Maceo Moore, a 38-year-old local rapper known as “Chase”, was sentenced to 17-1/2 years in federal prison for heroin distribution as part of what authorities called the largest ever heroin bust in the region, snagging more than 90 people on federal and state charges.
The bust was was featured an October 2013 Scene cover story called “Inside the Biggest Heroin Bust in Northeast Ohio History: The documentary film crew, the Southern pipeline, and the brazen Cleveland kingpins.” Moore featured prominently in that piece, as well as this September 2013 blog post called “Watch A Trailer For A Movie About Heroin Trafficking In Cleveland Created By A Major Dealer Just Indicted For Heroin Trafficking in Cleveland.”
Plain Dealer reporter James McCarty was at the sentencing, and once you get past the first five sentences featuring terms nobody uses any more (“gangsta rap”) and wrong information (his movie was already released — we watched it on DVD last Fall — and there was never any “Hollywood premier” or “Red Carpet”), he has a solid write up of what went on in the courthouse this week. Read that here for the details of the sentencing.
Here’s how Maceo Moore was introduced in Scene’s October cover story (starting on page 2):
The Documentary Film CrewMost people in the Cleveland hip-hop scene and the East 117th neighborhood know 37-year-old Maceo Moore better as “Chase.”
Moore’s a high-profile rapper and an even more high-profile gangster who ran the streets of East 117th and St. Clair flaunting his wealth with predictable bravado and recklessness, bragging about his disposable income, luxury cars, drug dealing prowess and power in the streets on social media and online.
That intersection shows up prominently in most of his videos and his exploits in lyrics.
The 2008 music video, for example, of “Out Tha Roof” with Chip Tha Ripper and Ray Jr., has all the classic “Chase” elements: holding handfuls of $100 bills, making it rain, driving his Mercedes Benz, wearing expensive jewelry. One shot that accompanies the line, “Money ain’t a thing so we throwing stacks out the roof” shows Chase standing through the sunroof of a moving Rolls Royce tossing an amount of cash worth more than many of the vacant homes away on those streets. Growls Ray Jr. in the song: “Fuck what you heard / Nigga I’m the truth / This is a hundred grand / And now it’s out the roof.” In another cash-tossing scene, he’s leaning against his Mercedes parked in front of the local corner store with a clearly visible sign that reads “WE ACCEPT FOOD STAMPS”.
His first verse in the song is, “Point seen / Money Gone / They call me Paper Chase / Because my Money long / We hustle strong / Fuck the feds / If these niggas snitching / Then we busting heads.”
Moore, it would seem, was not worried about snitches or the Feds, because his very public persona didn’t stop at social media and music videos—he wrote and starred in a feature-length movie, The Game Ain’t 4 Everybody, based on his experiences. Real guns, real drugs, real money, all in the backdrop of Moore’s self-penned confessional flick of dealing and robbing.
When Moore’s name showed up in information from a confidential informant, the Feds had an easy in to Moore’s world given his propensity for self promotion and Hollywood aspirations.
“In 2012, taking advantage of Moore’s interest in movie production,” a federal search warrant details, “agents from the FBI planned an undercover operation in which undercover FBI agents would pose as documentary film journalists interested in filming a documentary about Moore’s ‘story,’ as a person who had grown up in a dangerous neighborhood and achieved a degree of success through criminal activity in part.”
As if there were any doubt, it worked. Moore accepted the “documentary crew’s” offer on June 12, talking to undercover agents on the phone and in person.
He talked about how often he would rob other drug dealers: “Yeah that was our job, kicking doors. We worked every day, around the clock. If you had it, and we wanted it, was coming to get it.” For how long?: “Shit, it ain’t never, it don’t stop. That’s what it was and what it is.”
When asked how they chose robbery targets, he explained it was the ones who flaunted their wealth and sometimes used woman to gain the trust of the targets to find out where they lived: “Now we know where he live at, we gonna go pay him a visit.”
He explained how he got so much money: “I sold drugs, but I started getting more money when I started taking from other drug dealers. That’s how, honestly, that’s how I got my money. Whatever they got. Money, jewelry, drugs, whatever they got, we going to get it. Flat out.”
