- 2 hours ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:15it went from zero to a hundred in the blink of an eye we have black mafia family
00:22lieutenants being pulled over detained and in some cases arrested the smaller
00:26arrests the bigger arrests the chest moves it builds a jigsaw puzzle they pull us over and
00:32they search in the car they take us to jail and they uncuff everybody but me and i go in
00:39this room
00:39and i see this agent flipping my id is this you know my name is terry flintering he said man
00:48it's
00:49good to finally meet you everybody move like brother like brother everybody's shining like
01:19this in the world and never will be
01:22with that car stop of terry we were very fortunate that the local law enforcement officer identified
01:40who terry was contacted dea agents we were able to take in that jewelry process it as
01:47seized drug assets then we also were able to accept those hundred and some phones and bring
01:51those into the investigation as evidence but there were no formalized federal charges and if we tried
01:58to work with law enforcement in southern illinois to hold them we would have been disclosing a lot
02:03of our investigation before we were ready to and it would have damaged the case if you move too fast
02:10you can jeopardize many aspects of the investigation we weren't tying that jewelry to any criminal activity
02:17that they can be charged with right away we referring them to do something else in this case they're gonna
02:23have to tell somebody they got ripped for five million dollars worth of jewelry which means they're
02:27gonna probably expose it on a phone or to somebody else the agent that flew in from dc he looks
02:35at me and
02:36says you seem like a nice guy but i'm gonna see you again soon so it was no crime no
02:44ticking i wasn't
02:46under arrest for anything it was basically hey we're aware of who you are so i walked out the station
02:54and i took heat up anytime they hold you at a police stop six to eight hours and two agents
03:00fly in
03:01there's something major going on so i kind of went underground
03:12at that point you know terry really went into in a bunker style living his life as far underground
03:19as possible and only popping his head up for the most pressing issues or situations
03:25i purchased a rv for like 225 000 when terry traded in his maybach for a rv
03:34it provided him cover and he could go around the country to his various houses and be covert about it
03:41so i just chose to not fly a private plane and i chose to just move slower sometimes when we
03:49track
03:49terry he would sometimes pay for private planes and his phone would go dead while he was in the air
03:55it took us a long time to figure out sometimes we thought he was on a plane in reality he
04:00was in
04:01a class a rv moving across the united states and would shut his phones off we're going state to
04:07state i remember one time we were in michigan i get a phone call like hey man you better be
04:13on
04:13the motorhome in five minutes feds on the lot i jump up grab my shit we hop on the motorhome
04:18we go to
04:19st louis so i retreated to st louis kind of to shake the surveillance if it was any in california
04:28or detroit or whatever st louis was just basically nobody knew where i was at except the crew members
04:34and it was secluded so if there was surveillance or anything i could see what was going on
04:42i was getting followed all the time people that were actually warning me that wanted me to get
04:50away from t like when your kids need to get away i got a house over here i don't want
04:56you to get caught
04:56up in that the whole idea of of taking down a group organization like bmf is it's like laying bricks
05:11you know you have to stack one brick on top of another until you get to the top you use
05:16the
05:16confiscation of the drugs for violence wiretaps everything no he ain't give it to me with all
05:24those components you have a great case there was a set date that all offices across the united states
05:30had agreed to for a roundup date for a takedown the u.s marshall service did a tremendous job
05:36analyzing phone records and identified locations for terry and meach nationwide takedowns are fantastic
05:45because there's one message that you want to send to the organization you want to send a crucial
05:49message to the organization that you're all super fucked there were probably about 250 officers and
05:55agents in detroit area we also sent teams to new jersey to atlanta to los angeles all the agencies
06:03in each location ready to go it was time to cut the head off the snake and take the main
06:08players off it
06:10was time to close the case this is the full force of the united states government local governments state
06:15governments the united states attorney's office and we are here to do one thing and that's put you in
06:23prison the day of the takedown the marshals had learned of meach's whereabouts in frisco texas and
06:30he was taken down shit i was in the bed watching sports center my phone started ringing said they
06:37got him they got i said who they got man they got me because i couldn't believe it man
06:43terry was tracked in florescent missouri i believe there were like 15 or 20 people
06:48in a house big gambling party we were watching the world series and decided to play poker
