Tim "Gotti" Baukman (left) and Alton "Ace Capone" Coles in "New Jack City: The Next Generation." In 2005, ATF agents and police were building a case against Coles, a hip-hop promoter who they believed ran a huge drug operation. When they tapped his cell phone, they found he made or received an average of 280 calls a day.
Ace Capone: Second of two parts
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Tapped Out
With surveillance and arrests, authorities close in.
"One is a four-door, one is a coupe," Coles replied.
Eventually, Coles saw the logic in her argument and asked her instead to look up information about a BMW.
"What's up, pimp?" was the greeting Coles typically used for male associates.
And while code words were apparently used in most conversations to refer to drugs or guns, Coles occasionally seemed to let down his guard.
Agents monitored more than 900 calls between Coles and a drug dealer who appeared to be conducting business even though he was in a halfway house and still on probation for a drug-trafficking conviction.
They also learned that the dealer was concerned about failing a urine test for his probation officer.
Agents said they heard Coles on another call tell an associate that the dealer had to be more careful while cutting and packing cocaine.
"I put the mask on, and the gloves," Coles said.
'Didn't play his mirrors'
On June 28, 2005, agents were listening as Baltimore-based rap music promoter Gary "Dirtbike Hov" Creek set up a meeting with Coles.A few days earlier, Creek, then 23, had been released on bail after being arrested in Maryland on drug charges. His incarceration had forced him to miss a June 23 rap party he'd promoted there with Coles.
Based on the wiretap conversations, the ATF and Philadelphia police staked out a Kentucky Fried Chicken parking lot on Island Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia. They expected Creek to rendezvous there with the Coles organization to buy more than a half-kilogram of cocaine.
Undercover police and ATF agents, in unmarked cars, watched as a silver Lexus, driven by Creek, and a red Honda pulled into the lot around 3:15 p.m. A few minutes later, a silver Cadillac pulled in.
Agents recognized the Cadillac as a car that Coles, Baukman, and another suspected associate, Donte Tucker, frequently used.
They watched as a woman got out of the Honda, entered the Cadillac, then carried a white paper bag back to her car.
The Lexus and Honda exited the parking lot. A half-mile later, both were pulled over by surveillance police.
What followed was more Dazed and Confused than New Jack City.
According to a police report, the woman in the Honda "became very nervous and began breathing heavily."
A male passenger in the Lexus "became extremely agitated and began to tremble."
And Creek proclaimed loudly, "Nothing in these cars is mine."
After obtaining a search warrant, police discovered a half kilogram of cocaine in the Honda. Creek and his three associates were arrested and charged with narcotics offenses.
