All language subtitles for The.BMF.Documentary.Blowing.Money.Fast.S01E08.720p.WEB.H264-DIBS.[eng]

[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]

♪ ♪