The Connect- with Johnny Mitchell - Brooklyn Drug Lord Reveals Bodega COCAINE EMPIRE, Making $1 Million A Day, KILLING His Rivals

Episode Date: April 5, 2026

From the cities of the Dominican Republic to the streets of Washington Heights to the heart of Brooklyn’s most dangerous neighborhoods, this is the untold story of Adam Diaz — a teenage immigrant who rose to become one of New York’s most powerful cocaine kingpins. By just 18 years old, Diaz had already made his first million. Within a year, he was moving dozens of kilos a day through a network of bodegas, hidden stash houses, and underground tunnels — building an empire that generated millions of dollars weekly. His operation stretched across boroughs, fueled by direct connections to Colombian suppliers and protected by corruption at the highest levels, including ties to dirty NYPD officers. But behind the wealth, power, and influence was a world of constant violence, paranoia, and survival. Shootouts in broad daylight, rival crews, federal investigations, and betrayals from within — every move carried deadly consequences. This conversation dives deep into the rise, expansion, and eventual downfall of Adam Diaz’s drug empire, revealing how the crack era, systemic corruption, and street economics created a perfect storm for one of the most explosive criminal careers of the 1980s. From million-dollar days to federal prison sentences, this is a raw and unfiltered look at ambition, risk, and the true cost of the drug game. Go Support Adam! https://kingofbrooklyn.weebly.com/ This Episode Is #Sponsored By The Following: Hims! To get simple, online access to personalized, affordable care for ED, Hair Loss, Weight Loss, and more, visit https://hims.com/connect Prescription required. See website for details and important safety information. Sildenafil is the generic version of Viagra®. Viagra® is a registered trademark of Viatris Specialty LLC. Hims is not affiliated with or endorsed by Viatris. Shopify! It’s time to turn those “What Ifs” into with Shopify today. Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial today at https://shopify.com/mitchell Ava! Take control of your credit today. Download the Ava app, and when you join using MY promo code CONNECT20, you’ll get 20% off your first year—monthly or annual, your choice. Join The Patreon For Bonus Content! https://www.patreon.com/theconnectshow 00:00 Adam Diaz's Rise: Making a Million at 18 02:00 From Dominican Republic to NYC: Early Life 05:30 Dominican Drug Dealers in New York 10:00 Washington Heights & NYC Drug Scene 16:58 This Episode Is Sponsored By Hims! 18:29 Getting into the Game: Family Ties 22:00 First Bodega Hustles and Street Fights 26:00 Taking Over the Drug Spot 29:40 This Episode Is Sponsored By Shopify! 31:56 Scaling Up: Building the Network 35:00 Supply Chains: Colombian Connections 41:00 The Bodega Operation: Logistics & Hidden Tunnels 47:00 Expansion: Multiple Bodegas, Factories & Staff 50:17 This Episode Is Sponsored By Ava! 51:39 Dealing with Cops and Corruption 01:00:00 Major Busts, Stick-Ups, and Surviving Shootouts 01:05:00 Wholesale Moves & Dealing with Competition 01:14:00 Importing Direct: Wanting to Be the Plug 01:18:00 Peak Operations: Moving Serious Weight 01:22:00 Paying Off Police & Dirty Cops in the Mix 01:27:00 Violence, Loyalty, and Surviving Attacks 01:34:00 Going Global: Importing and Losing Millions 01:43:00 The Fall: Getting Caught and Beating the Case 01:51:00 Court Drama and Plea Bargain 01:59:00 Family Reactions and Reflection 02:04:00 Sentencing and Aftermath 02:09:00 Present Day: Life After the Drug Game Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Four kilos a day. He says, so how long is that going to take you to sell that? That's just been sold. How many kilos can you sell tonight? Say five. By a week and a half or two weeks, he was already giving me on consignment 10 kilos. I used to sell like 18 to 25 kilos a day. You think you're making a million dollars a week?

More than that. Maybe three, four, or five minutes. Adam Diaz is a former Dominican drug lord, drug lord, who was featured in the hit HBO documentary, The 7-5. Adam moved with his family from the Dominican Republic to New York City when he was 13 years old, and by the time he was 19, he was making millions of dollars a day moving cocaine out of a string of bodegas that he owned in East New York, Brooklyn. This is where he met Mike Dow, the dirty New York cop who helped Adam locate his enemies

and elude the feds for years. Adam was a true kingpin. He had an army of workers, couriers, drive, and hitmen operating all over the city. The amount of money he made was staggering, literally millions of dollars and dozens of kilos moving in and out of his Brooklyn bodegas 24 hours a day. And his saga didn't end there. After catching a small federal case in the early 1990s,

Adam got out and went even bigger, establishing drug smuggling routes from Colombia and Venezuela through the Caribbean and into New York City, where he imported thousands of kilos at a time through shipping containers. That's going to be in part two, which you can get early over at our Patreon. Today, Adam is back living in the Dominican Republic where he owns resorts, hotels, and a cigar brand that he started with Mike Dowd.

Ladies and gentlemen, they do not make dudes like this anymore. The one and only Adam Diaz right here on The Connect with Johnny Mitchell. We got a hot one today, you guys. It's Adam Diaz. Real quick before we get started, do me a favor if you haven't subscribed to the channel yet and quickly hit that subscribe button and turn on the alert bell. And if you love the episode, leave us a like and a comment. It really pushes the video out.

All right, let's do it. Adam Diaz. Enjoy. So you grew up on the island. Where did you grow up? I'm from the Capitol. I'm from the Capitol. Yeah.

As a matter of fact, the only time that I came to Santiago, where I live now, was to buy a Mercedes that they only had it here. This agency is the only one that had that Mercedes. And I came and paid $100,000. It's only $72,000. in fucking New York, and I had to pay $100,000 because it's in the Dominican Republic. And I paid it and I took it back to the capital.

That's all I did back in the 80s. You spent $100,000 cash in Dominican Republic? Back in the days, I used to bring, remember back in the days, it was only American Airlines, it was not even Nister or no, it was Pan-Anne and American Airlines. I used to bring a bag full of money right through the fucking to immigration or, you know. As a matter of I used to use the same thing.

The same bag they promote. It's called Pan Am. It's a blue, I never forget about a blue bag, a little bag, and I put all the money there. Every time I come from the same, money, money, money, money. But then my business grows so big that I had to send people with money, you know, and make transfers. So you're bringing all your drug money

and hiding it here from New York? I didn't hire. I was buying properties. Part of the properties in Cabaretta, I bought it with that money a long time ago. Do you think a lot of these properties, especially on the coast right here, a lot of them originated with drug money from Dominicans who made it in New York? No, this is way bigger than that. Here is way bigger.

Like they have a lot of Russians, Sosua and Cabarette. They have a lot of Russians with big money. They come from Europe and spend it here. And they wash it. Right. You know? Why do we think Dominicans were so, of all, the islanders who left and went to New York and Virginia and Philadelphia, why were

Dominicans like the top island drug dealers? What is it about this place? Because Dominican Republic, the Dominicans, and I'm not going to say Dominican Republic, Dominican people, right, the Dominican guys, they have very similar culture with Colombians. They don't have a similar culture with Puerto Ricans or Panamanians or Venezuelans. They have a very similar culture. So they get along. Like, I will sit down with Colombians and spend hours and then we're going to end up drinking and fucking the same girls. You know, Puerto Ricoas, we don't.

Most Puerto Ricans, they have a complex. They have a complex. Why? Because back in it is something that grew up really bad. Puerto Ricans used to come way back when the slavery, they used to come and work that sugarcane in this country, right? But then Puerto Rico became an associated island to the states. They became very rich.

That's so fascinating, even though Puerto Rico is right there, Haiti's connected, Haiti's part of the island. Dominicans have more connection culturally to Colombians. And do you think that is why, Colombians gave you love when they first started bringing work. Yes. Because communication is the best. Communication always.

If you can't communicate, you can't. There's nothing you can do. And, you know, Colombians, when you talk to them, like I could talk to them, business, about business. Like, one time I sat down with one of the, Medellín, I tell big boss, right? And his wife is Spanish from Spain. And we sit in the living room like this in New York, big room. And we talk and we're having a long conversation.

And we were arguing about the prize. And Puerto Ricans, they lose their time. They go, they get loud and they got ghetto. I don't do that. I sit down with a guy and the big Columbia guy, young guy. something like Billy the kid they call him like I um shit I forgot his name

and I had a conversation with a very respectful guy very you know they talk with respect so we're talking and he sit down and trying to explain Luke Adam I'm sorry but we can't the price I say listen I'm trying to manage my business

And you guys, I'm happy. I'm going to take your work anyway. It doesn't matter. But it's not going to speed up because go to the street. Don't listen to me. Don't fucking, don't believe me. Go to the street. Find out how the prices are.

