Original subtitles

[Scott] The BMF drug organization

is running like a well-oiled machine.

Then violence erupted at Club Chaos.

[reporter] In the wild shoot-out

that shattered windows of bars and restaurants...

[Bryant] There were over 50 rounds fired.

It was a double homicide.

[reporter] Demetrius Flenory was identified by a witness.

[Yolanda] Meech is on house arrest,

handcuffed to a bed.

I'm like, "How? Why?"

[Bryant] Meech is charged with murder.

But Demetrius was 100% innocent.

But Club Chaos just put a even bigger target

on the BMF organization.

[Bryant] And Terry was totally upset by this

because Meech is bringing the heat to us.

Now you have these two brothers feuding.

[Scott] Terry's birthday party

was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Guns were drawn,

with both crews preparing to go to war.

[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.

♪ ♪

[tense music plays]

[Scott] Terry's 34th birthday party

was the event that ended

the Flenory brothers' business partnership.

Guns were drawn.

Nobody fired,

but it had never reached a point

where violence was gonna break out between them.

And Terry was fed up.

♪ ♪

[Wayne] I tried my best, man, to keep them both together

as much as humanly possible.

That sibling rivalry, man,

it was just too fucking strong, man.

That shit is deep.

It's like the wars in the Middle East,

you know, them religious wars.

They just have a different way of thinking.

It's Cain and Abel.

♪ ♪

[Scott] From that point forward,

Terry and Demetrius

were no longer doing business together,

no longer spoke to each other,

and would only communicate through intermediaries.

That right there was the beginning of the end.

♪ ♪

[Drew] Law enforcement wanted Demetrius charged

in the double murder case outside of Club Chaos,

something that it was

patently obvious he did not do.

I was like, "Why are they charging this guy?

Like, who is he? He is innocent.

Like you--you put up this piece-of-shit case, you know?

Unless you had some reason

that you were trying to set this guy up.

♪ ♪

Law enforcement had a perception

of Demetrius Flenory

that I was completely unaware of...

♪ ♪

...and, for whatever reason, wanted him

to be weighed down with the fact

that he was charged with a double murder.

♪ ♪

I literally asked the district attorney at the time,

the elected official himself.

I go, "Look, man."

I said, "You know, I've read all these reports.

Everybody knew he was innocent."

I said, "Can you officially go and dismiss the case?"

♪ ♪

[Yolanda] He went to court with Mom and Dad.

The judge was like, "Case dismissed.

"Son, tell your father to cut that monitor off

of your ankle."

Finally, the prosecutor conceded

that the case was dismissed and there was no case.

Dad cut off the house arrest monitor.

House arrest over.

Call everybody.

Everybody going to Mexico.

Meech chartered a commercial flight

for hundreds of people, and Meech paid for everybody.

[hip-hop music plays]

[indistinct chatter]

[cameraperson] Nigga, Jeezy.

[indistinct chatter]

-Everything checking in! -[cameraperson] Yeah, yeah.

-Motown Records! -[cameraperson laughs]

[Yolanda] It was a full-on party in the sky.

Have you seen the movie Soul Plane?

It was likeSoul Plane.

[cameraperson] Yeah!

Big Cuzz!

[indistinct chatter]

Got the mob support 100%.

Yeah! Roll with that!

♪ ♪

Meech had everything set up.

Everything was set up for us to party.

[cameraperson] Goddamn! Naw, man!

[person] I need to me get me one of these, man.

[cameraperson] Big dog. What's up, baby?

[cameraperson] Fo' sho.

Meech had everybody's room comped.

[cameraperson] We got a pool in our room.

-[person 1] Black Mafia! -[person 2] That's right!

He rented out Jet Skis.

We partied so hard.

Yeah!

[Raheem] There were so many people everywhere.

-[laughter] -[person] We got you, my nigga.

That's right. Clearly.

[cameraperson] You having fun? Ready to go to the club?

Yeah, I'm ready to go to the club.

-[cameraperson] What? Okay. -[Meagan] Back up.

♪ ♪

We went to the same club every night.

-[emcee] Cancun! Yeah! -[cheers and applause]

[rapper] ♪ I'm the champ already ♪

♪ I'ma win it, I can feel it ♪

♪ When I step up In the building, man ♪

♪ They know I'm finna kill it ♪

[Raheem] Cancun was one of the best times

in my life, man.

Yeah, I don't know if anybody even slept that weekend.

