LOS ANGELES - Slain Brooklyn rapper Christopher "Notorious B.I.G." Wallace was killed with "very rare" metal-piercing German ammunition that could help unlock his 1997 unsolved murder, new files released by the FBI reveal.
The so-called 9mm Gecko bullets are sold exclusively at two distributors in the U.S. - one in California and one in New Jersey - the 359-page cold case file released under the Freedom of Information Act says.
According to the feds, ammunition also thought to be 9mm Gecko was later found in the residence of rogue Los Angeles Police Department cop David Mack - along with a "shrine" to Tupac Shakur - when Mack was busted for bank robbery shortly after Wallace's death.
The FBI scrubbed Mack's name from the paperwork, but his identity is clear based on previously released information about his robbery conviction and the Shakur shrine uncovered in his garage.
Investigators wrote they were unaware of any tests conducted to connect the bullets.
"LAPD has also never matched the ammunition found (redacted) during the search after the bank robbery with the bullets used to kill Biggie," an FBI chronology from 2002 states. "It is unclear whether the 9mm Gecko ammunition has ever been compared to some of the 9mm ammunition found (redacted) that is believed to be Gecko."
A retired LAPD cop testified about Mack's Shakur shrine in 2005 and his theory that Mack used his police expertise to help hip-hop mogul Marion "Suge" Knight order Wallace's hit as payback for Shakur's unsolved murder six months earlier.
Both Mack and Knight have denied any involvement in the hail of gunfire that killed Wallace, 24, as he sat in a vehicle on a Los Angeles street.
LAPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In another interesting twist, the FBI paperwork claims Wallace had connections to New York's Genovese crime family and that NYPD investigators were tailing him in Los Angeles shortly before his murder.
The FBI shelved its investigation in 2005 after failing to find enough evidence to charge anyone. The LAPD probe is continuing.
The so-called 9mm Gecko bullets are sold exclusively at two distributors in the U.S. - one in California and one in New Jersey - the 359-page cold case file released under the Freedom of Information Act says.
According to the feds, ammunition also thought to be 9mm Gecko was later found in the residence of rogue Los Angeles Police Department cop David Mack - along with a "shrine" to Tupac Shakur - when Mack was busted for bank robbery shortly after Wallace's death.
The FBI scrubbed Mack's name from the paperwork, but his identity is clear based on previously released information about his robbery conviction and the Shakur shrine uncovered in his garage.
Investigators wrote they were unaware of any tests conducted to connect the bullets.
"LAPD has also never matched the ammunition found (redacted) during the search after the bank robbery with the bullets used to kill Biggie," an FBI chronology from 2002 states. "It is unclear whether the 9mm Gecko ammunition has ever been compared to some of the 9mm ammunition found (redacted) that is believed to be Gecko."
A retired LAPD cop testified about Mack's Shakur shrine in 2005 and his theory that Mack used his police expertise to help hip-hop mogul Marion "Suge" Knight order Wallace's hit as payback for Shakur's unsolved murder six months earlier.
Both Mack and Knight have denied any involvement in the hail of gunfire that killed Wallace, 24, as he sat in a vehicle on a Los Angeles street.
LAPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In another interesting twist, the FBI paperwork claims Wallace had connections to New York's Genovese crime family and that NYPD investigators were tailing him in Los Angeles shortly before his murder.
The FBI shelved its investigation in 2005 after failing to find enough evidence to charge anyone. The LAPD probe is continuing.
