Original subtitles

[Jack] Meech left Atlanta.

He knew the heat was on.

That's when everything changed.

We left houses, cars, everything,

and we moved to Miami.

[tense music plays]

[Stephen] Everything was built on loyalty.

One wrong person in the wrong place can sink a whole ship.

♪ ♪

[Rand] Omari starts talking about Meech

and his organization and laid it all out.

[Bryant] Once the squeeze was put on Doc Marshall

about this car fraud case,

he said, "Hey, I know some bigger fish."

[Wayne] They in the house gambling,

and the feds got there.

Terry and numerous other people were arrested.

[Scott] Demetrius tried living relatively quietly in Texas,

but it was too late at that point.

[Latarra] You knew that it was really

no coming back from this.

They're not gonna play nice.

[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.

♪ ♪

[ominous music plays]

[Cavario] The BMF story is one of rags...

...to riches...

to wretchedness.

The American dream

and nightmare at the same time.

♪ ♪

You don't have the guts to be what you want to be.

Say good night to the bad guy.

[Scott] For someone that idolized Tony Montana

and patterned some of his empire

in theScarface mold,

Meech wasn't going to go out Scarface style.

Say hello to my little friend!

Ah!

[Scott] In fact, his arrest

in suburban Texas

was incredibly low profile.

He went without any drama or histrionics.

[tense music plays]

♪ ♪

[Latarra] When they picked Meech up,

it was a reality check,

because you knew that it was real.

It's, like, really no coming back from this.

♪ ♪

They weren't gonna let him out.

[Lucille] To receive a phone call

that your child has gone to jail,

those are phone calls you don't wanna get--

you don't ever wanna get, you know?

I said, "I don't care what it costs.

"Get him out right away.

Fast as possible."

[tense music plays]

[Drew] I got a phone call that Demetrius was locked up

in Texas on possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

I went to Texas and prepared

to try to get him out on bond.

I went to the court there

and was looking at the evidence,

and I remember thinking,

"This is a bullshit search."

♪ ♪

They went into a house that he was renting

and went into the safe and found this gun.

This is, like, clearly an illegal search.

Like, what's going on here?

We were in the midst of that battle,

trying to get him out in Texas,

when I found out that he was indicted in Detroit.

It was a 42-defendant indictment,

and then reality struck me

that Texas was a pretextual arrest

to just get their arms around him

and have him in once place,

and then announcing an indictment.

[Jack] We were trying to get Meech in custody,

and don't let him know

about this big indictment that's about to come down.

♪ ♪

[Wayne] When Meech and Terry got arrested, guess what.

We all finna get pinched.

I already knew what was coming.

[reporter] Five members of the cocaine organization

known as the Black Mafia Family

were picked up today in metro Atlanta.

[Chad] I see it on the news,

the indictments.

♪ ♪

I'm like, "Shit, I don't know what to do,

'cause I know they finna come get me."

[ominous music plays]

[reporter] Three search warrants were also executed

in metro Atlanta.

[Clifford] I felt what any person would feel.

Nerves, fear, anxiety.

A rash of emotions.

[reporter] Those with Atlanta ties were charged in indictmens

either in Orlando or Detroit.

[Clifford] You just heard on the news,

doors being kicked in,

people being arrested,

30-plus people indictment, 50-plus people indictments.

[Wayne] After Meech and Terry got arrested,

I was on the run for four months.

That shit was horrible, man.

♪ ♪

You hear the neighbor across the street or the dog bark.

[dog barking]

You hear the door shut.

You can't sleep.

Man, you always think it's the feds.

And I'm drinking like a motherfucker.

I'm just a fucking man.

I got to try to keep some courage up here.

[siren wailing]

[tense music plays]

[indistinct yelling]

You're seeing many of your homeboys going to jail,

you understand, and that's the hurtful part,

watching, you know, dudes get swept off the street.

I was like, damn, man, this shit crazy.

One night, there was, like, four, five cars behind us.

Like, they following me.

Man, by the time I got to the light,

the DEA came from everywhere.

I was like, damn, they got my ass.

[tense music plays]

[Rand] At that point, there was nothing I wanted to do less

than listen to 150,000 phone calls.

