Frank Matthews (drug trafficker)
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| Frank Matthews | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 13, 1944 Durham, North Carolina |
| Other names | Black Caesar, Pee Wee |
| Criminal status | Fugitive from justice from 1973 charges. |
| Spouse(s) | Barbara Hinton |
| Children | Three children |
| Conviction(s) | No convictions, fled while under indictment for drug trafficking. |
Contents
[hide]Early life[edit]
Matthews was born towards the end of World War II in Durham, NC, a poor segregated town in the tobacco country. His mother died when he was 4 years old and he was raised by his aunt, Marcella Steel, the wife of a Durham police lieutenant. Nicknamed "Pee Wee", Matthews was described as bright and curious; nevertheless, he dropped out of school in the 7th grade. He served a year for assault in the juvenile reformatory at Raleigh. On his release, he moved to Philadelphia, where he worked as a numbers writer. He was arrested in 1963 and avoided conviction by agreeing to leave Philadelphia. He moved to the Bedford Stuyvesant area of New York City and became a barber, collecting numbers as he had in Philadelphia. Matthews was now large and muscular; he became both a collector and an enforcer. This gained him the experience and cash he needed to enter illegal drug dealing.[1]Drug empire[edit]
Matthews quickly grew tired of the numbers game after realizing what he made in a year could be made in weeks in the drug business. He began making plans to transition into the heroin business. In the early 1960s, the main supply of wholesale heroin was the Italian Mafia; Frank knew he would have to gain favor with someone connected to get a steady, reliable connection from which to base his drug empire. Matthews was able to not only approach but gain an audience before the Gambino family and Bonanno family, both part of the "Five Families" that have controlled organized crime in New York City since the 1930s. However, both turned the young Matthews down. From his days in the numbers game he knew of legendary "Spanish Raymond" Márquez, a prolific Harlem numbers operator. Márquez put him in contact with "El Padrino", the New York Cuban Mafia godfather Rolando Gonzalez Nuñez, a major Cuban cocaine supplier, shortly before Gonzalez fled to Venezeula because of an upcoming indictment in the United States. Before fleeing, Gonzalez sold Matthews his first kilo of cocaine for $20,000, with a promise to supply more in the future.This relationship would expand into a very lucrative and expansive drug trafficking network, eventually covering 21 states throughout the United States. Gonzalez began sending the young drug dealer large loads of cocaine and heroin from South America at fair prices. Matthews expanded on this and, within a year, was one of the major players in the New York drug business. Realizing the need for diversification, Matthews would continually seek out new sources of supply for narcotics, willing to do business with anyone as long as the product was sufficiently pure.
By the early 1970s, the Matthews organization was handling multimillion dollar loads of heroin in over 21 states. According to the DEA, "Matthews controlled the cutting, packaging, and sale of heroin in every major East Coast city." For example, in New York he operated two massive drug mills in Brooklyn; one located at 925 Prospect Place, nicknamed the "Ponderosa", and the other at 106 East 56th Street. Both locations were heavily fortified and secured, with walls reinforced with steel and concrete and protected by guards with machine guns. Besides controlling the retail sale of heroin, the organization supplied other major dealers throughout the East Coast with multi-kilo shipments for up to $26,000 per kilogram.
Atlanta summit and disappearance[edit]
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This gathering of major drug traffickers throughout the United States is significant because it represented the changing nature of the drug business. Whereas, previously, the Italians controlled the importing and wholesaling of narcotics, therefore controlling who could and could not advance past them, now others were establishing their own pipelines. Before, the Mafia asserted behind-the-scenes control of the business while African-Americans sold and used the drugs in their cities; now the black dealers established connections and took control of their neighborhoods. This later evolved to include not just the blacks controlling the business, but also local gangs of blacks eliminating out-of-town black suppliers' trying to control their neighborhoods from a distance.
Matthews learned this lesson the hard way in Philadelphia. In Atlantic City, the Philadelphia Black Mafia killed Tyrone "Mr. Millionaire" Palmer, Matthews' main dealer in Philadelphia, at a "Club Harlem" packed with 800 people. No one was prosecuted for the crime and none of the 800 potential witnesses came forward. He lost three more top lieutenants in the city, murdered by the Black Mafia, illustrating the changing game of local gangs' taking back control of their cities from out-of-town drug rings.
In 1973, the DEA was set to arrest Matthews. Nothing is known of his disappearance, however rumors has it that he was arrested and paid bail then disappeared and others say he fled the scene before the arrest. At the time, Matthews allegedly took 15–20 million dollars with him and fled the country, and was never seen again.
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^ Jump up to: a b Ron Chepesiuk Black Caesar. Crime Magazine. February 20, 2007
- Jump up ^ Public Access to Court Electronic Records. Pacer.psc.uscourts.gov. Retrieved on 2012-01-08.
References[edit]
- Griffin, S (2003). "Philadelphia's Black Mafia", Studies of Organized Crime, 51(78).
- Mallory, S (2007). Understanding Organized Crime, John and Bartleu Publishers. 183
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