Former kingpin Rick Ross talks Gary Webb’s death, C.I.A. complicity, and new doc ‘Freeway: Crack in the System’

• Courtesy The Garner Circle PR
• Rick Ross (right) and DJ Drama hold the reformed kingpin’s autobiography at CineBistro for last week’s Atlanta media premiere of Ross’ new documentary, Freeway: Crack in the System

“Damn, you’re small. You’re supposed to be the big man,” former Los Angeles Deputy Sheriff Roberto Juarez says in the documentary Freeway: Crack in the System upon meeting Rick Ross for the first time. It’s a reaction the former drug trafficker is used to these days. But what he lacks in physical presence, his larger-than-life legend more than makes up for.

Long before a one-time correctional officer named William Roberts allegedly appropriated his identity — in name and, apparently, beard — to fashion himself into the rapper “Rick Ross,” the real “Freeway” Ricky became the first street-level dealer to flood the streets of South Central L.A. with crack in the early ’80s. He went from illiterate dropout to kingpin, reportedly making more than $3 million a day at his height. It took another decade, and a federal life sentence, for him to learn that his Nicaraguan coke connect, Danilo Blandon, was a federal informant who funneled drug proceeds from the streets of L.A. to the C.I.A. to fund America’s Iran-Contra affair.

Gary Webb, the former San Jose Mercury News reporter who uncovered the federal government’s role in the arms-for-drugs scandal and Ross’ unwitting part in it, eventually died in 2004 under mysterious circumstances after being largely discredited himself by the media. His story, which is also the subject of this week’s CL cover feature, hits screens today in the Jeremy Renner-starring biopic Kill the Messenger.

But Ross’ story doesn’t end there. Not only did he learn to read and write while imprisoned, he studied the law and got his life sentence reduced to gain an early release in 2009 after 13 years served. Today the convicted felon’s campaign to reform the criminal justice system and America’s draconian drug laws has taken him from the likes of Brown University to Capitol Hill.

Since losing an appeal in his $10 million lawsuit against rapper “Rick Ross,” he’s focused on telling his own tale. When I met him one week ago at CineBistro for the DJ Drama-hosted Atlanta media preview of his Marc Levin-directed documentary Freeway: Crack in the System — which hits select theaters next Fri., Oct. 17, one week after Kill the Messenger — Ross was also hustling $20 copies of his newly released autobio, Freeway Rick Ross: The Untold Autobiography.

True to form, he still defies the stereotype of a former drug lord in person. But as we talked about Gary Webb, Ross’ former street exploits, the government’s “complicity,” and his new mission in life, it became clear that his rise in the drug game came as a result of intellect more than intimidation. Not to mention a huge hookup from the C.I.A., of course.

What do you remember thinking when you heard about Gary Webb’s death?

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I was shocked. We were working on a documentary called American Drug War: The Last White Hope with Kevin Booth. And I was talking to Kevin maybe three or four times a day on the phone, because you could only talk 15-minute intervals on the phone.

I was in Texarkana Correctional Facility. I called Kevin and he said, “Man did you hear the news?” And I said, “No, what news?” He said, “Gary Webb is dead.” I was really taken aback because I felt that Gary Webb was really important to this movement. He was one of the few journalists that I believe practiced real journalism. So many people right now, they’re not really into journalism or authenticity. They’re into what’s going to make the numbers and what does corporate America want to hear.

Do you think his death was really a suicide?

I’ve been asked that before and I can’t really answer that question because I can’t see the evidence. I haven’t seen any pictures of where the gunshot wounds were. But in my own small mind, it would be hard for me to conceive a person taking a gun and shooting himself in the head one time, and then taking a gun and doing it two times. To me that’s hard to conceive, but I’m not saying that it’s not possible because I don’t know if it’s possible or not.

The last time I talked to Gary, he still seemed adamant about continuing with his investigation.

