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Detroit — A prominent Detroit music mogul allegedly is one of the largest heroin dealers in the Midwest and using his rap label to launder drug money, according to sealed federal court records.
BMB Records owner Brian “Peanut” Brown also is responsible for selling heroin laced with fentanyl, the synthetic pain medication fueling the nation’s deadliest addiction crisis, according to court records that chronicle a sprawling drug investigation involving Brown’s wife, a girlfriend, millions in drug profits and a mansion with a secret “Narnia” room.
Rap mogul stays out of jail amid heroin investigation
The 47-year-old Warren man has not been charged with a drug crime despite an ongoing, years-long investigation that was recently revealed when the government temporarily unsealed a federal search warrant affidavit. The affidavit, obtained by The Detroit News, lists probable cause to raid multiple homes that allegedly are part of Brown’s empire.
The 50-page federal court record contradicts Brown’s redemption story crafted after he emerged from a decade-long prison sentence for drug conspiracy in 2010. On social media, Brown portrays himself as a successful “hood hero” and last month posted a billboard near McNichols and I-75 promoting an upcoming self-help book.
Brown allegedly using his rap label to hide money earned through large-scale criminal activity is a modern twist on a Prohibition-era racket, said Carl Taylor, a Michigan State University sociology professor who has studied drugs and gangs.
remained free Wednesday after a federal judge refused to revoke his bond in a related gun case.
The heroin and fentanyl investigation coincides with a 57 percent rise in overdose deaths nationwide in recent years tied to synthetic opioids.
The problem is acute in the Midwest. In 2015, Ohio led the nation with the highest-number of opioid overdose deaths with 2,698 for the second straight year, according to a study by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
Illinois had the sixth-highest number of opioid overdose deaths (1,381), and Michigan the eighth-highest (1,309).
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents say they have seized at least one kilogram of fentanyl while investigating Brown’s alleged drug ring. Agents say Brown’s drug ring is responsible for distributing more than 440 pounds of drugs throughout the U.S. and amassed millions in cash, luxury vehicles, real estate and expensive jewelry.
It is unclear whether the government has enough evidence to file drug charges against Brown, who has remained out of jail after federal agents obtained a search warrant to raid at least six homes and two banks. Inventories of what, if anything, was seized during the raids are sealed in federal court.
It can take years to investigate multi-state, large-scale drug rings.
That is especially true when, like the Brown investigation, the probe spans states, delves into financial records and relies on informants, search warrants and wiretaps, said Jones Day law firm partner Louis Gabel. He is a former assistant U.S. attorney who in 2014 successfully prosecuted three fez-wearing drug dealers involved in one of the largest narcotics rings in Metro Detroit history.
Investigations can be prolonged, especially, if there are money-laundering allegations involving cash, he said.
“And any large-scale drug investigation inevitably takes many twists and turns along the way,” Gabel said. “In many respects, it is like a ‘choose your own adventure’ book and each new page of the investigation presents new opportunities and challenges.”
The DEA would not discuss the case but confirmed the ongoing investigation.
Roots of a drug probe
The roots of the drug case date to 2012 and investigators have seized $550,000 in cash, 8 kilograms of heroin and the fentanyl.
The DEA case started with a confidential informant. The informant told DEA agents that Brown was one of the largest heroin dealers in the Midwest and had accumulated millions of dollars in cash, luxury vehicles and expensive jewelry, according to court records.
Brown buys the drug from a group in California that has direct ties to Mexican drug cartels, the informant said.
Brown was a familiar face to Detroit drug investigators.
He was indicted on a federal cocaine conspiracy charge in 1993 — the case was dismissed — and again in 1999. He was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison.
In 2010, Brown was released from his prison sentence. Though one condition of his release was that Brown was not supposed to commit any new crimes for five years, Brown allegedly resumed his drug-dealing career, graduating from cocaine to heroin, according to court records.
In August 2012, Detroit police raided his home in the 4000 block of Fullerton, near Dexter and Davison, on Detroit’s west side. Investigators seized 1 kilogram of heroin, three firearms, $2,365 and three Harley-Davidson motorcycles, according to court records.
The seizure did not send Brown back to prison, but he forfeited a 2007 Harley-Davidson Road King.
“Mr. Brian Brown is well known to the Detroit Police Department narcotics division,” wrote Ronald Robinson, a then-assistant Wayne County prosecutor, wrote in a court filing related to the drug and motorcycle seizures.
Rap game reaps millions
Seven months later, in March 2013, Brown’s entertainment company, BMB Records, was created and registered at the same house raided by Detroit Police.
The independent label’s stable of entertainers includes Ray J, a singer and actor who starred in a pornographic video with Kim Kardashian; rapper Bre-Z, who stars on the hit Fox drama “Empire”; and Charli Baltimore, a platinum blonde perhaps best known for dating the late rapper The Notorious B.I.G. in the 1990s.
