The Young Boys, Incorporated (YBI) drug organization redefined the dope game in Detroit in the late 1970s and early 1980’s, becoming street legends and underworld icons for its trendsetting business practices and flashy demeanor. Founded on the Motor City’s Westside, the group revolutionized the heroin trade in terms of distribution and marketing techniques and at its peak was clearing $500,000 a day in sales. Kids as young as eight and nine years old pushed YBI’s products on local playgrounds across the city.
The beginning of the end came in 1982 with the federal indictment of 41 YBI members on narcotics conspiracy charges, including the bulk of its leadership hierarchy. Of the over 40 people busted, 31 were convicted. Short sentences brought many back on the street within a few years however a nasty spat of internal warfare combined with another indictment hitting in 1987 brought down the curtain on YBI for good.
YBI ROLL CALL – The Man For Man Index Of Major Players:
Milton (Butch) Jones – YBI co-founder and front boss, the self-proclaimed “Henry Ford of Heroin”
Raymond (Baby Ray) Peoples – YBI co-founder and crew boss, the “Stringer Bell” of the organization, a thinking-man’s gangster
*Killed in power struggle
Dwayne (Wonderful Wayne) Davis aka “W.W.” – YBI co-founder and crew boss, the consummate street hustler who started the offshoot H2o Gang and opened up satellites in Boston and Seattle
*Killed in power struggle
Charles (Choicey Chuck) Lindsey – YBI co-founder and Wonderful Wayne’s business partner
Mark (Block) Marshall – YBI co-founder and the group’s original main enforcer who gets into a beef with Baby Ray Peoples over a girl and leaves town for Atlanta in 1980
Sylvester (Seal) Murray – YBI supply chief and Butch Jones’ top advisor
Darryl (Dynamite D) Young – Seal Murray’s right-hand man
Darryl (Stoney Roney) Terrell – YBI’s Eastside crew boss
Curtis (Kurt McGurk) Napier – Butch Jones’ teenage protégé, bodyguard and the leader of the A-Team enforcement crew
Maurice (Mo Heart) Gibbs – Butch Jones’ first cousin and the leader of an enforcement wing of the group known as The Wrecking Crew
Keithon (Terrible T) Green – Wrecking Crew’s first lieutenant
Richard (Richie Rich) Daniels – Wrecking Crew’s second lieutenant
Timothy (Timmy Slim) Peoples – Butch Jones’ right-hand man and Baby Ray Peoples’ little brother
Steve (Big 50) Brown – Wonderful Wayne’s top lieutenant in Detroit
James (Pep) Cooper – Wonderful Wayne’s top lieutenant in Boston
Norman (Sneaky Snead) Johnson — Baby Ray Peoples’ right-hand man
*Killed in power struggle
Melvin (Sammy D) Davenport – A Seal Murray lieutenant who gets the Murray crew infiltrated by an undercover federal agent
Kevin (Lughead) Wilson – One of Butch Jones’ Wrecking Crew enforcer who becomes the star witness against the group in court
The post Young, Rich & Ruthless: Breaking Down The Structure & Legacy Of Detroit’s YBI Gang appeared first on The Gangster Report.