car.
-[gunfire]

[tires screech]

[ominous music plays]

-[ominous music fading]
-[sirens wailing]

[Cavario] At this point,

I didn't even realize
that happened.

I'm sitting at the diner,

and I'm looking
at the television

and I am waiting
for my food.

The sound's not on,
I see lights,

um, I see the cops,

and I see what I recognize
to be Buckhead.

I was, "What the hell's
going on in Buckhead?"

So I say, "Turn it up."

[reporter] Wild shootout
that shattered windows

of bars and restaurants

and left two men dead
in the Buckhead bar district.

Two bodies in Buckhead,
Atlanta.

I was like, "Whoa,
somebody really fucked up.

Like, this is crazy."

I said, "I'm so glad
that my family's not out."

I had no idea
that anybody went anywhere.

[reporter] Police aren't sure
what triggered the violence,

but witnesses say
dozens of bullets flew

near the intersection
of East Paces Ferry

and Bowling Way.

[ominous music plays]

♪ ♪

We all meet up at the house,
and it's still not a big deal.

You know, Meech is actually
leaning on the counter laughing

because we're drunk as hell.

He's like, "Man, Yogi.

My ass is burning."

I'm like, "What?"

He's like, "Man, I think
I got shot in my ass."

And sure enough...

he got shot in the ass.

After the smoke clears,

there were over
50 rounds fired.

♪ ♪

Wolf is killed.

[reporter] 38-year-old
Anthony Jones was dead

and also 38-year-old
Lamont Girdy

later died at Grady Hospital.

[Bryant] Double homicide.

[reporter] A short time
after the shooting,

two men showed up
at a hospital miles away

with gunshot wounds.

[Bryant]
We get a lead.

There's a person that shows up
with a gunshot wound

at a local hospital
on the north side.

Investigators rush up there,

finding that that person
is Demetrius Flenory.

He has a gunshot wound
to the ass.

♪ ♪

[reporter] Demetrius Flenory
was identified

by a witness and a warrant
was secured for his arrest.

[Yolanda] He's on the news
handcuffed to a bed.

I'm like,
"How? Why? Double murder?

Nah."

Then I get a call, "Yo, Wolf
and Riz got killed last night."

I'm like, "Yo, what?"

[Bryant]
We arrested Demetrius Flenory.

I had to bring him
to APD headquarters.

Now, the average person
being accused of a murder

is very nervous.

This guy was very flamboyant.

[suspenseful music plays]

In the interview room,

he walks over
and urinates in the corner.

Just kind of like a dog
or an animal.

You know,
how you mark your turf?

[urine splashing]

During the interview,
the officer, the investigator,

asked Mr. Flenory
to have a seat and he goes,

"How the fuck can I sit down
when I have a bullet in my ass?

But what I'll do is
I'll lie across the table."

So he lays across the table
during the interview.

Can't make this stuff up.

♪ ♪

[Jack] But, it was
a very entertaining interview.

"What do you do
for a living?"

"Well, I'm not a performer,
but I write rap lyrics."

"Where do you reside?"

"Well, I don't really
reside anywhere.

I just go from girlfriend
to girlfriend."

"Well, how'd you get

to the club that night,
Meech?"

Meech doesn't remember.

How did he get
to the hospital from the club?

Meech doesn't know.

There was an eyewitness
who pointed out that

when the bullets
are flying around,

somebody
jumps on top of Meech

and covers him like
he's the president.

You know, it's just bizarre.

He goes from sounding
like a kingpin one minute

to being like a homeless person
the next minute.

What the witness saw,

she saw a person of the same
stature as Demetrius Flenory,

with the braids, the chain,
same complexion, same height,

and that person, his name
is Ameen Hight, AKA Bull.

If you put them
in pictures together,

it's sometimes hard
to tell them apart.

Meech may not have been
the trigger man.

[Jack] He gave the APD
a long interview.

They tested Meech's hands
for gunpowder residue.

He was negative.

They tested this other guy,
Ameen Hight, AKA Bull.

He did have gunpowder residue.

Hight did not agree to talk.
Meech did agree to talk.

And they wound up
charging Meech.

