The murderer of Biggie Smalls (a.k.a. Notorious B.I.G.) is well known to Los Angeles police, but they refuse to proceed with an arrest, a new report alleges.
Why? Because doing so would supposedly expose a police cover-up.
A law enforcement source says under condition of anonymity:
"The LAPD Robbery Homicide unit tasked with investigating Biggie's murder knows exactly who fired the gun, and which people were involved in the planning."
The rapper (real name Christopher Wallace) was murdered while riding in the front seat of a Suburban after leaving a hip hop party in Los Angeles in 1997.
Years later, Biggie's mother, Voletta Wallace, and his widow, Faith Evans, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the LAPD and several of its members.
They allege that Wallace's death was "in a very efficient, organized and professional manner, suggesting that a high degree of coordination and planning."
The lawsuit also claims that disgraced former Officer Rafael Perez admitted to cops that he and fellow cop David Mack, "conspired to murder" Wallace.
Not only that, the two carried it out - or so the lawsuit claims.
But according to the source, "There will never be an arrest made because it would rock the department to the core. There was a cover-up after the murder."
"This goes way beyond Mack and Perez."
Notorious BIG and Puff Daddy from back in the day. Look at that beeper.
"Publicly the [LAPD] will say it's still an open investigation, but that is a sham; the old saying that the cover-up is worse than the crime couldn't be more true in this case."
"The cover-up would put numerous current and former cops behind bars for years on charges ranging from conspiracy to fraud and making false statements."
Another source says that the "cops want to make an arrest in the [Biggie] case, but witnesses haven't been cooperative, and that has been a problem from day one."
Perez was involved in a cover-up of an unrelated bank robbery, then sentenced to eight years in prison for stealing $800,000 worth of cocaine from an LAPD evidence locker.
Allegedly, the disgraced cop also shot and framed a man with gang connections, having left him paralyzed for a crime he may or may not have committed.
He also was reported to have had connections to the Los Angeles gang, the Bloods, and connections to Suge Knight, former head of Death Row Records.
There have been widespread reports that Knight ordered Wallace's murder in retaliation for the death of Tupac Shakur ... though Knight also says Tupac is alive.
In any case, the LAPD, which apologized to the rapper's family after the 2012 release of the Notorious B.I.G. autopsy report declined to comment, stating simply:
"There is no new information to give out."
Tupac Shakur poses here with his mother. The rapper was gunned down at the age of 25.
