Lil’ Kim’s former boyfriend
Damion "World" Hardy has been hit with a federal RICO lawsuit, alleging
that he was the head of a murderous crew known as the Cash Money Brothers.
In a scenario that seems
to be straight out of 1991’s movie "New Jack City," Hardy, who is
currently incarcerated for other drug related charges and CMB have been linked
to five known murders since 1991, when the gang was originally formed by Hardy
and his brother Myron "Wise" Hardy.
Like the movie’s drug gang,
also known as Cash Money Brothers or CMB, Hardy’s gang is accused of using ruthless
violence to intimidate potential rivals and cornering the cocaine trade in the
Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York.
"[CMB] members and
associates engaged in acts involving murder, robbery, kidnapping and narcotics
trafficking," the indictment read. "The CMB operated in Brooklyn,
New York and elsewhere."
The group’s reach stretched
to Philadelphia, where two other men were arrested and charged in the RICO lawsuit
as well.
Federal prosecutors said
CMB’s controlled an area around Lafayette Gardens, a housing project located
in Bedford Stuyvesant, New York.
The area has produced some
of hip-hop’s most legendary rappers, including Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, Big
Daddy Kane, Fab 5 Freddy producer Easy Mo Bee and others.
"From its
inception, the CMB engaged in the distribution of large quantities of cocaine
base in and around Lafayette Gardens, and the CMB eventually obtained almost
complete control of the distribution of cocaine base in that area. In addition,
members and associates of the CMB engaged in numerous acts of violence in furtherance
of the gang’s interests, including the murders of several rival drug dealers
and the attempted murder of at least one witness."
Authorities stepped up their
surveillance of the gang in June 2003, after 16 pounds of cocaine was seized
on a passenger jet arriving from Grenada.
In Grenada another
16 pounds were seized and an undercover operation revealed the CMB gang was
attempting to arrange a shipment of 100 more pounds of cocaine to the United
States.
Police said the gang operated
with no discretion, murdering an unnamed woman and inadvertently, the death
of an award winning director named Jhoan Camitz.
According to the indictment,
Hardy and two other men shot and killed rival drug dealer Ivory "Peanut"
Davis in front of Club NV in New York.
Davis was shot twice in
the back and as he drove away, he struck Camitz. Both men died a short time
later.
Hardy has also been linked
to a 2003 incident in Jersey City, New Jersey involving 50 Cent, after the rapper
appeared on Hot 97 and made disparaging remarks about Hardy’s then girlfriend,
Lil’ Kim.
"I wrote ‘Magic Stick’/I
gave Kim a hit/then I refused to shoot the video, she threw a little fit/got
emotional and sh*t/now this I don’t get/why would I care about your emotions,
you’re not my beeyatch," 50 rapped.
Later as 50 Cent’s
tour buses were entering a Doubletree hotel in Jersey City, over 10 shots were
fired by gunman suspected to be associated with Hardy, who was staying with
Lil Kim at her Bergen County, New Jersey estate according to published reports.