It almost looked like Meech
almost manipulated that thing

so that he would be charged
just to, you know,

sort of be a diversion,
take the heat on himself,

knowing that
they would never prove

that he was the shooter um,
because he wasn't.

[Bryant] Demetrius Flenory

is ultimately charged
with murder.

♪ ♪

[Nicole] When
I saw my brother's picture

on the big screen,
really couldn't believe it

because I know that's not
my brother's character.

It was a shock uh,
to his father and I.

A lot of things
that I did not know

about Demetrius and Terry
that was going on,

I read about them
on the news and stuff.

I don't know if it was to keep,
you know,

Mom from worrying about him
or what,

but it was a shock.

[reporter] Flenory's parents
were in court.

They wouldn't comment
as they left the jail,

but his defense attorney
insists

his client is no killer.

[Drew] I have somebody
that's been shot

and has been the victim
of aggravated assault.

I mean, you know, he received
a serious gunshot wound.

That really appears
to be uh, the evidence.

♪ ♪

My name is Drew Findling.
I'm an attorney.

I represent
Demetrius Flenory

in the double murder case
outside of Club Chaos.

This wasn't a little case.

I mean, this was
all over the news.

And one thing
became clear to us,

and that is Demetrius
was 100% innocent.

[indistinct chatter]

♪ ♪

Eventually, you have
to have a bond hearing.

There were cameras everywhere.
It was a sea.

[camera shutters clicking]

There was no evidence

that Demetrius
had done anything wrong.

The witnesses
during cross-examination

just fell apart on the stand,
the detective fell apart.

It was obvious

they were just flailing
and making these accusations.

In fact, the only thing
that Demetrius was

was actually a victim.

He got shot.

Literally, media people
were laughing about

how poorly law enforcement did
during the hearing.

The judge at the end
of the hearing,

for two counts of murder,

gave him an ankle monitor
for house arrest

and a $50,000 bond.

♪ ♪

[Scott]
After the Club Chaos shooting,

Demetrius,
he was on house arrest

at the white house.

[Yolanda]
It was sad, it was sad.

To clip his wings,
it's just like,

"Now you got
to sit in the house."

Terry and Demetrius were
having their differences

because Terry
really felt honestly

that we were going out
too much, and we were.

[tense music plays]

"Had y'all not been out,

"you know,
that wouldn't have happened.

Now we really got to--
you know, we're really hot."

[tense music fades]

[Scott] Terry was upset
with Demetrius' behavior.

The thing that happened
at Club Chaos

was the thing
that most worried Terry.

There was so much
of a commotion,

the reverberations
through the BMF organization

were pretty heavy.

Club Chaos,
that violent altercation

just put a even bigger target

on the back of both
Terry, Demetrius,

and everyone else
affiliated with BMF.

♪ ♪

I thought, well, you know,

the guns that were used
to shoot Girdy and Jones

have not been recovered

and I know about
the white house in Lithonia,

so I think I could get
a search warrant

to search that house
for that gun.

I see why they call it
the white house.

It was a huge house,

and it kind of looked like
the Atlanta High Museum.

That house, unfortunately,

did not
house the murder weapon.

We did not find the gun.

What we seized there
was drug records,

handwritten ledgers

with a bunch
of different nicknames,

and it had drug quantities
and dollar figures

and trips to California,
things like that.

We learned that that house
was actually Terry's house.

The white house
was like a headquarters

for Terry in Atlanta.

So all that stuff is valuable
to a prosecution,

good pieces of evidence.

But to show a conspiracy,
a meeting of the minds,

you know, organized crime,

it's a challenge,
it's hard to do.

To get an indictment,

the DEA uses something
called CCE,

Continuing
Criminal Enterprise.

So a CCE means any drug lord

that is operating
a narcotics organization,

the DEA will be able

to ensnare
an entire organization

based on a conspiracy.

If they can prove that

there are people
underneath you

doing your bidding,

you're the head
of a conspiracy.

♪ ♪

The difficult part is

to prove that BMF is led
by Demetrius and Terry.

It's just a matter
of gathering evidence

that would be admissible.

You know, you gotta
link Meech and Terry

to drugs at some point...

so I needed help.

♪ ♪

[Frank] Following the money
was--was my job.

In any drug investigation

when an IRS Special Agent
was involved,

that's what your job is,
is to follow the money.

