From three or four kilos we started moving twenty-four kilos every two weeks,. We started making money. I’m talking about counting money on machines for hours. It was fun. I liked it. I liked the fact that people knew me. People wanted to talk to me. I liked the fact that I didn’t have to wait in line to go to a club. I liked the fact that I could have any women I wanted. I liked the fact that I could have cars and jewelry. The bad thing is after people know you’re making money they want to kill you because you’re taking money from their business.
That’s when things started getting bad. I got stabbed a couple of times. I’ve been in a couple of shootouts in Puerto Rico. I remember one time I was in a shootout. I heard a bullet go by so close to my head that I heard the sound as it passed my ear. You can actually hear a bullet go by your ear if you’re that close. When that happens you freeze. The bullets don’t last like in the movies. In the movies, the gun will last you for like half an hour. In real life, the bullets are gone in seconds. There're only sixteen bullets in a Glock .40. And they go like this. (snap)
Coming from private schools all my life and a college education; those two elements combined gave me an edge to deal with any kind of person. I was lethal doing what I was doing. I was good. I remember, if he wanted to deal with prices, he would fly me in. He goes, “No. Let the Bambino go.” He (my supplier), put a name on me; “Bambino.” I don’t know why. I don’t know why. That’s what everybody called me. If it had to do with prices, “Bambino has to go.” I was good. I could talk somebody down. I could make them see what I wanted and how it can be beneficial to you for you to give me that price.
Now, through all this, I would pray. People who knew me would tell you that I would take guys into restaurants and everybody knew to take off their hats. Everybody already knew. One of the guys, who I still talk to, asked me, “Why do you pray? You know what we do here, right? We sell drugs and get into things with other people. Why do you even pray? Our business is to sell drugs and kill people. This is what we do. What, you think you’re going to heaven?” I said, “No, I’m not saying that. I know it’s wrong. It should be stopped. I just can’t do it.”
They were watching us for a while. I was like, “Oh my goodness. They just don’t know how we do it. They don’t know how we do this.” So I called. I said, “Listen, they’re gonna catch us. They have pictures. They already have us on satellite. They’re gonna get us.” Their answer was, “Man, I got this.” My reply was, “Are you serious? You have money. You have a million and a half dollar house. You can start a business. Just get out.” I said, “I’m getting out. I have half a million dollars in a safety deposit box, and I just got back with my son’s mother. I got my family. I’m out.”
I go one day to the safety deposit box. I knew the box should have a certain weight to it. You expect to handle that package with that certain amount of weight. So, when I went like this to the safety deposit box, it went up like this, because it was it was empty. It had nothing. I had no money. I got a job. All of a sudden I hear that they caught people. They were catching this guy. They were catching that guy. I said, “Oh, My goodness.” I had a friend, that’s a good friend still right now, that told me, “Listen, the word is, they’re gonna kill you.” I said, “Why would this guy kill me? I have done nothing. I’m like his brother. He’s making a lot of money because of me. He said; “I don’t know.” I said; “Whatever.”
Out of nowhere my uncle calls me. He said; “Anthony, why don’t you stop this life? They’re gonna kill you, man. You’re gonna end up dead or in jail for the rest of your life.” I was sad. I was down. I had nowhere to go. I had a *stash house that was paid for. So I could stay there, but it was a stash house. I wasn’t used to that. I said to my uncle. “Let me think about it.”
One time I went to get a couple of bags of heroin in the projects. There was one guy takes the money and another one gives you the drugs. The drug guy said, “Where’s the money for the two bags?” I said, “I gave you the hundred dollar bill.” He said, “You didn’t give me anything.” I told him, “I gave it to the guy who takes the money.” He said, “No” then took out a gun to kill me. I said, “Whoa, what are you doing?” He said, “Sorry man, You gotta die.”
All of a sudden another guy comes out of nowhere, and says, “No. I know him.” I didn’t know this guy. Again he said, “No, I know this guy. I’ll pay for him. I know the rules. You have to get the big dog. He has to settle this. That’s the rule.” This was in Puerto Rico which is different. It’s kind of organized over there. So the guy comes and says to me, “What happened?” So I told him what happened. I said to him, I said; “Listen, man,” He said, “Don’t worry about it. Here're two bags, and here’s a hundred dollars. Sorry about the trouble.”
I said, “Alright, Where’s the guy? He said, “What guy? I said, “The guy that was here that said he knew me. He said, “What are you talking about? You’re that high?” Sometimes I think I’m crazy. Maybe I was high, but I’m telling you there was a guy that said, “No! I know him. You know the rules. He was there. I know I’m not crazy. He was there. I’ve gotten high so many times. I know what I see but they do not remember him. That did not let me sleep for like a week. I said, “God, did you send an angel to save my life?”
If I told you the many times I should have been dead from stabbings and shootings. I’ve been kidnapped and burned with cigarettes in an attempt to make me talk. I got out of that, and they were gonna kill me. So, I said, “Lord, maybe there is a purpose for me. Get me out of this. Get me out of this life.” I started praying a lot more. I started feeling guilty of the things that I did. “What am I doing? How many people am I killing? How many people are overdosing with my product?
I didn’t really mention it to the guys because I didn’t want to sound weak. I didn’t want to sound like I was not in control of my emotions. They only knew that I prayed a lot. That’s when I told my uncle. I said, “Okay, I’ll go. I’m gonna give God a chance. I’m gonna go all in; whatever happens.
Long story short, I came. Of course, I’d call to see what was going on. They would tell me, “Listen, they want to kill you. They went in there and shot your place down.” I said, “Really? Okay.” That hurt me. It’s not like I grew up with the guy, but when you do a lot of things with a guy; things that he knows and you know can send you to jail for a long time, and you don’t say anything, it builds trust and a relationship. I knew his family. We went out together and we did things. I trusted him. I felt hurt that he would want to kill me.
What happened is that he finally found out who it was that had testified against him. He tried to get in touch with me. That’s what I hear. That’s not gonna happen. I kind of frown upon people that want to kill me. He got two life sentences because he wouldn’t get out when I told him. The other guy got twenty years and the other one got twenty-two-year prison sentences. I sometimes think God takes everything away just to build you back up. Everything I had was materialistic things. I was unhappy. I was so unhappy. I would never smile. They would tell you, “Anthony never smiles. Bambino just doesn’t smile.” Now I smile all the time. I am graduating in May with a Clinical in Psychology Bachelors degree. I’m going to do my Master's in September. I start my Master’s right away. I hope to be a Doctor in a few years.
I’ve talked in front of the Army and in churches. Professors ask me to tell my story in front of classes. In the beginning, I felt like I was unworthy of this. Who am I? Of course, I read the bible and I read about Jesus and how He connected with tax collectors and prostitutes; people who were just like me. I’m never gonna be worthy of him, but I can try to help somebody.
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