And these people, they prefer to pay for less quality and don't pay that much money you ask. Then, you know, then pay the price, you know, they're not going to do that. What was the ticket they wanted to charge you? It was like $28,000 a kilo. they wanted $32,000. And if it's $22,000 in the street, $28,000 in the street,

you got to give it to me at $22. It's not going to work for me. So, but I know the numbers. I know how much they pay over there. I know how much they're spending to bring it. The traveling and everything, the delivery. I know everything. So they're not going to fool me by,

oh, we're not making any money. You fucking make a fortune, motherfucker. Don't come with that shit. You make it a fucking fortune. Of course. Now, did you have multiple connects in Colombia, or did you just deal with one group? No, I had two connections from Colombia,

and I have one Dominican, good one. Good connection, Dominican. The good thing about the Dominican connection was that I have a lot of credit with the guy. Because the guy know all my family, the guy knows all my properties in Dominican, and he was like, I don't quit fucking sleep.

sleep in my house. Mm-hmm. You know. Now, now in this day and age, the Dominican is a hub for kilos coming through the Caribbean. They either go to Puerto Rico or they go over to Europe. It used to be. Was it back in your day though? Yeah, but the difference is it was not, it was only a few.

It was only a few of them. Now there's a lot of them, you know, because Colombians, they like retired. They like, they work from Colombia. Right. They don't get out of the island because all the... fucking tradition and all the bullshit that's going on. They stay on the low, low profile, you know. Okay, so you grew up, you moved from the Dominican to, from the capital, your family moved

in 1979. To New York City. Straight to New York. Yeah. The Big Apple. Now were you, what kind of childhood did you have? In New York? No, in growing up in Santa Domingo.

Were you guys working class? I was a tough kid. I was a tough kid. I used to be on the scene. water all the time, beaches like that, but wild where they had sharks and everything. I used to be getting in the farms where they have bulls, we mess around with the bulls, you know, climbing up the trees. I was a crazy kid. Were you guys poor or why did you choose to move to you? Not poor, middle class. Middle class. My father was a school teacher for a college.

As a matter of fact, the college was named United States of America, high school, and then the college. And I remember that because he made a big, he made a big, that school made a bit impression in my life. Because they, you know, I think it was for the Fourth of July or I don't know why, they brought this rock band, you know, like rock and roll band. And I, and I never experienced that that. I was listening to Spanish music. I'm a kid. And my father brought me to that, to the school that day, said, there's a cancer. I want to bring you. He brought me. And there was a lot a fucking woman and what the fuck is going on. Man, when that she started, when those people started playing that music, I went crazy. I went so crazy that when I went back home, I grabbed a lot

of tents and I started messing around with the drums. It was crazy. So you, you were kind of enamored with American culture. Yeah, yeah, of course. So your parents wanted to strike it out for the American dream. Where in New York? My mother, my father was never, never agreed we went to the But you have to take on the consideration that my mother, all her brothers were in the States already. My father didn't have any family. Except his father and his father never worried about him. Memorial Day weekend is almost here and it's time to kick off summer right. When I'm getting ready for the first big weekend of summer, total wine and more is my go-to,

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5-8. For the people that don't know about Washington Heights, tell them. What do Dominicans mean to Washington Heights, Manhattan? Well, that's a Dominican community. That's, how do you call? I met a guy named, they call Marino El Diablo, the devil. Marino the devil, right? He's a stick-up guy. He, you know, he's going to stick up places, the drug dealers and everything. The cops kill them. But he used to send me to the store, go get me a beer, do this for me, do that. I didn't know he was a bad guy until he died. I didn't know he was a really bad guy.

He's like a cicadio. He killed people for pay. He's thick of people. He do crazy shit. But all I know is that they respect him. And I respect him for that. So he sends me to the store, get me a beer, do this for me, do that. So I became very friend with him.

I was a kid. But then when they killed him, it really hurt me. Like, it really got to me. I was, why did he kill him? Why? But then my father tells me, he's a fucking criminal. He's a criminal.

My father didn't even know. I was hanging out with him. He's a fucking criminal. This is one of the bad guys, you know? I'm like, oh, okay, okay, okay. And, you know, but that was really, back then, I saw that with my own eyes. Back then, cops in order to arrest anybody

they had to call you know cut them you know very hand it they got it right there I got you with the drugs and I put the ankles on you remember they didn't have the surveillance

and you had the surveillance technology of anything like that you got to remember back in the late 80s the guy the guy not mid 80s the guy who really invented technology to prosecute people

was a doctor because they killed his daughter you know in a drug shooting, whatever, and he got very upset, and he became a cop, and he dedicated himself to that. So he made the Congress or Senator Arnold passed the law where they could record you, or whether it's voice recording or visual,

and get you arrested. Right, right. But when I was a kid, 1979, but 1980, they had to coach you right there, right hand. And I remember, this cop, grab this guy, selling like three grams or something, right in the middle of the 163rd Street. And I saw Mount Ice. The guy grabbing, right, put the handcuffs on me, and you were under arrest for selling narcotics.

And the guy practically, I mean, drag the fucking cap to the floor. And then all the other guys, they started, you know, back then, did he have, you know, the law where they recycle the bottles? So you've got battles all over the fucking place. You got beer battles all over. Back then it was like, I think Miller, Miller has a lot of, you know, a lot of beers out there. And they were like bombing the fucking police car with these fucking battles.

The cops actually had to take off the handcuffs from the guy and take off. They basically had to do that. They had to just fucking leave the place. Were Dominicans already selling drugs by the time you got there? Yes. That's a town here in Dominican

That's a town A province. It's called San Francisco de Macorice. That's why when you talk to me about When you asked me just now, you asked me, I don't know, how about these properties here Are the drug dealers? Oh, some of them maybe. But the bigger properties like this one, Like there's a lot of properties here, huge properties

that had nothing to do with drug dealers. It's way bigger than that. But back then, back in the 80s, this wasn't even built back in the 80s. There was just a couple of houses in the beach. But in Santiago,

in San Francisco de Macquarie's, that town in particular has mentions, like way five tons bigger than this. Huge. Like, Scars face fucking style. Big drug dealers they used to come from the state

to the immigrant republic and that was their hometown. And they built like whole big neighbors with big expensive houses. because those are the ones that started buying visas, which I did too, buying visas with money to bring their home colleagues from Dominican

to the States so they could work with them because they trust them. And so those that come, they go back and also invest and then it was like a train, diamond effect. Then everybody's buying houses, everybody's making a lot of fucking money, a lot of fucking money and that whole time was famous for that. Wow.

Back in the 80s, San Francisco de Macquaris was famous and very known for that. Right. So it was a diaspora of Dominican drug kingpins. Yeah. I assume a lot of them probably got away with it or they got their money back. A lot of people got killed. Caps took advantage of it, so because when the cops on these big generals, they find out, oh, okay.

So the other day, you walk around in sandals and now you have a fucking Mercedes band and you have a horse race and you have this old, I mean, I know a guy who even have a fucking, an airplane, like a fucking one of the Setsna shit and used to go around the guy. I mean, I can't even afford that. How are you doing that? So what they used to set them up, you know, bring, you know, bring a couple of kids to the house. But I mean, you know, hey, you're getting arrested. Oh, give me five million pesos, whatever. I'll let you go. Because they know, the game. Yeah. Yeah. fellas, is your pee-pee not getting hard? Are you trying to make love to your woman with a soft dingling?

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housewife. My father's a school teacher. But then when we went to the States, my father was working for this capping tree furniture factory. Fine furniture, not just this, but fine. Redwood, you know, classic Lewis 15 furniture and he's good at it. And he was

working for an Italian company doing that. He was making good money and then my mother was just home. But then they got separated. They had their problems, their differences and then she went on welfare and then. But they did good. We were doing good. We did great.

Then they went back together and they bought a house and they got a piece of shop and then they separated again and it was a fucking Holocaust. And forget it. Over at the end. So was it your brother who first got into the game? Or was it your cousin?

My cousin. Okay. Tell us about your cousin. Well, my cousin Louis, I was a kid. And when I was working in electricity, he was the one that initiated me working as an electrician. And

we used to go to do work, you know, grocery store, wiring, clinics, wiring, supermarket wiring, you know, stuff like that. And then he got me going to school for, you know, trade school and then, and that's, and so on. But then, he disappeared all of a sudden. He started working for this old drug dealer. He was a young guy. He was like 24 years old. I'm like fucking 18, 17, 18.

and then he was like he started working for the flat drug dealer and he started making a lot of fucking money and that's why he became a crack dealer hmm okay so he got in on the he got in on the ground floor like the beginning of crack exactly they're printing money yeah anybody

anybody was getting crazy money he was making fucking a fortune but I was somewhere else working in it you know I was working for this Italian company called onion neighbor in Terrytown. I was out of, yeah. But then he caused me on the weekends.

Adam, come over. Help me out. Please. So I go there. What's up? Oh. And he got the scale. He's like, back it up like this.

I say, all right. I go boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I help him out. And then he gives me money. He gives me money. And I'm like, fuck. And then he, he said, why don't you leave that shit?

You're not making any money. you know, why don't you work with me? Sometimes I want to go to Dominican, I don't have nobody I can trust here. Why don't you fucking stay with me? Say, well, it depends how much you pay me. You know? And he says, okay.

So he started paying me like, it was like $2,000 a week. But he never, like, kept his word. You know? He was paying this other guy that was doing less than myself and that he could trust less than me because that guy didn't even know where he lives.

I knew because he's my cousin. I knew with his wife, with his kids, where his mother, everybody's at. It was my family. What were you doing for him? Everything. I was at the store, at the grocery store. We're selling on D'Lancy,

not his New York, Lower East Side. Okay, Delancey, yeah. Yeah, so I'm over there on 11th Street, working with him. and... You're selling crack hand-to-hand? No, that crack.

