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Big Money Addicts' Impact on Drug Dealing in Milwaukee

Benjamin
/
Courtesy of Milwaukee Magazine

Trials are set for this winter for the alleged members of a drug dealing operation that brought in tens of thousands of dollars a day on Milwaukee’s north side. The members referred to it as BMA, or Big Money Addicts, and a feature in the September issue of Milwaukee Magazine credits the group with changing the way drug dealing happens in the city. 

"This gang was one that was pretty high profile in Milwaukee. One that had developed quite a reputation. And it turned into this big, kind of war almost, between MPD and BMA - the Big Money Addicts," says senior editor Matt Hrodey, and author of  The Notorious B.M.A. article. 

The group was peddling heroin in Milwaukee's north side neighborhoods. "They could do multiple, multiple thousands of dollars in sales everyday to about 50 customers, on average traveling a few hundred miles in a day," says Hrodey. 

Yet there were really only four members of the operation, which allowed them to keep their personal profit high, but also made them more vulnerable to getting caught.

"It's like the CEO and the COO are in the car doing deliveries for Pizza Hut or what-have-you," he says. "So they were always kind of exposed."