He explained his first big robbery: “I went and I followed this dude, and we followed to his house, we did our little surveillance or whatever, went back in there, and he had, matter of fact, he had like two, two hundred and thirty thousand dollars in his house, in a safe.” He went on to describe it being his career: “People been robbing people since, juvenile, juvenile, all the way up. When I made up my mind to do it as I was grown, I said ‘I’m gonna make a living out of this because, this what I’m gonna do to survive, until I can invest my money elsewhere,’ and that’s what I did.”
His movie, he told them, was all real: “In the movie, all that money, it was real money, it was my money.” (A source close to the film also told Scene the guns were real too, and sometimes loaded).
The undercover agent suggested Moore put his money in the bank to avoid being robbed: “I don’t even have a bank account, I can’t put my money in the bank.” Why not? “Because of where I get it from. They’re going to ask me ‘Where’d you get this from?'”
The FBI tapped his phones, tracked his cars via GPS, and followed Moore as he led drug deals and robbed more drug dealers during the investigation as more of his East 117th associates, including Keith Ricks, fell into the Feds’ crosshairs. (Moore and Ricks are also currently being investigated by Cleveland police for several unsolved homicides.)
Moore was one of six guys the feds named as leaders of the massive ring. Of that group, Per McCarty and federal court records, Maurice Golston is serving a 14-year sentence and Marcus Blue was sentenced to three. Keith Ricks — perhaps the biggest target — his brother Dionte Thompson, and Leamon Shephard are still waiting on their sentences.
This article appears in Aug 27 – Sep 2, 2014.
Big gangster told on himself. He should have gotten much more time for the crimes that he did. IRS should look into all of the ill gotten gains that he spent over the years. His crimes were organized so he should have gotten more time for RICO. He got off easy. The streets will not miss you.
Free da real fuck y’all haters my niggas Cleveland niggas get money free chase
All y’all shut the fuck up y’all muthafuckas don’t know the struggle its hard out here for most people he had to get it by any means and he was not a selfish guy I dont feel he deserve all that time I respect his grind
“Point seen / Money Gone / They call me Paper Chase / Because my Money long / We hustle strong / Fuck the feds / If these niggas snitching / Then we busting heads.” 💯✊👏👏
Yall Quick to Judge come walk in our shoes live how we lived and struggled. Free a Real Homie.
Og call… So judgmental cause you all couldn’t do what he did. Yeah yeah yeah you say he did this or that. Cause you love listening to conversations bout him. Kept you pumped. He raised up under me, and he grew up a surviver where we’re from, and only the strong live long. So without looking at the negative situation, i’ll miss my lil pit, and much much Love to you Mace! Shit hurtto here, but the lord will watch over you and us! Family is everything, real friendsssss will be there when you come. Been strong get stronger. Blessing to you and your children ! Love you Bra……FOH!!!!!! They dont know just love to listen
We actually started rapping in a attic with a keyboard. THE BEGINNING OF F.O.H. RECORDS . THE 90’S LOT OF FUN TIMES. Speechless
What a nerd.
I grew up with chase he was a good dude nights are just jealous
Free chase 💋
I was there when my nigga got sentence yall dont know shit real talk free maceo.
I’m from East Cleveland and yeah the streets of Cleveland is hard, but to take from others is weak…a weak man. If you’re going to grind do that but don’t stop another mans grind…period. Growing up in the heart of Cleveland is tough and rough & you have to have heart to survive, but have some dignity and loyalty about your life style because if you live by the streets. you die or go to jail by the streets. In life, you can not expect to live rightously for ever when you ain’t living right. You do the crime you do the time. Point is, the judge don’t give a damn if you a nice guy when you’re robbing, stealing, dealing, etc. That game is so played and you can’t get no where with it. I’ve seen it too many times…seen where guys have robbed and now…you seen them ninja’s now…they look 85 years old reallly..that game will catch up with you one way or another. That street life ain’t where it is…it’s just a set up for dumb niccas to spend their life in jail! Now let’s teach our kids something different and a way to live their lives right with a whole lot of success and money. Now take that to the bank!! Chase that dream for our black kids future.
People really need to understand everything he has done for our community, far as the children Period. He always shared his wealth to the people living in poverty. From Gift cards, diamond chains, Christmas gifts, food drives, block parties, Halloween that E.C have not seen in years, Put on Local Rappers etc…..