He already left the crack alone. He was selling half a grams and three grams and a half. Okay. And also, we were selling like crazy. Out of what? How did drug dealing work in like the lower East side of the 80s?

$50, $50 a little bag like that. I half a grand. It was expensive back then. Right. And it was selling by... How did you sell it? Out of the bodega? Out of the bodega.

How does that work? You, the bodega owner lets you just post up in his store? It's his store. Of course, he owns it. Right. Okay. Yeah, we just rent a place and we built us the grocery store and we started selling drugs. Right.

And I'm good selling groceries too. I know the market because my family, that's what they do. My mother's family, that's what they do. So then Lewis, you know, he was making a fortune. And then he started getting greedy. And then he's paying the other guy more. And then I was, I had it. I was like, I could make money working as an electrician.

And he's like, no, no, no. Then I had to shot somebody at the store. You shot somebody? Yeah, I shot somebody. I shot a guy with the 357. I shot him. The guy, we had a fist fight, right? First, because the guy, that's our spot.

The guy tried to sell something right in the corner. So I told the guy, listen. And then he was selling it right open in the street, like, screaming, I got this, I got this, I got this, and I'm, yo, not only that you're selling in my spot, but you're making my spot hot. The cab's going to think, I'm selling that shit, I'm not selling that shit. And then he got, he got stupid with me. So we started a fistfight, boom, boom, boom, boom, we're fighting, we're fighting,

and then he leaves, I live. And he got very upset because I grabbed his, he was driving a bicycle, a small bicycle, right? And I grabbed the bicycle and I fucking turrets apart against the first. electric pole, I've wrapped that fucking bicycle and just destroyed it. And then I went back in the store. Then the fucking next day the guy comes back with a gun, showing me the gun, you know, making believe like he's going to shoot me.

And then he tells, when he comes out of the store, I'm going to shout him, I'm going to shoot at, I'm going to shoot out. So I go in the store, grab my 357, I came out. He was like almost half a block away from me. And I said, you said what? And then he turns around and he tried to pull the gun. He gave me any choice. So I just, I shot the guy.

Boom. When I shoot the guy, then I go right near him. I remember this nurse that used to go and buy some to, you know, to work the night shift in the hospital. Puerto Rican girl, I went to kill him, right? And she goes, no, Adam, don't do that. Don't do that. Just leave, cross the store and go, go, go, the cops are coming.

Don't do that. I say he was going to kill me. And she's like, no, no, no, please Adam, don't do that. Ah, fuck. All right. So I leave. So you were going to waste him. Yeah.

You didn't even think about it. You were just like, oh, he pulled a gun on me. I have to kill him. No, he was going to shoot me. Right, but you already hit him. Yeah. And he was on the ground bleeding. And you were going to go finish him.

And he was on the ground like a bitch, dream me like a bitch. And I'm like, so I told the girl, all right. And then I told the guy, you're lucky, she's here, and I leave, right? And then I closed the store and I had a guy working for me named Tabu. That later on in the 80s, he got arrested with me. After that, he worked for me, not for my cousin. And Tabu named Victor Perez, he did it a lot of time. And he opened his mouth.

And Victor, I left Victor out the store. And this is a funny story, because I had to escape the cows dressing like a woman. And that's a funny story. So I closed the store. I left Victor there and I left. But his mother lived like two blocks away. I'm on 8 Avenue. And he's on B Avenue.

So I'm like, I walked through his mother's house and his mother knew me. And she said, no, just hide here. Hide. So I hide on the house right. And I slept there overnight. So I called my father the next day. I said, I need you to come and pick me up.

What happened? I said, I got in trouble. Just come and pick me up. and I told him the address and he came. So Victor's mother got me dressed like a woman. Got a fucking wave, blunt wave. And you got to remember, I was very young. My face was like slim, nice and clean, you know, no beer.

And I'm fucking young kid. And I got high heels and a long dress. I got in my father's car and we left because the cops are looking for me. But they didn't know my name. They called me Blondie. That's what they called me in the area, Blondie. They didn't know my name. So we disappeared.

And so I went to Miami the next day, and from Miami I came to the Connecticut. And I stood here like four months. Okay. Then I called my cousin and my cousin says, oh, don't worry about it. The cops are not looking for you no more. I pay the guy money so he could leave that shit alone.

So he paid the guy like $10,000. Leave the shit alone. Right. Because if you keep fucking with all, we just, we're going to waste you, man, because you're the one that looked for it. I mean, it was you who got shy. He could have been my cousin.

Right. So I came back to my cousin's store, but then my cousin got stupid, and I got very upset at him, and I left. And I left. And then that's when I started working in Brooklyn, because his other cousin of my first cousin named Chito, he told me, oh, I heard you're not working for Lewis anymore. Say, no, no, no, he's an asshole. And then he says, go work with us. I say, what am I going to do there? I said, oh, we got problems with the Jamaicans, you know,

and then they come and they give us a hard time all the time, and I heard you got bowls. And I said, I don't know, but I'll go work for you. How much I'm not going to make? And then he gave me a good, good deal. He said, we don't work by salary. We split the money. We, by depending on what's your position, like in the mafia, you know,

like you're a captain or you are a lieutenant or you're a big boss or you are a man, whatever. That's how we work. Wow. But you definitely make your money. And what was your role with him when you first go through? My role, well, I started working, you know, with a gun, watching the customers. They come in, then there's a couple of guys selling, and I'm just making sure everything is in order. Like, nobody comes in with a gun and nobody's a threat to us.

Then everything changes when the cash ready the place, like a couple of months after that. I'm already making money like crazy with him. And it's a bodega. Yeah, in a bodega. So that's New Lats and Vermont. So this is like East New York? East New York. Yeah, I'm already in East New York.

Wow. So that's, and that's one of the most dangerous, violent neighborhoods back then? I think Lower East Side is way more dangerous. Okay. But it's up there. They're in competition. Brooklyn, Brooklyn, because most of them are black, you know, they make a lot of noise. Mm-hmm.

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but that was my cousin, that was not me. Wholesale? Wholesale? No, no, ounces, half a grand shit. They hardly sell a kilo. I was the one that started selling kilos. So you can move about 4,000 grams a day

out of one, that's one bodega. Yeah. Holy shit. So the capsulated the place. When they rented a place, they put me on the floor. But I don't know if we made a cell

Sometimes you make a sell to an informant You don't know You have to remember something Back then it was the state Not the federal's Drugs at that level They were not federal There was not a federal law against that

It was state So the state they don't The state cops don't give a shit They go out there looking for money And when they find money They leave you alone they go just they fucking take the money and go. So they go and they make look around.

They found, let's say, 20, 30 grams, whatever, 50 grand, 100 grand, and they grab it, throw it on the floor, fucking, and then they grab up the money, and they close the store. And you wouldn't get arrested. And they told you, go to your house. Wow. And that's funny too. Right.

So they read the place that I remember the cops, the cops grab some money, take off, leave and then they go, we're looking for your cousin Chito. We're going to, we're going to, we're coming after him. Because he was already famous of having that spot there. So it was Armando, my cousin and Chito my cousin. You got to remember, these are kids. They're even younger than me.

These are young, young, young. These are teenagers moving this kind of work. I mean, try to. It's crazy. I don't know if you haven't seen the movie name, uh, uh, shit. There were kids to Italian kids and Irish. I forget a name. I'll let you know when I remember.

But it was like that. And once upon a time. Once up at a time in New York. Yes. Once upon time in America? Yeah. Once up at a time in America. It was something like that, what we had.

That's amazing. Just a whole bunch of young kids selling drugs. But not even telling, I mean, four kilos now will get you fed time. Yeah. Teenagers were selling. selling that every day out of, and that's one bodega. Yeah, but that's nothing compared to what I did after that. No, no, no.

Cousin, that's when I got there. Yeah, this is small potatoes compared to what's coming. Yeah, so they got me on the floor, and they got, but Chito wasn't there, and Mandito wasn't there, they weren't there. They were side the store looking, looking, looking. They had me and a whole bunch of guys that worked for Chito. And then the closest store, and then we went to Chito's house, and we got, we met a big reunion. We did a big meeting.

And then he got panicked. This you got to remember, if it was me, I wouldn't get panic. But him, he got panic, real panic. He says, I'm going to Dominican. And you got to remember, this kid is a U.S. citizen. He's not even Dominican. He was born and raised in the States. And he says, I'm going to Dominican.

and I'm going to go there and let me know when things are cold and then he goes you're in charge with this guy named Manuel you stay with Manuel and Manuel

as a matter of he got my same last name Diaz say you stay with Manuel Diaz you stay in charge and when I come back we split the money Who was the plug? We didn't mean the plug

Who was the plug? Who was the plug? Who was your cousins connect? No. He had not even a connection. He had cash money.

And he had a few couple of Dominican guys that he could get, you know, go and purchase the kilo. He wasn't, his mind was not that big. He just had money and he'll say,

oh, I go find out who's got two, three kilos, eight kilos, I need to purchase. And then you go find out and you get the kilos and you bring it. So it was like whoever. Whoever got it, yeah. He wasn't concerned about a lot of other things.

