Black Organized Crime

1. Black Organized Crime

2. Introduction • There’s a great variety of black criminal groups • some are home grown (e.g. the El Rukns) • others are imported • There’s no evidence of a clear structure • no leadership role • no affiliation with any organized crime group

3. Methods to gain control (1) • Drugs distribution • blacks were dependent on Italian criminals as drug suppliers until 1970 • they established working relationships with Colombian and Cuban traffickers • Gambling • take control over gambling houses

4. Heroin Business • Important black criminal organizations in the heroin business: New York, Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia & Washington D.C.

5. Methods to gain control (2) • Italian & Irish criminal organizations • had found jobs • educated their children • they moved away from the criminal neighbourhoods

6. Where did they live? • The majority moved south where houses were cheap • Chicago’s South Side “Black Belt” was the second largest Negro city in the world • more than 300,000 African-Americans lived there • only New York’s Harlem exceeded it in size

7. Where did they live?

8. Drugs (1) • Heroin • West African countries have become important transhipment centres for heroin • Nigerian couriers travel to Pakistan to obtain Heroin • then continue on commercial flights to their final destinations • or return to Nigeria to repackage the narcotics into smaller amounts to the West

9. Drugs (2) • Nigerian students receive money for bringing in one hundred grams • usually by swallowing heroin-filled condoms • this connection is called the Nigerian connection • most Nigerians earn about three hundred dollars a year • there’s also a lot of official corruption

10. Gambling • Organization of gambling in the 1930s • white gamblers were forced to pay protection money in black neighbourhoods • Italian criminals will takeover gambling operations • Italians moved in, made those operations part of their organizations • these takeovers did not mean that the blacks left the field of crime

11. The 3 most important black criminal organisations • El Rukns • Forty Thieves • The Bloods and the Crips

12. El Rukns • It’s the best-known black organized crime group in Chicago • The leader of this group, Jeff Fort, organized a coalition of twenty-one gangs • this coalition is called ‘the Black P. Stone Nation’ • most dangerous street gang in 1968 • the leaders were the 21 gang leaders, with Fort as the head • this organization began to dominate large areas of the black community

13. Jeff Fort • rarely spoke to anyone who wasn’t part of his organization • he was offered $2.5 million by the Libya government to plant bombs on American airplanes • was convicted of participation in traffic of cocaine • sentenced to thirteen years of imprisonment • his gangs headquarters were destroyed • many convictions (nineteen gang members)

14. Forty Thieves • leader of this group was the legendary Madame St. Clair, a black woman • this group moved into the distribution of cocaine and provided the high society of New York • the group operated in Harlem

15. The Bloods & the Crips • this group of Los Angeles has been expanding their operations and drug markets • are heavily armed and quick to use violence • new competitors; youthful crack dealers • these street gangs have entered the market • use frequently hand-powered guns and automatic weapons

16. The four most important leaders of the black organized crime • Nick Barnes • Frank Mathews • Charles Lucas • John Johnson

17. Nick Barnes • dominated the heroin distribution business in Harlem • is the best known black organized crime figure to the general public • became very rich with drug traffic and he was called the ‘king of Harlem’ • in 1981 he began to cooperate with the police • his testimony helped to convict 50 drug dealers and killers

18. Nick Barnes

19. John Johnson • opened his own saloon and gambling house in 1890 • unique gambling place: • players did not gamble against the house • they gambled against one another, with the gamekeeper taking a part of every “pot” • opened other gambling houses • was described as the “Negro Gambling King of Chicago” but never gambled himself • sold protection to over twenty Chinatown opium and gambling halls

20. John Johnson

21. Frank Mathews • established a numbers bank in Philadelphia • invested his profits into the heroin industry • provided most of the local distribution of heroin • expanded his heroin business into twenty states

22. Charles Lucas • had the opportunity to become a major figure in the heroin business • established a network made up of black Vietnam veterans • personnel were selected because they were trustworthy