DRUG NETWORK FUNNELED TONS OF POT TO MILWAUKEE

After 15-Month Probe, Major Midwest Operation Collapses

The first inkling police could have had that a new marijuana network was
moving into Milwaukee came five years ago, when they stumbled onto a
northwest side motel room full of money and a bunch of pot.

Livingston Roach was a courier for a Texas-based organization that flew
drug money from Milwaukee to Houston, and when police were sent to his room
because the aroma of marijuana had seeped into a corridor, he insisted he
wasn't breaking any laws.

But, according to a criminal complaint, two Milwaukee marijuana
distributors had just dropped off $23,000 for Roach as payment for an
earlier shipment, and the tips of two large bundles of bills poked from
beneath the sheets on his bed. When an officer retrieved the bundles, he
found 50 pounds of marijuana hidden with them. It had been left in the room
earlier that day by a woman who had it in her luggage when she flew in from
Houston, a complaint says.

It was Roach's fifth trip to Milwaukee for a man called Minor, according to
a complaint. From his four previous trips, Roach returned to Houston with a
total of $356,000, Circuit Court records show.

Roach later told police that Minor, a man from Jamaican living in Houston,
was receiving 350- to 500-pound shipments at his Texas home from a supplier
named Jose and was using women to fly it to Milwaukee in their luggage, a
complaint says.

Police here, however, were told nothing about Minor at the time.

Authorities said Roach kept his mouth shut and went to prison on a
five-year sentence while Minor went on undetected and allegedly became a
multimillionaire, distributing more than 13 tons of marijuana in Milwaukee
a year. Minor settled down on exclusive Lake Shore Drive in Chicago while
he had tons of marijuana shipped north from Texas in semitrailer trucks he
purchased, according to the complaint. It wasn't until after a 15-month
probe that authorities were able bring down the major Midwest drug ring.

Used cell phones

Minor insulated himself from others in the drug trade by conducting
business over cellular phones registered to others and stored his marijuana
in Chicago-area warehouses, the complaint says. He used two teams of
lieutenants: one to guard his cache and recover the proceeds from past
deals, and the other to make deliveries and collect debts, investigators
allege.

Minor is accused of buying real estate and listing it in the names of
others, according to investigators. He's also accused of ordering shootings
to keep people in line and funneling large amounts of cash to hidden accounts.

Last year, investigators from the Wisconsin Department of Justice latched
onto Minor's organization and, after a 15-month investigation, began
rounding up his lieutenants in Milwaukee, according to a recently unsealed
criminal complaint. They also learned Minor's identity - Kenneth L. Green -
and in April made one of their biggest busts ever when they arrested him in
Chicago.

Seven months later, Green remains in the Milwaukee County Jail in lieu of
$10 million bail while the people rounded up with him are steadily pleading
guilty.

Two men have now been sentenced to prison for their involvement in the
network, two more have pleaded guilty and three others are scheduled to do
so in the weeks ahead.

The most recent guilty plea came from Rohan M. Mogg, a man who was once
shot on Green's orders "for talking too much" and was shot at on another
occasion after a falling out with Green, according to court records. Most
recently, Mogg was in trouble with his boss for having a 240-pound
marijuana shipment seized by authorities, according to court records.
of Mogg, but was suspected of stealing from Green and fell out of favor,
the complaint says. He also is scheduled to plead guilty next month. Ardine
G. Henriques, 30, of Milwaukee recently pleaded guilty to marijuana
trafficking and racketeering, primarily for trucking marijuana from Texas
to Milwaukee, charging $1,000 for each 100 pounds in his shipments.

The complaint indicates that much of the evidence accumulated during the
investigation came from informants and undercover buys, usually of
marijuana but occasionally involving cocaine.

One informant, for instance, described Green as "a very feared leader," who
once had 24 M-16 rifles under his control, the complaint says.

The complaint also says that authorities convened a John Doe proceeding,
tapped seven phone lines and eavesdropped on conversations held by Green
and the others to gather evidence.

Green is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 18 for a status conference.
By then, he may be the last figure fighting his case in Circuit Court.