I was concerned about a lot of other things. So when I stood there, like, you know, he stood here in Dominican like for four months or so, three something, four months. When he ran out of money, he went back. And then when he went back, he went making a big decision. So he goes, he sat me down. He said my cousin Mandito, Sarapio, we're like all cousins and friends,

close friends, including this big black guy named Head. I never forget him because he had two wives living in the same black. I tell him, why you got, do they allow that? He goes, I need two women out of him. It's not enough. One is not enough for me. I always remember that about it. He's on to something.

He's not wrong. So, so Chito comes and says, Adam, which of you want to stay with the with the with the with the with the spot I'm selling the spot and I'm giving you two or three months to pay me I say really and how much does you want he says I want three hundred thousand dollars and then the diversity guys they got upset they got very because they be there a long time I haven't I'm hungry for money they're not

and they stupid like they don't they don't I don't see the big picture. I come from the Lower East Side. I come from the Bronx. I come from Manhattan Avenue. I didn't tell you that before all of that, yeah, I was in Manhattan, Manhattan Avenue, Washington Heights, too.

Awesome. 107th Street, yeah, 107th Street in Manhattan Avenue. I saw drugs there, too. It's fascinating how young ghetto kids in New York back then could just get a job. Yeah. There was so much coke moving, like, hey, you could just go work for this guy who's got a spot.

It's amazing. So he got me, Chito got me, you know, a deal. He says, and then the guys go, no, no, that's not fair. That's our spot. These are our customers. Why are you selling it to us? If you want to retire, retire, you got enough money because this kid got money like crazy. And, but he still want to make money.

But I'm hungry, and I say, I'll buy it. I got like $150,000 right now. I give it to you up front. And I stayed with his back. To buy the bodega. Yeah. So he's like, okay. So they're all fucking upset.

And then I say, I stay with one of them. I share, you know, my, my, you know, my partnership with one. He goes, which one is you? I say Sarapio. Old guy. But he was a cousin to my mother. And he loved us.

Say, I stayed with Serapio. So Sarapio. Um, nice guy, but he had a problem. He's need cocaine. He's always high. And he likes to shoot. But I didn't know some of these things. Because he was never at the store.

And then we started working. We're doing good. So you own the spot. What does that mean? You get more of the share off of the brick? The money is mine. Okay. I could grab stuff from whoever I want to.

It's my spot. It's my business now. I'm paying you, I'm giving you money for the bodega and the spot. It's mine now. It's my business. Right. And so are you actually running it as a bodega as well? Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. So I gave the guy, you know, the money, like after a few months, giving the money. And I still had to look out for the guy after that because he wasn't doing too good. But then, you know, shit happens in the spot. You start, people get shot. people, you shoot people, people get shot, stick up guys, come around, you have to defend yourself. That includes, you know, when Michael Dow and all these cops that got involved with me in the business.

Yeah, let's go into that for a second. So tell us how you grew from just one bodega to now you've got multiple spots. You're making connections with the Colombians. I kind of take us through those early days as you start to build your business. Okay, this is what happened. I was doing exactly what Chito my cousin was doing. And I have this particular connection that I met what I was in the lower East Side. His name is Moreno, tall guy. He used to be a basketball player, but he got fucked up and he started being a drug dealer.

And I knew Moreno and there was a shortage of stuff in New York back in 1987. Very shortage, big shortage. There was, you can't find cocaine. Just like right now it's happening right now in New York. Yeah, this is, you know that.

Polkane because all the Trump, all the shit that Trump is doing. Right, right. I got people scared. So the same thing back in the days, in those days. And I called Moreno. Moreno was not a big connection, but he had

a constant connection. He wouldn't get you eight or 10 or 20 kilos, but he'll get you a couple of kilos. So there was no stuff in New York. And I said, shit, what am I going to do? I had the money. So I come over there and I said, I need to talk to you, man. Say, what happened?

I say, remember, I was buying stuff for Lewis in the Lower East Side, but now I'm in Brooklyn and you help me out. He goes, all right, come over. We're talking person. So I go over there. He's in Washington Heights.

I went to Washington Heights, 190, street, and not a woman. I went over there and had a conversation with them, and I said, I need stuff. And I got cash money. Say, all right, how much you need? I said, how much you got? He said, oh, I could get you five kilos maybe.

And then you got to wait next week. I don't know. Give it to me. So I give him the money. I grab the stuff, and I leave. And then I was selling very expensive. I like fucking triple. that money. You know what I mean? And then, but there's still

shortage on the market, there's no stuff in the market. And there was one day, I was with this guy, with this other guy, a friend of mine, Eduardo, Edward. Edward. I say, Edward, what are we going to do, man? And then he goes, I got an idea, man. And my cousin Mandito, all three of us. He says, let's go to Queens. There's a lot of barge restaurants there. And there's a lot of hookers. And they, Colombians.

They got a ghetto's a Colombian connection. I say, okay, that's what I told you. The culture is very important. Right. Like if you go to a Puerto Rican neighborhood like that, with all that money, you probably get shot, killed, and take your money. It's the same thing with the blacks.

Right. Definitely. Yeah. I think Dominicans got lumped in as being really violent in that era. because of those other groups. Exactly. But you guys weren't really that violent.

No. I mean, you held your own. When you violate our space or become my enemy by trying to take me for a right. But if you were honest in business, like me, myself, with most of my connection, I wouldn't show up with a gun. There's no need for that. My word is good enough. Their word is good enough. We got so much money, so many millions of dollars involved in this business.

I what you need a fucking war tank right I don't I don't do that we don't right so how old were you when you first when you made your first million 18 18 and a half how long it'd take you from the start of selling drugs to when you made a million I made a million quick because because Chitou gave me the opportunity yeah so what would one of those bodegas what would the revenue that one of nilats make my first million okay how How much money would it bring in every month if you're selling five kilos a day, four kilos a day? No, because it didn't work like that.

Like I just told you, what made me rich was the shortage of cocaine in the city because the less cocaine in the city, the more expensive it goes. And if you have money and you have the right connection, you get the stuff yourself and then you get to put a price on your product. And that's when you made the good money.

Mm-hmm. So it's just like any market, just like the oil market right now or anything, you know. And when you still are only dealing with Dominican connections, did you open up other bodegas? No. Just had that one. No, I had that one.

Okay. But then Moreno, I spoke to Moreno. And then, like I said, I went to that bar in particular, in Roosevelt Avenue. And we sat down, we became friends with this blondie, beautiful Colombian girl. We started talking to her. And I myself, I spoke to her and I said,

I need a favorite from you. What about it? I said, I need a Colombian connection. And then, you know, they always act like they don't know about that. No, what are you talking about? Listen, listen, I know what I'm talking about. You know what I'm talking about.

You either trust me or not. But I'm telling you, I need a Colombian connection. I need a killer right now. And she's like, oh, I don't know. I could have some friends that I have. and I say, he's my beeper number. There was no cell phones back then. He's my beeper number.

And he's $2,000 for you. Let me know. That's besides what I'm going to give you if you gave me something. Give me someone. That fucking same night she calls me. So, Adam, come over. Come over.

Let me talk to you. So I go back with my friend. And then we had a conversation with this guy named Mono. mono in Colombian language is like Blondie too they call me Blondy

so we have a similar you know name so the guy sit out with me actually smokes like a fucking meal and fucking cigarettes a fucking minute he's smoking smoking smoking

smoking smoking I hate smoking I like a big cigar but I like that fucking smoking and he drinks like crazy and he loves hookers and I love hookers I am mad Dan? Yeah.

So, so I sit down with the guy and we're talking, we, we're fooling around with the girls, and we, you know, so the guy started to like me. And he says, so what do you want? I said, I want a killer. There's no stuff. You know, I know there's no stuff in the street. And he goes, so how do I know you're not a cop? I say, very easy. I leave you the money here and I leave.

Call me when you got it. You know a cop is not going to do that. Search me. What do you want? I take it to my spot. I let you know where I am. Whatever you want to do, just let me know.

I'll take whatever it takes. He says, okay, I'll call you back. So the guy, send a message with the girl and says, the girl says, come and get your stuff. He already left the kilos here. I said, all right.

So I go there, grab my kilos, come back. How many? What kilo? There's no stuff in New York. There's nothing. What did one joint cost you? $35,000.

Wow. So I gave him the $35,000. I gave for something. Take the kilos. And then he beeps me. He said, how do you make up? I said, I'm good. He said, so how long is that going to take you to sell that?

I said, listen, man, on my way back, someone already beat me. I already, that shit's been sold. You know, he says, So how many kilos can you sell tonight? Say five. He says, oh, you can come and get two. Oh, you got two?

Why didn't you fucking tell me? I would have bring you all the money for two or three? He says, all right, come over, turn around. I say, okay, I go back out another two kilos. By a week and a half or two weeks, he was already giving him an unconsignment 10 kilos, 10 to 15 kilos on consignment. He wouldn't even want the money.

When I bring the money, he got scared. I'm seriously speaking. He gets scared because when you carry a lot of cash like that, you're putting yourself at risk people to stick you up and you can lose the money. Right, right. So he's like, don't bring so much money one shot like that. Send one of you guys with, you know, with 20, with 30,

with 20, with 50, and then you give me all the money. Don't send me all the money in one shot. I don't, you know, we don't deal like that. I said, well, you know, somehow you got to trust me. So, you know, I could move stuff, man. I could move this shit. And when you're picking up 10 keys from them, are you selling that wholesale at this point? No, we're selling, you can't sell a wholesale because it's a waste of money.

