August 17, 2020 – Black Mafia Family soldier Ricardo (Slick Rick) McFarlin was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time when he was killed execution-style on Detroit’s Westside four years ago, just weeks removed from being released from federal prison, per new court filings in the case against his alleged murderers. At the time of his slaying, McFarlin was the lesser-known of two victims to the public. In the underworld, it was a whole different story. Slick Rick McFarlin and former NFL linebacker Robert Eddins were killed in a double-homicide at Eddins’ Pierson Street house on the night of December 19, 2016 near the intersection of Evergreen and 8 Mile Road. Eddins’ friend and business partner Michael Griffin, reputed Texas dope pusher Mariano Garcia and his alleged enforcer from Mississippi, Dennis Epps, will stand trial in U.S. District Court in Detroit this December, accused of coming to Michigan to murder Eddins over a drug debt. In the first half of the 2000, McFarlin was a part of the iconic “BMF” movement, working directly on behalf of the notorious Flenory brothers in their hometown of the Motor City, as they expanded their vertically-integrated drug-dealing organization into a national franchise with outlets spread across the country. McFarlin was a well-liked “BG” (baby gangster) in a crew belonging to BMF co-founder Terry (Southwest T) Flenory and best buds with Flenory’s stepson Marlon (Lil’ Dawg) Welch. Flenory ran his Detroit crew from Los Angeles. The 28-year old Eddins, a graduate of Detroit Crockett High School and star football player at Ball State who had a cup of coffee in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills in the early 2010s, had burned Mariano Garcia in a non-BMF related cocaine transaction and had a contract on his head, per the recent court filings. Garcia, according to the feds, recruited Griffin and Epps in a plan to make an example of Eddins for not paying back $175,000 from a coke-deal that cratered due to him overvaluing his market. Finishing his career on the gridiron in the CFL with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2014, Eddins dipped into the drug game, partnering with Griffin and getting supplied kilos of cocaine by Garcia, who was based out of Houston, according to the filings. Per U.S. Prosecutors, Griffin sold his drugs out of Alabama and fell out with Eddins when he was forced to cover Eddins’ debt with Garcia in the wake of Eddins not being able to move as much weight as he claimed he could upon receiving 10 kilos on consignment in the fall of 2016. McFarlin, 32, had just returned home to Detroit two months prior to his murder after serving a 10-year prison term for his role in the landmark Operation Motor City Mafia drug conspiracy. He happened to be visiting Eddins the night the contract was carried out and was considered “collateral damage” by the killers, per the court records. Griffin located Eddins in Northwest Detroit and set him up for Garcia and Epps, the records claim. McFarlin is said to have fought with the assailants before they shot him dead. Operation Motor City Mafia dropped in October 2005 and brought down the entire BMF leadership structure. BMF bosses Demetrius (Big Meech) Flenory and his little brother Southwest T, copped pleas and were slapped with 30-year sentences. McFarlin pleaded guilty in 2006 was given a 12-year term. Southwest T, 50, was granted a compassionate release back in May and is back home in Detroit. Big Meech, 51, had his motion for compassionate release rejected earlier this month. It was Big Meech who planted BMF roots in the burgeoning Atlanta hip hop scene of the late 1990s and attained world-wide infamy as the quintessential New Millennium drug don. Serving his time in an Oregon federal penitentiary, he’s not slated for parole until 2032. BMF distribution lieutenant Chris (Pig) Triplett was slain in a drive-by shooting last month on Detroit’s Westside. Triplett, 49, was an “OG” BMF figure and took guilty pleas in both the Operation Motor City Mafia bust and a case in Ohio in 2014 where he was caught trying to smuggle heroin back to Michigan in the muffler of his automobile.
