“Big Meech,” Black Mafia Family co-founder, released from prison, serving halfway through sentence: report

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FILE – A prisoner's hands are seen in a prison cell. (Photo by Giles Clarke/Getty Images)

Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory, the infamous co-founder of the Black Mafia Family crime enterprise, has been released from prison and will serve half-way through his sentence. TMZ reported Wednesday.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons told the entertainment media company that Flenory was transferred Tuesday from FCI Coleman Low in Wildwood to community custody, which is overseen by the Bureau of Prisons Miami Residential Reentry Management Office.

Flenory was arrested in 2005 and sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2008 after being convicted of drug trafficking and money laundering. In 2024, a judge reduced his sentence by almost three years.

According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website, Flenory is expected to be released on January 27, 2026.

Who was the Black Mafia Family?

BMF was founded in Detroit in 1985 and led by brothers Demetrius and Terry Flenory. The crime syndicate was a drug trafficking and money laundering operation.

Newsweek reported that BMF had over 500 members nationwide and earned more than $270 million between 1989 and 2005.

In 2000, the Flenory brothers built a cocaine distribution network through their Los Angeles-based drug sources and their connections to Mexican drug cartels.

According to Newsweek, Demetrius also founded BMF Entertainment, a hip-hop music company that served as a front for the brothers' money laundering and other sources of income.

But in October 2005, the Drug Enforcement Agency conducted a drug raid and arrested 30 BMF members. Cash and assets worth $2 million, including weapons and cocaine, were seized in the raid. That same year, the Flenory brothers were indicted on multiple counts.

Citing court documents, Newsweek reported that the brothers pleaded guilty in 2007 to running an ongoing criminal enterprise in the United States from 1990 to 2005 that included “the large-scale distribution of cocaine.”

Demetrius and Terry were sentenced to 30 years in prison for being leaders of the BMF criminal enterprise.