Geographic Classification

New York classification: Regional supplier; not assigned to the Harlem Council as a member.
Network connection: Barnes / The Council supply layer

Overview

Madonna was an organized-crime narcotics trafficker who met Barnes while both were incarcerated. Government material from the 1970s identified Madonna and Salvatore Larca as suppliers to major Black narcotics traffickers including Barnes.

Role in the Network

Madonna belongs above Barnes in the network as an outside supplier, not as a Council member. Archival material also identifies prison contact between Madonna and Barnes as important to Barnes’s later organizational development.

Legal Record

Madonna was convicted in 1976 in a heroin-importation case involving pure Thai heroin and received a 30-year federal sentence.

Later Significance

His inclusion demonstrates that the Council was an independent Black-led organization but participated in a broader interracial wholesale narcotics economy.

Evidence Status

A/B. The supplier relationship is described in contemporaneous congressional/Justice Department material; Barnes–Madonna prison contact is supported by archival legal-history sources.

Selected Sources