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Gangs turn to rolling drug houses, exploiting police chase policy

By John Diedrich and Ashley Luthern of the Journal Sentinel

July 18, 2015 126

An innovative, violent gang of drug dealers is exploiting the Milwaukee Police Department's own policy on vehicle pursuits and other rules as they feed an incessant hunger for heroin across southeastern Wisconsin and contribute to a surging number of murders in the city, newly unsealed court documents show.

The dealers are part of Big Money Addicts, or BMA, one of a number of gangs in Milwaukee that operate on a new, highly mobile business model designed to better deliver drugs and build customer loyalty while thwarting police efforts to arrest them, records show.

The gangs are selling heroin and cocaine from cars, shifting dealing away from drug houses and sales on foot or bicycle and creating rolling drug operations.


In one case, a BMA dealer who taunted police and fled in March later shot a man in a gas station, according to a criminal complaint.

The dealers build their drug-buying clientele using business cards that advertise bogus businesses, such as a 24-hour towing operation or car repair outfit. They even supply needles for heroin addicts.

With sales reaching beyond the city to suburban buyers, the profits are stunning. The records describe drug dealers making $11,000 a day.

As a dealer's phone number circulates, it becomes more valuable, and dealers push to keep the number active. They transfer it to different phones, arrange for others to keep it going if they are behind bars or sell the number to other dealers. The approach makes it difficult for law enforcement to prove who is using the phone and to pursue charges of drug dealing or contributing to a death when there is an overdose, records show.

Prosecutors say a battle over access to a drug phone in December resulted in the fatal shooting of 13-month-old Bill Thao. He was killed as he played with toys at a relative's home, which was shot up by mistake. The intended target of the shooting, a rival drug dealer, lived in a nearly identical duplex next door, police say. The targeted dealer was linked to a gang known as the Wild 100s, which police say is connected to dozens of other crimes.

The records, including a recently unsealed search warrant and a dozen criminal complaints against suspects, reveal a picture of increasingly brazen, clever criminals changing their techniques in an effort to stay ahead of police, as the city grapples with a surge in deadly violence that has seen homicides already nearly eclipsing last year's total.

The Big Money Addicts and people associated with the gang are suspected in a series of crimes ranging from heroin dealing to homicide, felony possession of a gun to car theft, according to the search warrant affidavit, written by lead investigator and Milwaukee police officer Dean Newport, who works on a U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives task force.

The warrant says there also is evidence of racketeering by the gang, a high-level charge used to combat mobs and other organized crime. Such cases are often charged federally, but this case is in state court.

The burgeoning heroin trade also has helped fuel an increase in violent crimes including homicides, shootings, robberies and gun violations.

"The Milwaukee-based crew of dealers, operate under the motivation of greed and recklessness, empowering themselves to advance illegal drug sales without fear of apprehension," the warrant says.

A Milwaukee police spokesman did not return calls and an email seeking comment on the department's pursuit policy and how criminals might be exploiting it.

John Hagedorn, a criminal justice professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago, said that as long-standing gang structures have fallen apart, smaller crews like the ones being targeted in Milwaukee have cropped up. They are less predictable and disciplined but also free to change methods without control from a gang hierarchy.

"There is a lot more experimentation and innovation today," Hagadorn said. "People are on their own, and there is a lot of rethinking. If Milwaukee police are not going to pursue, what (the drug dealers) are doing sounds pretty rational."

Getting around the system

The cars used by drug dealers are most often newer models stolen in other states and brought to Milwaukee. The dealers frequently switch out cars so one person is not associated with a single vehicle.

Before the cars hit the street, they are inspected by the drug dealers to make sure they are in good working order, so they can speed away from police, a search warrant says. The dealers top off the fluid levels, check and replace brakes, tires and wipers and put on temporary license plates, which prevents police from checking to see if they are stolen.

The inspections also help identify problems that could lead to a traffic stop by police, such as a malfunctioning brake light.

The dealers put heavy tint on the car windows, which allows them to carry drugs and their guns — outfitted with high-capacity ammunition magazines — in their laps but hidden from view. The menacing-looking guns are used to intimidate drug addicts, who are reluctant to cooperate with police.

"It looks like a tank coming at you," Milwaukee police Capt. Thomas Stigler said of the tinted cars after a bust of two street gangs last month. Police have dubbed the gangs "tint crews."

"You can't see who's driving."

Without knowing who is inside the car, officers are limited in their options if the car flees.

A policy change five years ago requires officers to have probable cause that someone in a car is committing a violent felony or is "a clear and immediate threat to the safety of others" before pursuing them.

