Number	22920
Subject	Crime
Source	Creative Loafing (Atlanta, Ga.)
State	GA
Year	2006
Publication Date	12/07/2006; 12/14/2006; 12/21/2006
Summary	The Atlanta-based Black Mafia Family "were hip-hop royalty without a hit." Investigators asserted that the BMF was actually one of the "more elaborate drug-trafficking enterprises in the country." The entertainment industry and the criminal underworld came together in the BMF, which the police finally cracked when a high-placed member broke the code of silence. In summer 2005, the organization's crimes began to escalate until it was tied to more violent acts, and the investigators "made their move." This story links the BMF to six unsolved murders, as well as to music figures like Sean "P. Diddy" Combs", Bobby Brown and Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin.
Category	Contest Entry -- Tom Renner Award Category
Pages	30
Keywords	Demetrius "Big Meech" Flenory; Black Mafia Family; cocaine; murder; crime organization; hip-hop music
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