[rapper] ♪ Ball with no limit ♪

♪ Game so vicious Going hard when I'm in it ♪

♪ One-on-one, authentic ♪

♪ I don't see no competition Yeah ♪

♪ ♪

[jet engines roaring]

[funky music plays]

♪ ♪

[Scott] By the start of 2004,

Terry rebranded his crew as the 263 Crew

and referred to himself as the boss of 263.

Two-six-three is simply BMF

spelled out on a telephone pad.

[touch tones beeping]

The relationship between Demetrius and Terry

was frayed to the point where they weren't speaking.

They were operating as sole entities.

[engine turning over]

♪ ♪

Terry was laser-focused on business.

Demetrius just wanted the benefits

from the fruits of his labor.

He hasn't actually learned anything

from the Club Chaos shooting and house arrest.

♪ ♪

[Rand] The Club Chaos shooting,

it was a zero.

[dramatic music plays]

I remember the conversation with Jack, and he was pissed.

And I was pissed.

At that point, we were putting in 20-hour days.

I don't remember sleeping at all.

I-I just remember it was just,

every day turned into another day.

I remember just being in the same clothes.

♪ ♪

[Bryant] I get a call from Jack,

and I was getting ready to leave for the day.

I had some obligations with my family, and Jack said,

"Hey, Bry, are you available for surveillance tonight?"

"Oh, Jack, I kind of had some other obligations."

But when Jack calls,

there's something more important.

And he goes, "Well, I'll fill you in when I pick you up."

"Okay, Jack."

♪ ♪

He got some information

that Meech is having a huge birthday party

at one of the local clubs, Club Compound.

♪ ♪

He shows me a fancy invite,

and we kind of got in position to get some pictures.

[hip-hop music plays]

[indistinct chatter]

♪ ♪

[camera shutter clicks]

I know I had worked a long shift this particular day,

but I see walking down Brady Street...

is a tiger.

[camera shutter clicks]

And I was like, "Holy shit.

Am I dreaming?"

And then I see an elephant.

♪ ♪

And these women,

they were nude, just with body paint.

Like, what in the world?

And it clicked.

The invitation said, "Meech, king of the jungle."

♪ ♪

What's really good with you, Meech?

-What's crackin'? -Good to see you, baby.

-Man. It's good, man. -Yo, happy birthday, man.

[Clifford] Star-studded affair.

Every celebrity that lived in Atlanta was there.

People that came into town from New York.

You name it. Cali. They were there.

Everyone with a bottle of champagne in their hands.

♪ ♪

[Scott] It was a whole jungle theme.

This was inspired by his love ofScarface.

Was quite the statement from Demetrius

at-at what level he was ballin' at.

[Bryant] And these entourages of people are going.

It was the who's who of the drug trade.

They were all in one spot.

[suspenseful music plays]

[camera shutter clicks]

It was perfect for intelligence

and information gathering.

♪ ♪

[Jack] As we were trying to build the case at the time,

we had a wire going on Terry Flenory.

Hours and hours of conversation has been recorded.

They made millions and millions of dollars.

[touch tones beeping]

[line trills]

[Scott] So now we have Terry in pocket

as part of the conspiracy,

but Meech was very different from Terry.

You know, you gotta link Meech to drugs at some point.

[Walt] Meech was very cautious.

He changed phones a lot.

He sorta had other people working along with him.

Members of his chain.

Had assistants.

They would call and say,

"Hey, I want something done," and he would do it.

We could never actually

put Meech with any of the drugs.

♪ ♪

So it was difficult, you know?

But evidence gotta be collected

and put in its right perspective.

♪ ♪

[Scott] This wasn't the type of behavior

that should be being exhibited by someone

that was public enemy number one

for the federal government.

I don't think Demetrius fully comprehended

the concept of conspiracy.

He was content in knowing

that he wasn't touching any drugs

and he wasn't talking on the phone

about any drug transactions,

which are two very important things

if you're going to be a drug dealer

and be a good drug dealer,

but it's far from the full picture.

If you can prove

that two other people are working on your behalf,

you're the head of a conspiracy,

but he had convinced himself that he was in the clear.

He thinks he's untouchable.

♪ ♪

[solemn music plays]

♪ ♪

Another violent weekend in Atlanta.

Atlanta's homicide rate continues to grow.

Atlanta is still a major hub

for the Mexican drug cartel.

The entire BMF outfit,

even though, as a general rule,

they were not a violent group,

that all changed in 2004.

[reporter] Two people gunned down

during a middle-of-the-night home invasion

at the Highland townhomes.

Neighbors heard the flurry of gunfire

and saw two men run off, one of them still firing.

