I was in a suburb of Chicago. I, and others like me, were small time and had no need for any affiliations. I did do some business with street thugs, but I kept it minimal and as a last resort. Those were some dangerous people to be around. My record for a month was about 450 grams (1 pound). The people that could supply that usually had multiple Kilograms at their disposal and had names like Tony or (ironically) Vinny and were good fellasInteressting, I've never dealt myself nor used anything other than weed. Did you have to look out for gangs or were you affiliated with any gang? During my college days, which was also a looooooong time ago, if you weren't gang affiliated and dealt anywhere close to their territory they, at the very least, put you into the hospital for a good while. 30 years ago was around when Crips and Bloods started branching out, so I would've been scared to death.
I think, and this is only 2nd hand knowledge, that being spotted the drugs only applies in structured, hierachical gang dealings. You get a certain amount of drugs each cycle, you give every cent of the money to the boss of the set and he then gives you some of it back. And as far as I know how much you get back, depends much more on the mood of the boss at that moment than on any prenegotiated amount or how much you actually sold.
I never knew any more than I needed to, for obvious reasons. It was always cash and carry for me. I had to deal with my deadbeat 'friends' on my own. Things were so low profile, that the big dogs never even had me in their radar.
Hindsight being 20/20, I was fucking stupid in those days but I had soooooo much fun.
7thOmen