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Lock 'Em Down, Lock 'Em Up

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On the afternoon of September 21, 2002, DEA agent William Warren was listening in on Martin Caldwell's phone calls, several of which involved Dewanzel Singleton. According to court documents, Warren heard Singleton tell Caldwell that he wanted to "go an extra one," which Warren took to mean "purchase an additional quantity of cocaine." Singleton asked Caldwell if "it was lovely," which Warren interpreted as "asking if the cocaine [Caldwell] had was of good quality."

Three days after that, agents picked up on another call from Singleton to Caldwell. "I know they know what's up with that lick, man," Singleton said. "The girls all look alike...we ain't found no new girls yet," Caldwell replied. Warren again inferred that the two were arguing about the quality of cocaine.

On October 4, Singleton called again. "Singleton related the last time they had lunch, that 'One of them steaks was medium rare' or 'at least his was,'" Warren's statement reads. "[Caldwell] asked Singleton what happened to it and if he 'put an eat on it.' Singleton related that he still had 'a bite' just to let [Caldwell] 'fuck with it and see it.'

"[Caldwell] and Singleton were discussing the poor quality of a kilogram of cocaine," Warren notes. "Singleton was talking in coded conversation with [Caldwell] and referring to cocaine as steak."

Responds Singleton, who requested and received copies of all the documents the DEA filed: "That's a bunch of garbage. I'm always talking slang. One of the conversations, if my memory serves me correctly, I was actually talking about some girls and I was with my baby's mom, who is crazy, and I'm talking coded with him so she wouldn't understand what I'm talking about. But it's like every time I talk slang [the DEA says] I'm talking about the quality of the drugs."

In early 2003, Singleton says, he became wary of associating with Caldwell. In January of that year, Singleton and some friends had driven two cars to Chicago — his Chevy Impala, and a red GMC Jimmy that belonged to Caldwell. Singleton says Caldwell had agreed to let him use the SUV while Singleton got an alarm and stereo installed in his Impala.

That's not how the DEA tells it. Warren states that on January 15, 2003, Fairview Heights DEA agents got a tip that Singleton was in Chicago and planning to drive the Jimmy back with a load of cocaine. They alerted their colleagues in Chicago, who spotted the vehicle parked in front of Caldwell's house. When Singleton left, the DEA contacted the Illinois State Police, who pulled Singleton over for a traffic violation. Singleton, who was accompanied by two passengers, permitted the officers to search the vehicle. They discovered a hidden compartment that opened electronically. It was empty.

"The DEA agent approaches me, and he's talking about all these drugs that were in the car and this hidden compartment, and he knew everything about the car," Singleton recalls. "I said go ahead and search the car. It was Caldwell's truck, I didn't even know the hidden compartment was in the vehicle.

"At that point I just stopped dealing with Caldwell completely, period," Singleton says. "Because I felt like he was trying to set me up, or that the DEA was all over him. I didn't want any part of it."

The Chicago run-in was not Singleton's first brush with the law, however. Although he has never been convicted of a crime, he's had his share of close shaves, all of which DEA agent Jarad Harper lays out in his statement. The first came in December 1999, when Singleton was the passenger in a 1990 Chevy Caprice that was stopped during a "roadside safety check" near Springfield, Illinois. Police found 70 grams of cocaine in the armrest of the rear passenger door. Singleton and the driver were arrested for possession of cocaine with intent to deliver, but the charges were eventually dropped. Singleton says he didn't know the drugs were in the car and that the driver successfully argued in court that the stop and search were discriminatory. (A court clerk in Sangamon County verifies that Dewanzel Singleton was fined $55 for a seatbelt violation and says the county has no record of any criminal charge. The clerk suggests that the record may have been expunged.)

On October 31, 2002, Singleton gave DEA agents permission to search a room he was renting at a Motel 6 in Caseyville, Illinois. They found what Harper describes in his complaint as "[a] large mixing bowl and a large scale...consistent with being used by drug traffickers to weigh drugs for distribution." Singleton says he used the scale to weigh out marijuana for personal use. At any rate, when the DEA found the items, they were clean.

On June 3, 2003, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol stopped a rented Lincoln Navigator in which Singleton was one of five passengers. The troopers found $189,000 in cash stuffed in socks that were concealed in a rear door of the vehicle. Everyone denied ownership of the cash. The officers confiscated the money but sent the travelers on their way.

L.E.D. is not a record label in the traditional sense of the term. While more than a dozen local rappers and singers have been signed to deals with the company and its subsidiary, L.E.D. Reggae, neither entity has recorded a single full-length album. The organization focuses on recording, releasing and promoting singles, with the hope that a song will catch fire and become the hip-hop equivalent of the lotto jackpot: a radio hit that leads to a major-label deal and a multimillion-dollar recording contract.

"We'll burn a copy of a song out of our studio and take it to certain DJs, take it to the radio personnel. They'll try it. And if it's hot, if they like it, they play it for us," John Bacon explains. "But we never really took it to record stores. That was our next step."

In his statement, DEA agent Harper questions how, given the lack of revenue, L.E.D. was able to pay its bills. He claims the company was "financially supported by suspected illegal drug proceeds."

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