Thug Life Army

The reward in the Latoyia Figueroa case has been raised to $100,000 City Councilman Juan Ramos and the Citizens Crime Commission said yesterday. The reward is being funded by rap artist Beanie Siegel and hip-hop entrepreneur Damon Dash, Beneficial Bank, T.G.I. Fridays, local philanthropists Joe Mammanaand Kal Rudman, and Internet bloggers.

Latoyia Figueroa, 24 and five months pregnant, was last reported seen on July 18, after she and Stephen Poaches, the father of her unborn daughter, visited Pennsylvania Hospital

If you have any information on Figueroa’s where abouts, call the Crime Commission’s tip line: 215-546-TIPS.

Instead of talking with reporters, Poaches is sharing his thoughts on a late-night radio sex show.

"When I see her, I am going to make sure she is OK; then I don''t want to see her no more," Poaches told Power 99 (WUSL-FM) self-described "sexpert" Girl last week.

"Hopefully [Figueroa] is in a hotel mad at everybody," Poaches said on the show, which draws about one million listeners.

The station gave police copies of interviews with Poaches.

And despite his efforts to avoid the spotlight, police have been paying close attention to him.

Yesterday, police named Poaches for the first time as a "person of interest" in the case.

Poaches is not a suspect.

Since Figueroa vanished, police have been digging through his life, repeatedly searching homes where he has stayed and impounding vehicles he uses.

Yesterday police said they had visited an "oil yard" where he works on the West Philly banks of the Schuylkill.

A police official said Poaches has no arrest record here.

Cops are still calling Latoyia's disappearance a missing-person's case even though homicide detectives are now working on the case.

According to police policy, homicide detectives investigate all missing-person cases when there is reason to believe the person may be dead.

The Golden Girl interviews are now police evidence.

The radio-show host had invited Figueroa's father, Melvin Figueroa, to talk on her show a week after the woman disappeared.

Angered that Melvin Figueroa criticized him for being absent in the searches, Poaches called the show.

"Why would I help you if you think I have done something already?" Poaches said on the show. "I can''t trust y''all. I can''t come walking with y''all nowhere."

Monday night, Golden Girl aired clips of a Saturday-night discussion with Poaches in which he referred to Figueroa as a "female."

Golden Girl asked Poaches to refer to Figueroa as his "baby's mom" instead of "female" but he refused.

In a recent interview with the Daily News, the radio-show host described the Figueroa case as "a baby-mama drama at its worst."

The term "baby mama" or "baby daddy" has become an inner-city colloquialism referring to a parent of a child who may have a casual relationship with the other parent.

Figueroa and Poaches were casually dating off and on for two years, her friends said.

She has a 7-year-old daughter with her high-school boyfriend, Anthony Williams.

Cops also said she dated numerous other men, a factor that has slowed the investigation.

About two months before Figueroa became pregnant with Poaches's child, Poaches also impregnated another woman.

Both women were angry with one another for carrying a child of Poaches'', friends said.

The Figueroa case has become the hottest topic on "Power After Hours with Golden Girl" because it is turning her usual sex show into "reality radio," Golden Girl said.