Freeway Ricky Ross
Freeway Ricky Ross | |
---|---|
Born | Ricky Donnell Ross January 26, 1960 Terrell, Texas, U.S. |
Other names | Freeway, The Real Rick Ross, Freeway Rick Ross, Freeway Ricky |
Occupation(s) | Author, former drug trafficker |
Criminal status | Released |
Parent(s) | Annie Mae Ross, Sonny Ross |
Conviction(s) | Conspiracy to possess 100 kilograms or more of cocaine with intent to distribute (21 U.S.C. §§ 841 and 846) |
Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment; lowered on appeal to 20 years |
Website | http://www.freewayrickyross.com/ www.freewayrickyross.com] |
Ricky Donnell "Freeway Rick" Ross (born January 26, 1960)[1] is an American author and former drug lord best known for the drug empire he established in Los Angeles, California, in the early to mid 1980s.[2] He was sentenced to life in prison, though the sentence was shortened on appeal and Ross was released in 2009.[3]
Biography
Ross attended school at
Ross has said that when he first saw crack cocaine as a teenager in 1979, he did not immediately believe it was a drug because it looked different from other drugs he had seen.[5]
The nickname Freeway came from Ross owning properties along Los Angeles' Interstate 110, also known as the
In 1996, Ross was sentenced to
Ross was arrested in October 2015 on suspicion of possessing cash related to the sales of illegal drugs when police discovered $100,000 in his possession during a traffic stop.[3] Ross later alleged that he had been racially profiled and stated that he was carrying a large amount of cash for the purchase of a home.[12] Charges were ultimately dropped, and Ross explained he had earned the cash from book sales and speaking fees.[13]
Cocaine business
Cocaine introduction
Ross began cocaine after his illiteracy prevented him from earning a tennis scholarship for college. He began spending time with an upholstery teacher at a Los Angeles community college who revealed he dealt cocaine and offered Ross a small amount to sell.[14] Ross used his profit to purchase more cocaine to sell, expanding his small operation.[15] Ross eventually began to ask for quantities to sell that exceeded what the teacher was willing to procure, so he turned to find a dealer.[16]
The teacher referred Ross to his supplier, Ivan Arguellas, who offered to keep Ross supplied. Arguellas was able to provide larger quantities at a better price, and Ross quickly went from dealing in grams of cocaine to dealing in ounces.[17] About eight months after becoming Ross's supplier, Arguellas was shot in the spine, resulting in months of hospitalization that forced him out of the cocaine business. His brother-in-law Henry Corrales took over the business, but was not enthusiastic about the trade and had failed to make any connections of his own to suppliers.[18]
A Nicaraguan exile and cocaine distributor named Danilo Blandón was acquainted with Arguellas and Corrales, and although he did not know him personally, was impressed with the amount of cocaine that Ross was moving. Blandón offered to supply cocaine to Corrales to sell to Ross, for a fifty-fifty split of the profit.[19] Eventually, Corrales lost his appetite for the cocaine business and retired, at which point Ross became a direct customer of Blandón.[20]
Through his connection to Blandón, and Blandón's supplier Norwin Meneses Cantarero, Ross was able to purchase Nicaraguan cocaine at significantly reduced rates.[21] Ross began distributing cocaine at $10,000 per kilo less than the average street price, distributing it to the Bloods and Crips street gangs. By 1982, Ross had received his moniker of "Freeway Ricky" and claimed to have sold up to US$3 million worth of cocaine per day, purchasing 1,000 pounds (454 kilos) of cocaine a week.[8]
Ross initially invested most of his profits in houses and businesses, because he feared his mother would catch on to what he was doing if he started spending lavishly on himself. In a jailhouse interview with reporter Gary Webb, Ross said, "We were hiding our money from our mothers."[22] He invested a portion of the proceeds from his drug dealing activities in Anita Baker's first album.
