Across the street from Tamika's is a shuttered day-care center. On the other corners are a used-car lot, an abandoned deli, and overgrown ball fields.

Liciardello had an informant who had given up details about a pending coke deal.

A guy named Ace and a guy named Taz were supposed to show up at Tamika's that afternoon with nine ounces of cocaine.

As Liciardello watched, a maroon Mercury sedan rolled up and Terry "Taz" Walker jumped out, he later testified.

Walker looked inside Tamika's but apparently did not see the person he was expecting. He then walked back to the Mercury, reached inside his jacket, and handed the driver a white bag.

Walker returned to the bar as the Mercury drove off - with a police backup team tailing it. A few blocks away, the driver, Hakiem "Unk" Johnson, then 42, was arrested.

Johnson was Alton Coles' uncle.

Inside Johnson's hoodie, police found a white bag containing two clear plastic bags, each with 41/2 ounces of cocaine.

And on his cell phone, the record of incoming calls indicated that someone named Ace had called while Johnson was parked outside Tamika's Lounge.

A thriving business

To his entertainment lawyer, Coles appeared to be on a roll in 2003.

He was producing his version of New Jack City: The Next Generation.

The gritty story of a Philadelphia drug czar opens with Ace Capone in a voice over:

"Welcome to the streets of Philadelphia where n-s is scratchin' and survivin' to get that change. Only problem is, there ain't enough to go around. So we get it the best way we know how - the coke game. And believe me, it's a dirty a- game."

About the same time, the United Paramount Network (UPN) had put up $100,000 to fund Streets Inc. - the reality TV pilot about Take Down Records that Cooper was putting together.