The roster also includes rapper Kash Doll, a former exotic dancer. She signed with BMB after the label paid for her $15,000 boob job, according to court records.
BMB’s videos are cinematic, dramatic and occasionally star Brown. In one video co-directed by Detroit rapper Trick Trick, Brown steps from a luxury sedan in slow motion, smooths wrinkles on his suit and attends a clandestine meeting in an industrial ruin.
A BMB Records publicist declined comment.
Brown had access to vast sums of cash after creating the rap label. The rap mogul and wife Akia Brown have established several businesses, including BMB Records, to hide and disguise drug profits, the DEA alleges in the search warrant document.
More than $1 million flowed into the rap label’s two bank accounts between June 2013 and October 2015, according to court records.
And since January 2015, more than $345,000 was deposited through ATMs in Detroit and Baltimore.
Brown owns multiple homes in Metro Detroit and lived in a $500,000 home near Atlanta with wife Akia Brown, 41, according to court records.
“Akia Brown is a member of the (drug ring) and is instrumental in hiding and concealing the money that is derived from narcotic sales,” DEA Special Agent Stephen Popp wrote in the court filing.
Rolling Out.
Akia Brown declined comment and referred calls to her lawyer, John Royal. He declined comment Tuesday.
Agents conducted undercover surveillance on the couple’s 6,900-square-foot house, which includes a secret “Narnia-themed” room hidden behind an armoire, and spotted Brown’s stable of luxury cars.
The collection of 20 cars includes a $94,000 Maserati, an $88,000 Cadillac Escalade, an $81,000 Porsche Panamera and two Corvettes.
The car collection cost $519,000, or about 14 times as much money as Brown reported on his 2011 taxes, according to the search warrant affidavit.
It is inconceivable that Brown’s rap label generated millions of dollars to acquire expensive homes and vehicles, said hip-hop industry expert Regan Sommer McCoy, a Columbia University community scholar and founder of the New York-based archive project, The Mixtape Museum.
Brian Brown has amassed millions of dollars while becoming the largest heroin dealer in the Midwest, according to court records. He and wife Akia Brown have purchased at least 20 vehicles, including a $94,000 Maserati with the vanity license plate “MRS BMB.” (Photo: Instagram)
“I am not convinced that these artists are actually making him that much money. It’s not adding up,” McCoy said. “I don’t want to say these people are washed up, but...”
Heroin-fueled lifestyle
A business dispute with one of Brown’s rappers, Kash Doll, offers a peek inside Brown’s entertainment company.
Kash Doll, real name Arkeisha Knight, sued Brown and BMB last year, accusing him of welching on a $5,000 signing bonus.
“Brown coerced (Knight) into signing a recording agreement with his company BMB stating ‘If you don’t sign with me, I will destroy you and any career you think you may have,’ ” Knight alleged in a Wayne County Circuit Court lawsuit.
Brown pursued her for his rap label because he has a penchant for “big boobs and butts,” Knight alleges.
According to the civil lawsuit, the FBI raided Kash Doll’s home as part of the Brown investigation.
The lawsuit repeats some of the same allegations contained in the sealed federal search warrant, namely that Brown is a large-scale heroin dealer in the Midwest and that he is using BMB Records to launder drug money.
Brown’s legal team denied allegations contained in the lawsuit, which is filled with references to violence, drugs and federal raids.
The lawsuit “appears to adopt scenes from the critically acclaimed movie ‘Straight Outta Compton,’ ” Brown’s attorney Alanna O’Rourke wrote in a court filing.
The references to drugs and and raids, however, are echoed in the DEA’s overview of the investigation outlined in the federal search warrant document.
“BMB Records (is) one of Brown’s companies that he uses to disguise his involvement in drug trafficking,” Popp wrote in the court filing.
Drug pipeline details
DEA agents allege Brown was a hands-on leader of the drug ring.
Twice in 2014, Brown allegedly arranged to have a large amount of cash picked up and sent to a large drug ring, according to the DEA.
In February 2014, an undercover DEA agent negotiated with Brown to pick up money at an Olive Garden restaurant in Livonia.
“Brown said that the money was going to be delivered by a man driving an older model gold-colored Buick,” Popp wrote.
During the meeting, the agent received a black duffel bag filled with $236,900 from a man linked to Brown’s alleged drug ring, according to the court file.
“I therefore believe that the $236,900 were from Brian Brown and were proceeds from his drug trafficking operation,” the DEA agent wrote.
Within months, the investigation spread to California.
In May 2014, DEA agents interviewed a drug dealer who was ordered to travel from Los Angeles to the Chicago area and stay at a home in Skokie, Ill. While there, the dealer sold drugs and collected money with another man.
The search warrant gave DEA agents permission to search Brian Brown’s home in Warren. (Photo: City of Warren)