Drug empire
With thousands of employees, Ross has said he operated drug sales not only in Los Angeles but in places across the country including
Federal prosecutors estimated that between 1982 and 1989 Ross bought and resold several metric tons of cocaine. In 1980 dollars, his gross earnings were said to be in excess of $900 million – with a profit of nearly $300 million. As his distribution empire grew to include forty-two cities, the price he paid per kilo of powder cocaine dropped from as much as $60,000 to as low as $10,000."[7]
Much of Ross's success at evading law enforcement was due to his ring's possession of police scanners and voice scramblers. Furthermore, journalist Gary Webb alleged that the CIA was sponsoring the operation as part of its effort to finance Contras, giving Ross another level of protection, although this claim has since been disputed.[24] Following one drug bust, a Los Angeles County sheriff remarked that Ross's men had "better equipment than we have."[25]
Lawsuit against rapper Rick Ross
On June 18, 2010, Ross sued rapper
After the lawsuit was dismissed on July 3, 2010,
Ross refiled in Los Angeles Superior Court with publicity rights claims. Trial was set for early May 2012. The case was dismissed by a judge in the Los Angeles Superior Court.[30]
The California State case was updated with a motion in Freeway Rick Ross's favor as to
A trial was set for August 27, 2013 in Freeway Rick Ross versus Rick Ross and Warner Music Group.
On December 30, 2013, the court ruled in favor of the rapper Rick Ross, allowing him to keep the name based on a First Amendment ruling.[32]
Other ventures
In January 2022 it was reported that Ross had established a boxing management company, Team Freeway Boxing, with four
Book
Journalist and author Cathy Scott co-wrote Ross's autobiography with him. The memoir, Freeway Rick Ross: The Untold Autobiography, was released at a book launch with author Scott at the Eso Won Bookstore in Los Angeles on June 17, 2014 to a standing-room only crowd.[34][35]
KCET TV in its review wrote, "(The book) is fascinating for its unsentimental, inside look at his career on the streets of South Central, which started for Ross with car theft and quickly shifted to drugs and the big time."[36]
The memoir was nominated for ForeWord Review's IndiFab Best Book of the Year Award 2014 in the true crime category.[37] In June 2015, winners were announced, with the book named as a Foreword Reviews' 2014 INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award Finalist, True Crime.[38]
In popular culture
Ross was a key figure in filmmaker
Ross was a guest interview on VH1's Planet Rock History of Crack and Hip Hop Documentary.[40]
Ross is featured in the 2015 two-part documentary Freeway: Crack in the System, which details various levels of the drug trade, the Iran–Contra affair, and mass incarceration.
In the 2014 film Kill the Messenger, Ross is portrayed by Michael K. Williams.[43]
Ross claims his lifestyle and cocaine business, as well as his suspected involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair, heavily influenced the fictional character Franklin Saint, the protagonist of the FX crime drama television series Snowfall. Ross says he and the show's creator, John Singleton, "partnered up to make a movie", but that Singleton "disappeared" before going on to make Snowfall. Singleton died in 2019 and never confirmed Ross' claims.[44]
References
- Biography.com. pp. {page}. Archived from the originalon May 5, 2014. Retrieved July 2, 2013.
- ^ "Law Enforcement Investigations of Ross". United States Department of Justice Archive. Archived from the original on May 31, 2009. Retrieved July 2, 2013.
- ^ a b Rocha, Veronica; Mozino, Joe (October 23, 2015). "Former L.A. cocaine kingpin 'Freeway' Ricky Ross arrested in Sonoma County". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 26, 2017. Retrieved January 31, 2017.
- San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the originalon April 9, 1997. Retrieved December 14, 2013.
A few years before, Ross became involved in cocaine sales, he was a player on his high school tennis team. A college scholarship was reneged once it was learned he couldn't read. The same day, he dropped out of high school his senior year weeks away from graduation.
- ^ Webb (1999), p. 125.
- San Jose Mercury News. Archived from the originalon April 9, 1997.
- ^ a b c Sager, Mike (September 25, 2013). "Say Hello to Rick Ross". Esquire. Archived from the original on March 10, 2012. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-85984-258-4.
- ^ Johnson, Scott (January 16, 2011). "The return of "Freeway" Ricky Ross, the man behind a crack empire". East Bay Times. Archived from the original on January 19, 2011. Retrieved July 20, 2021.
- ^ Pierce, Charles P. (June 18, 2013). "Gary Webb And The Limits Of Vindication". Esquire. Archived from the original on December 23, 2014. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
- ^ "Inmate Locator". Federal Bureau of Prisons. Archived from the original on March 10, 2012. Retrieved July 2, 2013.
- ^ Williams, Kale (October 27, 2015). "'Freeway' Rick Ross blasts Highway 101 arrest as racial profiling". SFGATE. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
- ^ Jack Morse (2015). Charges Dropped Against Former Crack Kingpin Pulled Over With $100K In Cash Archived November 5, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, SFist.com, October 26, 2015.
