Opinion ID: 2994178
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Drug Organizations

Text: From approximately 1991 until 1996, Jones solicited and received cash payments from various drug organizations in the Ford Heights area. Jones took these pay-offs in exchange for his arranging for the freedom of the drug purveyors to deal and sell large quantities of narcotics in Ford Heights without police interference. The nefarious leaders of five of these different drug organizations were: James Cross, Randolph Holmes, Kalonji Tutu McMillan, Tim Smith, and Bryant Boochie Greenwood. These malevolent organizations carved up the Ford Heights area as if it were their own private candyland, causing such deterioration in the area that, according to the government, city buses could no longer travel through parts of Ford Heights because the streets were so overrun with drug activity. In the plea agreement, Jones admitted to detailed accounts of his activities with respect to two of the five named drug organizations: The James Cross and the Randolph Holmes Organizations.
On January 6, 1996, Jones met with James Cross, one of the area’s most notorious drug dealers. Prior to this time, James Cross had paid-off the defendant-Jones on a number of occasions in order that the officer would not interfere with Cross’s drug activities. At a meeting held on January 6, 1996, Cross paid Jones $150 under the pretense of paying-off the officer so the Cross drug operation could continue to distribute narcotics in the Ford Heights area without police interference. Jones was unaware of the fact that, at this time, Cross was acting as an informant for the FBI.
From the end of 1994 through 1995, Holmes paid- off Jones on a number of occasions in order that his drug operation might continue without police interference. In addition to the general pay- offs, Jones, after one of Holmes’s employees had been arrested and placed in custody, retrieved the crack cocaine the employee had dropped into a garbage can outside the police station and, instead of inventorying the drugs, he sold the narcotics back to Holmes.