Ricky Donnell Ross (born May 3, 1960), also known as "Freeway" Ricky Ross , was a drug trafficker best known for the "drug empire" that he presided over in Los Angeles, in the early 1980s. The nickname "Freeway" came from Ross owning several properties along the Harbor Freeway.His old house he grew up in is where a freeway now stands. During the height of his drug dealing, Ross claims to have made "2-3 million dollars a week".
In 1996, Ross was sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of trying to purchase more than 100 kilograms of cocaine from a federal agent. Ross became the subject of controversy later that year when a series of articles by journalist Gary Webb in the San Jose Mercury News brought to light a connection between one of Ross's cocaine sources, Danilo Blandon, and the CIA as part of the Iran-Contra scandal. The decision in Ross's case was brought to a federal court of appeals where his sentence was reduced to 20 years. His sentence has since been reduced further for being a model prisoner and he was moved to a halfway house in California in March 2009, and was released on September 29, 2009.
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