The One Man Drug Company
January 19, 2011 1:51 PM Subscribe
NY Mag profiles a small time drug dealer, contemplating getting out of the business.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Yup, looks like this is the same one from a few years ago. -- cortex
Dealing has always appealed to Lenny’s two most dominant personality traits: an obsession with money and chronic impatience, characteristics that don’t exactly set him apart from his peers, kids who came of age during the hip-hop and Internet booms, two movements united by the philosophy that money is something to be made quickly, dubiously, and only in large amounts.
Seriously? As if this is a new, unusual or generational thing?
posted by chavenet at 2:00 PM on January 19, 2011
Seriously? As if this is a new, unusual or generational thing?
posted by chavenet at 2:00 PM on January 19, 2011
The article is from 2006. One wonders what's become of the kid since then.
posted by kenko at 2:11 PM on January 19, 2011
posted by kenko at 2:11 PM on January 19, 2011
I'm depressed by how much I idolize the kid. Powerful forces in this world make me want what he has despite knowing that deep inside, I think his life must be terrible.
posted by shushufindi at 2:15 PM on January 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by shushufindi at 2:15 PM on January 19, 2011 [1 favorite]
money is something to be made quickly, dubiously, and only in large amounts
Sound suspiciously like our banking system.
posted by borges at 2:19 PM on January 19, 2011 [3 favorites]
Sound suspiciously like our banking system.
posted by borges at 2:19 PM on January 19, 2011 [3 favorites]
The article is from 2006. One wonders what's become of the kid since then.
Yeah, it said he had vague plans of getting out in late 2007. I wonder what happened to him.
Not to get all schadenfreude on the kid, but it's mentioned that he's considering putting his nest egg into real estate. In 2007. What a sorrowful, comical turn of events that would have been. Moral: everybody's hustling somebody.
posted by penduluum at 2:35 PM on January 19, 2011 [7 favorites]
Yeah, it said he had vague plans of getting out in late 2007. I wonder what happened to him.
Not to get all schadenfreude on the kid, but it's mentioned that he's considering putting his nest egg into real estate. In 2007. What a sorrowful, comical turn of events that would have been. Moral: everybody's hustling somebody.
posted by penduluum at 2:35 PM on January 19, 2011 [7 favorites]
Speaking as a person who knows many, many drug dealers, allow me to add a bit of information to all of this.
I live in a city of 100,000 or so. I have been in the vice and narcotics office of one of the law enforcement agencies and have seen their giant distribution map on the wall. There were probably a couple hundred people on it. They know who is selling drugs. They know what drugs they sell, and they know where they live. They pick and choose who they want to go after. When they choose someone, they set up an operation and bust him.
Drug dealers think that the cops don't know what they are doing. They think they are smarter than the cops. But it doesn't matter if you are smarter than the cops. Your customers are criminals and drug users. Your runners are criminals and possibly drug users. Those people get busted all the time in traffic stops and searches. They are told their charges will be dismissed if they help police get someone. Eventually, the police are going to bust one of Lenny's customers or runners. This person is going to help the police bust Lenny. Lenny will be arrested. Or the police will just be sick enough of Lenny on their own and run their own operation to get him. Either way, he will be arrested. It is only a matter of time.
I don't know the system in New York, but states are marginally similar. Lenny needs to make sure that he doesn't get busted for trafficking. Trafficking carries with it large mandatory sentences. Lenny needs to know exactly what the trafficking amount is for cocaine and make sure that he never has that much on him or in one spot at the same time. He can keep some in his car, some in his apartment, some at his girlfriend's, some at a storage unit, etc. He just can't have it all be in one place. As long as he manages to do that, he should be able to avoid being charged with trafficking.
The other way he will go to prison is to be charged federally. The federal government can drop in and prosecute any case they want. But they don't want every case. They want cases that involve drugs and guns. Lenny needs to not carry a firearm. This will decrease the chances that the feds will pick up the case. Lenny needs to make sure that no transactions occur on any federal property like a national park or a military base.