DEA started getting more
and more source information

about how big the
Flenory brothers were getting.

Based on that,
it was decided the IRS

would open up a case,

go full throttle
with an investigation.

♪ ♪

The investigation here
in Detroit

was named
Operation Motor City Mafia.

For me, it was always
like putting together

pieces of a puzzle, you know,
looking at, you know,

all the different
financial transactions

and trying to- to paint
the big picture.

♪ ♪

Early spring of 2004,

DEA was able to get
a court order for a wiretap.

[insects droning]

[lighter flicks]

[Rand] Up until that point,

I had never
done a wiretap before.

We had no idea
what the hell we were doing.

At one point, we were talking
about buying our own equipment

until the Atlanta Police
Department said,

"Look,
you have this equipment.

It's assigned here.
Um, we can do it."

[laid-back funk music plays]

Walt Britt, he knew
how to do a wiretap.

He was
an Atlanta police officer

been assigned to the High
Intensity Drug Trafficking Task
Force.

One of the coolest cops
I ever met.

He just had
this style about him,

has the toothpick in his mouth,
and a revolver,

and he was just old school.

♪ ♪

The conversations when you're
dealing with wires are the key.

You get something incriminating,
you study it.

You see where
it's leading you.

If there's something
that you can do

in order to try and intercept,
arrest, seize, or whatever,

then you plan accordingly,
you know?

But you let the bad guy
give you the evidence.

[chuckles]

[suspenseful music plays]

Every suspect
that we were dealing with,

we tried to identify
and put a photo up

so we all know
who we're looking at

and what we're looking at.

They was really
a humongous drug organization,

and they really,
really terrified us then.

♪ ♪

I knew now there was a lot
of work got to be done.

When the DEA was up
on a wire of the BMF,

a lot of these BMF guys
were obsessed

with the television show
The Wirethat was on HBO.

That was one shit we used
to watch all the time.

[Scott] The irony was not lost
on the DEA and FBI agents

that were listening
to that wire

because they were fans
of the show The Wiretoo.

A classic TV series
that I love, The Wire.

We wanted to watch it.

And of course,
we're recording it from home.

[Chad] We watched The Wire
all the time, like,

because o-of our profession.

Catch you later.

[Scott] The feds would be
listening to this wire

and you had actual BMF

talking and gossiping what
they were doing on the show

and how it mirrored what
they were doing in real life

and kind of
critiquing strategy.

We were listening to it one
night, and I think it was the
episode

where uh, they dumped
all of their phones.

I can't remember
which season it was.

Pagers, payphones is dead.

So no more payphones?

You deaf?
I said no phones,

-No phones, a'ight?
-Yeah.

[Rand] They knew that they were
being wiretapped on the show,

and they
dumped all their phones.

And I remember when
that episode came out,

I was like, "We're fucked."

I mean, that was just
the only way to look at it.

We knew they were
watchingThe Wire.

And he's talking
about this episode,

and he starts talking.

He's like, "Yeah, man,
maybe we should do this,"

and, "Maybe we should
dump our phones."

And so we're sitting there
thinking, "We're screwed."

I mean, it's just like

there was nobody
was optimistic about this.

We knew we were screwed.
It just was a matter of time.

We're biting our fingernails.

And all of a sudden,
the guy said,

"We're a bunch of hicks
down here.

"Good thing that, you know,

"people down here
aren't as sophisticated

"as they are up there.

"These are a bunch of rubes
and hicks and shit.

"Oh, well,
we'll never have to do that.

These people don't even know
what a wiretap is."

And we started laughing.

We realized that
he doesn't even get it.

Everybody was like, "Wow."

Then he starts just
busting right into

the next round of drugs
he's buying,

and how lucky- how stupid we
are.

That shit was kind of fun.

[chuckling]
It was exciting.

[suspenseful music plays]

♪ ♪

[Scott] Demetrius,
he was still on house arrest.

Terry was stuck
in the raw reality

of running
a drug organization.

And he was having
to troubleshoot

all around the country

and, you know,
keep a lid on things.

Terry was the one that was
getting on the phone

with the family
of the soldiers

that were taking busts.

He was the one
calming people down

that were complaining
about Demetrius.