The policy does not allow pursuits "solely for traffic infractions" or simply because a driver refuses to stop. The policy change came after four people were killed by drivers fleeing police between Dec. 31, 2009, and March 1, 2010. Three of the deaths occurred over two days.

"The suspects are educated on the rules and policies of the Milwaukee Police Department as it relates to vehicle pursuits," the affidavit says.

One defendant, Darrow Bonner, told police he was involved in three to four "high speeds" every day he was on the street dealing. Bonner, who came from Chicago to sell drugs in Milwaukee, said he knows that police will chase a short distance and then stop if the dealers drive fast enough, according to a criminal complaint charging him with possession of a firearm.

Bonner, who pleaded not guilty, said, "police pull behind them attempting to pull them over, and they speed off from the traffic stop," according to the criminal complaint.

Bonner and another suspect, Terrell D. Hall, tried to get away from police when they were spotted at a motel in Glendale, but they hit a snowbank and were caught. Hall, who was indicted federally, has agreed to plead guilty to being a felon in possession of a gun and dealing heroin.

Some dealers taunt police.

In March, police tried to pull over a suspected dealer in a car stolen from Illinois. The dealer threw the Ford Focus into reverse, rammed the squad car and then drove up on the sidewalk and back to the street. He stopped, and the passenger, later identified as Rashawn "Ra-Ra" Smith, leaned out and yelled a series of expletives at the police and sped away. Due to the policy limiting pursuits, the suspects were able to escape, the search warrant said.

Smith, 24, and two other men — Kyawn Lewis, 22, and David Harris, 21 — are identified as primary members of the Big Money Addicts in court documents. A dozen other people are listed as being associated with the gang.

Those in the gang have tattoos boasting membership — a syringe being injected into money, or a needle with a rolled up $50 bill inside.

Maneuvers reduce sentences

In another shift in tactics, the dealers don't carry prepackaged drugs, knowing that makes it obvious they are selling and exposes them to more time in prison. Instead, they carry a bag and dole out small drug amounts for users.

The difference is significant, as it could reduce any charge from drug dealing to simple possession, potentially cutting decades off the maximum sentence.

"The common trend of this crew is to pinch or eyeball a quantity of controlled substance from a bag and place it unpackaged and directly into the hand of the receiving drug addict," according to the search warrant.


Dealers stay at hotels, changing rooms every day to make it difficult for police to locate an active dealer.

The quickly shifting drug-dealing strategies were being used by a pair of north side gangs recently busted by a task force of Milwaukee police and FBI agents.

"They've changed their method of operation," Stigler said after the task force roundup. "As opposed to being stagnant or stationary in the house, these guys are always on the move."

When drugs were more exclusively sold from houses, police got search warrants for a targeted property. To the dealers, the cars — a rolling drug house of sorts — are less vulnerable to a bust by authorities. Not only does it make police search warrants more difficult to obtain, it also allows a dealer to have large swaths of the city or suburbs as drug territory — and that raises the possibility of battles among dealers who cross paths.

In the roundup last month, officers and agents searched four locations linked to one suspect. An informant had told them as recently as 72 hours earlier that one of the locations had $80,000. But no money or drugs were found when investigators arrived with a search warrant. That suspect and several others who were targeted in the roundup weren't arrested until a day or two later.

"They live out of hotels, and they're constantly changing hotels," Stigler said. "It's not surprising to me there's not many people at these houses."

Drugs and violence

At least three shootings since last fall have been linked to BMA gang members, who were either suspects or intended victims, records show.

Smith was involved in two, including one that left a popular rapper dead, court records show.

Tavion Milams, 24, who performed as Tay Gutta, was killed Sept. 8 on the north side. A jury last month convicted Robert D. Spencer, 36, of felony murder in his death. Smith testified in the trial.

Spencer, who was with Milams, came up to Smith on the street, taking money and cellphone from his pockets, before pointing a gun to Smith's side and saying "Come with me, you're going to die," according to the criminal complaint.

Smith broke free and ran. Gunshots rang out and a bullet hit Milams in the head. Investigators later learned Smith owed Spencer $5,000 from an earlier drug deal.

In May, two months after he taunted police and fled, Smith and fellow BMA member Lewis were charged with shooting a man at a gas station. Bobbie White, 23, who is also associated with BMA, was charged in a third shooting, a deadly drug house robbery, in January. The three suspects in the two shootings have all pleaded not guilty.

The case against Big Money Addicts is set to unfold publicly Monday when 21-year-old Breion Woodson goes on trial in a Milwaukee County courtroom on drug dealing and gun possession charges.

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Ashley Luthern covers crime and breaking news.

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