Infamous drug kingpin Free Ricky Ross [click here to read], who was busted in the act of trying to purchase 100 kilos of cocaine in 1996, finally saw the light of day Monday (May 4), when he was released prison after serving 20 years.
Ricky Ross, who many believe was the man rapper Rick Ross took his name from [click here to read] oversaw a Los Angeles based multi-state drug operation in the early 1980s, which earned upwards of $2 million per day during its peak.
After L.A.P.D. set up a sting operation to bring him down (The Freeway Taskforce), Ricky finally turned himself in, weeks after a rogue police officer attempted to set him up and murder him in an alley. He was sentenced to prison and released in 1996.
Six months later, his former cocaine distributor, who was working for the CIA (unbeknownst to Ricky), asked Ricky for a favor — it turned out to be a set up. In 1996, Ricky Ross was sentenced to life in prison for orchestrating the purchase of over 100 kilos of cocaine from an undercover federal agent.
Eventually, Ross’ sentence was reduced through appeals, after a series of explosive articles by the late Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Gary Webb uncovered C.I.A.’s role in importing cocaine into black communities to fund Sandinistas in El Salvador, as part of the Iran-Contra scandal. Webb’s series, titled Dark Alliance, turned into a best-selling book that blew the lid off of the alleged C.I.A. complicity in the importation of cocaine into the US, creating the exceptionally profitable, and damaging, crack cocaine epidemic spread through many inner city neighborhoods.
Congressional Hearings, in the late-90s, found the book’s facts to be true.
Facts, huh? Something William Roberts must’ve forgotten about?! Has the rappers run of luck ran out? Share your thoughts in the comments section! Peep our ‘Certified Goons’ gallery below:
