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."