Who Knows the Shadowy History of the 10th Precinct?

[Gannon]

I recently heard a story that was quite amazing...and while somewhat unbelievable, it was told with such certainty I am loathe to ignore it.


At some point in the 70s or 80s, the 10th Precinct was actually raided by Federal agents...and the whole narcotics squad and leadership were immediately arrested and the Commander later indicted for providing drugs to low-level street dealers. It was said they brought out KILOS of heroin [[and possibly cocaine) during this raid.


They were reputed to be in association with the Young Boys, Inc...and may indeed have been their 'upline' in the distribution chain! My contact can put me in touch with a few of the operators from that era, but I do not want to pursue it without having at least SOME of my facts straight.


Who knows anything about this event? I'm sure the Police Department would like to keep it quiet...I haven't had any success researching this on-line. Time to hit the library and peruse the newspaper archives.

But any hints here would save me time...and I'd love to hear stories, if ya got 'em.



Cheers!

[Gannon]

I remember, as a young salesperson at the old Seaway Motors in Dearborn [[VW, Mazda, Saab) in the mid-80s, being tasked to transport a few Mazdas which had been used at the auto show from an ancient 8-story parking garage not far from the current Park/Cliff Bells corner back to the dealership [[to be sold to the executives who were JUST coming over to convert the Flatrock Ford plant to Mazda production).

On a few of the floors, there were NOTHING but supercars. Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and the like.

I had to ask, and was told [[very quietly and in confidence, which I don't mind breaking 25 years later) that those floors were all DEA confiscations from the Young Boys, Inc. gang and the like.

I am still floored by this, and in one quick peek at the Wikipedia article on them understand a bit of why they had so much cash. It is estimated at their peak, they were turning three-quarters of a million dollars PER DAY in heroin alone.


That is a staggering figure, and I'd like some substantiation of it. In my estimation, crack cocaine had come along by the mid-80s...actually, cutting it with baking soda happened a few years after Richard Pryor famously lit himself on fire free-basing with ether. I guess the CIAs chemists needed a bit of time to develop the new way to mainline this drug.

[Hypestyles]

Gannon, let us know what you find.. i'm in the 10th.. I wrote a letter to Godbee right after he was appointed by Bing, and maybe two weeks later a couple of cops from the 10th stopped by the house, said they were 'impressed' with the letter, dropped off information about community relations meetings..

[Motor City Sam]

Gannon, I'll have to do some research, but if I remember correctly the corruption at the 10th goes back before YBI. I remember that as the case was breaking a hitman named Chester Campbell was arrested and in his car he had about 14 guns and a hit list. The names on the list were reportedly witnesses and others connected to the 10th precinct corruption case. I remember a quote from a then-former prosecutor who said his name was on the list, because he was on the prosecution team.

[gdogslim]

'Tuesday's announcement represented the largest number of officers accused of drug-related charges since 1973, when 10 officers were accused of stealing drugs and money from dope pads

in what was called the 10th Precinct conspiracy. Three were convicted. For some Detroit officers on patrol Tuesday, the revelations were "just another kick in the face for us."

Or are you referring to when Coleman Young's neice and father dealt drugs from cops stash and were paid for protection mafia style ?? in 1991

Ten Detroit and suburban police officers were charged Tuesday with accepting money to guard a dozen large shipments of cocaine and drug cash for undercover federal agents posing as dope dealers.
"Among six civilians also accused were Mayor Coleman Young's niece, Cathy Volsan Curry, and her father, Willie Volsan. Volsan Curry was arrested. Federal authorities expected to have the others arrested within a day.

'Authorities said imprisoned Detroit drug lord Richard [[White Boy Rick) [[Who should have been executed) Wershe was instrumental in the initial contact between the FBI agent posing as a drug dealer and Cathy Volsan Curry, who approached Detroit police. Wershe was a partner of Cathy Volsan Curry's husband, imprisoned drug dealer Johnny Curry , and once dated Cathy Volsan Curry. Wershe's lawyer, William Bufalino II, said he knew nothing of a Wershe role in the investigation.'

Copyright [[c) 1991 Detroit Free Press

http://crimeindetroit.com/Documents/NG.pdf

[Motor City Sam]

This focuses on a corruption case from the 90's but makes reference to a 10 precinct case from the 70's. As I remember, however, the 70's case was about more than some cops sticking up dope pads.

http://crimeindetroit.com/Documents/NG.pdf

[Motor City Sam]

gdogslim, you beat me to it.

