Manhunt Continues for Drug Kingpins Claiming to be Moorish Sovereigns
The manhunt for three fez-wearing drug dealers, claiming to be 鈥� 鈥� the kissing cousins of the antigovernment 鈥� movement 鈥� continued today after the men disappeared on Monday just as a federal jury in Detroit was finding them guilty in one of the largest narcotics cases in the city鈥檚 history.
鈥淚t was a very significant drug case,鈥� Deputy U.S. Marshal Rob Watson told Hatewatch today. 鈥淎ny lead we get we鈥檙e taking seriously and following to exhaustion.鈥�
Before they fled, the men 鈥� Earnest Proge and brothers Carlos Powell and Eric Powell 鈥� faced possible life sentences and $10 million fines.
They men were out on bond during the trial and never showed up for the reading of the verdict. Carlos Powell, according to The Detroit News, cut his ankle tether at 12:33 p.m. Monday 鈥撯�� 18 minutes after the verdict was read.
In February, prior to the start of the nearly two-week trial, someone wrote a letter to the court, saying that because of the men鈥檚 鈥淪tatus, and Nationality鈥� as members of the Moorish Science Temple of America (MSTA), the Greensboro, N.C.-based group 鈥渨ill stand as surety against any and all claims that have been brought against them.聽鈥淚f there is an amount to be paid to settle this case on their behalf,鈥� the letter continued, 鈥減lease forward any and all bills to: Moorish Science Temple of America, c/o Sheik Martin El, Trustee.鈥�
Understandably, the judge dismissed the letter as frivolous, according to , adding that another court filing said that the fezzes the men wore each day to court were 鈥渞eligious headdress that must be worn to distinction.鈥�
So-called Moors are typically black nationalists who, like antigovernment 鈥渟overeign citizens,鈥� deny the jurisdiction and authority of the government. For the Moors, that denial is based on the theory that they are the real sovereign natives of North America, and that the government later established by white European settlers has no right to rule them.聽There are numerous Moorish groups around the country. Some of the groups, including the Washington D.C.-based Moorish Science Temple of America Inc. that was founded in 1913, strenuously protest being lumped in with sovereign citizens, saying that they are, in fact, law-abiding citizens of the United States.
But claiming to be a Moorish national seems to be an increasingly popular tactic being used by all manner of criminals 鈥� from聽 in Memphis, Tenn., to a convicted Chicago bank robber named 聽鈥� as a last ditch legal maneuver to avoid consequence for their crimes.
Banks claimed to be a Moorish national and exempt from federal laws such as bank robbery. When the jury convicted him anyway, he made a daring, Hollywood-style jailbreak in 2012, shimmying 15 stories down the side of a high-rise lockup in downtown Chicago on a rope of bed sheets. He was recaptured two days later.
Back behind bars in 2013, Banks wrote the Chicago Sun-Times a detailing his escape and admitting to 鈥渢he Moorish Sovereign act put on by me in court at trial.鈥�
During his bank-robbing career, Banks reportedly made off with hundreds of thousands of dollars. The three Moors of Detroit, as well, were raking in millions.
Carlos Powell, the group鈥檚 alleged kingpin, was among the most prolific drug dealers in metro Detroit, according to The News. During the years-long investigation, the paper reported, agents seized 66 pounds of heroin, 12 kilograms of cocaine, 1,000 pounds of marijuana and more than $21 million in cash all tied to Powell's criminal enterprise.聽
