4. Mann sentenced to prison after music videos have led to a bust of drug trafficking

St. Petersburg, Fla. – – In an examination of a drug trade in Pinella's County, four men were now sentenced to prisons – one that broken with the help of music videos that the group published online.

“BTE” drug examination

The background story:

According to the US public prosecutor's office Middle District in Florida, the men were part of the group, which was known as BAG Tawk Entertainment or “BTE”, who distributed drugs from several houses in St. Pete.

Cortez Haubabook is the fourth member of the group, which is condemned in the investigation and receives a prison sentence of 25 years and 10 months in prison.

Torri McLaurin, Kristian Brown and Javontah Harris were previously convicted.

According to the USA Middle District in Florida, the group has worked through the production and sale of drugs in music videos that were published online.

“The weapons we saw in the rap video, the drugs we saw in the rap video were not artistic creativity,” said Anthony Rickman, a lawyer who is not associated with the examination. “It was real. It was her drug life.”

Many evidence in the study came directly from the music videos that were published online. '

“The government used what these accused put on social media what they used in the rap videos, against them to prove that these defendants were drug dealers,” said Rickman.

The investigators say that the lyrics, the drugs are made and sold, and the videos have exhibited the drug houses and drug utensils.

“You can identify the places of the drugs where the drugs were housed when they went into these houses,” said Rickman. “You can identify the players, but also the locations.”

In 2022 and 2023, agents carried out search commands in several houses through the music videos and confidential informant.

They discovered large amounts of cocaine, fentanyl and meth in “violation locations” in St. Pete.

In 2022, agents had said that Harris had provisional business cards with a telephone number that was returned to Haubabook.

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The years of investigation ended with the fact that all four men received prison terms from 19 to 25 years.

“None of them were actually brought to court because the government really had the government's evidence that it gave the government through its own rap videos,” said Rickman.

Haubabook was guilty in March 2024.

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