Last BMF suspect indicted in Atlanta pleads guilty
Vernon "Wu" Coleman spent two years on the run.
The last of, oh, about 150 suspects to be arrested in the sprawling, multi-state investigation into the Black Mafia Family pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court.
Vernon Coleman — who goes by "Wu," because of his love of Wu-Tang Clan — 'fessed up to one count of conspiracy to distribute five or more kilos of cocaine. He faces a minimum 10 years in prison and will be sentenced in U.S. District Court in December.
Coleman, who was scheduled to go to trial on Monday, ran the Atlanta-based label Life Records, as well as a party promotions firm, Wu Productions. His attorney, Chris Adams, says Coleman threw parties for the likes of NBA star Allen Iverson.
As for how Coleman hooked up with BMF, one of the nation's largest cocaine enterprises and a once-powerful force in the hip-hop industry, Adams says his client helped facilitate cocaine deals between BMF and cocaine distributors in Coleman's native Birmingham, Ala.
Coleman was one of 16 BMF associates indicted in federal court in Atlanta in 2007. It took authorities two years to catch up with him. U.S. Marshals apprehended him in July 2009, after taking a battering ram to the front door of the Sandy Springs apartment where he was staying.