Pubdate: Fri, 06 Feb 2009
Source: Daily Journal, The (Vineland, NJ)
Copyright: 2009 Daily Journal
Contact:  http://www.thedailyjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2250
Author: Tim Zatzariny Jr

EX-DRUG DEALER TELLS HIS TALE TO VINELAND STUDENTS

VINELAND -- Robert "Midget" Molley once wore a king's  crown to 
signify his status as Atlantic City's top drug  dealer.

On Thursday afternoon, he appeared before students at  Cunningham 
Alternative School on East Avenue as a  humbled man, wearing a 
colorful sweatshirt, jeans and  sneakers.

Molley visited the school with members of the local  group, FED-UP 
4U, for a gang awareness seminar.  Organizers said they hoped the 
visit would motivate  students to avoid the lure of street gangs, a 
growing problem in Cumberland County.

And Molley, whose nickname comes from his short  stature, told them a 
cautionary tale.

Molley, 50, lived the high life in the 1980s as the  leader of a drug 
empire that raked in as much as $1  million per month.

But it all came crashing down in 1990, when he was  sentenced to 20 
years in federal prison on drug  trafficking charges. He told the 
students he was  arrested after state and federal investigators used 
wiretaps at a home Molley owned on South Second Street  in Vineland 
to gather evidence.

"All the things that I had, the government took that  from me," said 
Molley, the son of a Pentecostal  minister.

Molley's life was the subject of an installment of the  BET network 
series "American Gangster" last year, and  he showed the students 
clips from the documentary.

"What's so fantastic about doing time in prison?"  Molley asked the 
students afterward, adding that  serving time is often wrongly 
glorified in hip-hop  songs. "What did I gain?"

Molley, who converted to the Muslim faith as a  teenager, also uses 
the name Hakeem Ali Abdul-Shaheed.  He was released from prison in 2006.

James Cooper, a Vineland resident and one of the  founders of FED-UP 
4U, was a lieutenant in Molley's  drug empire.

Cooper, 41, also served time in state and federal  prisons on drug 
and white-collar crime charges before  his release in 2006.

"Was it worth it?" Cooper asked of his life in the drug trade.

Although it bought him lavish homes, fancy cars and  more clothes 
than he could ever wear, "I threw my  dignity out the window. I threw 
my respect out the  window."

FED-UP 4U is a Vineland-based nonprofit group aimed at  helping young 
people sidestep the gang life. (The  acronym FED-UP 4U stands for 
Faith. Education.  Demanding. Universal. Peace. 4U.)

A total of about 200 students heard the presentation in  two sessions.

Senior Matthew Shaud-Gentry, 18, said hearing Molley's  story 
reinforced the idea, "don't mess up, don't get in  the streets or 
you'll go to prison for the rest of your  life."
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