Ollie Newell
Childhood friend and original business partner of Ricky Ross who helped launch their cocaine dealing operation in 1981.
Ollie Newell, known as "Big Loc," was the childhood friend and original business partner of "Freeway" Ricky Ross.1 Newell and Ross grew up together in South Central L.A. and entered the cocaine business as partners in 1981. Some people thought Newell acted crazy, which earned him his nickname.
Partnership with Ricky Ross
It was Newell who encouraged Ross to get into cocaine dealing after Ross learned about the trade from his mentor, Mr. Fisher. Ross said: "Ollie was kinda like the one that kinda like coerced me into getting into the business. You know, he's like, 'Come on, man, you can do it, you don't mess around with nothing, you don't smoke, you don't drink, you're clean, you can handle it.'"1
Newell had just gotten out of jail and needed money when Ross proposed they start selling cocaine. Their partnership began with Mr. Fisher as their source. Ross handled the selling while Newell provided protection: "I was selling, and Ollie was standing back, you know, and watching me, you know, make sure didn't nobody try to rob me or nothing like that," Ross said. They kept their earnings small to avoid police attention, never wanting to get over two or three hundred dollars on hand. Newell was inclined to use the product, which frustrated Ross: "even Ollie! Ollie was, was, was straight and always wanted to get high, get high, get high. So... I finally got in it, I said, 'Well, man, you're using up all the profit!'"1
Both Newell and Ross hid their money from their mothers, who were strict. "So even if we buy clothes, we'd hide them in the garage and put them on after we'd leave so she wouldn't find out," Ross recalled.1
Later Legal Troubles
Newell was convicted of drug charges in Indiana in the late 1980s and released from prison in 1997.2
Weapons Acquisition
Newell became one of Danilo Blandón's biggest arms customers, amassing enough firepower to equip a platoon. His prize possession was a tripod-mounted .50-caliber machine gun, which can down small planes. Ricky Ross said of Newell's arms buying: "Like, I started buying houses, right? Well, Ollie started buying guns. He'd buy anything Danilo would walk through the door with. We had our own little arsenal. One time, he tells me Danilo was gonna get him a grenade launcher. I said, 'Man, what the fuck do we need with a grenade launcher?'" The weapons were procured through Ronald Lister and the Mundy Security Group.3
Identified as South Central Cocaine Boss
In August 1986, the Torres brothers told Bell PD detective Jerry Guzzetta during debriefings that two Black dealers controlled the entire South Central Los Angeles cocaine market. Guzzetta's "Project Sahara" report identified them: "Basically, there is one major market which informant 36210 and 36211 are dealing with, which for the sake of argument in this report will be designated the Black market, because it is solely controlled by two male Negroes by the name of Rick and Ollie." The Torreses reported that the two dealers "are generating a conservative figure of approximately $10 million dollars a month." This intelligence was passed to the LASD Major Violators squad and Detective Thomas Gordon.4
Sources
- Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 7: "Something happened to Ivan" ↩
- Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998. Cast of Characters ↩
- Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 10: "Teach a man a craft and he's liable to practice it" ↩
- Webb, Gary. Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 14: "It's bigger than I can handle" ↩
Local network
Ollie Newell's direct connections. Click any node to navigate, drag to pan, scroll (or pinch) to zoom. + 2‑hop expands the neighborhood one level further.