[Detroitej72]

Detroit would be better off with Coleman and his lowlife family and friends.

I think you meant to say: Detroit would be better off without Coleman and his lowlife family and friends, but otherwise I get your point.

[Gannon]

Was reminded of this old thread, and after Ray1936 gave me a name...found some gold.

This blog is filled with meaty stuff, and ol' Django would be happy to see his friend Wershe getting props all over the place.

http://www.thedimedroppers.com/

The 10th Precinct Conspiracy was also known as the Pingree Street Conspiracy. Lotsa information on those terms, including a link to another site centered around John Sinclair.

More as it develops...I've got a bunch to read right now. But I see why Sport couldn't learn anything about this when he was in the academy. Too damning for a young officer to know.

[Gannon]

http://www.leagle.com/decision/19828....%20IACONNELLI

[night-timer]

Gannon, hi again. You might glean some info in the Chester Wheeler Campbell biography, Diary of a Motor City Hit Man.

He sounds like one sinister and highly organized operator, although I haven't read the book myself, yet.

Below is a link or review of the book, which in part says:

"Campbell had made notations of addresses where witnesses were being kept. He sometimes neatly – often times sloppily - wrote detailed, semi-detailed and a lot of ‘coded’ information, down to the license plates, of lawmen and dope peddlers alike. Many streets in and around the Pingree area were listed; safe houses, drug dens and protected witnesses. Nobody was off limits for the hit man. Everyone who heard the news or had been involved in examining the notebooks was, quite understandably, uneasy with the revelations of one Chester Wheeler Campbell. Though the man himself spoke very little to authorities, his possessions were loud proclamations of his dangerous presence in the Motor City and beyond."

Clicky: http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profile...troit-drug-mob

If anyone's read that particular book, feel free to fill us in. Is the guy still alive?

[Gannon]

I found an article from the Oakland Press that said he died in a Minnesota prison almost fifteen years ago.

[G-DDT]

Man, G., you got me now wanting to do research about that retro era that served greater Malthusian purposes for the powers that be. It may've been a time when you had both Frank Serpico style cops [[and their formidable opposites) and entrepreneurial Frank Lucas style criminals here in the D'.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

Hate to sound like a "newb" but where is the 10th precinct?

[Ray1936]

The precinct station was at Livernois and Elmhurst [[replacing an older building at Petoskey and Joy Road). Here's a rough sketch of the area served.

[Bigdd]

...... being tasked to transport a few Mazdas which had been used at the auto show from an ancient 8-story parking garage not far from the current Park/Cliff Bells corner back to the dealership.....

On a few of the floors, there were NOTHING but supercars. Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and the like.

I had to ask, and was told [[very quietly and in confidence, which I don't mind breaking 25 years later) that those floors were all DEA confiscations from the Young Boys, Inc. gang and the like.

I knew the owners of that garage and used to hand out there in the early 90's. The owner was a semi-retired cop, when I knew him. Old Keystone kind of guy. I knew his son,.. and the son used to steal amplifiers and such out of the cars on the DEA floors.

A couple of the floors were where people from GP and similar places would store their cars long term,.. and another floor or two where where some cars got impounded,... but 7 and 8 were all DEA seizures. AMG Benzes full of Alpine gear and the like.

The small basement had a shop where a guy restored cars for the Henry Ford Museum. V12 Lincolns, etc.

It was on the Souths side of Elizibeth,.. between Park and Clifford. Right across Park from where the Bucharest Grill is now. The City or someone wanted the lot bad enough to buy it,.. and give them the parking garage by Cobo at like Congress and 2nd. The moved a lot of the cars there. That was in like 1995.

[Gannon]

Wow, that is amazing.

Thanks for the leads.

Sons of cops must be like preacher's kids...thinking they can get away with anything.

[Bigdd]

Yeah,.. and who would know? Those cars just go to auction years later,... and the buyer wouldn;t know what was in it before.

Same cop / dad falsely listed the son as living in Grosse Pointe,.. so he could attend Grosse Pointe South High School for free,.. even though he lived with the mom and dad in Detroit.

Laws pretty much don't apply to cops.
.

[Jimaz]

...Laws pretty much don't apply to cops.

That sentence deserves some kind of award. It's so — so — what? Nixonian.