Yeah. You sell, you sell half a gram, gram, and we got names for those. We don't call them half a gram or grams. We call it Aguila, Agilitas. Eagles and Little Eagles? Big Eagles because you make you fly. Right, right, right. So, so ounces and big eights, which is 125 grams, that's the biggest sell we make, 125 grams.

Okay. And are these mostly neighborhood crack dealers that are buying small amounts? Yeah, crack dealers. And, you know, and not even from that neighbor, from Queen, from South Brooklyn, from Jamaica, Queens, Jamaica, you know. I'll be honest. Credit is one of those things that I wish I understood way earlier. Credit affects everything, like getting approved for an apartment, a car, even the interest rates you pay. And if your score isn't great, it can feel like you're stuck.

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And make sure to get that Ava credit builder card. Thanks to Ava, now go get yourself some good credit. And how did it get out that your spot was the best? We're famous. We're famous in New York. We are famous. My spot was famous. Wow.

As a matter of fact, most of it among Jamaican guys. Because Jamaicans, they like crack. They like to sell crack. And my staff was pure cocaine from the cartel of Medellin. They had the centavo and reina. Those are the best, the best cocaine.

Their best. When they put it on the pub and they put the baking soda, actually a big con-comb. We call it con-con like the rice hard part on the bottom. Right. You know, it gets really hard, really fast. Locks up immediately.

The other type of cocaine, when you throw it in there, it's like bubble gun, it's not, you gotta wait like a fucking three hours from the shit to get hard. Right. My cocaine, you put it in there, and that shit is hard in seconds. Yeah.

That's like you tell that this is pure cocaine. We don't put cut on that shit. We don't touch that. You know, from the killer open it, it's there. It's pure. Yeah. There's no way. Beautiful.

We don't touch it. I don't let none of my guys touch my shit. So to sell 10,000, I'm sorry, 10 keys, that's, yeah, 10,000 grams. I mean, that's like hundreds of customers. Yeah. And now, is the store open 24 hours? I got to open 24 hours, like after, like after a while, yeah. That's when I get to make Mike, because it was working night.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll get to that in a sec. Now, you're in East New York. That seems so dangerous. You don't see danger when you're young like that. Of course not, right. You don't. You don't. At my age now, I get scared about a lot of things.

Not because I'm afraid, because I'm afraid only of the consequences. Of course. Not that I'm afraid of getting shot or shooting somebody. I don't fucking shoot anybody. As a matter of how to fight the other day, I had a fight like three months ago. I had a fight with a guy. A fist fight? A fist fight.

I couldn't believe what I did, but I did. I was drunk. I was drunk. I was drinking, not crazy. You're 60. You're getting in fist fights? A big fist fight. I love the Dominicans.

It would be funny what happened. You'll be, you will laugh for what I did. Nobody expect me to react like this. My old times came back to me. I was in front of my, I got a funder. I got a place that sells food.

And I'm right in front of the store. And I'm drinking and smoking cigar and girls pass by. I always, hey, mommy, oh, yo, that's me, right? So that's her neighborhood. So all of a sudden, I've seen this guy beating the crack out of this other guy.

Like basically, the guy's on the floor and the other guy is in top of him. Boom, boom, boom. And I look this way and I look the other way. Isn't anybody going to do something about it? But the guy who's on the bottom is a crackhead. They call a pipero here. Pipero means like a pipe. You have that dust the pipe.

He's a pipetto But why he's a bit in the shit I don't know He's getting the biggest big down So This other guy come and try to defend him And the guy pushed him And just keep going crazy on

I just fucking got up And went on the guy Push him right in the face And started fighting with the guy The guy's young He's a young guy I can't fucking control this guy I can't

I did the best I can't The guy and stop on top of me, thank God, you know, there's a whole bunch of people there that know me and they grab the gun and they say, that's Adam, what are you doing? And he goes, well, he fucking punched me in the face. And they go, well, he's, Adam is drunk.

He doesn't know what this doing. And the guy goes, I don't give a shit, he punched me in my face. He punched me right in my tooth. And then I'm fucking drunk and I'm, so I got back up again and I'm ready to fight again. they basically got to grab me, pull me in my business, and lock the door. Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile,

with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird.

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Yeah. But it's funny how the guy came back that same night. He came back and he says to me, I'm sorry, man. And I say, but I'm still screaming at the guy goes, I'm fucking drunk. The guy's not drunk. I'm drunk. And the guy goes, I'm sorry, man. I don't have a problem with you.

But you punch me, man. I got to go crazy. on you, you know, and this is a young guy. This guy is less than 30 years old. He could have fucking practically beat the fucking crap out of me. Young guy. But back in the day, you know, you got a lot of responsibility, even though you are young, you're in your 20s. I mean, to run an operation like that is life. An operation when I was fucking 17, 16. So like, now, do you keep all? It wasn't my business, but I was running the place for big drug dealer, you know what I mean? Lewis used to come to Dominican and leave the store open for me.

And I was selling two, three kilos of dividing in half of grams. And that's a lot of half of grams. Trust me. Yeah. That's a lot of a... He ends up getting arrested on that store when I left. Right. Wow.

After I shoot that guy. So now you're with the Colombians. Yeah. The guy, the guy called Mono, he works with the Medellín Caltail. And that was big, big, big, big. Okay. And they were giving me whatever I ask. Right. Okay.

So one time they say we got 5,000 kilos. And I say, no. They say, why not? I say, that's a lot of stuff. And if the price goes down, then what? Are you willing to work it out? And if the cops ready my place and take all that stuff, are you willing to work it out with me?

You're not going to kill me, right? Oh, no, once you take that, you're responsible. There you go. I don't want to be responsible for so much stuff. Right. Give it to me by the. 100 and I don't have a problem, but I could pay 100 kilos. I'm not going to pay 500 kilos. I'm not going to pay 500 kilos. Five thousand bricks is a lot of, you know. So you're picking up

100 at a time from them? A hundred, 200, 300 at the time. Depends how my, how the market was moving in it. And like I got to the point where I'm not selling as a matter of fact, by 1980, meet 1988, I gave rid of the half of grams and the three and a half. I say, and I gave it a friend of mine. He opened up a grocery store, and you're not going to believe it, that grocery store is still under my name.

This day. This day, yeah. In Brooklyn, he's a taxi driver. He asked me, he said, Adam, please help me, help me. I want to make money. I say, all right, go get a place. I'll rent it for you. I'll put my credit and everything in between,

whatever. Because remember, I'm a drug dealer. I'm making big cells of cocaine, but I'm also a businessman. My story's under my name. Isn't that dangerous? Like, how sketchy is that? It is, but, you know, you don't have a brain when you're young, you know, you don't. I mean, I corrected my brother-in-law for doing that later on in 1988, but I did it back in 87, 1986. Would you keep hundreds of kilos in the store? Oh. Where would you keep the, how that works? In the Bronx, I had a laboratory in the Bronx.

I had a laboratory in Brooklyn, two or three. Okay. I have all the groceries to apartments. You don't keep stuff in the store. Okay. As a matter of fact, this is New Lake Savany, right? This is Vermont and this is New Lots. My building, it was my building, four-floor building.

It was mine. Oh, you bought the whole building. Yeah, yeah, I bought the whole building from my, from my, my mother's sister. And I bought it from her son. Wow. I bought it. And the building next to it is this burn. It's a burned building.

It's empty. And he has like the metal thing on the front of you don't see nothing. So what I did was I opened up the brick wall. I made a small window like that where you could go through. And then on the bottom of that, I made a hole through my basement. And I made a whole system. Okay, they do it now on the banks. They got the air system.

Right. And that's where you, when you send the money and bring the money and the drugs, that's what I used to do. So somebody would come in with... They're going through my grocery store bathroom. Uh-huh.

And then on that bathroom, they'll tell the guy that's on the other side of the wall, half a gram or a kilo or whatever, and the guy will send it through. And then the customer will see that you came out of the bathroom, but they don't know what the fucking plate,

what the shit was really... Right. Right. Nobody even knows. They don't know that it's going down. And then we have movie traps. When you open up the window on my building, okay, this is my building. This is my store.

I bring the stuff up to the second floor. From the second floor, I open over a window to go to the next building. From the next building, you go down to the basement. From that basement, you go through the wall to my grocery store. Wow. It's a tunnel. They've read it my place like five times, and they never, they didn't find shit. shit. And then you could close up in the bathroom where the worker was given the drugs out.

You could just like, what? There was like a brick that you could just put in place? No, it was like a huge pipe, like a big toilet pipe. You turn it and if the cops go in, there's a fucking toilet pipe. There's nothing here. Wow. No, if you, cops know, they know when you have a picture on the world, they send that shit, they know. They even look at the floor, the wood floor and see if there's any wood, you know, missing or moving. Because they know how drug dealers actually actually. So you have to use your imagination. Right.

So cops don't fucking don't find your shit. So you would keep the work in the building next door that was abandoned and burnt out. And whenever you needed, how many people did you have working out? And I had an evacuation system too through like three blacks from there. You're like an emergency exit.

