An infamous inactive former Detroit drug gang lieutenant has taken time to do an interview with the media regarding a lesser-known one-time contemporary caught up in trouble again with the law. On the heels of Darryl Terrell’s recent federal indictment on cocaine-trafficking and money-laundering charges, his former fellow Young Boys, Incorporated henchman Maurice (Moe Heart) Gibbs sat down with The Detroit News and gave his opinion on the situation.
The 60-year old Terrell was indicted back in May and is set to go to trial in November. He’s being held without bond. Jerome Terrell, his 27-year old son, faces the same set of charges and will go to trial at the end of 2017 as well.
“Darryl is a quiet cat,” Gibbs told Detroit News reporter Robert Snell last week in Snell’s front-page story on Terrell’s current legal issues (read the whole story here). “He was into dressing well, staying sharp, having a nice car and plenty of women. At the end of the day, that’s what it was about for all of us.”
Gibbs, 58, was one of more than 40 members of the transcendent Young Boys, Incorporated or “YBI” to go down on federal narcotics and racketeering charges in 1982. Founded by Gibbs’ cousin, Milton (Butch) Jones and three other westside Detroit drug lords in 1978, YBI went on to revolutionize the Midwest heroin trade with its pioneering sales and marketing techniques and its ability to not have to rely on the Italian mafia for its supply source.
While Gibbs did four years in prison for the 1982 bust, Terrell avoided arrest in the case. Terrell would be convicted of cocaine-distribution charges at trial in 1996. He served 12 years in prison and walked free in 2008.
“The pressure of the drug business is intense…..You’ve got police breathing down your neck, you’re trying to stay alive from the cats on the street, you’ve got guys trying to rob you, trying to get next to you and arrest you,” said Gibbs of the dope game. “The bigger you get, the bigger target you become. And then if you get really big, you have to start worrying about the feds. You’ve got all these obstacles to contend with in order to win. You have to tiptoe through the landmines (if you want to be successful) and you’re lucky if you actually do make it to the other side.”
Gibbs isn’t shocked by Terrell’s return to the streets.
“I’m not surprised……I’m disappointed at this age he’s having (these kind) of legal problems and that his son is tied up in it. I hate to hear that. But I’m not surprised….”
According to sources, Gibbs said goodbye to the drug world a long time ago and today is a local legitimate businessman in Southeast Michigan. In his younger years, he was equally loved, feared and respected in the area’s traditionally tumultuous dope game – obviously a rare combination.
YBI turncoat Kevin (Lughead) Wilson testified Gibbs was one of the men who killed YBI co-founder Dwayne (Wonderful Wayne) Davis in 1982 after Davis butted heads with Jones regarding Davis’ independent expansion efforts out of state. Moe Heart was also top suspect in the May 1983 gangland slaying of YBI soldier Joe (Wamp) Brown, who named Gibbs as one of the men who shot him on his deathbed. Hit with a first-degree homicide charge, Gibbs was found not guilty at trial later that year.
Terrell’s attorney, Otis Culpepper, served as YBI’s de-facto in-house counsel throughout the height of its reign in the late 1970s and first half of the 1980s. Butch Jones did just over seven years in prison on the 1982 indictment, but got convicted of murder, drugs and racketeering in the 1990s for his role in leading a street gang known as “The Dawg Pound.” Jones is doing life behind bars. During their YBI days, Gibbs was a valued member of Jones’ personal enforcement unit known as “The Wrecking Crew.”
The post To The Heart Of The Matter: “Moe Heart” Gibbs, Once Of Detroit’s Iconic YBI Drug Gang, Speaks On Darryl Terrell Indictment appeared first on The Gangster Report.