Overview
The Supreme Team was a narcotics organization centered around the Baisley Park Houses in Jamaica, Queens. Federal appellate records describe it as having been organized in the early 1980s by teenagers associated with the Five Percenters, under Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff with his nephew Gerald “Prince” Miller as second-in-command.
Structure
The organization developed layers of managers, drug sellers, couriers, security personnel, and lookouts designed to separate senior leadership from street-level transactions. Court records describe coded communications, rooftop sentinels with two-way radios, armed bodyguards, storage locations, processing sites, and multiple retail “spots.”
1987 Peak and Disruption
The Second Circuit summarized evidence that the Supreme Team’s street-level receipts exceeded $200,000 per day at its 1987 peak. After a late-1987 law-enforcement operation targeted storage locations, outlets, and residences, McGriff ordered the organization’s operations shut down.
Reorganization under Gerald Miller
After Miller was released from state custody in 1989, he rebuilt the organization and regained control of important sales locations. Federal evidence described renewed kilogram-scale cocaine purchases, processing of cocaine into crack, distribution through supervised sales crews, and an enforcement structure used against rivals and perceived internal threats.
Relationship to Other Queens Organizations
The Supreme Team did not operate in isolation. The Second Circuit described it as allied in 1987 with the separate organization led by Lorenzo “Fat Cat” Nichols, which supplied the Supreme Team with powder cocaine. This is a documented organizational connection and should be distinguished from looser cultural associations among famous Queens figures.
Relationship to the Harlem–Washington Story
The Supreme Team was not the organization of Azie Faison, Rich Porter, or Alpo Martinez. Those figures belong primarily to a Harlem-centered network, with Martinez later extending into Washington. The Supreme Team belongs to a separate South Jamaica, Queens branch of the larger New York drug history.
Later Use of the Supreme Team Name
Later federal records use overlapping terminology for McGriff’s post-incarceration criminal activity. Prosecutors described a new McGriff enterprise engaged in wholesale heroin and cocaine trafficking, while a 2015 CMB prosecution referred to a “Supreme Team” that recruited Brooklyn enforcer Aaron Granton for the 2001 murder of Troy Singleton. The encyclopedia therefore treats the original 1980s Supreme Team and the later McGriff enterprise as connected phases while preserving the government’s differing labels.
Federal Prosecution
A later federal prosecution produced racketeering, narcotics, continuing-criminal-enterprise, and related convictions against Miller and other members. In 1997, the Second Circuit affirmed the convictions with limited exceptions, including the dismissal of Miller’s separate narcotics-conspiracy conviction because it duplicated punishment associated with the continuing-criminal-enterprise count.
Key Individuals
- Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff — founder and original leader.
- Gerald “Prince” Miller — nephew, second-in-command, and later operational leader.
- Lorenzo “Fat Cat” Nichols — leader of a separate allied supplier organization.
- Troy Singleton — 2001 murder victim in a later case where prosecutors used the Supreme Team name.
- McGriff Enterprise — Later Period — separate working entry for McGriff’s later organization.
Evidence Status
A. Organizational structure and prosecution history are documented extensively in federal appellate and Department of Justice records.