L.A. Crack Chronology

1974

UCLA drug researchers first learn from interviews with drug traffickers of a recipe to produce crack cocaine by mixing baking soda with cocaine powder. The recipe was circulating in the San Francisco Bay area as eary as 1970.

1976

Los Angeles' most prominent black drug dealer, Thomas (Tootie) Reese is introduced to crack cocaine by friends in the San Francisco area. The crack recipe is published for the first time in the book, "Pleasures of Cocaine."

1978

Residents of the Nickerson Gardens public housing project in South Central Los Angeles are seen by researchers smoking what is now called crack cocaine.

1979

About 26 pounds of cocaine powder are seized from a Granada Hills warehouse, which agents say is being stocked by Lear jets loaded with 200-kilos flying in from Southern Florida. Columbian cartel leader Carlos Ledher Rivas identified as the major supplier.

1979

Yale University Prof. Robert Byck warns congressional committee about the potential for a cocaine smoking epidemic in the United States.

1980

Comedian Richard Pryor focuses public attention on the dangers of smoking cocaine processed with ether when he sets himself afire. This prompts a search among users for a less dangerous form of smokable cocaine. Ether, which was commonly used at the time to convert powder cocaine into smokeable form, reportedly blamed for the explosion.

1981

More than 113 pounds of cocaine is seized in Van Nuys, marking an explosive growth in the cocaine trade as well as the discovery of a network of Columbians here to market it. The ring reportedly handled 3,600 pounds of cocaine and $73 million in seven months. Honduran drug trafficker Ramon Matta Ballesteros is identified as the ring's supplier.

DEA intelligence reports document the presence of crack cocaine in Los Angeles, San Diego and Houston.

1982

Auto maker John Z. DeLorean indicted in Los Angeles for conspiracy to import 220 pounds of cocaine.

LAPD begins investigation of the Bryant Family, a Pacioma organization credited with establishing the first "rock houses" selling crack and other drugs to the black community.

DEA agents stop 509 pounds of cocaine from entering the country, up 39% from the year before. The South Florida Task Force is set up to choke off Florida as a point of entry for the drug. Smugglers develop a new path through Mexico into Los Angeles, which later becomes the coke capital of the nation.

1983

Cocaine dealer Oscar Danilo Blandon severes ties with Contra-backed suppliers of cocaine, starts dealing directly with Columbian sources and keeps the proceeds for himself, according to his sworn testimony. About this time he says he was selling 50 kilos a month of cocaine to a Honduran, who in turn sold it to Ricky Ross. He says he met Ricky for the first time in 1984.



1984

The conviction of Thomas (Tootie) Reese, a major drug dealer in the black community, sets off a battle for control of the crack cocaine distribution system and hundreds of rock houses in Los Angeles.

1985

With the crack epidemic spiraling out of control, Police Chief Daryl Gates uses the controversial "battering ram" as a tool to enter rock houses controlled by the Bryant family in Los Angeles.

1986

Congress singles out crack dealers for harsh new penalties: mandatory 10-year sentences for those convicted of selling 50 grams of crack. Federal law enforcement officials start targeting street dealers in addition to powder suppliers.

1986

Sheriff deputies raid Oscar Blandon's southland drug operation. Unnamed confidential informants identify Blandon as a supporter of the Nicaraguan contras, who are said to raise money for their cause by dealing drugs.

1986-87

"Operation Pices" culminates in 241 arrests and more than 190 felony convictions of Columbian drug dealers. About $23 million in laundered cash and 5 tons of cocaine is seized in Los Angeles. Among those convicted is Jesus Anibal Zapata, a top Columbian money launderer accused of washing $17 million a week in drug profits from Los Angeles to banks in Miami and Panama.

1987

A task force created a year earlier by local police to target Ricky Ross and other prospering crack dealers, is nabbed by cops after a chase and charged with possession of cocaine. He is later released and moves to Cincinnati, where sets up a major crack operation. A even bigger drug dealer, Elrader Browning, Jr.is indicted and later convicted of conspiracy to supply L.A. rock houses and distribute cocaine to Detroit Oakland.

1988

One of the biggest crack dealers in Los Angeles, Brian Bennett, who sold 1,000 kilos a week from Los Angeles to Detroit, is indicted in federal court where prosecutors document his direct ties to both Columbian suppliers and local street gangs. That same year, Stanley Bryant, director of a thriving crack cocaine empire that expanded from Pacoima to 20 U.S. cities, becomes a suspect in the quadruple slayings of two rival drug dealers and two witnesses, ending in a court case and the death penalty seven years later.

1989

Federal officials report that Los Angeles street gangs are exporting crack cocaine to 42 cities across the country. An estimated 10,000 gang members in Los Angles are said to be involved in dealing drugs.



1990

A record seizure of 21 tons of cocaine in a Sylmar warehouses leads to the conviction of six Mexicans, including drug kingpin Rafael Munoz, who were paid $81 million by Columbians during a four-month period to transport 150,000 pounds of cocaine hidden in big-rigs through El Paso into Los Angeles.

1991

Ricky Ross, imprisoned in Cincinnati on cocaine trafficking charges, wins a reduction in his sentence after testifying in the money-skimming corruption trial of several sheriff deputies in Los Angeles. Drug statistics show a drop in crack usage nationwide.

1992

Blandon is indicted in San Diego for distributing cocaine and laundering narcotics proceeds Later, in return for his cooperation, he is released from prison after serving just 28 months and is paid more than $166,000 as an informant by the U.S. government..