And plus, every phone call we--we took,

I had to send a letter to everybody

that was not a defendant and letting them know

that we'd captured their voice on a phone call.

And that was something like-- like, 2,000 letters.

[Jack] I don't know anybody who worked

more long hours than I did.

I did not have a family.

You know, I was married to the job,

and I-I don't recommend that.

It's not something to be proud of.

[tense music plays]

Demetrius made it very, very clear

that he wanted me to be his lawyer,

both in Texas and in Detroit.

In Detroit, they had unveiled

this incredibly detailed indictment,

and Demetrius was charged with his brother

and then 40 other people.

The allegations were complex.

♪ ♪

Terry had already been denied bond.

They were keeping him in custody

because of the magnitude of the case,

and I was trying to get Demetrius out on bond,

but we just couldn't satisfy the court's conditions

to get him out.

Demetrius and Terry were staring down the barrel

of a major CCE that was brought against them.

[Frank] In layman's terms, if you're a leader

of an organization under which you have

five or more members that you're directing

who distribute more than 150 kilos of drugs,

you can face up to life in prison.

In this case, the only two CCE defendants

were the Flenory brothers.

[Scott] But the case against Demetrius

wasn't nearly as strong as it was against Terry.

[Jack] On the wire, Terry was talking about Meech

causing trouble for the whole family,

and at the same time, Terry's conversation

is being intercepted by the DEA.

[Drew] A really big issue

was whether or not they were able

to identify Demetrius' voice on phone calls.

I had put together a rock-solid team.

I mean, we were working just nonstop

on the United States of America versus Demetrius Flenory.

Potential consequences were a life imprisonment.

[Drew] When the evidence started rolling in,

we get 14,000 pages.

We thought it was the end of the world.

But in those 14,000 pages,

so much of the evidence was about lifestyle.

[all] I'm rich, bitch!

-[DJ] Aye! -[rapper] Yeah!

[hip-hop music plays]

[Drew] The shocking lifestyle

of Demetrius Flenory.

There's no pictures of him

around cocaine.

There's no pictures of him standing there

that deal with cocaine.

The only pictures of Demetrius Flenory

are at cool-ass parties, at clubs,

directing videos, being with famous people.

So the evidence was that he threw really wild parties.

♪ ♪

[soft music plays]

[Jack] Now, Meech and Terry were going to make

a determination, whether they wanna

fight the case or go to trial

or plead guilty and cooperate and take even less of a hit.

The whole focus was to go to trial.

That's all we were working towards.

[Scott] Meech thought whatever the feds

were gonna bring against him, he had a chance

of beating the case at trial.

But the task force zeroed in on Doc Marshall.

[tense music plays]

He was viewed by law enforcement

as a weak link.

He did not have a street or a gangbanger mentality,

so they saw that as a pressure point.

[Frank] The Flenory brothers sensed

that Doc Marshall was gonna cooperate.

You know, they understood the whole money side

of this investigation.

They sensed that he could take the witness stand

one day against 'em.

[Scott] Doc Marshall was the only one that was

doing business with both Terry and Demetrius,

was handling all of their financial affairs,

and laundering all of their money.

[Jack] There's no way they could beat

the money laundering charges.

Meech and Terry had to account for all these years

where they never paid a dime in income taxes,

and they're obviously spending money

left, right, and center.

So there's evidence of money laundering

all over the place, and, uh, that--that hurt them.

[Scott] In March of 2006,

Doc signed a cooperation agreement

and handed over all of his financial documents

tied to the Black Mafia Family organization.

What was going on with the BMF drug money

and how it was being washed

and where it was ending up.

Now you could make a very strong conspiracy case

against both Flenory brothers and get convictions.

The next step was the government

aggressively went after Demetrius' father.

[somber music plays]

Going back to 1990,

the very first house the Flenory brothers purchased

down in the Atlanta area

was put in the name of the dad.

So Charles Flenory was charged with money laundering.

They aggressively went after Demetrius' sister-in-law

and his nephew.

They indicted them. They charged them.

And Demetrius and Terry

just couldn't watch family members go down.

