Flippa Moggela charged for allegedly masterminding international drug ring
Popular Dancehall star, Andrew Davis, more popularly known as Flippa Moggela faces several charges in the United States in relation to a major international drug bust, that law enforcement officials allege he was the mastermind of.
Multiple American publications confirmed Thursday night that the 34-year-old Davis, formerly known as Flippa Mafia, faces charges of cocaine distribution, money laundering, leading a drug trafficking network and conspiracy along with his brother, Kemar Davis, 22 and Marsha Bernard, 28. Six others were arrested by New Jersey police and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) as part of a two-and-a-half year long investigation into the ring, dubbed Operation Next Day Air, which involved the trafficking of drugs across various American states.
Investigators allege that Davis, from his home in Kingston, would order Kemar to send drugs from California, where his younger brother was based, to Bernard, who was based in New Jersey. Bernard would then allegedly distribute cocaine shipments to other drug dealers, collect the proceeds and send them to the Davis brothers.
Said investigators were tipped off about the drug ring thanks to two packages seized by detectives from the Camden High Intensity Area Drug Trafficking Task Force and the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office in March 2011. The
packages, sent to a New Jersey facility, contained 8kg of cocaine. Flippa and his brother were purportedly the recipients of this package.
In March of this year, search warrants were executed throughout New Jersey, later leading to the arrest of Bernard and Kemar Davis. During those searches, US$600,000 was seized as well as two guns and 26 kgs of cocaine worth US$780,000, which police say was just a sample size of the amount of drugs smuggled into the country.
Flippa Moggela was arrested on Sept. 16 in Los Angeles and later extradited to New Jersey on Oct. 3.
“These international cocaine traffickers were using major parcel shippers to put their poison on the streets of New Jersey, where it fueled all of the secondary crimes and violence that are inextricably linked to drug dealing,” read a statement from New Jerset Acting Attorney General, John J. Hoffmann.
Known for living a flashy lifestyle on and off stage, Flippa Moggela gained popularity for his breakthrough hit, Unfinished House in 2008. He also had a base in Philadelphia, where he performed several shows and recently tried his hand at producing with the release of the Raw Cash Riddim in February through his Flip Money Records imprint.