LA Police Raid Rap Empire's Hq in Hunt for Gang Murderers

The rap and hip-hop empire of Marion "Suge" Knight has this week been the focus of one of the largest gang murder investigations ever mounted.

More than 170 sheriff's deputies, including members of their heavily armed Swat teams, raided Knight's offices and former homes in the Los Angeles area. Three of his associates were charged with conspiracy in one of the tit-for-tat murders that have cast a shadow over the rap music world for almost a decade.

Last weekend, Ali Miyzaan, a rapper who appears in the film 8 Mile, starring Eminem, was shot and wounded in Detroit. Last month, Jason Mizell, better known as the DJ Jam Master Jay of Run-D.M.C., was murdered in New York.

While rap music is now mainstream and 8 Mile has broken box-office records across the US, the growing number of unsolved murders connected to the business continues to damage the image of rap.

Even by the standards of LA's gangland operations, the swoop on 16 different sites from Malibu to Long Beach, Beverly Hills to Compton was spectacular. It is being seen as an indication of the desire of the authorities to get to the bottom of a series of killings that started with the 1996 murders of the rappers Tupac Shakur and Christopher Wallace, also known as the Notorious B.I.G.

The raids prompted an angry response from supporters of Knight, who founded Death Row Records. Officials said he was not a suspect.

Rap artists Lady Nieya and LA Nash protested outside the offices of Tha Row Records, Knight's new company, in Beverly Hills yesterday.

Knight's home in Malibu was also searched. Yesterday his lawyer, David Chesnoff, issued a statement on behalf of his client: "We appreciate the professionalism of the police in clearly indicating that Mr Knight is not a suspect."

The three men arrested are accused of conspiring in the murder in June of Eric Daniel, a member of the Compton Bloods gang whose nickname was "Scar". Daniel's killing followed the murder in April of Alton McDonald, a close associate of Knight.

The latest related murder, that of another member of Tha Row staff, Henry "Hendog" Smith, took place only last month.

A former sheriff's deputy, Kordell Knox, was one of those whose arrest related to the Daniel conspiracy. He was dismissed from the sheriff's office earlier this year when he first came under suspicion.

Two alleged gang members, Michael Payne, a security guard at Tha Row, and Theodore Kelly, who was arrested at Tha Row offices, were also charged. Knight has employed many ex-gang members, saying that he wanted to give them a second chance.

A spokesman for the sheriff's department said yesterday that Knight's office was raided following a tip that Daniel's murder may have been planned there.

The use of the Swat teams, he said, was due to the violent nature of the crimes under investigation.

The arrests were applauded by Daniel's mother. Rose Mary Daniel-Rogers told the LA Times: "It feels like something has just lifted. You don't know how good I feel. It's just the idea of me knowing who really murdered my baby."

She said she would tell her eight-year-old grandson that someone had been arrested in connection with his father's murder. "Now he doesn't have to be mad with the world," she said.

One of Knight's Las Vegas properties was also searched. Knight himself was jailed in 1997 for a parole violation following a fight in a Las Vegas hotel in which Tupac Shakur and four Bloods members, including Alton McDonald, were also involved. Hours later Shakur was shot dead with Knight by his side.

A few months later, Christopher Wallace was shot dead while sitting in his car. Another Blood involved in the brawl, Aaron "Heron" Palmer, has also since been killed.

Knight was released from jail in 2001 and set up Tha Row Records, which has so far been less successful than the old Death Row. The killings were explored by British director Nick Broomfield in his documentary, Biggie and Tupac, released this summer.