♪ ♪

[Scott] The day the trial was supposed to start,

Demetrius and Terry requested a face-to-face conversation

for the first time in almost two years.

But Terry and Demetrius began screaming at each other.

Everyone in the courtroom could hear

what was going on at that meeting.

I was sitting next to some DEA agents and FBI agents,

and they were slapping high fives.

They were like, "This is it,

"Terry's gonna flip on him,

"and we're gonna be able to put Demetrius away

for the rest of his life."

[Scott] Both brothers did the math,

and they knew that they could take a plea,

which would give them 30 years in prison,

or they could roll the dice at trial

and risk being convicted

and put in prison for the rest of their lives.

[Lucille] They tried to turn Terry on Meech,

and I believe vice versa,

but it's my belief that Terry and Demetrius

will not turn on each other.

Demetrius and Terry, no matter how divided they seem to be,

they still have that bond and that love for one another,

and they'll carry that to the grave with 'em, you know?

[Drew] Demetrius communicated to me

that he and his brother had made a decision

to enter a plea.

As a father, as a brother,

I understood the decision to enter the plea,

but as a trial attorney, I was dressed for the prom,

but I didn't go to the prom.

[dramatic music plays]

♪ ♪

I was there. Courtroom was kind of quiet.

It was very few people that knew him there.

Everybody's there for all the good shit,

but when it comes time to get sentenced,

wasn't a damn soul there.

[Drew] When they went to the podium,

they both got 30 years.

[dramatic music plays]

♪ ♪

[Nicole] It was hard hearing 30 years,

'cause you had both of them taken away,

and, um...

...it was difficult.

[Lucille] That was a hard pill to swallow,

but I told them,

"You gotta remember what I always taught you.

"You gotta stay prayerful, and you gotta stay strong,

no matter what."

[Stephen] Meech took it on the chin.

Most people would buckle and cry.

Like, he took that shit-- like, I'm--

way he looked at it was,

"I got a out date. I'm coming home."

[dramatic music plays]

♪ ♪

[Troy] Some point, I think,

a part of him was relieved.

He was tired.

All the runnin'.

I think he was able to just...

[exhales] ...take a deep breath.

But it hurt.

I'll be 58 before I see him again.

People don't deserve a 30-year sentence

for a drug crime.

The day I walked out of prison

after 32 years, 7 months,

I chose to wear a "Free Big Meech" T-shirt,

because I thought what was being done to him

was a violation of his rights.

I didn't think he deserved 30 years.

I didn't think Terry deserved 30 years.

I couldn't wear two shirts.

Meech and Terry both got 30 years.

Maybe it was considered harsh. I wasn't shocked by it.

Eventually, pretty much everybody was prosecuted,

and most were guilty pleas.

The BMF played the game and they lost,

and we played it better and we won.

The world was not BMF's after all.

[chuckles]

[hip-hop music plays]

[Rick] Drug businesses are run like Fortune 500 companies

if you run 'em on a certain level.

We come from the street, but we're just as smart.

We can still do the same things that CEOs do.

We just didn't have that opportunity.

Meech doesn't deserve 27 years in prison for a drug crime.

Non-violent offenders don't deserve that many years.

[tense music plays]

[Drew] The war on drugs was a direct affront

to the Black community.

[indistinct chatter]

It was disproportionately used

to investigate and to prosecute.

There's clearly a racial component.

The people that are getting brought down

on the racketeering statutes are white and Italian,

so they'll get the max of 20 years,

but most of the people that are being brought down

on a CCE are African American,

and the punishment for guys like Meech and Terry

is considerably harsher.

[T.I.] When Meech got locked up, that shit

felt like that dark cloud was over the entire city.

BMF was an era,

a cultural phenomenon.

Some shit that ain't never been done before,

shit that'll never be done again.

[cheers]

We were the heartbeat of this city

for a very long time...

♪ ♪

...and it was dead.

[tense music plays]

Things in the city died down.

Just wasn't the same.

It affected a lot of people economically

when they weren't there.

That shit stopped a lot of action.

I wouldn't close the book on Black Mafia Family.

Black Mafia Family didn't influence culture.

It became the culture.

