This almost sounds too ridiculous to be true, but according to The Smoking Gun, a nationwide cocaine ring was recently broken up that involved using pickups and deliveries from Interscope Records. The Department of Justice gave defense lawyers shipping records detailing records of road cases that were stuffed with kilos of cocaine and more than $1 million dollars in cash. This is the result of a year-long DEA operation that wound up with the indictment of James Rosemond on 18 felony charges. Rosemond, currently being held without bail in Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center, was a manager whose biggest client was Interscope act The Game.
According to a letter sent to Rosemond’s lawyer, prosecuter Todd Kaminsky said investigators were turning over records including shipping information from Rock-It Cargo, a freight forwarder. Apparently road cases were coming from a recording studio on the West Side of Manhattan to Interscope’s Los Angeles offices. Some of the associates of Rosemond that admitted their roles in the operation told DEA agents that they were sent to Interscope or music studios to pick up the road cases. The investigators allege that kilos of cocaine were shipped from L.A. to New York where they were sold, while the proceeds were packed into road cases and sent back to Los Angeles.
Well, that’s one way for labels to boost their bottom line. While there’s no proof to suggest that anyone at the Interscope outside of Rosemond knew about the operation, it’s unfortunate that one of the few remaining major labels has this potential scandal to deal with. With the exception of Black Tide, Interscope doesn’t have any metal acts on the label, but they are home to acts including Lady Gaga and U2.
