In 1990, Owosso, Michigan Cops Arrested 86 Drug Dealers At Once In The Funniest Way Possible
In Owosso, Michigan, in 1990, cops managed to pull off quite the event - a wedding. What? This wasn't your typical wedding. The whole thing was a hoax set up to get dozens of drug dealers into one place. The details of the day are as entertaining as they were successful.
The "wedding sting" led to the apprehension of 86 dealers, and the whole fake wedding bust ended happily ever after. Read on to find out more about the cop-bride's wedding day jitters and the ingenious cop band that took the show.
The Bride And Groom Had Been Undercover For Months
Photo: Archives New Zealand / Flickr / CC BY 2.0Michigan police officers Debbie Williams and Lacy "Moon" Brown were partnered up in 1990. They worked as undercover cops purchasing drugs from as many as 50 dealers in Owosso, Michigan, biding their time and gathering information. After General Motors closed factories in the area in 1986, it had become rife with drug activity. Their operation was meant to counter that. The problem, they soon realized, was that they had neither the manpower nor the funding to apprehend all of the dealers and buyers in the area.
Instead of trying to chase down offenders, they came up with an alternative: they decided to hold a wedding and invite all of the local drug community to attend.
The Bride's Dress Cost $17
Photo: Simon Brass / Flickr / CC BY 2.0Brown, known as "Moon" because he liked to drop his trousers during police busts, was the one that came up with the idea in the spirit of a fake funeral he'd once staged. So, instead of coordinating drug buys, the police began planning for a wedding. They went to great pains to make the wedding as real as possible. They sent out actual invitations about three weeks before the big day, secured floral arrangements, and made centerpieces out of confiscated bottles.
Williams bought her dress at a Salvation Army Store for $17. The dress was paired with a lace garter, which came in handy.
Active And Retired Cops Made Up The Wedding Party
Photo: Phillip Pessar / Flickr / CC BY 2.0The police brought in retired cops as well as active ones from the surrounding area for the event. Retired Flint Michigan Police Sergeant Mike Parrish served as the minister, and former Police Chief Ed Boyce played the part of "Fast Eddie" Leno, the bride's father.
The arrival of Fast Eddie, in an RV from Florida, was part of an additional bust to take place right before the wedding. Eddie was going to sell over 200 pounds of marijuana.
The Cardboard Cake Was Decorated In Police Blue And Covered In Bumblebees – For The Sting
Photo: vintage19_something / Flickr / CC BY-ND 2.0To save money, the police had the top two tiers of the three-tiered wedding cake made of cardboard. They covered it with frosting, and Williams and Moon even posed in front of it for pictures. The icing on the cake, literally, was blue to honor the police, and there were bumblebees added in honor of the "sting."
The Groom's IRL Wife Played The Maid Of Honor In The Sting
Photo: Quinn Dombrowski / Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0During their time undercover, Williams and Brown had made their ways into the lives of their drug associates and figured they'd be able to pull off the ruse. When they had first gone undercover, they set up back-stories that Williams was "Debbie Leno," the daughter of a gangster named Fast Eddie. Brown was her boyfriend, Danny, a major dealer. Their efforts to seem believable payed off, and they sold themselves as a couple in love and ready to get hitched.
Brown's real wife joined in the event, serving as the maid of honor.
The Bride Kept A Gun In Her Garter
Photo: StockSnap / Pixabay / Free for commercial useAt the request of the bride's father, Fast Eddie, guests left their weapons at the door or in their cars. The garter that came with the wedding dress served as the perfect place for the bride to keep her .38 handgun during the ceremony, however. The minister, going by the name Rev. Billy Ray Hawk, had a gun in his possession too.
Briefings For The Sting Included Planning A Menu – And Discussing How The Bride Should Wear Her Hair
Wedding planners by day and associates of the underground by night, Williams and Moon spread the word of their upcoming nuptials as they continued to play the parts of Debbie and Danny. Williams recalled that the wedding "felt like it was the real thing. I was excited and nervous." As the wedding got closer, planning it felt real too.
Daily briefings included discussion of how food, seating arrangements, and how the bride should wear her hair.
The Band Was Named 'S. P. O. C.' – Reverse That, And You Get COPS
Photo: Unknown/New Trolls / Wikimedia Commons / Public DomainAfter the happy couple exchanged rings and kissed, it was time for the party to begin. Only about half of the guests had arrived, so the police decided to wait a while in the hopes that more people would show up. The band, made up of police officers and called "S. P. O. C.", began to play.
They claimed to be a marijuana-loving group whose name stood for "Somebody Protect Our Crops," but it was really just "cops" spelled backwards.
The Band Played 'I Fought The Law (And The Law Won)' To Trigger The Bust
Photo: John Joe Coffey / Flickr / CC BY 2.0Eventually, guests arrived, and the band gave the cue that it was time for the sting to take place. When they started playing an agreed-upon song, "I Fought The Law (And The Law Won)," one of the guests yelled: "Everybody here that's a cop, stand up!"
Williams took her gun out of her garter, and she and Moon started identifying suspects for the other cops in the room. The guests were reportedly stunned and had to be told repeatedly that they were really under arrest.
A Honeymoon Of Handcuffs Ensued
Photo: Mark Coggins / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0Even after the apprehension of wedding guests, which numbered in the dozens, the police continued to track down guests that had not attended. Some guests were captured, others fled, and still more posted bail following capture - and promptly disappeared. Most of the men apprehended had been in trouble with the law before, which factored into their convictions when they went to trial.
One of the men ended up getting a seven-year prison sentence.