06:56i had just won a ham for 250 000 as i was reaching for the money on the table police
07:06raided the spot
07:08i was in the kitchen like getting something out the refrigerator he come around the corner
07:12see me like get out get out i ain't trying to get shot
07:19and the same agent that flew in from dc he came through the door looked at the crowd and pointed
07:25to
07:26me and he said i told you i'd see you again
07:34if the allegations are true the self-named black mafia family is involved in the kind of things that can
07:39tear families apart they had locked teary up in st louis and i'm talking to the lawyer and i'm like
07:45before now all i got him on is fake id you know what's happening but in my head i knew
07:53it was happening
07:54so it was a couple of days later i was in california in bed and it was like five in
08:00the morning they just
08:01snatched me out i was in cuffs so fast it was like and spun me around and i was in
08:09handcuffs
08:11i was at home i go to the door and i said yeah who is it oh it's the police
08:15you stanley lackey i said
08:17yeah and i'm butt naked at the time they instantly put me in handcuffs butt naked and we get down
08:25to the
08:25federal courthouse downtown and and i see everybody i know it's like 20 people i know in this room
08:32everybody in handcuffs i'm like oh my god it's over it wasn't until i was extradited back to michigan
08:39that i had a clear understanding of what was going down my attorney had breached me how this whole thing
08:46was playing out terry and demetrius were charged by a federal grand jury as principal administrators of a
08:54continuing criminal enterprise that put them in a position that if they went to trial and lost
08:58the sentence would be mandatory life the case against demetrius wasn't nearly as strong as it
09:05was against terry demetrius was never caught with drugs he was never caught on tape for somebody that
09:12had a reputation for being reckless in some ways he was actually pretty buttoned up we were more in the
09:19terry vain if you will the way the evidence came in and sometimes you have to run with what you've
09:26got
09:27terry could take a plea or roll the dice trial but if he's found guilty terry's in there for life
09:34when you get an indictment it says the united states of america versus you and that is exactly
09:38what it means the entire resources of the police authority of the united states of america are coming
09:43down on you what are your odds meach and i were facing life it was definitely no numbers on the
09:51floor and the judge asked us to have a meeting to try to come to some form of agreement the
09:58prosecutor
09:59whispered to my attorney she wanted to offer me some type of deal if i would turn on meach
10:08there was a firm belief within the dea as well as the u.s attorney's office that they would
10:13eventually be able to get terry to flip on demetrius let's see if we can get him to eat each
10:18other it's
10:19just an insidious game you could be friends and call millionaires tomorrow and joe and i come knocking
10:26on your door and all of a sudden you realize the gigs up and now you're flipping on your best
10:30friend
10:31i thought that there was a chance that the pressure would cause them to cooperate on the
10:37entire organization and importantly up the food chain and back to mexico into the sinaloa cartel
10:45on the day the trial was supposed to start the defense attorneys arranged for terry and demetrius
10:51to be able to have a face-to-face conversation for the first time in almost two years when i
10:57met
10:57him by myself and i said well you know they offered me a deal to try to tell on you
11:02in the cartel he
11:04said well they didn't approach me i mean i remember being in the courtroom and the walls are pretty thin
11:11and within five minutes you could hear people hollering at each other the perception in the courtroom
11:18was that terry and demetrius were yelling at each other threatening each other the prosecutors that
11:25were sitting there i could kind of read their lips they were like this is it terry's gonna flip on
11:30him
11:30and we're gonna be able to put demetrius away for the rest of his life
11:37we know that's not true that's just malarkey it was never any argument despite what law enforcement
11:46or attorneys wherever they got that from that they had us arguing and they knew they had us
11:52uh going against each other that never happened this call is from an inmate at a federal prison
11:59demetrius plenary i told tf unless mom and dad don't need to see us get no life sin
12:06life been good to us it's gonna take 30. meach would never turn on me and nor would i turn
12:13on him because we were just too close and we're just against everything to do with ratting snitching
12:21whatever you want to call it that was the least of our words i simply told me i told him
12:28i wasn't
12:29interested they underestimated the constitution of a man like terry flannery and as the roof caved
12:36in on them both terry and demetrius were true to their code of honor and neither gave up the other
12:44i don't know if i was surprised but i was a little let down that they did not choose to
12:48cooperate
12:49they each decided to plea and the plea deals were 30 years incarceration each
