October 4, 2022 — The feds in Detroit ensnared the Cash Flow Posse in a historic 1997 RICO case, bringing an end to the transformative reign of the Waucaush brothers, “Quick” and “Brutus.”
At the time, the RICO act had never been used before against an urban street gang. The case marked its 25-year anniversary back in the summer. The state of Michigan brought charges against the Cash Flow Posse, too. For years, underground and mainstream rappers from the Motor City have name-checked “CFP” in their lyrics.
“In Southwest, CFP’s legacy rings just as loud in the streets as BMF does,” a source says comparing CFP’s reputation to that of Black Mafia Family, the Southwest-bred crew that took over the country’s dope game in the 2000s. “Those boys got money, They got respect and love cause they gave respect and love to everyone. That’s a Southwest thing. We aren’t like the Eastside or Westside, we do things our own way. That was CFP.”
Brutus Waucaush will walk free this week. He is 48 and has spent most of the past 25 years behind bars after pleading no contest in the case and getting slammed with a three-decade prison term.
The July 1997 indictment was the first time federal prosecutors in Motown ever nailed a street gang under the RICO act. Previously, the CCE (continuing criminal enterprise) had been the legal weapon most employed by the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.
There was a total of five murders and seven shootings and assaults included in the case, including the 1994 homicides of Evan Ison, Jimmy Goings and an innocent teenager named Annie Johnson. Both Ison and Goings were CFP rivals and known to have been antagonizing the Waucaush brothers and their associates, per court records.
Located in the gloomy shadow of the Ambassador Bridge, hardscrabble Southwest Detroit is a melting pot of a community, with Hispanic, Black and low-income Caucasians all residing in the area dating back nearly a century. The Waucaush brothers, Jerry (Quick) Waucaush and Robert (Brutus) Waucaush, founded the Cash Flow Posse, as teenagers in 1989.
CFP was started in response to a raging turf war in the region being fought by Latin Counts and Spanish Cobras, street gangs from Chicago that came to town during the Crack Era, and embraced a mix of races amongst its rank and file. The Latin Counts won the war and aligned with CFP, instead of opposing them.
Quick and Brutus commissioned a graffiti campaign to announce their arrival to the big-time; a multitude of local buildings, bridges and alleyway walls were soon tagged with Cash Flow Posse designs and territory markings. As it gained a national following, the Insane Clown Posse rap group featured CFP shout outs in the lyrics to their songs.
The Cash Flow Posse’s No. 1 enforcer, Efraim (12-Gauge) Garcia, was the triggerman in all five murders the organization was connected to in the ’97 case. On July 17, 1994, Garcia gunned down Jimmy Goings, also accidentally killing his 15-year old niece Annie Johnson in the process. Four months later, on November 26, 1994, he killed Spanish Cobra Evan Ison.
Garcia shot both Goings and Ison at point-blank range. Jimmy Goings and Quick Waucaush were feuding over a girl and had gotten into a fist fight earlier in the afternoon the day Goings was slain in a barrage of bullets on his sister’s front porch. The Waucaush brothers’ top lieutenant, Greg (Shortstop) Ballestero. was driving the getaway car for 12-Gauge Garcia in both fatal shootings in 1994, at a time he was on leave from duty in the U.S. Marine Corps.
“Gauge don’t leave no witnesses,” one informant told the feds.
“12 Gauge” Garcia, 53, is doing life in state prison. The 50-year old Quick Waucaush copped a plea and was released in 2010.
This article was originally posted here