[garyalex]

I grew up in the neighborhood of the 10th precinct. I remember how smack took hold in that neighborhood in the late 1960's and well into the 1970's. It seems that we went from wine, weed and pills to smack almost overnight. Most of the people I hung out with were users, dealers or both. I heard many rumors that there were 10th precinct cops on the take, but I have no way to know if that were true. I do know how brutal some of them were. I do know that one of the 10th precinct narcos shot and killed my best friend during a drug raid. It happened on Livernois near, I think, Tuxedo. It was an apartment above a storefront. That I saw. Those were hard times.

[jiminnm]

The City or someone wanted the lot bad enough to buy it,.. and give them the parking garage by Cobo at like Congress and 2nd. The moved a lot of the cars there. That was in like 1995.

Are you talking about the parking garage on the northwest corner of Congress and 2nd? The city never owned it [[unless very recently).

That garage was built by MichCon in the late 1970s or early 1980s, owned by MichCon and used primarily for employee parking, with some spaces leased to other companies. MichCon record storage was in the basement. It was part of the purchase of MichCon by DTE c2001.

[Hamtragedy]

Hey Gannon, I grew up in Grandmont, and about 10 years ago was reading "A History of Organized Crime in Detroit." A classmate of mine at the elementary school there and the associated middle school near Brightmoor, was one of the guys who went down for 15 on RICO charges along with Butch Jones and the other ringleaders of YBI, which I already knew. What I found out in the book was that Butch was tight with our classmate's mother, [[she, too, went down on the same RICO charges) and as it turned out, her house was the cash house. Now we walked by this house everyday on our way to catch the Grand River bus, and there was always the gold Benz and the black Jaguar in the driveway. We all new he was associated because he recruited paperboys, and there were a bunch of us.

Anyhoos, this was when the IRS implemented the $10,000 cash laws [[we called it the Young Boys Law even then), because if you recall these kids would show up at dealerships in Birmingham and pay for a Benz in $5s and $10s. Well after the law went in to affect, our classmate would, on occasion, back one of those sweet rides into a backyard basketball game, and unload garbage bags of singles and fives, usually to the tune of a couple Gs. Another recruiting tool. Luckily, Grandmont was still pretty working class and enough of these kids had parents or uncles who knew those Adidas Top Tens could only mean one thing.....that they didn't make that money "doin no paper route" and after a swift beating were back slingin' papers the next week.

Unfortunately, what we probably glamourized then and later, namely growin' up in the middle of YBI, we all have realized now how much that culture destroyed the very lives of the black working class that were able to escape to a nice neighborhood such as Grandmont, only to have it catch up with their children, which was totally unthinkable then, and then become "normalized" by the time the Chambers Brothers showed up and introduced crack. [[And in another twist, the police officer lady across the street from me rented her house to one of the Chambers Brothers. Not sure if she was at the 10th).

Recently, a bunch of us got together at Honest Johns and shared these stories. Little irony was lost that we were spending a lot of time looking up childhood friends on the OTIS [[offender tracking) website. An inordinate amount of them are / have been incarcerated, a few were involved in high-profile prison escapes. Just as many are no longer. Our classmate who went down with YBI is out, and manages to keep a low proflle.

Grandmont in the 80s was a little crazy.

[Gannon]

Yeah...geez, the 'other' side of the story.

Thanks for sharing all that.

Wish there were a similar gathering for Brightmoor, I'd not mind learning where Daniel Guilbeau disappeared to...looked him up on OTIS, but am not sure I spelled the name right.


My original source for this story also knew one of the YBIs who served his time...but told me he is insanely private now, and only tells stories to select trusted folk. I declined an offer to meet him so far, because I distrust my ability to keep his secrets.

Cheers,
John

[Bigdd]

Are you talking about the parking garage on the northwest corner of Congress and 2nd? The city never owned it [[unless very recently).

That garage was built by MichCon in the late 1970s or early 1980s, owned by MichCon and used primarily for employee parking, with some spaces leased to other companies. MichCon record storage was in the basement. It was part of the purchase of MichCon by DTE c2001.

No, i t wasn't that one,.. and it wasn't that big. This one was smaller. I think it may have been on the North East corner of Congress and First?

Hard to say,.. I look at the Street View and none of those buildings look like what I remember. Perhaps the one at Congress and First was re-faced?

Hard to be sure now. It's been 20 years.

[Gannon]

Cobo expansion happened since then, right?