How to Sell Drugs

RYAN: How are you? RYAN: [INAUDIBLE] MAN: Yeah. RYAN: So we first met Nims a few months ago. And after earning his trust for a little while, he agreed to let us hang out with him. But for really obvious reasons, a lot of the names and places that you see in this piece are going to be withheld. RYAN: So after about a half an hour of twists and turns down a whole bunch of streets we didn't recognize, we finally arrived Nims' apartment. The walls are mostly bare, and besides a bed and dresser and a big screen TV, it didn't look like anyone actually lived there. RYAN: Per week? NIMS: I could just do it myself. RYAN: At the age of 17, Nims was arrested with a felony weight of ***. Just months before his 18th birthday, he faced the possibility of a 20 year prison sentence. RYAN: Where did they send you? NIMS: It was three years in jail or take the SHOCK program. Do six months of kiss ***, suck *** too [INAUDIBLE]. They punch you. They tell you when to eat. They tell you how to do everything. Probably worse than a military boot camp. I wound up doing four months. If you don't stop and think before you do, you're going to find yourself in trouble every *** time you do something. [PHONE RINGING] [MUSIC PLAYING] NIMS: 4:50. You got to sacrifice. RYAN: Over the past few years, the volume of calls is Nims receives each day has grown exponentially. After months of working 12 to 15 hour shifts, seven days a week, and with numerous failed attempts, he eventually put together a reliable crew. After a quick call, he invited us back to the stash house to meet one of them. RYAN: When we arrived at Nims' stash house, we were surprised to find Mild. He was a crew member that we had met on a previous shoot, but we knew he had just been arrested. He told us all about how Nims had covered his bail, and even brought in his own very expensive lawyer to get Mild's sentence reduced to probation. [PHONE RINGING] RYAN: Even with the recent proposed [INAUDIBLE], general marijuana arrest, and an aggressive stop and frisk, program, it was really hard to believe that the volume of product that Nims was distributing each week could be produced locally, under the nose of the NYPD. NIMS: You've got your [INAUDIBLE] ounces. Then you've got your dimes. [MUSIC PLAYING] [PHONE DINGS] RYAN: Nims' father was a known contract killer, employed by one of the notorious five mafia families of New York. The number of unsolved murders associated with him is unknown. But it's more than you can count on one hand. RYAN: For Nims' protection, his father's name, and that of the organization he worked for, has been withheld. RYAN: Have you ever felt afraid for retribution for some of the things that your dad did? RYAN: But you would never take it as far as he did? [MUSIC PLAYING] RYAN: Things begin to intensify when Nims spotted a guy that he had fronted $2,400 to make a small scale drug purchase. RYAN: When it became apparent that the situation over the fronted money was prime to erupt into a full on beef between the two, Nims paused our conversation to give his partners a heads up. NIMS: Yeah, *** them ***. I take care of my customers. She was diagnosed a couple months ago. 50 years of smoking cigarettes finally caught up to her. It just gets worse and worse day by day. [MUSIC PLAYING] RYAN: What's the first thing you're going to do when you're done? So what's better about this current girlfriend you got? How is it different than the girls that you've dated since you've been working? NIMS: She's a lot older than me. But her mind frame is where my mind frame is. RYAN: You see a future in her? [MUSIC PLAYING]