Word: birmingham
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...Bone deal, which peaked in 1992, was only the beginning. Before long he had expanded to five other cities, as far east as Birmingham, Alabama, and Atlanta. It was a cross-country advance that was halted only by an intense investigation coordinated by the FBI over five states, which included the arrest this month of a fugitive who had been on the run since September 1993. The so-called Eight Trey Gangster Crips network is estimated to have distributed hundreds of kilos of crack and cocaine powder worth well in excess of $10 million on the street...
Finally, around April 1993, Q extended his network all the way to Birmingham. That city was to afford investigators the clearest glimpse into one of Q's distant branches. Following a number of scouting trips to test the local market, an enterprising threesome flew into the city to stay. Two were among Q's suspected Crip affiliates, Horace (``Dink'') Slaughter, 29, brother of Book, and Larry (``Drak'') Neal, 29, both of whom weighed more than 260 lbs. The third was a petite, reddish-haired woman from Long Beach, California, named Renee Stephens. For the team's headquarters, Stephens rented...
...Jeff Burgess, one of the FBI agents who was to conduct regular undercover surveillance of Fulton Avenue. In fact, behind the low-key demeanor, Dink and Drak were suspected of being in the early stages of setting up a ``primary distributorship.'' It would involve cocaine ``muled''--or smuggled--into Birmingham in regular shipments from Los Angeles. There it would be ``cooked'' into crack and finally distributed to local dealers in 1-oz. packets, or possibly even ``eight- balls'' of 18 oz. The wholesale asking price was typically $950 an ounce, though on a number of occasions--in wire-tapped conversations...
However, in April 1993, just as Q was getting started in Birmingham, the FBI launched the probe that led to the network's systematic dismantlement--its ``takedown,'' in the parlance of narcotics cops. First Denver was shut down, then Cleveland and last, in a surprise raid that had the suspects fleeing just minutes before the police arrived, Birmingham. The technique of ``letting it walk''--allowing drug shipments and couriers to proceed unhindered in order to keep suspected criminals ignorant of a wiretap--was used at every location. ``That strategy was the key,'' says lead investigator Steven Gomez. ``To the very...
Thiessen's experiments became more than just a hobby when he was invited by Dr. Charlie Bugg to come work at the Center for Macro-Molecular Crystalography at the University of Alabama at Birmingham during the summer before he entered the tenth grade. There, he learned about the agarose gel technique...