[Bryant] A double murder occurred

on Highland Avenue in Atlanta, Georgia,

of Misty Carter

and Ulysses Hackett.

[door bangs open]

At four o'clock in the morning,

someone kicks the door in

and kills them both execution-style.

Shot them in the head both while they were in bed.

♪ ♪

[gunshots]

There were thousands of dollars

left on the dresser,

Rolex watch left on the dresser,

so robbery was definitely not a motive.

I knew from my experience that this was a hit.

[reporter] Misty Carter died,

but she was likely not the target.

Misty died along with her boyfriend,

Ulysses Hackett, known as Hack.

He is one of ten men listed on a recent federal indictment

following the bust of an interstate drug ring.

Those who knew Misty said

there had been some indication that perhaps Hack

was cooperating in the investigation.

[Bryant] Ulysses Hackett was a BMF associate

and had previously been stopped by law enforcement,

trafficking cocaine.

Carter was killed just because she was there.

Hackett was the target,

and he was targeted because he was thought to be

a potential government witness

against other people.

[reporter] The indictments made news earlier this year

because two local men were centerpieces,

including Tremayne Graham,

the son-in-law of Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin.

♪ ♪

[Bryant] Tremayne Graham, he was a BMF associate

and also the supplier for Ulysses Hackett.

Hackett is the only person that could point

to Tremayne Graham to say,

"This guy put dope in my hands."

Tremayne Graham also happened to be the son-in-law

to the mayor of the time, Shirley Franklin.

[Jack] Ulysses Hackett and Misty Carter

remains to this day unsolved.

[reporter] Friends and family say it's still hard to believe

Misty Carter died in such a violent way.

[gunshot]

[Scott] Now you've had these acts of violence.

This just pushed BMF to the center of that radar

and being zeroed in on by law enforcement.

All of a sudden, BMF took on a--

it wasn't just a drug organization.

Now they've murdered an innocent young lady.

It hit Jack.

It took on a different-- a different face for him.

Jack got angry.

I couldn't have a conversation with him anymore

about joking around.

He was not going to let this go.

It touched a lot of people in the community.

It was a heinous crime.

Made me want to investigate even more,

knock on doors, and work with Jack Harvey,

take down all these guys.

♪ ♪

At a certain point, Demetrius realized

that they were listening to conversations of BMF members,

because they were showing up at places

that he was, like, saying that,

"Hey, I'll be here in ten minutes."

And the next thing you know, the cops are there.

[tense music plays]

At that point, Meech said,

"Nobody talk on the phone,"

so the wire went cold.

[line beeping]

[Jack] Eventually,

they were not getting any good intercepts,

so they were kind of at a standstill.

[Scott] The warrants for wires have a finite time span.

You don't just get to put up a wire on someone

and-and leave it there forever.

Your wire could be a-a week.

It could be a month. It could be six months.

You need to keep on providing a judge information,

uh, that lends support to needing to have that wire

up and running.

Hey, these wires are running out.

We need to do something

so that we can further the wire or re it up.

You have to be proactive

and you have to be strategic about it.

♪ ♪

This technique that we use is called tickling the wire.

We were investigating a BMF member.

His name is Omari McCree, known as O-Dog,

and he becomes the top seller for BMF.

Meech loved this guy.

And then you have Jeffrey Lehrer.

Those two always hang together.

Jeffrey was dating a girl.

He calls her and asks,

"Hey, can I put dry cleaning at your house in your closet?"

Dry cleaning is dirty talk for dope.

'Cause she was going out of town,

so he wanted to take the products to her house.

[Bryant] We follow this SUV.

He just drives like a bat out of hell.

[engine revving]

Eighty miles an hour,

90 miles an hour in and out of traffic.

And he goes to an apartment complex location

off of Northside Drive.

Jeffrey goes back to the apartment,

and he come back with a duffel bag.

[Bryant] And he just threw it in the back seat.

[engine turning over]

He takes off...

[engine revving]

...but there's a traffic stop.

[siren wailing]

[indistinct chatter]

[Walt] Yea, and behold, guess what's found.

Ten kilos of cocaine.

We meant to pull him over.

We were gonna scare the hell out of him.

That was it.

So the question comes back to me:

"What do we do?"

♪ ♪

I was like, "We're gonna let it go."

♪ ♪

"Take the drugs and let him go, and let's see what happens."

♪ ♪

[Bryant] Investigators take the cocaine...

...seize the car,

tell him, "Have a nice day.

Start walking."

