A network history of the New York and Washington figures whose lives and cases intersected with the historical background later popularized by Paid in Full.
The people commonly grouped together in documentaries, interviews, music, and street history did not belong to one unified criminal organization. The more accurate model is a set of overlapping urban networks centered in Harlem, South Jamaica in Queens, Brooklyn, and Washington, D.C., with interstate supply and distribution connections extending to California, Northern Virginia, and Fredericksburg.
Within this structure, Alberto “Alpo” Martinez is a major bridge between Harlem and Washington. Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff and Gerald “Prince” Miller belong to the separate Supreme Team history in Queens. Rayful Edmond III led a distinct and earlier large D.C. organization whose documented California connection included Melvin D. Butler. Wayne “Silk” Perry belongs primarily to the later Martinez-associated Washington branch. Rich Porter and Azie Faison belong to the Harlem branch. Domencio Benson provides a Brooklyn-to-Washington connection.
| Person / Organization | Base | Relationship to this story |
|---|---|---|
| Alberto “Alpo” Martinez | Harlem; Washington, D.C.; Northern Virginia | Harlem trafficker who expanded south; later federal cooperator. |
| Richard “Rich” Porter | Harlem | Harlem trafficker, associate of Martinez and Faison; murdered in January 1990. |
| Azie Faison | Harlem | Harlem trafficker and later participant source on the era. |
| Richard “Fritz” Simmons | Harlem | Wholesale/consignment figure documented mainly through biography and participant history. |
| Kevin Chiles | Harlem; Washington, D.C. | Trafficker and later participant source whose accounts connect Harlem and D.C. |
| Clarence “Preacher” Heatley | Harlem; Bronx | Leader of the Preacher Crew; federal filing connects him to Donnell Porter kidnapping and murder. |
| John “Apple” Porter | Harlem; Bronx | Founding Preacher Crew member and Donnell Porter’s uncle; later kidnapping claims require attribution. |
| Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff | South Jamaica, Queens | Founder of the Supreme Team; separate Queens power center. |
| Gerald “Prince” Miller | South Jamaica, Queens | McGriff’s nephew and second-in-command; later assumed operational leadership. |
| Lorenzo “Fat Cat” Nichols | South Jamaica, Queens | Leader of a major Queens organization; documented supplier ally of the Supreme Team. |
| Howard “Pappy” Mason | South Jamaica, Queens | Nichols associate and later leader of the Bebos; ordered the murder of Officer Edward Byrne. |
| Rayful Edmond III | Washington, D.C. | Leader of a major late-1980s D.C. cocaine organization. |
| Melvin D. Butler | California; Washington supply corridor | Documented California supply connection and convicted co-conspirator in the Edmond case. |
| Curtis “Curtbone” Chambers | Washington, D.C. | Edmond co-defendant and later participant source on both the Edmond and Martinez eras. |
| Shelton “Shorty Pop” Walker / Watkins | Washington, D.C. | 1989 most-wanted fugitive; later oral histories connect him to the Perry/Martinez social network. |
| Matthew N. Blake | Washington, D.C. | Homicide victim in a December 1989 case charged to Shelton Walker. |
| Wayne “Silk” Perry | Washington, D.C. | D.C. associate/enforcer in the Martinez network; later pleaded guilty to multiple murders. |
| Domencio Benson | Brooklyn; Washington, D.C. | Brooklyn figure killed in Washington in 1991; Perry later pleaded guilty to the murder. |
| Garrett “Gary” Terrell | Washington, D.C. | Identified in contemporary reporting as a onetime lieutenant in Martinez’s organization; later murdered. |
| Alveta “Penny” Hopkins | Washington, D.C. | Cooperated with investigators and was later murdered; the killing became part of the Perry/Price case. |
The central Harlem cocaine story is the relationship among Azie Faison, Rich Porter, and Alpo Martinez, but the wider structure now includes two additional layers. Richard “Fritz” Simmons appears in participant and biographical sources as an upstream wholesaler/consignment supplier, while Kevin Chiles represents a separate Harlem operation that extended into Washington.
A distinct violence-and-extortion layer is represented by the Preacher Crew, led by Clarence “Preacher” Heatley. A federal death-penalty notice alleged that Heatley participated in the kidnapping, torture, and murder of Donnell Porter. John “Apple” Porter, Donnell’s uncle, was a founding Preacher Crew member; later claims that he arranged the kidnapping should remain separately attributed because the currently identified court record is more explicit about Heatley than about Apple.
The Supreme Team should be treated as a distinct organization rather than folded into the Harlem trio. Federal records identify Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff as founder and Gerald “Prince” Miller as his nephew and second-in-command. The organization was based around the Baisley Park Houses in Jamaica, Queens.
The Queens branch now includes a second documented power center: the Lorenzo “Fat Cat” Nichols organization. The Second Circuit documented a 1987 alliance in which Nichols’s organization supplied the Supreme Team with powder cocaine. Howard “Pappy” Mason was closely associated with Nichols before leading the separate Bebos. The killings of parole officer Brian Rooney in 1985 and NYPD Officer Edward Byrne in 1988 form major event nodes in this Queens network.
Rayful Edmond’s organization was a large, independently documented Washington cocaine enterprise operating before and during the period when Martinez began expanding into the region. Federal records describe a layered organization centered on Morton and Orleans places NE and supplied in part through a California connection involving Melvin D. Butler. This organization should not be retroactively merged into the later Martinez–Perry network.
Martinez’s expansion brought him into the Washington drug market and into association with Wayne Perry. Contemporary reporting and later federal proceedings connect Perry to multiple killings tied to the Martinez organization. The D.C. branch should also include investigators such as Angelo Parisi and Dan Reilly so that the story does not become a criminal-only genealogy.
Curtis “Curtbone” Chambers provides an individual bridge between the Edmond and Martinez eras. The Washington Post identified him as one of Edmond’s co-defendants and a later documentary collaborator; in participant interviews he describes meeting and doing business with Martinez. This does not make the two organizations one enterprise.
Shelton “Shorty Pop” Walker/Watkins also belongs to the late-1980s D.C. environment. Contemporary reporting documents his 1989 fugitive case and the Matthew Blake homicide charge, while later oral histories connect him socially to Perry and Martinez. Those later relationship claims should remain attributed.
Current evidence rule: geographic and chronological overlap between Edmond and Martinez does not establish that Martinez worked for Edmond or that the two organizations were one enterprise. Until direct evidence is found, the connection should be labeled market overlap/succession, not partnership.
The 2002 film Paid in Full is useful as a cultural artifact but not as a literal reconstruction. Documentary interviews, music references, and oral histories preserve names and community memory, but claims drawn from them should be attributed and cross-checked against court records and contemporary reporting.
Jazz (Queens) remains in the research queue pending a verified full identity and organizational role. Fritz, Curtbone, Shorty Pop, and Matthew Blake now have draft entries because their core identities can be anchored to identifiable sources; however, several relationship claims on those pages remain explicitly classified as participant, biographical, or oral-history evidence rather than court-established fact.