Yeah, because the buildings, they connected to each other. New York is like that. Yeah. Because I used to them when I was a kid too on the roof. That's why they passed the law when you have a building in New York, you have to basically divide it

with the fucking wires and stuff. But back in the 80s, it wasn't like that. So those buildings in Brooklyn were connected. Every backyard of those buildings, they were connected. So when they cabaret in my place, by the time they go to the basement, my guys are like five blocks away. Yeah, they're like squirrels.

They're just bouncing from one rooftop to the... That's the right word. I didn't even think of that time, but yeah. That's crazy. How many people did you have working in the... 12 guys, 14 guys at a time. Yeah, well, it's, it's, if you look on public information, you can find it.

My, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my life, from New York, I was, I was in Dominican. Both times they got arrested. And then the second group that got arrested on van Sikling and Atlanta, that was 12 guys or 14 guys. I'm not sure. I don't remember no number, but it's, I was, I was, I don't remember no number, but it's, but it's, like that. They even put them on front of the building, took a picture that the press, took a picture,

and said Elvis Casada was my brother-in-law. He was in charge. Elvis Casada from Washington Heights has a drug factory in Brooklyn, his New York, Brooklyn. And that's so crazy, you had a whole operation. So what does 12 guys, how many your lookouts, how many are pitchers, how many are runners, explain that whole, the whole operation? Like, They busted my place on Van Sicken in Atlantic. I was in Dominican. There was a guy in front of the door. I rented the fourth floor on that building,

and I had a girlfriend on the third floor working for me too. And on the fourth floor, I had the guys bagging up the cocaine, and then they bring it down. Because that's when they raided my place on New York. ready my place on new lights. So I had to move my customers to two different places. But in that place in particular,

they used to bring the drugs to the stairs when whoever wants anything and they, you know, I'm moving big shit now and they come and get it and okay. You have a door, a doorman, a lookout door too on the outside because you got a guy inside who will open the door and you got a guy

outside who will knock on the door. he had to see the guy's face in order to open the door. Then you go into the store and then you got two guys out of counter, two guys in the back, and one guy at the door, the front door of the store. Are they strapped? Two of them, two of them,

and then one outside in a car. Because as a matter of fact, that day that they read at that place, one of my guys who became a government informant and who got killed later on. of course. Nelson, Nelson Rivers, Nelson had an Ozi. And when the feds came, because that's when the federal government took over the drug cases, they declared the drugs, the war on drugs. Right.

So now we got feds coming after us. We didn't know that. So they came into the store and there was an informant Dominican guy who was an agent, and then there's a Panamanian guy who was an informant. was an informant and then there was this white guy. They came in, fucking Elvis made a mistake, sold two kilos to the government agent and the government informant.

And so when they read the place, the guys that I have working for me with straps, they thought it was a stick up, not really the cops. So Nelson grabbed the Oosie and and put it on the stomach on a federal fucking agent. And so the agent goes, I'm a fucking federal agent and wrap the patch out. Say, I'm a federal agent.

But the guy that I had there, Nelson, he wasn't scared. This guy was like a cicario. He's like, I'm gonna fucking take you out. It's like, so the Panamanian guy goes, Manito, Manito, Manito. He is a fucking federal guy, don't do it. Don't mess with that. So he dropped the gun.

and drive the OSE. And I'm talking my guys, they all have bulletproof vests. Wow, yeah. So there's a whole fucking confusion in there. Why? Because you got federal guys coming in with bulletproof vests, dressing as a civilian. And then you got my guys in there with bulletproof vests

and guns up in the air. So it could have been a major fucking shootout in me, you know what I mean? Well, one of my favorite parts of the documentary of the 75 was the story of you guys actually getting stuck up. Yeah. Can you tell that again? I don't believe you were there, right? No.

No. At that same store, that the cabs got my guys, that's why I got stick up. And that's why that store got hot. That's why they first rated that place. So somebody, it was like a crazy stickup kid from the neighborhood, right? Yeah, his name is Franklin. He was not even a bad kid. He was married to a girl that I know named Jackie, beautiful, pretty girl.

And I knew her and she was very close to the family and everything. But he was a nice kid. But then he started being a pipe head. He started doing crack. He started going crazy with the drugs. And we used to get along, but all of a sudden, he stick up one of my cousin. He killed a friend of mine. He's such a bad kid.

He killed the guy. Put him in the black bag and left it up the park. put him in a big garbage bag put him in his name is Frank and the other guy name is Franklin so and he's got a partner in crime called Coke

who also gets along with me but they're not doing that you know to me they're doing that to one of my cousins to Chito to the other guy that happens to build another spot somewhere else but um

they respect me they won't fuck with me but Franklin killed a friend of mine and I was like shit this guy's out of hand and then I didn't pay attention to it because my spot was working brilliant you know like everything was nice and dandy

everything was working fine it was I think it was December yeah it was December around December we were making like crazy money and I came to Dominican and um no no no no

That was where I got arrested. I went to Manhattan that night. I was driving a black ninja, Kawasaki Black, 1,000 ninja. I love bikes. So I left and I went to Manhattan. And when I'm over there,

they call me up and they say, Adam, they stick up your place. What do you mean they stick up my place? I was just there just now. They said, they probably were waiting for you to leave. So I left. I jumped to Brooklyn when I go there, shit. So everything was a mess.

And so they threw a guy out of my fucking, from the third floor, they threw a guy down. One of my employees, he got hurt, really hurt. He didn't get killed, but he really got hurt on his fucking legs. And my brother-in-law almost got killed. And they shoot, they should and everything. But thank God they didn't kill anybody. and they took like over $700,000.

That's besides the drugs. So. 700,000, would that just be like one day's work? Maybe less. Not because when there's more money than that. You know, I don't wait for the whole day to go by to pick up money. I sent money to the Bronx a couple of times a day. You just can't fucking leave all that money.

I was going to ask. As a matter of I was upset because there was so much money in there. Why there was so much still so much money in here? Why? Our money should have been out of here. Right. We don't get that much money, you know. Every $200, $300,000 are out.

Out of here, out of here, out of here. We don't need the money. We need the money in the connection pocket. That's what we need. We don't need the money in the spot. Did so, and they ran off with drugs too. They got coke. Yeah.

So, and there was like five guys that did that. But the head guy is Franklin. So now I'm after Franklin. I'm going right after this guy. You know. And he, at the end, he got killed. He got killed. He ended up dead.

Right. That's, we'll leave it at that. So. Did you ever get any of the drugs back? No. One of those guys, one of those guys, they take drugs and take money. They waste that shit in all time. Of course.

Because they're on drugs. Then they got poor family. They, you know, it split the money. And that's like five guys. They're going to spit the money. Right. And it's such small potatoes for you. You're making like a million dollars a day out of the joint.

Okay, so it's 1988, 89, right? You're what, like 25 years old? I'm 22, 21, almost 22. And how much, how many keys are you moving, say, a month for the Colombians? It all depends, man, because the spot was making a lot of cells. but the quantity of kilo cells was not made out of the stores because now I have people that are interested in my stuff

in Manhattan, in Queens, in Brooklyn, but not in my area. And they would call and say, do you have stuff? You know, we need stuff, whatever. I have good connection now. And I see, I got stuff. Can you send me 10 kilos? No problem.

So you're dealing with high-level. I make $1,000, $2,000 out of each kilo because they're connections. And they don't represent any competition on my area. Right. You know, so I sell them, and that way I get better prices. That's why I told you at the beginning of the conversation when I had a conversation with that Colombian guy, Mono,

when he tried to say, you know, with the price, and I say, I'm selling a lot of stuff for you guys. You got to give me good price because the price is going down in the market. And, you know, if you already have 5,000, 7,000 kilos hiding somewhere and you pay too much money for it, that's not my fault. That's the reason I don't take a lot of stuff, one shot. You know, I don't do that. You know, I prefer to take 100 at a time, 200 out of the time, 500 out of the time, it depends. So you kept the bodega business going?

All the time. And then you've got your wholesale customers. Exactly. Somewhere else. And were these mostly other Dominicans or black guys? Dominicans, black. Because I got blacks that were perfectly. very powerful too.

I mean, let me tell you, I had a customer, Leroy, his name is Leroy. Leroy came one time. Like his Mercedes-Benz, because that's something also, you know, in the drug dealing industry, you got smart guys and you got stupid guys. What are you doing with a fucking black Mercedes

in each New York with $300,000 in the back of your trunk? Taps tap this kind of pills all the time. You can't do it. that man. Drive a taxi, go in a taxi, go in a little chip car. As a matter of if I used to send some of my guys to my hand in the train. With the bag full of... I had a fucking van full of paint, big cans of paint if I got on the place. And that shit was full of coke from my hand to Brooklyn.

And the guys, they're all messed up with pain. You know, you can, you can't. You can't drive an expensive car with full of coke or money, man. Back in the 80s, the cops stopped you all the time. They even check your spare wheel, man. Yeah. Don't do that. Yeah.

