Michael “Harry-O” Harris, the former Los Angeles cocaine kingpin who financed the record label known for signing 2Pac, Dr. Dre, and Snoop Dogg, has been denied an early release from federal prison, despite reports last year that his freedom was imminent.
Since the late 1980s, Harris, 58, has been serving federal and state sentences related to operating an 11-state cocaine trafficking empire that dealt directly with the Colombia-based Cali Cartel. But his work from behind bars as a journalist and philanthropist has earned widespread support for his release, including from community leaders and elected officials in the Bay Area.
Last August, the Daily Mail reported that Harris was being freed “in coming months” and planned to stay at a halfway house in Texas. However, six months later, he remains incarcerated in Federal Correctional Institution Lompoc with a release date set for October 2028, officials at Lompoc and the Central District U.S. Attorney’s office confirmed this week.
Throughout his life, both inside and out of prison, Harris has been known for success. In his 20s, he became a millionaire through cocaine sales, and went on to finance the Broadway hit Checkmates.
In the early 1990s, while serving prison terms totaling more than 40 years, Harris financed the start of Death Row Records with a $1.5 million investment to the label’s co-founder Marion “Suge” Knight. The label went on to produce some of the best-known records in rap history, including Dr. Dre’s The Chronic and the last 2pac album released during the late rapper’s life, All Eyez on Me.
“I was not a drug dealer. I was a person who decided to sell drugs, but I also at another point decided that I didn’t want to do that anymore,” Harris said in a phone interview for the 2001 documentary Welcome to Death Row. “So I took those proceeds and invested in various real estate and businesses that turned out to be quite profitable.”
Source: Mercury News
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