In terms of your involvement with the whole conspiracy—

Well, I don’t think it’s any longer a conspiracy…. As USC Law Professor Jody Armour said, it was complicity. Not conspiracy but complicity. Because in order for it to be a conspiracy, the minds must sit down and organize it. But complicity is if you aid and abet. Meaning that if you know that criminals are doing something illegal and you watch out — even if they didn’t ask you to watch out, but you watch out on your own — then you’re a part of that crime. And he was saying that’s the difference and that’s the argument that should’ve been made instead of the conspiracy.

The prototype for criminal success on the street is usually depicted as someone who relies on fear and intimidation to gain respect. But whenever you talk about that part of your life, you seem to have used love and money as the main motivation more.

Absolutely. And I didn’t know that at the time. When I started doing it I didn’t know that the greatest power that man has is in love. People will do things in love that they won’t even do in fear. Because when a person fears you, they fear you while you’re standing there. But when you leave, that fear is gone. But love is there when you’re gone and no matter how long you’re gone that love will still be there. When people love you it’s better than any other form of action that we can take. I just stumbled upon it. But once I went to prison I started to study — I went to prison illiterate but I read over 300 books before I left prison — so I found out that love is one of the strongest powers on the planet.

What were some of the most powerful books you read?

The most powerful books I read were As a Man Thinketh by James Allen, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason.

You say in your documentary that years ago you felt like your purpose in life was to sell crack.

I did.

What do you feel like your purpose is now?

Well, when I sat back in prison and I looked at our community, the black community, and I looked at myself and I looked at the young guys who, in my mind, followed in my footsteps, I felt that I had an obligation to now lead them in a different direction. So what I decided to do was to become basically a minister of economics for the black community.

Someone asked me, what I would say if a young kid comes up to me and says: “Rick, I want to be a dope dealer.” I would tell him, go read this book Freeway Rick Ross: The Untold Autobiography right here. Start off with this and once you read this if you still want to be a dope dealer, you didn’t waste your time ’cause it’s going to help you be a better drug dealer. But the same principles that are in here are the same principles that I’m using right now. The same principles I used in the drug business are the same principles that I used when I went to court and I had my life sentence reduced after the judge said that you’re done and my lawyer said that you’re done. I used those same principles to get out early.

And what principles are those?

The reason most people don’t make a million dollars a day selling drugs, most drug dealers, is because they don’t understand the principles and the laws. There are principles in the drug business. There are things you should be doing if you’re trying to get rich. Now if you’re just out selling drugs and you’re not really trying to make money, then you can do that. But if you’re trying to get rich selling drugs then there’s principles and laws that you’ve got to follow. But in legal business, there’s principles and laws that you’ve got to follow. And those laws are both the same. They’re identical; there’s no difference between the two. That’s why we’re here today to look at a documentary that I dreamed up in my head when I was sitting in prison with a life sentence. That’s why we have this book today that I dreamed up when I had a life sentence in prison.

How do you feel in terms of where the nation is with overhauling the criminal justice system and unfair sentencing laws left over from the crack era?

It’s funny that you ask that. I just left Washington D.C. at National Black Caucus. I spoke to quite a few of our lawmakers. And I think that they’re tired of the system that has been running for 50 or 60 years that doesn’t work. People say, “Rick, what are you saying? Should we legalize drugs?” Well, criminalizing them hasn’t worked. So if that hasn’t worked then maybe we should try legalizing them for a little while, because the system we have in place definitely hasn’t worked. We have more people in prison than any other country in the world. And I think some of the lawmakers on Capitol Hill are ready to start trying intervention and rehabilitation rather than just incarceration.

Are you ever fearful that you could still be a target despite the change in your mission?

I don’t really fear anything. There’s nothing that I really fear. What can somebody do? Kill me? And they can’t do that until it’s time. And when that time has come, there’s nothing I can do about it so there’s no need to worry about it. So I try not to worry about anything. I try to look at things as universal law, and everything that’s supposed to happen to us is going to happen to us.