Some drug dealers use fake identities. But Adarus Mazio Black was a little more creative and was willing to travel thousands of miles to throw the feds off track.
By Paul Egan
The Detroit News
DETROIT — Adarus Mazio Black made so many millions from the cocaine he sold and so feared detection of murders committed to protect his turf that he used multiple identities and paid a plastic surgeon in Mexico to change his facial appearance and surgically remove his fingerprints, a federal jury was told Tuesday.
Black’s drug trial, expected to last about three weeks in U.S. District Court in Detroit, could provide a rare glimpse into the secretive and violent life of an alleged drug kingpin.
Special Agent Edward Donovan of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration testified that he began to investigate Black after learning a major Manhattan drug dealer, Angel “Amigo” Esparza, had moved to Detroit to set up a cocaine-dealing operation.
On Aug. 24, 2004, just days after moving to Detroit, Esparza’s bullet-riddled body was found in a Detroit alley. The burning and duct-taped body of an Esparza associate, Rigoberto Martinez, was found in another alley.
