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Finally, around April 1993, Q extended his network all the way to Birmingham. That city was to afford investigators the clearest glimpse into one of Q's distant branches. Following a number of scouting trips to test the local market, an enterprising threesome flew into the city to stay. Two were among Q's suspected Crip affiliates, Horace (``Dink'') Slaughter, 29, brother of Book, and Larry (``Drak'') Neal, 29, both of whom weighed more than 260 lbs. The third was a petite, reddish-haired woman from Long Beach, California, named Renee Stephens. For the team's headquarters, Stephens rented a three-room, $250-a-month apartment in a white-frame triplex on Fulton Avenue in Birmingham's working-class, largely African-American West End. The trio soon blended in as law-abiding citizens.
``They figured the least amount of attention they'd attract, the longer they'd be able to stay in business,'' says Jeff Burgess, one of the FBI agents who was to conduct regular undercover surveillance of Fulton Avenue. In fact, behind the low-key demeanor, Dink and Drak were suspected of being in the early stages of setting up a ``primary distributorship.'' It would involve cocaine ``muled''--or smuggled--into Birmingham in regular shipments from Los Angeles. There it would be ``cooked'' into crack and finally distributed to local dealers in 1-oz. packets, or possibly even ``eight- balls'' of 18 oz. The wholesale asking price was typically $950 an ounce, though on a number of occasions--in wire-tapped conversations recorded in court documents--Q back in Los Angeles demanded that they hike prices.
In fact, Q and his Los Angeles-headquarters second-in-command, Donald (``Doc'') Dennis, a suspected East Coast Crip, often displayed considerable long-distance ``savviness,'' according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Johnson. ``They called to question the amount of receipts coming in. They discussed how much crack was in the city. They discussed cooking agents. And they didn't keep books.''
However, in April 1993, just as Q was getting started in Birmingham, the FBI launched the probe that led to the network's systematic dismantlement--its ``takedown,'' in the parlance of narcotics cops. First Denver was shut down, then Cleveland and last, in a surprise raid that had the suspects fleeing just minutes before the police arrived, Birmingham. The technique of ``letting it walk''--allowing drug shipments and couriers to proceed unhindered in order to keep suspected criminals ignorant of a wiretap--was used at every location. ``That strategy was the key,'' says lead investigator Steven Gomez. ``To the very end, they never knew.''
Birmingham's Renee Stephens remains at large. But Dink Slaughter and Drak Neal were followed home and arrested in Los Angeles. The Seattle team was jailed. Second-in-command Doc Dennis surrendered to a swat team in Burbank, California, without incident. And when Q himself was summoned to visit his parole officer--he once served time on a previous drug offense--he found FBI agents waiting for him. Finally, after 15 months on the run, Cleveland's M.J. Lee was also captured early this month in Chino Hills, California.