Free The Real
free the real but it never pays to be dumb smmfh
Free Chase CLEVELAND STAND TF UP !!!!!!! B.I.F.C (BITCH IM FROM CLEVELAND)
Don’t judge if you have never been there!!! Shit is rough people just need to relax. That man took care his whole communityI bet you did not hear about any Kids being blowed down or any innocent by standers hit in a drive-by shooting it might not have been legal what he was doing but he kept his neighborhood under control and for that I take my hat off to the man
What about the lives he destroyed by dealing heroin? Somebodies momma, daddy, sister, brother lost their lives by the drugs he sold. Families were ruined. It’s sad that crime is glorified, this is how we know the devil is running rampant. What he and his partnas did, lived was wrong. That’s the truth. Why sell your spul for temporary gain.
For that bitch@ your top of page ,talking about work 4 a living! Suck dick, gay ass homosexual- Real niggas gettin it & mashing on tricks like u- Lil Waco Tx here
Free my nigga chase it’s been years since I saw him and I hate that he’s in that situation but I would like to thank him for helping me pay for collge…
Got that movie! Real 100% nigga but Im frm LiL Maab City(Waco,Tx) for u bums & yeah we getting money ova here,just like that O.G.Chase -FREE CHASE! KILLING SNITCHES U FUKK NIGGAS
I’m a Bama nigga and I fucks wit chase like my dude said the game ain’t for everybody free my nigga
Tha risk ain’t worth the reward these days!!!!
People on here acting like people in they family aint doing the same dam thang fuck u haters Mace still a real nigga at the end of the day he knew the pros n cons of the game and like he said the game aint for errrbody 117, Eddy Road, Sellers,4Life
Free my cuzen boo-e real good nigga fuck what ya heard cuz talley saying free da real
I think people need to look at the bigger picture yes drugs kill ruin lives and many other things but I got one statement don’t none of them niggas got a passport to go get none of them drugs so y’all need to blame y’all government #free chase
Niggas and Flies I do despise… When will we learn and the beat goes on. How many times do we have to go thru periods of drug dealing to learn that the gov’t is behind the drug trade in an effort to WIPE US OUT. We make 1000’s maybe a mil or 2 and they make billions and WIPE US OUT AT THE SAME TIME. Those who forget HISTORY are DOOMED to repeat it. Niggas and Flies I do despise. #ONE
Face the facts. I’m going to tell you like a drug user told me he said,” if you don’t give it to me, I’ll get somewhere else.” With that being said, drug addicts are going to use drug regardless of who gives it to them. They are destroying their own lives not the dealer. We all know how ineffective the war on drugs is. It’s ineffective because the drug trade is a business; it’s about supply and demand. We can’t control the supply of the drug because we don’t produce the drugs. For every dealer they lock up another dealer pops up reason being there is a demand for the drug in our country. I suggest trying to control the demand by taking all that tax money that we waste locking up people like Chase, Boobie Williams, big Meech, and his brother and using it to try to help our sick relatives who are addicted.
I enjoy gangster movies and I must say I like Chase’s ” The Game Ain’t For Everybody” more than I like “Paid In Full”. Do any of you know where I can find the soundtrack for “The Game Ain’t For Everybody”
Shout out cleveland free chase that shit should be entrapment how u gon pose as undercover film crew then record n shit.dats fucking bogus
People are so damn judgmental. He sold drugs, he robbed people, he this and he that, etc….. etc….. He kept it 100, whether in real life or in his videos. He is who is he is and it is what it is. He doing his time like a G, imagine that. No change for anyone whether in jail or out in any city. How many of you can say and be who you are and take the aftermath? No excuses. Just 100!!!! He supported a lot of good causes and helped many in need. No comments about that though. Nobody is perfect, just look into your own deep closets. Everyone has their own persona, why knock his? Know your position and stay there!!!!!
Free chase way from the Bahamas
When u come out holla at me just watch yo movie hype loved it love u will keep updated
I feel the hustle shit.but the robbing folks is fuckery if he robbed my ass he would b dead not in jail.a.k rowdy
Free da real i remember the lil nigga from ida n shit him & his brother heavy was some wild lil dudes shit da whole hood was #FreeChase