The Firm

Colin Stanfield (1991-2001)

The most recognizable face in south Africa's gangland lived lavishly in a plush home on Baltimore Road, one of the more affluent addresses of Rondebosch East, on the outskirts of Cape Flats. Long an outlaw leader in Capetown's underworld, Stanfield lent his criminal genious and considerable influence to the organization known as the Firm in 1991. Bolstered by a leadership group which included such criminal luminaries as Stanfield, Ernie "Lastig" Solomon, Nazir Kapdi, Jackie Lonte, Glen Khan the Staggie brothers and ranking members of the 28s prison gang to name a select few, the firm quickly moved to secure control of mandrax in and around Capetown.  When the group decided to dive headlong into crack cocaine Stanfield vetoed the ideal choosing instead to conduct a controlled study of the marketability of the drug first. The firm offered financial support to Hard Livings gang leaders Rashaad and Rashied Staggie who dove head long into crack production and distribution. Satisfied that crack was as marketable as mandrax, the firm soon threw its weight behind Hard Livings cornering the market and setting prices for both drugs. Stanfield's cut of the procceds allowed him to amass a fortune in excess of $10 million. The success proved to be the undoing of the gang boss who passed himself off as a vegetable salesman.  Authorities secured a tax fraud case against Stanfield leading to his jailing in 2000. During the trial Stanfield was greeted regularly by as many as 2,000 supporters from the Capetown neighborhood he sold most of his drugs. Stanfield would serve little more than 18 months in prison earning a medical release after he was diagnosed with inoperable cancer. Stanfield died in 2001 earning praise and honor from his underworld cohorts who buried him in grand fashion.