If Lenny can avoid the feds and being charged with trafficking, he would get probation for a first time offense. As such, there is no reason not to continue selling drugs if you are making 5K per week. Do it until you get caught, and then stop. Just make sure to avoid the feds and carrying a trafficking amount. Lenny will wind up with a felony conviction and be put on probation, but he will not do time and he will have made an enormous amount of money. Also, Lenny, they will seize any money they find. Put it in different places and spend it as quickly as you can.
I have a client right now who was asked by an undercover officer for a trafficking amount of cocaine. My client had a runner come to his house (my client's house was being watched) and pick up just under a trafficking amount. The officer asked the runner if he could have more, and he really wanted a trafficking amount. The runner called my client, who called another runner. The second runner stopped at my client's house and then bring the officer the cocaine. It was just under the amount for trafficking. Then both runners and my client were charged with trafficking.
The thing is, the officer is the only one who ever possessed a trafficking amount of cocaine. My client should be in pretty good shape. He definitely knew what he was doing.
posted by flarbuse at 2:57 PM on January 19, 2011 [17 favorites]
I live in a city of 100,000 or so. I have been in the vice and narcotics office of one of the law enforcement agencies and have seen their giant distribution map on the wall. There were probably a couple hundred people on it. They know who is selling drugs. They know what drugs they sell, and they know where they live. They pick and choose who they want to go after. When they choose someone, they set up an operation and bust him.
Drug dealers think that the cops don't know what they are doing. They think they are smarter than the cops. But it doesn't matter if you are smarter than the cops. Your customers are criminals and drug users. Your runners are criminals and possibly drug users. Those people get busted all the time in traffic stops and searches. They are told their charges will be dismissed if they help police get someone. Eventually, the police are going to bust one of Lenny's customers or runners. This person is going to help the police bust Lenny. Lenny will be arrested. Or the police will just be sick enough of Lenny on their own and run their own operation to get him. Either way, he will be arrested. It is only a matter of time.
I don't know the system in New York, but states are marginally similar. Lenny needs to make sure that he doesn't get busted for trafficking. Trafficking carries with it large mandatory sentences. Lenny needs to know exactly what the trafficking amount is for cocaine and make sure that he never has that much on him or in one spot at the same time. He can keep some in his car, some in his apartment, some at his girlfriend's, some at a storage unit, etc. He just can't have it all be in one place. As long as he manages to do that, he should be able to avoid being charged with trafficking.
The other way he will go to prison is to be charged federally. The federal government can drop in and prosecute any case they want. But they don't want every case. They want cases that involve drugs and guns. Lenny needs to not carry a firearm. This will decrease the chances that the feds will pick up the case. Lenny needs to make sure that no transactions occur on any federal property like a national park or a military base.
If Lenny can avoid the feds and being charged with trafficking, he would get probation for a first time offense. As such, there is no reason not to continue selling drugs if you are making 5K per week. Do it until you get caught, and then stop. Just make sure to avoid the feds and carrying a trafficking amount. Lenny will wind up with a felony conviction and be put on probation, but he will not do time and he will have made an enormous amount of money. Also, Lenny, they will seize any money they find. Put it in different places and spend it as quickly as you can.
I have a client right now who was asked by an undercover officer for a trafficking amount of cocaine. My client had a runner come to his house (my client's house was being watched) and pick up just under a trafficking amount. The officer asked the runner if he could have more, and he really wanted a trafficking amount. The runner called my client, who called another runner. The second runner stopped at my client's house and then bring the officer the cocaine. It was just under the amount for trafficking. Then both runners and my client were charged with trafficking.
The thing is, the officer is the only one who ever possessed a trafficking amount of cocaine. My client should be in pretty good shape. He definitely knew what he was doing.
posted by flarbuse at 2:57 PM on January 19, 2011 [17 favorites]
Was NY Mag trying to make it real by including the products he used, or were there some weird advertising deals? Microsoft Excel, the Spreadsheet of Choice for Drug Dealers! Blackberry Whatever, Ideal for Tracking Your Drug Sales, Now with a Secure Delete Feature!
posted by filthy light thief at 3:19 PM on January 19, 2011
posted by filthy light thief at 3:19 PM on January 19, 2011
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