So the thing is that, the connection back then, like the model, he's like, you know, you got to give me a good price because, you know, I got big customers. And, you know, the price goes down. That's not my fall. I got to, yeah, I got to make my moves. And if you don't do, if you don't make a good deal with me, I'm going to make a deal with somebody else. Yeah.

have more connections, you know what I mean? Right. So how much money were you making a week? Like I say, it all depends. Sometimes you got slow weeks, you have, but you gotta put it this way. Major sales, you make it sometimes. The store was a steady sell.

So I make, I used to sell like about 18 kilos a day to 25, 18 to 25 kilos a day, most of the time. Just out of that, Bodega? No. Or all three, four bodegas. I have a bodegas one shot. Not because they were operating at the same time,

but because when this bodega gets hot, I go to this other bodega. Oh, these other bodega. And you would just move your customers from wherever you were going? Cups got so upset at me one time. They got so upset at me. They set fire on one of my store.

Set up a fire on my store. They kick all my guys out. That was on Blake and Sheffield. Blake and Sheffield. They kicked all the guys out of my store. They couldn't find any drugs. And they kicked them out and they, the fucking step,

the fucking place of five. Did you have fire insurance? Did you get that money back? Did you get compensated for it? No, this is a situation because they smile. They know what they're doing. This was a burned building and when the building got burned

the first floor was safe. Nothing happened to the first floor. So the building owner, rent me the place and I, you know, and I made my spot there. Right. But the rest of the apartments were burned. There was nobody living there. That's why they did that.

They mind it. They'd be like, all right. So Adam got a fucking drug spot here. They already knew me. Right. They fucking set this shit on fire. He's the only one here anyway. Who the fuck cares?

Right. They're in my fucking place down way. Wow. Bro. New York in the 80s, bro. Cox would do that. And the guys are working for me. They were crying.

Basically crying. Why are you crying, man? We're criminals who are the fucking talking about? And you got, so you got eight different bodegas all in East New York? Yeah. Wow. And that's besides the apartments.

Right. A lot of apartments. So you owned apartments to rent out or to work in? To work the drugs. Yeah. To have the money. People backing up the drugs. How many people...

It's like a factory-style thing. How many people end-to-end from the people bagging up in the laboratory to your couriers driving the work from wherever, say Washington Heights to Brooklyn. I got, my main guy is when I, when I hire a guy, the first thing I give the guy is a car and a gun.

He's a vehicle and a gun. It's yours. Even if you stop working for me, it's your shit. It's not mine. I don't know what the fuck you did with that gun. I don't want it back. You get the car and you get the gun. Find somebody to put that car on the whose name, whatever,

whatever, that's not, that's my business. Here, and do you. And so that's what they do. And then, you know, they work for me. They need a few thousand because, you know, most people that start working drugs, they're doing back economically. And they need help.

So what they do is, it's like, help me out. All right, here's a few thousand dollars. He's a car. He's a gun. Now you're working for me. Now what? Now you're going to do this. It's what you're going to do.

until we trust you. So they first start driving for me, my girls, the guys that work for me, and stuff like that. That's how they start. And then depends how smart they are, how they do. Like I had a taxi driver working for me.

How did he start working for me? I used to call that taxi company, got the car in my hand, and I used to come and pick me up. He picks me up, takes me to Brooklyn. So he takes me to Brooklyn, then nighttime comes. Are you still working my man?

Yeah, come and pick me up at the store. The guy picks me up. The fucking guy ends up to be an ex-military guy for the Dominican government here in Dominican. From back in the 70s, tough guy. He knows about guns, he knows about a lot of military shit. And then we started trusting each other and then, Adam, help me out, please.

I want to make money. Because I give the guy good money every time I don't pay him like a taxi driver. I pay him good money. And then that's when he got, oh, I know what you're doing. I don't help me all. But the guy ended up to be one of my best managers. Really? Yeah. He even take my fucking guys to a shooting place to practice. He says, you got guys that come from Dominican, you got guys that here from Brooklyn, and you give them a gun, but they never shot anybody. They never shoot a gun, basically. But you're asking the guy to protect the store. No, you got to take the guy so he could shoot out of range and lose the panic about

how the gun sound and everything. That makes sense. Yeah. Wow. That's amazing. What do you think your overhead was like, because you were just, everybody was just on salary, right? Yeah. It wasn't like you were cutting people in on the profits. What do you think your salary was like every week? I don't see it like that because my money was always moving. At the end, all my career in the drug business, I lost a lot of money because I started to be greedy. Not greedy, not paying what I had to pay, but greedy in a way, like,

I didn't even want to have a connection. I want to become a connection myself. So I started involved with some guys, Dominican guys and Colombian guys, where he'll make an investment, I'll make an investment, and we have stuff coming from Colombia. Okay, so that's the next step.

When does that come in? What year is that? That was like right before I got arrested. That was beginning of 1989. Before we talk about that, the cops, Mike Dowd. What year did you meet now internet famous Mike Dowd? That was like at the end of 86. Okay. So, and go watch the documentary if you don't know

he and Mike's relationship. Mike Dowd is a typical Irish fucking Brooklyn cop. Yeah, yeah, yeah, had a little bit of a... Women lover. Yeah, exactly. Absolutely. Not much has changed. And you were working with him. Or he was working with you. He was feeding you information. Yeah. How many guys did you have, how many cops did you have on payroll? Well, I have Mike and Kenny. But Kenny had like eight or 12 other guys.

Because every time there was an operation going for me, I seen them. Cheeky, Walter. And a lot of other guys. Right. So I wouldn't talk to them. Like, they would say hello Adam, hi Adam, with respect. But there was not a conversation, a serious conversation between me and those guys. Right. Just you, Kenny, and Mike. Me and Kenny and guy and Chicky Chiki, was like, and then Walter at the end. Walter was like at the end of my career. How much were you paying him?

I paid Mike $8,000 for him and Kenny. $8,000 a week? A week. but they make a lot more money than that because every time I send them to do something I gave them $20, $25,000 $30,000. What would you send them to do? A lot of stuff.

As a matter of fact, I was going to kill this kid. Coke. Coke. That's a matter of fact, Coke. Which I did. Not that I killed him. But I shot him. This guy's was so tough.

I put an uzi on his fucking chest right here. I put an uzi right there. and he thought it was one of his guys. And he was like, take that shit off my face. Take that shit off my chest. And I just go, boom. He couldn't fucking believe it. You sprayed him?

Yeah, I sprayed him. I was like, and the guy, he was like, he tried to look at me. It was too late. I was already gone. And then the guys,

and I came with two more of the guys, and the other two guys started shooting other people around him. And we left. We just took off. The guy made it. Crazy. Two times that happens to me, two times. And the guy made it.

And then at the hospital, I tried to kill him, but they had him. They had him at the nurse. The nurse office was right next to his bed. I couldn't fucking kill him. But the guy, the guy, Barron gave me an idea. Barron was like, well, no, he does more fame. He does, you know, heroin. Well, let you sell him.

send him a big shot of heroin so he could just fucking pass away. I say, fine, let's do that. We couldn't do it. The guy was right next to the fucking office right there. We couldn't do it. We're going to fucking do the guy. So you wouldn't hesitate, even though you were making millions of dollars a week, you were still on that

gangster shit. Frankie shot me, shot at me with a new zee. That's how our fucking, you know, shit stopped. Because he killed that guy, named Frank and I say

it's not on my business but I knew the guy and I'd want to don't be my friend no more but don't come around me don't mess with me but then Franklin almost got shot by somebody I don't know who the fuck he got a problem with somebody else because he had a problem with everybody

because he was a fucking shootout kid stick up kid yeah he's going to have a problem with people not me because he didn't have any personal thing with me but then somehow people think it's me and he got to him and I'm in my corner

I'm in running the store in my corner with this black guy so matter of fact the guy got I have my black ninja there and he has a red uh... Kawasaki there because he likes bytile like bike and we're talking

he's a customer and all of a sudden Franklin shows up like more than a half a black away and he started shooting with a with a Uzi like this both hands

I remember it goes and the fucking the bullets I hit in my corner. And I'm like, and the guy goes, is that guy shooting at us? I said, I guess so. So I go on the floor, I go right into my store, I grab my shotgun.

I had a rifle, a rifle that you could shoot, you know, deer, but I also had a shotgun. So I grabbed my shotgun, I come right out, and I started shooting at hand too. It started running. He started running. He ran, and then I'm, fuck.

what the fuck is wrong with this dude man and then we're hunting for him we're hunting we're fucking I mean hunting this guy all over fucking is New York and then this friend of mine that I told you before this other taxi driver

Henry Henry knew him knew me he said come on man you guys were a friend I say listen the guy tried to shout on me he already killed somebody I know he already talking about hitting my family. I don't know what the fuck is going to win, but we're going to stop, we're going to stop this guy. And so Franklin,

arrange a meeting with me and, I mean, Henry, arrange a meeting with me and Franklin. We arranged the meeting. We talked. We had a conversation. And I said, what's your fucking problem? He said, you know why I killed that guy, Frank? I said, yeah, told me. Why you kill me? He said, because he had me working for a few months in this spot. And then he didn't want to pay me enough. And then he has someone that's my enemy working with him. And then he gave me this fucking story. I said, but it's still not a reason for you to kill this guy.

We have plenty of fucking problems between us already. And then what the fuck, man? And then he's like, all I want this is on help, man. I'm doing really bad. But I know he's just a fucking crackhead. So I gave him like $100,000. What? Yeah, like $100,000.

