Tuesday, April 3, 2007
News / BMF High-ranking Black Mafia Family member "J-Bo" pleads guilty
Posted by Mara Shalhoup on Tue, Apr 3, 2007 at 10:36 PM
On Monday a man considered to be one of the Black Mafia Family crime ring's top lieutenants pleaded guilty in federal court to cocaine and money-laundering charges. According to his plea agreement filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, Chad "J-Bo" Brown will spend between 15 and 20 years in prison.
Brown regularly appeared in promotional videos and in flashy nightclubs flanking alleged BMF leader Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory, who is believed to have run the Atlanta headquarters of a multistate, $270 million cocaine enterprise. Flenory, who was CEO of Atlanta-based record label and promotion company BMF Entertainment, has described J-Bo as the company's chief operating officer.
BMF's presence was huge in Atlanta, where the crew was known for throwing wild parties -- and for being tied to violent acts that involved Young Jeezy, P. Diddy and Bobby Brown. The crew's reign was the subject of Creative Loafing's three-part series Hip-hop's shadowy empire.
Brown and Flenory are among 41 defendants indicted in 2005 after a years-long investigation into BMF. To date, eight defendants have pleaded guilty -- two of whom have agreed to cooperate in the investigation.
Brown's plea agreement, however, describes no willingness on his part to help the government's case. He faces the stiffest sentence of the defendants who've pleaded guilty thus far.
Other documents filed in the case describe how Brown, while out on bond, was arrested in St. Louis Feb. 5 after a resident complained about "suspicious activity at an apartment." When St. Louis police went to check out the complaint, they found Brown and two other men in the apartment -- along with a loaded 9mm, about $5,000, a pound of marijuana and "'Black Mafia' paperwork," according to court documents.
Flenory and most of the other defendants are scheduled for trial in August.
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