I think there was
growing resentment from Terry

who not only was
getting the brunt

of a lot
of the Big Meech blowback

but then was also kind of left
holding the bag

in terms of
the day-to-day operations.

And at this point,

Terry kind of had
his own mini crew.

The irony of all ironies
is the fact that

Terry, who was
the cautious one,

was the one that was caught
on all the wiretaps

talking about BMF business.

[Jack] We have this federal
wiretap on Terry Flenory.

Among these drug ledgers
from the white house,

we have all these--
these names.

They were able to eventually
identify all those nicknames,

find out, yeah,
those are BMF people,

they do work
for Terry Flenory,

and we have the real names
to go with the fake names.

You can tell Terry was a boss.

♪ ♪

[Bryant] You got to think this
is a clever organization.

They surrounded themselves
with clever people.

They had a monopoly
on the dope game.

Now I'm not talking about
local jurisdictions.

I'm talking about
national jurisdictions.

♪ ♪

This is when I said,

"Holy shit,
this is a real mafia."

♪ ♪

The wiretaps were
another domino to fall

in favor of law enforcement

in their building
of Operation Motor City Mafia.

♪ ♪

[Bryant] At that point,
it was too early to indict

or to arrest Terry
because if you make an arrest,

it jeopardizes everything
that we have done in this case

because they will
get discovery.

They may be a flight risk.

[Jack] The idea was to try
to further the case

and identify
Demetrius Flenory

as part of an elaborate,
supersized conspiracy.

[Bryant] During one of
the wire conversations

that was with Terry,
they were talking about

how flamboyant Meech was
in the city of Atlanta,

saying, "Hey, this guy
is smokin' weed,

"this guy's dating strippers,
having strippers come over,

"this guy is driving
all these highline cars.

He put himself
on a fuckin' billboard."

And Terry was totally upset
by this.

"He's bringing the heat
to us."

It was almost
to the fact that,

"Hey, before
he brings heat to us,

let's take him out."

And that was of
some concern to us.

♪ ♪

[Wayne] T on the phone said
Meech done went crazy

and I'm no good
and J-Bo ain't no good.

[Bryant] Now you have
these two brothers

that are blood brothers,
but they're feuding.

They have bad blood
between them.

♪ ♪

[Wayne]
Meech was on house arrest.

Terry said,
"Don't nobody talk to Meech."

'Cause Meech got
a ankle bracelet on

and he ain't never seen
no ankle bracelet like this

or some shit,

so you're not supposed
to talk to him.

T is a businessman.
Everything gotta keep going.

JB's got to step in, step up.

[Chad] From that point,
I took over.

We was going through T

to get our supply of cocaine.

♪ ♪

[Wayne] And he did his job,
held the reins down.

Functionality
was still rolling.

Everything's good.

[Chad] One day, I found out
that T was cutting our dope.

♪ ♪

T was taking four ounces
outta each key.

Meech wasn't feeling that,
and I wasn't feeling it.

So Meech told me and Wayne,

"They're not finna
keep stealing from us,

"giving us this bad dope.

"Y'all go deal straight
with our supplier,

"Green Eyes," you know,

"And fuck T."

[chuckles]
That was his words.

He said, "You hearing that
outta my mouth."

♪ ♪

[Chad] That's where
the split started.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

[upbeat jazzy music plays]

♪ ♪

[Wayne] Tenth of January,
T's birthday.

-[indistinct chatter]
-[glasses clinking]

Everything's going beautiful,

people are giving T
his congratulations

and this and that.

Demetrius could not attend

because he was
still on house arrest.

♪ ♪

But quite a few
Demetrius loyalists

showed up at the party
wearing "Free Meech" T-shirts.

And this started the evening
off on a bad foot.

[Wayne] Then they pipe Meech in
on this closed circuit

to give Terry
his uh, congratulations

for his birthday, or, you know,
tell him happy birthday.

[Scott] Terry thought that

this night should
be all about him.

It's his birthday.

But Meech had obviously

taken over quite a bit
of the spotlight,

and this was really the straw
that broke the camel's back.

And the whole vibe in the room
changed at that point.

[Scott] Terry felt disrespected
by Demetrius,

guns were drawn,

with both crews
preparing to go to war.

[dramatic musical sting]