(Black Liberation Army) as it is known on the East Coast. They grew rich and helped finance the Marxist-Maoist B.G.F., or B.L.A. Together the gang formed a multi-million dollar business stretching from L.A. Browning was a Denver Lane gang member, and most of his organization was formed from Blood gang members and a few scattered Crips. They were also gang members associated with the revolutionary Black Guerrilla Family (B.G.F.) prison gang and Elrader (Ray Ray) Browning drug trafficking organization. The targets were mid-level and higher cocaine and crack drug dealers with direct ties to the Colombian drug cartels. This was the biggest case Los Angeles would see for a long time. My friend and mentor, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Detective Rufus Downs, monitored the equipment in the wiretap room in the L.A. While the rest of the participating agencies received their briefing and warrant assignments, my surveillance team was spread out across Los Angeles bedding down the most important targets to insure that they would be swept up in the early morning raids. I was the sergeant in charge of a seven person surveillance team, and we were part of a multi-jurisdictional federal task force headed up by the Drug Enforcement Administration (D.E.A.). They met at a secret location near the Pasadena (Calif.) Police Department headquarters. Hundreds of police officers from various federal, state, and local agencies were receiving their briefings for the next day's warrant service. It was June 30, 1987, a warm Wednesday afternoon. The culmination of months of undercover drug buys, wiretaps, and covert surveillances was called Operation Sting Ray. Should I grow lax in discipline, or in time of strife, refuse my hand, Should I be slow to take a stand, should I show fear to any man,
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