Tha Row Gets Raided

Thu., Nov. 14, 2002 5:15 PM PST by Josh Grossberg

The police moved in on Tha Row today.

Authorities in Los Angeles and Las Vegas paid an early morning visit to Marion "Suge" Knight's record company Thursday, raiding the rap impresario's offices and homes in connection to a murder investigation. Several arrests were made.

Knight's lawyer, Arthur Barens, said a multi-agency task force, including LAPD and sheriff's officers, turned up at 5 a.m. at Tha Row's Beverly Hills offices armed with search warrants and accompanied by a SWAT team. The cops also hit a location in Compton, as well as homes in Las Vegas once owned by Knight.

"Investigators from the gang-crimes unit along with homicide investigators served 15 warrants in Los Angeles county and one warrant in Las Vegas," said a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. "The house they served the warrant on in Las Vegas is believed to be formerly owned by Marion 'Suge' Knight."

With authorities initially tight-lipped about the crackdown, the rumor mill went into full effect, speculating that the arrests may have been tied to the still-unsolved murders of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. and possibly the recent murder of Run-D.M.C.'s Jam Master Jay.

But by Thursday afternoon, a sheriff's investigator insisted "there is no relationship." Addressing reporters at a late-afternoon press conference, the lead investigator, Pete Amico, said, "This is strictly a gang-related murder in the city of Compton. Suge Knight is not a suspect."

The arrests were made in connection with the June 7 murder of a gangbanger named Eric Daniels. So far, five people were taken into custody. Two people were nabbed at Tha Row HQ for conspiracy to commit murder and pot possession. Police also made two additional arrests on the conspiracy to commit murder charge at two other locations. The fifth arrest came for cultivation of marijuana.

Barens indicated that neither he nor Knight knew the nature of the investigation and said police assured him that his client was not a target. The attorney also said Knight was willing to cooperate with authorities should the need arise to question him.

Formerly known as Death Row Records, Tha Row hasn't broken any huge acts in years, largely because its driving force, Knight, was serving time for a probation violation. The 300-poundish rap boss allegedly kicked a man in the head during a Las Vegas brawl just hours before Death Row's most prolific rapper, Shakur, was fatally shot while sitting in Knight's car on the Las Vegas Strip.

Knight served four and a half years of a nine-year sentence and was released in August of 2001.

Knight has denied any involvement in the Shakur murder or the subsequent slaying of rival rapper Biggie, whose real name was Christopher Wallace. (A widely criticized investigation into Shakur's killing conducted by the Los Angeles Times suggested the rapper was murdered by a gang member at Wallace's behest.)

The Justice Department recently ended a federal racketeering investigation into Knight and Tha Row, alleging it was a cover for alleged tax fraud and links to street gangs, drug dealing, money laundering and several assaults. Frustrated by the lack of evidence, prosecutors settled with the company, which pleaded guilty to a pair of misdemeanor tax charges.