12:58when he was sentenced i was there court room was kind of quiet it was difficult because you had both
13:05of
13:05them taken away it was like a drop of a ball moment because i guess i never really realized that
13:11you
13:11could get that much time for doing something like that it's the beginning of the end for the uh bmf
13:19in
13:19atlanta dea alleges brothers terry and demetrius flannery are founders who began their drug trafficking
13:25career selling crack in the mid 80s
13:29it was a hard pill to swallow but i told them you got to remember what i when i always
13:36taught you
13:37you got to stay prayerful and you got to stay strong no matter what even though it was very
13:43traumatizing to hear that your boys are going to spend 30 years away from you i was concerned for
13:50their well-being worried about them going to prison and their safety yeah this was real tired we were
13:59going to be gone for a while me tonight was doing this so long that it was the inevitable either
14:06going
14:06to go to prison or die in the streets i was tired i was really just tired of having to
14:12run this operation
14:14every day of having to be so evasive and hide from law enforcement it was a form of relief in
14:22the
14:23arrest knowing that it was over i didn't have to do it anymore
14:31there were about 66 defendants indicted federally in detroit as part of bmf but then there were
14:39people indicted all over the u.s when all said and done probably upwards of 125 or more defendants
14:47charged about 500 kilograms of cocaine were seized as part of the dea detroit investigation
14:56when the whole case was through millions of dollars worth of assets were seized by the government
15:03they took everything my houses and cars jury worth millions of dollars yeah man
15:12the charges against tenisa were money laundering in nature she moved money she facilitated money
15:18laundering she enjoyed the lifestyle that a lot of money affords and i got 57 months in prison time
15:26that's not that long so when i first got there i'm in a whole new world no more a thousand
15:32count
15:32sheets no more king size bed no designer clothes it was like i have been stripped of everything
15:43prison was pretty rough but not rough for me i had ties to everything good alliances so i never had
15:51any
15:51problems with anybody prison is a place where if you know a lot of people which mitch and i did
15:58from
15:58all over not just one state you pretty much had things your way with the officers and the inmates
16:05you would think because i lived in bel-air moholland hill that it was some heck of an adjustment it
16:12really wasn't we come from nothing growing up in poverty like mitch and i grew up in prison was a
16:20step up from that i spent most of my time in prison studying the bible my focus was getting
16:27home to my children and not being an old man when i got home to them i spoke with my
16:33son and daughter
16:34every day until the minutes ran out on the phone they sent cards and letters if my daughter would send
16:41pictures and they just was always there for them and i think that helped them get through it that was
16:47a
16:47hard time in his life i wasn't allowed to talk to me all those years in prison we would send
16:56messages
16:57to the kids he sends his love i send my love terry would get visited every year or two by
17:04dea or a
17:05prosecutor and they would promise him the world and tell him we'll give you a get out of jail free
17:09card
17:09if you tell us all the secrets of the black mafia family they were fruitless endeavors terry was never
17:14going to do that they never did i was focused on doing my time and going home i always knew
17:21i
17:21wouldn't do 30 years during the course of prison it didn't take me long to put the mirror to my
17:28face
17:28and self-reflect i didn't choose to blame others for my actions my peace came in accepting the fact i
17:39did
17:39this to me we are in the midst of a serious financial crisis congratulations mr president
17:48senior whitney houston has died the state of florida
17:57the u.s now leading the world in deaths with the coronavirus claiming more than 20 000 american lives
18:04prisons are scrambling to safeguard a population living in close quarters so we're hearing about
18:10people in the streets uh passing from this virus over 2 600 inmates and almost 3 000 staff members of
18:18prisons and jails nationwide have now contracted covet 19. covet 19 is sweeping through the country's
18:24jails and prisons we're seeing officers are taking off from work and not wanting to be around telling
18:32people to not stand next to each other people catching these viruses and actually passing away in the
18:39system it created a sense of panic thursday u.s attorney general william barr said he has directed
18:46federal prisons to expand its use of home confinement for inmates in 2020 i had about 15 years in
18:56i was on the phone with a friend of mine and we were talking and the administration asked me to
19:02step to
19:02the back they were all standing there with my file on their desk
19:09see yeah you're going home finally happened my miracle happened they're the leaders of the black
19:16mafia family and they're from southwest detroit terry flannery is being freed because of the virus this is
19:23the post on instagram from curtis 50 cent jackson saying black mafia boss southwest t is out take your
