Feds: Fugitive who used rap label as drug cover caught
Tresa Baldas, Detroit Free Press 7:47 p.m. EST January 26, 2016
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(Photo: U.S. Marshal Service)
He was known as Big Hommie, the man who spun local artists into rap stars through his Detroit record company.

But underneath the label lurked a high-ranking drug dealer who wound up on the U.S. Marshals Service's Most Wanted list, authorities claim, noting Big Hommie had been on the run for three years.

Tuesday morning, a defective taillight got him.

Dwayne Richards, the owner of Big Hommie Records — who hid from authorities after getting indicted in 2012 — was arrested during what started as a routine traffic stop on I-75 in Detroit, near Nine Mile.

Deputy U.S. Marshal Aaron Garcia said a Michigan State Police trooper pulled Richards over for a defective taillight on I-75 in Detroit sometime after midnight, triggering a chase that ended in Hazel Park.

"The trooper went to stop him. He took off," said Garcia. He said police cornered and arrested him.

Garcia, who got a call at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday about the arrest, commended the state police for their quick work.

"Obviously, we were excited. We were looking for this guy forever," Garcia said.

According to federal court documents, Richards is the last key figure in a massive drug investigation that has already netted several guilty pleas and landed the kingpin — his cousin — in prison in California. A key piece of evidence in the case, court records show, was a rented Phantom Rolls Royce, which mysteriously popped up all over the country over the years, including California and later in the back of a tractor-trailer in Indiana.

According to court documents, Richards' role in the operation involved using his record label as a cover for a drug ring that delivered massive amounts of cocaine all over the country.

"He did have his own label, but he used that as a front to launder money out of his record company," Garcia said, noting he did produce talent, but that he was using that to hide his criminal activity.

Richards appeared in U.S. District Court on Tuesday afternoon to face charges that accuse him of helping run a national Detroit-based drug operation that involved more than a dozen defendants — many of them who already have been prosecuted.

His attorney was not present on Tuesday, so he will be back in court next week for a formal arraignment. He is in federal custody in Detroit.