Could it be that the “Chicago solution” is to intercept the corrupting cash at the highest level, and thus prevent it from trickling down and infecting the troops? Whether it's true or not, nobody argues that it's inconceivable. The Gangster Disciples—just one of half a dozen drug empires in Cook County—take in some $100 million a year and their overhead is peanuts^[5]. They pay no taxes, no benefits, no rent, they handle their own insurance, make their own collections, and the raw materials are so cheap they get a 300 percent return on the dollar. Which means the G.D.s could spend several million dollars a year in bribes to Cook County public officials, and it would be considered a modest cost of doing business.

But despite all the talk of high-level payoffs, Frank Goff has lately come to fear an even more ominous development in the ongoing battle. The Gangster Disciples have discovered politics. After a decade of learning how to manipulate the levers of power through surrogates, the G.D.s are beginning to look directly at the levers themselves. “It's just like the old mob days,” says Goff. “We're talking about a street gang that can intimidate people, put up your flyers, tear down all the other people's flyers, get people to vote and register and come to the polls.  This group can control a lot of votes. They finally realized that. They can elect whatever politician they want.”

The political power of the G.D.s spilled into the open one fall afternoon in 1993 at a downtown protest rally over school funding. Mayor Daley and his colleages were watching from the fifth floor of City Hall when Loop traffic suddenly ground to a halt as the march was joined by hundreds of orderly, disciplined young African Americans. What impressed the seasoned City Hall  onlookers more than anything was the fact that the troops on the streets below had apparently been fielded at a moment's notice. They carried signs that said “21st Century V.O.T.E.” According to the mayor's aides, that's the political arm of the Gangster Disciples.

“They've already elected certain people,” says Goff, “Once you get that, once you can get the judges and the lawmakers elected, you can control everything.”