- ^ Webb (1999), p. 129.
- ^ Webb (1999), p. 130.
- ^ Webb (1999), p. 133.
- ^ Webb (1999), p. 134.
- ^ Webb (1999), pp. 137–138.
- ^ Webb (1999), p. 138.
- ^ Webb (1999), pp. 146–147.
- ^ Webb (1999), p. 147.
- ^ Webb (1999), p. 137.
- ^ "Covert Connections?". PBS NewsHour. November 18, 1996. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved August 29, 2008.
- ^ Leen, Jeff (October 17, 2014). "Gary Webb was no journalism hero, despite what 'Kill the Messenger' says". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 19, 2024.
- ^ Webb (1999), p. 193.
- ^ a b c d Harling, Danielle. "Freeway Rick Ross files lawsuit". Archived from the original on January 3, 2014. Retrieved June 25, 2010.
- ^ "Judge Drops Rick Ross Name Lawsuit". Rolling Stone. March 30, 2012. Archived from the original on March 8, 2021. Retrieved February 6, 2021.
- ^ Barshad, Amos (November 5, 2010). "The Drug Dealer Rick Ross Has Lost His Lawsuit Against the Rapper Rick Ross". New York. Archived from the original on December 29, 2011.
- ^ Johnson, Bill (July 6, 2010). "Freeway Ricky Ross' Lawsuit Against Rick Ross Thrown Out". The Urban Daily. Archived from the original on March 12, 2012. Retrieved September 12, 2010.
- ^ "'Freeway' Rick Ross Will Take On Rick Ross In Court Early May". MTV Rapfix. February 29, 2012. Archived from the original on January 3, 2014.
- ^ Gardner, Eriq (July 18, 2012). "Rick Ross Vs. Ricky "Freeway" Ross: Judge Rejects Warner Bros. Records' Motion to Dismiss". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on January 27, 2013.
- ^ Gardner, Eriq (December 30, 2013). "'Freeway' Ricky Ross vs. Rick Ross: First Amendment Protects Hip-Hop Persona". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 9, 2014.
- ^ "Freeway Rick Ross Becomes Boxing Advisor, Signs Five Fighters". Boxing Scene. January 6, 2022. Archived from the original on September 9, 2022. Retrieved January 6, 2022.
- ^ D'Amour, Zon (June 27, 2014). "Rick Ross Book signing Event Recap". Los Angeles Sentinel. Archived from the original on October 24, 2014. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
- ISBN 978-1-49965-153-9.
- ^ Kaplan, Erin Aubry (June 6, 2014). "L.A.'s Notorious Drug Dealer, 'Freeway' Rick Ross, is Moving On". KCET. Archived from the original on May 29, 2013. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
- ^ "Indie Fab Book of Year Freeway Rick Ross Nomination". IndieFab. April 14, 2014. Archived from the original on April 4, 2015. Retrieved April 4, 2015.
- ^ "Freeway Rick Ross is a 2014 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award finalist". IndieFab. Archived from the original on April 4, 2015. Retrieved April 4, 2015.
- ^ "American Gangster: 'Freeway' Ricky Ross". BET. Archived from the original on July 9, 2007. Retrieved June 12, 2007.
- ^ Ramirez, Erika (August 24, 2011). "VH1 Planet Rock History of Crack and Hip Hop". Billboard. Archived from the original on May 29, 2013. Retrieved July 2, 2013.
- ^ Levin, Marc (March 1, 2015). "A Drug Kingpin, the CIA, and Prisoners". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on March 2, 2015. Retrieved April 4, 2015.
- ^ Bihm, Jennifer (August 8, 2016). "Film Documenting L.A.'s Drug Era Nominated for Emmy". Los Angeles Sentinel. Archived from the original on October 15, 2018. Retrieved November 11, 2018.
- ^ Diaz, Evelyn (October 9, 2014). "Exclusive Look at Michael K. Williams as Rick 'Freeway' Ross". bet.com. Black Entertainment Television. Retrieved March 16, 2023.
- ^ Jackson, Kourtnee (March 15, 2021). "'Snowfall': The Real-Life Inspiration Behind Franklin's Character". Showbiz Cheat Sheet. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
Bibliography
- Webb, Gary (1999). ISBN 978-1-888363-93-7.
External links
- Rick Ross's website
- Freeway Ricky Ross at IMDb
- Interview 2018 (German)