Information from those confidential sources and elsewhere led investigators to conclude that Butler had been dealing New York-bought heroin and cocaine in Baltimore since at least 2002. Allegations of more recent activity are based on Baltimore Circuit Court-authorized wire taps, which intercepted calls and text messages from seven cell phones, including one exchange in June between Butler and another man about the Mercedes-Benz.
During the conversation, Butler says the car "was Hines Ward's," referring to the wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers. When asked what he paid for it, Butler said "Um, 117, yo. He told me give him the sticker price," which Collins surmised meant $117,000. The car is registered in a woman's name.
Pittsburgh Steelers spokesman Burt Lauten did not return a call requesting comment. There is no suggestion in the affidavit that Butler has any connection to Ward other than the vehicle sale.
Here is how the operation is alleged to have worked, according to Collins' affidavits:
* Butler, aided by Calvin Wright, 36, and suspected money launderer Walter Horton, is alleged to have supplied large amounts of heroin to and maintained control of a group of drug-dealing shops throughout Baltimore.
* Alleged "managers" of the shops include Daron Ashe, 21; Geraldmain Wilkerson, 34, and his brother, Leon Wilkerson, 35; Akeem Yarberough, 31; Antoine Boston, 35; and Adrian Aulton, 36. Yarberough is at large.
* The ninth defendant, Shawn Moore, 22, is incarcerated in Jessup and accused of arranging to purchase heroin for distribution in jail.
The affidavit outlines multiple conversations involving drug-dealing operations and claims that Butler had also taken control of the city's "Red Dot" drug ring, which authorities allege distributes heroin throughout the city, obtaining up to 5 kilograms a week from a Queens, N.Y., supplier and making about $100,000 a week in profit.
Using a complex and coded language, the dealers discussed the quality of a particular heroin batch, the need to acquire more for street distribution, where to drop off proceeds, and how certain sales quotas must be met, according to the affidavit.
Other discussions involved removing heroin from the refrigerator in which it was stashed before it froze and the best way to crawl through an unlocked window, which led to an argument between Ashe and his twin brother, with one berating the other by saying, "You don't think, and you don't listen nothing I say."