1995

The operator of a rap music recording studio in Hollywood, Quintin Stephen, is indicted for distributing large quantities of cocaine powder as well as crack to a half-dozen cities. Stephen, a member of the Eight Trey Gangster Crips, is accused of using the studio as a front for his crack distribution network.

1996

Ricky Ross goes to trial in San Diego, accused of making a down payment to buy 100 kilograms of cocaine from Blandon, who was helping with a federal undercover sting operation. Ross claims he was unfairly entrapped and charges that the CIA, working with Blandon, created the crack epidemic in Los Angeles.

Rise and Spread of Crack

The crack phenomenon erupted almost simultaneously on both U.S. coasts during the early 1980s before sweeping the rest of the nation. By 1986, it was estimated that a million Americans has smoked crack.

* On the East Coast, Jamaican, Haitian and Dominican immigrants were instrumental in spreading crack.

* Law enforcement action to slow the flow of cocaine into South Florida forced cartels to open a second route into the United States through Central America and Mexico.

* On the West Coast, street gangs and drug rings, both large and small, supply crack to a burgeoning market.

* Traffickers are of different nationalities and theater of operation. Cocaine comes from Boliva, Peru and Colombia, where coca plants are grown by farmers and shipped to processing plants of the Cali and Medellin cartels. From there, powder cocaine is transported by ship, plane and truck into Southern California and Miami. Once in the United States, drug dealers turn the powder cocaine into crack.

I could show u how to rerock the yip....or even cook crack in my amber Pyrex pot na wut I mea bull shit b right shit b real out here.' Homies still beepin me at 7 am for shit,, scorcese u like trains?

Traffickers are of different nationalities and theater of operation. Cocaine comes from Boliva, Peru and Colombia, where coca plants are grown by farmers and shipped to processing plants of the Cali and Medellin cartels. From there, powder cocaine is transported by ship, plane and truck into Southern California and Miami. Once in the United States, drug dealers turn the powder cocaine into crack.


Scorsese,

Good stuff, Thanks! I think the Mariel Boatlift played a role as well, tons of Cocaine flooded into South Florida during this chaotic time.

trains... word.. comeon at least with the baking soda it was just basing it up a little.. giving some weight kind of like a good vitamin b6 shot.. how bout the laxative mix?? good lord... walk away and do that shit... crack headaches the worst.. wtf were we thinking??

Crack came from Plymouth st in Oakland.

Darryl 'lil D' Reed was another major dealer in the bay area. Probably one of the biggest at age 20.

Where did you find this timeline? It was apparently called freebase at first or that's what people have told me as I have never used it and have no desire to.

http://articles.latimes.com/1996-10-20/news/mn-59169_1_crack-cocaine

Freebase and crack are technically two different products as in terms of the their method of production, however the actual effects and results are similar.

yeah the process to make crack is a little different all you need is a coke can and a lighter... the leftover's of low quality shit.. like sucking coffee grounds after they have been filtered a few hundred times and all you get is the shit color and a stomach ache.

Interesting timeline

meant to comment in this thread when it first came out


Anyone can answer, but do you think the first crack users were heroin addicts that the dealers converted?


What are some of the factors that lead to crack NOT "catching on" when it was first introduced but then exploding in the 1980s?

Did the price of coke drop that much that it made manufacturing of crack cheaper in the 80s as opposed to mid 70s?

Gets,

The Heat are gonna take down Pierce,Johnson and Garnett in 5

During that time cocaine was very plentiful and cheap, and considered by most a harmless party drug. The evil genius that came up with crack saw an opportunity to provide a product that was cheaper, more concentrated and much more addictive by design than powder Cocaine. The first users were generally poor people of color in large urban areas like NYC and Miami. Hope that helps.

NNY78,

Heat are probably gonna win. I hated the Nets since they left NJ...I wore a shirt that read "Brooklyn can get these NETS" to a bar IN Brooklyn..and didn't get my head kicked in.

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Thanks for the reply.So coke was cheap in the 70s?I'm wondering what lead to crack exploding and catching on when it did if it had been around for at least 9 years before.

Interview with freeway rick ross I've skipped it to the bit where he explains how he first started cooking crack. Its about 21 minutes in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=rr-svL4YUSk#t=1269

[quote= what lead to crack exploding and catching on when it did if it had been around for at least 9 years before. [/quote]

Gets,

Coke was cheap to produce,not cheap for the folks using it and crack was even more profitable for the dealer and much cheaper for the user, maybe $5 for a good size piece at that time. My best guess would be it took a while for crack to catch on, this was the 70"s and 80"s, back then news traveled much slower than it does today. Of course the public and government did little to educate folks on the ugly side of crack use so the people who started using it only heard one side of the story: crack addict A tells new user B, his buddy, that this shit is like the best blow job he ever had times ten. That same guy failed to mention that he was now smoking $300.00 a day of this poison, he's pawning his grandmother's jewelry, he hasn't had a woody in 2 years and he has been hiding under the bed everyday because the cops are peeking in the blinds.

I wouldn't know as I have never used any of that stuff, and never will.

I know people who apparently have and a few said how smoking freebase cocaine or crack did absolutely nothing for them the one time they did it; but the other person or people they were with got very high so it was not fake.

The other people said it worked but how it only lasts for 5 or maybe 10 minutes at the most and then you just want to use more and more and some people go on a binge for a few days if they have access to it, and then they get paranoid when they come down and their bank account and savings are completely gone since they spent it all on coke to free base or make into crack. Also when women get into smoking free base, or crack or using it on a regular basis many turn to being a puta to pay for it.