Sam Hurd was not a big name in pro football, but he sure sounds like a big name in the Chicago drug world.
The details of his arrest Thursday reveal a man deep into drug trafficking. Playing in the NFL was Sam Hurd’s side job.
From a pop culture perspective, Hurd’s story plays out like a story arc on The Wire or a Ghostface Killah song.
Here are some details from the criminal complaint against Hurd, available publicly.
1. Hurd told an undercover agent Wednesday night that he was looking to buy “5 to 10 kilograms of cocaine and 1,000 pounds of marijuana per week for distribution in the Chicago area.”
2. Hurd negotiated to pay $25,000 per kilogram for the cocaine and $450 per pound of the weed. So Hurd had the cash flow to pay for $575,000-$700,000 worth of drugs per week. That’s well over $2 million per month. (We’ll let you imagine how much he was bringing in or planning to bring in.)
3. The money Hurd was willing to spend was on top of what he was already purchasing elsewhere. Hurd told the informant that he currently distributed “four kilograms of cocaine per week in the Chicago area, but that the supplier could not supply him with enough quantity.”
Hurd was trying to take his operation to another level.
4. Hurd first came on the police’s radar in July. After receiving a tip, police found a man with a bag filled with $88,000 in a canvas bag. The man said the money and car belonged to Hurd. It was Hurd’s car, and the receiver still attempted to get the money back.
This should have raised a red flag, but Hurd was too foolish or in too deep to realize he needed to slow down.
5. Hurd was looking for Mexican cell phones, because he believed authorities didn’t have the ability to track them.
6. This wasn’t a small operation. Hurd only dealt with “high level” deals; a co-conspirator handled more day-to-day stuff. Hurd allegedly had business as far away as California and had a fleet of vehicles.
We suspect this story is only getting started, and it’s one that could get increasingly uncomfortable for the NFL. If Twitter is any indication, it’s already big news.
Sam Hurd is the fifth-highest trending topic in the country right now.