19:29time getting to the bank no hurry just have what you owe him by monday
19:40we're here in the house where it all started that's a lot of memories in this house
19:46my father demetrius and i built this house from studs we put the electricity in the plumbing
19:54walls the whole nine it's a beautiful thing to be home and out of a prison cell and back where
20:01it all
20:01started it was unbelievable we were overjoyed that we got the opportunity to put our eyes
20:10and our arms around him again so in 2020 i ended up coming back to detroit i heard that t
20:20was home so
20:22i'm thinking i'm single maybe we can rekindle something you know and we started talking we had been
20:30apart so long that we just would be better as friends i got a chance to get my closure i
20:38understood that
20:39our time and our season was over with and it was done
20:45it's amazing that i can kill somebody and get 10 years or less and here it is drugs non-violent
20:53crime
20:53you're giving me 30 or life sentences you know it just it don't make no sense just over the last
21:00year
21:02you've had members of the mafia that have been convicted of 5 10 15 20 murders and somehow
21:10they're walking out after 20 years black mafia family you'll give them 30 years terry had no violent
21:18crimes there is an institutional racism baked in to the american justice system i hear a lot of talk about
21:27non-violent drug crimes and i have to tell you i don't think there's such a thing the drugs cause
21:34addiction they cause overdoses they cause overdose deaths it causes misery did i play my part in that
21:45yes at the time we was ignorant to what was being done me tonight the first generation crack dealers we
21:52hustled through the 80s the 90s and the 2000s of the coke business i don't like to use the word
22:01regret i use the word remorse because there are some things i wish i could have done another way
22:12they did so much damage across the united states in terms of addiction all based on greed
22:19they are intelligent they have leadership ability they have charisma they had business sense they
22:25could have been anything they wanted maybe it's not too late for a redemption
22:35coming home i realized when you come home you're gonna have to find a job you're gonna have to
22:39find a place to live you're gonna have to learn to live what's really called normal
22:45when i came out i had no skills i didn't have a college degree i didn't have any of that
22:50so what was i gonna do did you consider going back to that life yeah lots of times you know
22:56you
22:56consider it but i knew i i changed i said god wouldn't want me to do that i changed my
23:01life and i'm gonna
23:02stick it out i've been home for a while now my relationship with my brother meach is great we don't
23:09have any differences life's too short for that i'm looking for my brother to enjoy life like i've been
23:16doing since i've been home god forgives but sometimes it's hard for man to forgive demetrius could be
23:24doing much more good out here it's a lot of youth out here that are robbing and stealing and killing
23:32and
23:32demetrius could show them that this is not the route to go you know it's a different era now
23:37i didn't change my way of thinking a lot now i just want a chance to be able to live
23:43the legitimate
23:44life just as good as i did when i was doing a lot of things illegally you got the same
23:49sentence
23:50you should be able to get out in the same circumstances free big meach today
24:00this week after serving nearly 20 years in prison big meach who headed up the black mafia family is
24:07out of prison big meach will serve the remainder of his sentence at a halfway house in miami
24:14big meach is home y'all and now he has the opportunity to begin a new chapter
24:19what you had from bmf from 1990 till 2005 will never happen again nobody will ever be able to
24:26reach those heights nobody will even try for the next 50 100 years people are going to be talking
24:31about what tearing demetrius did some people might glamorize the things that meach and i did when the
24:38story gets told it's gonna be bmf you hear it in the music sometimes but what the music don't reveal
24:45is the losses in your life the glistening glamour may look appealing to you you may think was the
24:54money worth it i can honestly say no the bmf legacy shows you that if you put some structure together
25:02and
25:02stick together you can be successful now you get a chance to turn a negative into a positive
25:09and do positive things bmf just changed a lot of people's lives in so many ways i'm just proud to
25:19be their sister and they deserve to come out of this on top i wouldn't change nothing because everything
25:27was a learning experience good or bad experience is the best teacher i'm proud of everything you know
25:35what i'm saying my whole life i am the man that i always wanted to be and i'm him
25:44i can share my story with people i can educate the youth and people in the streets to try to
25:51help
25:52them realize that it's another way to value family value freedom in the end we're choosing a new way
26:01a life that ain't over for black mafia family
26:33so
26:53okay yeah i'm ready man i appreciate it
26:57yay thank you
27:40Transcription by CastingWords
Comments