Original subtitles

[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]