Detroit's Most Wanted: Dwayne Richards, using the rap game to cover a nationwide drug ring Ann Marie LaFlamme 4:59 PM, Nov 21, 2015 11:53 AM, Nov 22, 2015
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DETROIT (WXYZ) - A high level drug dealer, a wanted fugitive police say is connected to decades of illegal activity.
The U.S. Marshals say Dwayne Richards is the final piece of a group they’ve been hunting for years.
His cousin, the kingpin, was just locked up in California, leaving Richards in charge of the Detroit-based nationwide drug ring.
“These guys are definitely flashy, they’re into high end cars, they like to flaunt their money,” Deputy U.S. Marshal Aaron Garcia said. “Basically to mock law enforcement like, ‘hey look at what I got.’”
Money, cars, drugs and guns are all tied to a drug ring Garcia says begins right here on our streets.
“This ain’t your typical drug dealer on the street level. This guy is believed to be a leader of an organization running the Detroit area,” he said.
Richards is at the top of the list for the Detroit Fugitive Apprehension Team, they say he’s using the rap game to hide his real business.
“Every young kid wants to be an aspiring rapper, this guy produces talent locally here in Detroit.” Garcia said. “He has his company Big Hommie Records, he was using that as a front.”
Music videos still grace the internet, clues in the hunt for Richards and his accomplices.
Garcia says Richards was stopped by law enforcement with $400,000 in his possession.
“When law enforcement questioned him on it- he basically said, that’s not my money, and he just signed it off, forfeited the money, no big deal,” Garcia said. “$400,000 gone and that it that’s the kind of money we’re talking about with this guy.”
A key piece of evidence, a rented Phantom Rolls Royce.
“This Rolls Royce mysteriously pops up all over the country,” he said.
Garcia says is the car tied to Richards’ drug ring was documented carrying Snoop Dogg and his wife to rapper Nate Dogg’s funeral in Long Beach, California. He says the rolls was later spotted next to the Queen Mary Ocean Liner.
“He has access to everything, airplanes,” Garcia said.
He says it was after a bust at Greektown Casino in Detroit, the luxury car was found in the back of a semi-trailer just across the border in Indiana. The car, worth several hundred thousand dollars itself, was found alongside a Mercedes and $4 million worth of cocaine.
The drug ring was busted again earlier this year- a big victory for law enforcement with the capture of Richards’ cousin, the suspected kingpin of the organization who had been a fugitive for more than 10 years.
“DEA along with the U.S. Marshals arrested the main supplier Mark Jones in September,” Garcia said. Now, they’re looking to close the book for good.
They say Richards is here in Detroit and certainly well known, bringing serious crime that can be stopped with one phone call from member of our own community.
“Drug dealing is a direct nexus to the violent crime,” Garcia said. “Drugs on the street is where we get a lot of the shootings, a lot of the murders.”