♪ Big stepper like Big Meech ♪

♪ I think we BMF ♪

♪ Free Big Meech ♪

♪ Damn, I feel like Meech ♪

[hip-hop music plays]

[Troy] What drug dealer do they constantly mention

in all the rap songs?

It's always, "I think I'm Big Meech."

[T.I.] BMF made a significant enough impact

to resonate and withstand the test of time.

♪ ♪

[Rick] In 50 years, kids will talk about BMF.

They helped a lot of people in the music industry.

Like, some very influential people today owe them

a--a debt of gratitude.

[all] BMF!

BMF! BMF!

[soft music plays]

[Yolanda] The BMF legacy to me,

I think it's bringing families together.

I mean, because so many people that were around us,

they didn't have moms, dads.

When you came here, you didn't have a house,

but now you've provided a house for your child,

private school for your children,

courtesy of the mob.

We're a family.

[Clifford] BMF was a brotherhood.

We got along always, from all walks of life.

Crips, Bloods, GDs, Vice Lords,

people from West Coast, East Coast,

Atlanta--you name it.

It was a melting pot

of different personalities and cultures.

And we all got along.

[pensive music plays]

[Jimmy] His new show is calledBMF.

Please welcome Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson.

[cheers and applause]

♪ ♪

[Demetrius Jr.] My dad called me one day

and told me that he had been talking to 50

about doing, like, a BMF show.

50 called me and told me he wanted me

to start doing acting classes, and he was gonna pay for 'em.

[director] Action!

[Curtis] This show is really my baby.

Like, I put all of the pieces together for it.

[soft music plays]

I looked at Lil Meech.

He's the spitting image of his daddy.

♪ ♪

If I didn't get him when I got him

and send him to acting school,

he was gonna become Big Meech,

the new version,

'cause his only influence is, he looks up to his dad.

[T.I.] He's gonna take the legacy

that his father passed on,

but without any of the negativity.

[Stephen] If I close my eyes

and, like, let the series play,

I hear his dad.

I'm really proud of him.

[Curtis] One time, Meech said on the phone,

"I don't know if you-- if you thought about it,

but you moved him closer to me."

[dramatic music plays]

[Scott] You know, life in the world of entertainment

had never worked out

for Charles "Pops" Flenory or Big Meech.

-This my mom right here. -Oh, my God.

[both] Hi.

[Scott] But to see Meech's son thriving

will honor his grandfather's legacy

and his father's legacy,

even if those legacies were completely separate.

[Curtis] Is there anything you wanna say

on behalf of the, uh, show?

[Curtis] No, you already know, huh, you already know.

[Demetrius Jr.] I've never seen my dad more happy

since the show came out.

I'm doing what he always wanted to do.

I'm, like, turning the business legitimate.

I'm breaking the family curse.

[soft music plays]

Dad got locked up when I was turning six years old.

It definitely affected me growing up.

You know, just because who doesn't want,

you know, their dad in their life?

All my friends had both their parents,

and when we used to have picture day or--

or a day where your parents supposed to come to school

or even when your parents pick you up after school,

I used to feel just alone, because all my friends

had both their parents, and I didn't.

And I see how it hurt my mom--

I used to see her cry at night just 'cause she missed my dad.

[Latarra] Ever since Demetrius was incarcerated,

my son and I, we would visit him every three months.

The good times is when he were able

to sit across from us.

[sighs]

And especially for my son,

it was nice for him just to embrace him.

[indistinct chatter]

[person] Is everybody ready?

[person] Give it up for little man.

[person] Big man in the green jersey.

[Lucille] I'm so proud of my grandson

playing the part of his father.

It's educating him into knowing about a life

he doesn't have to live.

[Yolanda] Meech is like, "If my son never

"has to go through anything

"remotely near anything that I've gone through,

my life has been successful."

I say it's pretty successful.

You know, all our heroes always die at the end of movies.

Maybe this will be a different ending.

Maybe him and his son will walk off into the sunset,

you know, winners.

That's what we praying for.

It was only my hopes that one day

that I would be able to live and see

that you take the BMF initials

and turn them around from a negative to a positive.

Now, that's my prayer. That's my dream.

[Meech laughs]

[hip-hop music plays]

♪ ♪