Pubdate: Fri, 14 Dec 2001
Source: Wisconsin State Journal (WI)
Copyright: 2001 Madison Newspapers, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wisconsinstatejournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/506
Author: Susan Lampert Smith

NEIGHBORS SURPRISED WHEN RESIDENT CHARGED AS KINGPIN IN CRACK COCAINE RING

People in the upscale Blackhawk development on Madison's far West Side are 
still getting used to the idea that their neighbor has been charged as a 
kingpin in the Black P Stone Nation crack cocaine ring.

Federal agents sealed off the neighborhood a block from the Blackhawk Golf 
Course early Wednesday as they raided the home of Earl "Sugar" Berry. An 
FBI spokesman said that Berry, 40, was arrested in Chicago Tuesday night 
along with 20 of 24 people named in a 54-page criminal complaint, including 
his brother Saidrick "Freaky" Berry.

"There were cars with Illinois plates coming and going all the time," said 
a neighbor, who woke Wednesday morning to find the street filled with about 
a dozen marked and unmarked police cars.

Police seized the $470,000 home on Bear Claw Way, automobiles, including a 
Jaguar and a sport utility vehicle, as well as electronic equipment. 
Neighbors said Berry, his wife and three daughters, two of them students at 
Edgewood grade and high schools, lived here since June 2000.

Frank Bochte, an FBI spokesman in Chicago, said Friday that federal law 
allows the FBI to seize vehicles that may have been used to transport 
drugs, cash, and anything purchased with drug proceeds.

"Obviously everything he owned could have come from drug proceeds, (which) 
includes his house," Bochte said.

The complaint's main targets were Hugh Rogers, described as a general of 
one of Chicago's largest and most violent street gangs, and Earl Berry, 
described as "the principal supplier of cocaine" to Rogers and the 
organization.

The criminal complaint is based on two informants and federal wiretaps of 
three cellular phones used by Earl Berry this summer.

It gives this account of the investigation:

Police listened to conversations in which Earl Berry directed cocaine 
buyers to his father's home near 53rd and Bishop streets in Chicago, where 
his brother supplied cocaine. FBI agents twice bought cocaine from Saidrick 
Berry.

Based on two months of wiretapped calls, authorities said Earl Berry 
arranged sales of as much as 5 kilograms of cocaine at a time. Buyers 
called him to arrange meeting places and to complain when they had trouble 
"cooking" the cocaine into crack.

On July 30, police intercepted a call between Earl Berry and his main 
supplier. The supplier arranged for Berry to pick up a "trap car," one with 
a hidden compartment filled with cocaine. That day, Chicago police stopped 
Berry in Chicago's Sherman Park and found 5 kilograms of cocaine hidden in 
a "trap" behind the rear seat.

Berry sold cocaine for $23,000 a kilogram.

In an Oct. 24 recorded conversation, Berry's supplier could be heard 
complaining that Berry still owed him for the seized cocaine.

All of the drug activity alleged in the criminal complaint seems to have 
taken place in the Chicago area, where the FBI and the Chicago Police 
Department's Gang Crimes Task Force have been running a 30-month 
investigation of the gang.

"Groups such as the Black P Stone Nation are the domestic equivalent of 
terrorists, bringing violence and destruction to America's inner city," 
said Thomas Kneir, head of the FBI Chicago branch.

All of this seemed unreal to neighbors in Madison's Blackhawk neighborhood, 
where Berry didn't mix much, but appeared friendly when he was out doing 
his lawn work.

A second neighbor, who also didn't want to be identified, said the Berry's 
youngest daughter, a fourth grader, played with many of the neighborhood 
children.

"She's a sweet, sweet kid," said the neighbor. "She's a victim in all of this."

Martin Scanlan, assistant principal at Edgewood Grade School, confirmed 
that the youngest daughter is a student there, and the middle daughter had 
graduated 8th grade and was enrolled at Edgewood High School.

"They're great kids and we're very concerned about them," he said. "We hope 
they're still going to be with us."

Like others, the second neighbor wasn't prepared for what happened 
Wednesday morning just after sunrise.

"I had just pulled out of my garage and looked, and there was a bunch of 
FBI and DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) agents," he said. "It was 
quite a shock. There are a lot of hardworking people in this neighborhood 
who are very taken aback about all of this."

People living in the neighborhood include lawyers, doctors and corporate 
executives.

Many homes in that part of Blackhawk, a former Parade of Homes site, are 
still being built, and construction workers at a home across the street had 
front row seats for the raid.

"It was exactly like what you'd see on TV," said contractor Tim Straight. 
"I would never expect it here."
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MAP posted-by: Beth