Marlo "Black" Stanfield is a fictional character on the HBO television drama The Wire, played by actor Jamie Hector. Stanfield is a young, ambitious, and extremely ruthless player and, along with Chris Partlow and Felicia "Snoop" Pearson, is head of the eponymous Stanfield Organization in the Baltimore drug trade. Marlo's organization starts out small-time, operating in the vacuum left by the Barksdale Organization, and rises to the top of the Baltimore drug trade fairly quickly. A repeated theme in Marlo's characterization is his demand for unconditional respect, which trumps all other concerns. He frequently orders the deaths of those who disrespect him or undermine his name on the streets, however unwittingly. He is arguably the most violent and ruthless of the drug kingpins portrayed in The Wire. Marlo "Black" Stanfield's background prior to his drug empire is largely unexplored. He was a previous suspect in an unsolved case for Homicide Detective Vernon Holley; Holley believed it ...