As big as Ross was, his interstate operation was quickly surpassed by another South-Central up-and-comer, Brian Bennett, an audacious young dealer with the nickname “Waterhead Bo.” In just two years, from 1986 to 1988, authorities contend that he rose from inner-city poverty to the heights of “high-roller” status, building one of “the largest cocaine distribution groups headed by a black trafficker,” said former Assistant U.S. Atty. Russell Hayman. Just 24, Bennett was selling more than a ton of crack a week.
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His secret weapon, according to federal investigators, was Mario Ernesto Villabona, a member of Colombia’s notorious Cali cartel. Police don’t know how the two met, if Bennett was recruited or if he sought Villabona out. Either way, their relationship provided the first evidence of a link that law enforcement officials had long suspected. “This is the single most important partnership ever established between a major South-Central drug dealer and the Colombians,” LAPD Deputy Chief Glenn Levant said at the time of Bennett’s arrest in 1988.