♪ ♪

As a investigator, I was confused on that part,

and I was told by another investigator, Walt Britt,

"Hey, calm down. We haven't done anything wrong.

This is just gonna create conversation."

Now, when you sit there

and you take ten kilos from somebody

and they sitting there and you hadn't put them in jail,

what do you think they gonna do, huh?

They gonna wonder, "Why didn't the man put me in jail?"

You know? He gonna have to talk to somebody.

And guess what. He did.

[line trills]

[Bryant] He calls Omari.

Omari is kind of questioning,

"Why are you not arrested or whatever?"

Jeff's phone calls to Omari were hysterical.

It was--he was stuttering, and he would hang up,

and he'd stutter back.

He was like, "Y-yo-y--," and he'd just--

and Omari would hang up on him,

and he'd be like, "D-d-d--,"

and Omari would just, like, be like--

you know, they were cussing at each other.

And he, like--he could not get it out of his mouth.

It turned out to be great 'cause it tickled the wire.

People started talking.

♪ ♪

[Bryant] Tickling the wire,

you're creating chatter among the wire.

You're forcing them to talk.

One of the later calls

involves high members of the BMF.

"Okay. You got arrested?"

"No." "What did they do?"

"They took the work." "What else did they do?"

"They took the car."

"What did they say to you?"

"Have a nice day."

"We're gonna call you back."

♪ ♪

At that point,

it just caused all type of confusion

within that organization.

Now BMF guys

have to report the seizure to the boss,

Big Meech.

♪ ♪

With every organization,

you have a board of trustees.

But you have that one person that is the spokesperson,

and they kind of keep everyone grounded.

With the BMF, that was Yolanda Dreher,

and everyone called her Yogi.

♪ ♪

When we first became familiar with her,

it was when we went up on Jeff's phone

and she was giving orders to Jeff and Omari.

[Bryant] She was the glue to the organization.

Meech would give marching orders to Yogi,

and Yogi would dispense those marching orders

out to everyone else.

If something was going wrong,

she would talk to the younger guys about it.

♪ ♪

[Walt] Yogi. She talked a lot.

You hear conversation, you make a notation.

She explained to Omari and Jeffery

what their responsibility was

and what Meech expected out of them,

which gave us an idea that, hey, Meech is the boss.

From Omari to Yogi,

from Yogi to Meech

to BMF.

[chuckles]

♪ ♪

[Scott] We now know that Meech, he was very much a boss,

but we did not have enough evidence

to show a conspiracy.

♪ ♪

Two nights before Thanksgiving of 2004,

we had a meeting.

We decide to conduct a series of raids

to gather other evidence of drug trafficking.

[Scott] At that point,

the investigation was already full throttle.

It went from zero to a hundred in the blink of an eye.

[indistinct chatter]

♪ ♪

[Wayne] A dirty police showed up at Meech's house.

♪ ♪

The dude showed up in his boxers and a wifebeater

so he can show you he wasn't wearing no wires or nothing,

you know what I mean?

Meech gave the man $10,000, and the man said,

"Man, we just had a big meeting today.

"They got 1,200 hours on your brother on the phone.

They don't got shit on you."

He said, "I don't know what's gonna happen.

"If I was you, take all your pretty cars

"and go to that beautiful house you got in Miami.

Just leave."

♪ ♪

[pager beeping]

Meech hits me on the chirp.

Pick him up. Everything is normal.

Meech and I ride together.

-No one else. -[engine turning over]

So this car is safe, you know?

It's no drugs.

I mean, we're definitely gonna smoke a blunt in the car,

but I keep him safe.

[Walt] We wanted to follow them to see what was going on.

♪ ♪

It was extremely important to always keep up with them.

They do weird things to see if anyone is following them.

♪ ♪

[Yolanda] He was like, "Yogi, run through the light."

I ran through the light.

[engine revving]

I was like, "Okay, so what we doing?"

He's like, "Hop on the highway."

♪ ♪

So now we get a chirp...

[pager beeps]

...from J-Bo.

"They hitting the houses. Don't come back here."

They hit my house.

♪ ♪

Every house that they thought we had,

they hit it simultaneously the same day.

♪ ♪

He's like, "You know now, sis,

"shit getting real right now.

"You could pull this motherfucker over right now,

"hop out, and I'll drive.

"They-they can't fuck with you. You never did anything.

"'Cause then from this day forward,

you understand we hot."

♪ ♪

I said, "For life or death, it's for life or death.

I'm riding with you, brother."

♪ ♪

[upbeat hip-hop music plays]

♪ ♪