I said, I'm going to give you some money. Go to Dominican Republic or go somewhere else. Get the fuck away from me. I don't want to see you. And then I remember this girl named Hilda, that was fucking with me. She said, you should give him just $10,000. I said, I gave him $10,000 like a few months ago

so you can leave everybody alone. He just, fuck. Let's give him real money so he can just fucking disappear. This is the guy I just want to remind people that you shot all those years ago in the Lower East Side. And then you give him $100,000. Yeah. So the guy left, the guy left.

It's fair. It took over and left. And then he disappeared like for a few months. But then he came back after a few months, like I say, and stick on my place on fucking Franciclan. Threw a guy up the fucking third floor with the guy named Kope, too. So, but Mike and the cops, you would send them to locate people. Well, it's funny.

It's funny. That's how the conversation started. that when I went to do that, I made arrangements with Mike and Kenny. I say, we're going to have, well, we're going to get this work done. And how are we going to do this? I need your help, Mike. He goes, how?

I say, as soon as we shoot this guy, I want you to be first one on the call. Be around. When are you going to do this out? I'm going to say tonight. No, it was late afternoon. Almost tight, but not tight yet. And then that was exactly how it happened. They were the first time on the scene, and that was it.

But the guy didn't get killed. Wow. Blewn it. And no, that's not even funny. What's not even really funny is we shot a guy 29 times and the guy didn't get killed either. Crazy. But then I'm sure somebody got you shot some.

somebody with one bullet who died. Well, that same guy that got shot 29 times and didn't die, not 29, 27 times, and didn't die. That's on the record, too. That's on the newspaper. Right. He didn't die. That was my first informant.

Okay? I wonder why. Yeah. And it was Mike and it was actually, actually it was Walter that told me he's an informant and showed me the paperwork. I'll pay him for that. I need to know who's stalking on the fucking eldest side of the case. He saw me this guy.

I said, all right, I got it. Wow. But he didn't get, he didn't die. And Mikey Kennedy also let you know about Big Bust. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they did that. They did that on Van Zickland one time. And they did it at a new likes one time.

And they also already, they read it a couple of places for me. Like four places they read it for me. Yeah. They rated places for you. What was that about? Well, I read, you know, the guys that were giving me a hard time trying to steal my customers, and I gave them the last call.

I said, listen, leave my customers alone. Please, I don't want the wars. Because you don't need that. You don't need the shooting. You don't need the, you know, please. But they've done of them. Nobody knew how the cops. Nobody.

Right, right. Nobody knew about me. and Mike. Take his thieves. So I have Mike and his guys very those places. I say, you know, I go to this place.

I want everybody on the floor. The drugs are over there. Take it. It's yours. Wow. Take the money. Take the drugs. So who knows how many times, Mike.

Because he never told me, oh, I found eight kilos, or I'll find 10, or I found five. I say, I don't want to know. Wow. That's your call. Fuck him up.

Damn. Slamp people around. Flap him real vibe, make him be scared to come back. Right. And that's it. So that's how you would run the competition off. Yes. But you still had the Colombian powder.

You still had the best product. Yeah. So at the end of the day, your shit was going to move. Why did you decide, okay, you know what? I want to be the importer. I want to be bringing it. I don't want to, because even though you're making millions of dollars, at the end of the day, you're still the middleman between the connect and the street.

Why did you decide, yeah, I want to start funding, you know, the transport? That happens automatically. That happens when you got money. I met this guy named Johnny. Johnny, the fat Johnny, they're called Fat Johnny. As a matter of fact, it's so amazingly, it's so, it's a coincidence, that Johnny got killed in my ninja. On your ninja.

Yeah. I gave it to him as a gift because I brought this ninja bike to Dominican. And when he saw it, he's falling in love with it. He's a bike lover like me. But he's fat. He's like, a thick guy. But I never seen a fat guy moving so fast. Like this guy moves fast.

He's good with his fingers. Like I would have a problem grabbing a little screw, like a little, little screw. This guy got thick fingers like that. He got a screw like this. And he put it where it belongs. I'm like, fuck, this guy's a fucking, you know, that talented guy.

And he rides bikes really fast. That's what killed him. And I gave him that bike for free. I said, he said, I like that bike. I don't set it to me, set it to me. And I said, you really like it, Johnny? He says, yeah. He's yours.

Here. What did Johnny have to do with? Because Johnny was also with Mendezin Cartel, but some of the channels, people that I don't know. They call this guy, this big Colombian guy, little John, little John. Little John, big young guy,

just like the old old one of the one to have. Little John was huge, but he was very respectful, and he had very powerful kids, young kid, but very powerful in drug business. He brought all his shit from Miami. And Johnny says, this is how it works, Adam. That's not our connection. We make an investment with them,

and they bring the shit, and we split the money. So I started taking risk. That's what I say. Sometimes you make a few millions of dollars, but you always lose money. Always. All the time, you lose money. You lose and you gain.

You gain and you lose. It's always like that. The game is like that. Even after, because I started dealing drugs in the 80s, and then I went in due time, and then I came back out in 1994, December, 1994. And I went by right back in the game. And I was doing the same fucking thing.

So you were given how much you were going in with Johnny? Five, six million dollars, four million dollars, depends. They put another four million dollars. The other guy put five million and that's the way they do. How many keys are you getting you out of that? I can't tell you right now. It's like it depends on the price back then. I can't recall right now.

To be honest, I can't recall. But most of the kilos I sell, most of them. But if you're putting in $4 million, that's, you've got to be getting a thousand kilos out of that. More than that. But, but they bring in the kills, but they're afraid to sell it. Right. I'm the only one with the boats to sell it in the street.

They don't have the bolts to sell it in the street. They don't want it. I'm doing the dirty job. Yeah, you're doing the dirty jobs, but you're also importing it. So you're trying to like vertically integrate. Yeah. Wow. So now when you're making these big,

these big buys, do you grow your wholesale customers? Do you get more people where you just keep it the same? You got to remember, certain markets, they just, they only hold us so much, okay? Because you got to remember now the war on drugs is on, there are a lot of spots are going down. I even have mafia Italian guys coming asking me for work. Really? Mafia Italian guys ask me for it. Wow.

Yeah. Please Adam. Please Adam. We need work. Wow. Because their connection got, you know, and I'm like,

whatever, man. Mm-hmm. You deal with them? Yeah. I gave them a lot of work. Who are your best customers, wholesale customers? Wholesales?

Jamaican guys. Yeah. Because they don't ask questions. Like I said, like I was sending you about that Mercedes-Bank guy, Leroy, I don't forget,

never forget his name, Jamaican guy. He came and parked a Mercedes-Bent three blacks away from my store left $300,000 in there so he can buy some stuff for me because there's no stuff in the street. I say, okay,

well, he's having a conversation with me that captured his fucking Mercedes. Took the Mercedes, took the money, and left. He got in a taxi, came back with another $300,000. That's how much money the guy had.

I need my stuff out. Don't give it to no. I'm coming right back with money. Right. I'll see you know, you know the guy got money. He's a joke. Wild. Were you selling to any of those like hood guys from Harlem,

those black guys like Alpo or Richard Porter, those kind of like famous street dudes? No. No, no. You didn't deal with anybody in Harlem? I don't like those guys from up time. I met the famous Fran Lucas. I met him when I was a kid working for my brother,

from my brother Thruki in 107th Street in my hand avenue. I met him. No shit. Because Lucas used to give my brother drugs. Right. This is after he was done with heroin, he was dealing cocaine. I don't know when was it really,

because I was a kid and I don't recall exactly, but I remember it was him. Because his name and everything else, and his partner, the other guy, I forgot the name, he was still the partner. That's why I put two and two together. So, these guys, I know these fucking guys. Wow.

But my brother didn't have any connection, no Colombian connection, and nothing. My brother used to make, move like ounces and big A's and stuff. So he, Lucas was hooking out for him. Wow. That's fucking wild. Wild. The king, the king of Harlem. Yeah. Did you ever deal with like the Supreme team out of Queens or anybody like that? No, no, no, no. My shit was just Brooklyn when I became big, I'm saying. Yeah. You know, Brooklyn is New York. My hand, some sort of my hand. And But only big guys, like big guys and, you know, and when it's small customer, it was just guys that were sending cracks, that's all. Right. So you move a thousand, you move a ton of cocaine, you're making what? Do you think you're making a million dollars a week?

More than that. Yeah? Of course. How much do you think you're making? Maybe three, four, five minutes. Depends. That all depends. Like I say, you make that much money, but then you lose money, too. and people get arrested all the time you pay a fortune to these lawyers So were you sending some of that money You were sending it back here?

A lot of money to Dominican Okay, buying properties Yeah And there was no extradition laws at this time, correct? No. Okay, tell us about that Because this is... Well, if you read a book,

this guy named Joe Trevolta Who? Trivolta, the guy, the cap... John Travolta? That's what it's... Joe Trivolte. Trovolte. Joe Trivolte.

He's the guy who wrote a book named Good Cop by Cop about Mike and I. And he, he's the one that testified also against us. And he was the one he lasted like a few years trying to get us and he couldn't get us. Joe Holtsborder, not a kind of shift. Joe Trolte is the guy that hated Mike and won again Mike so bad. He's in the documentary. Right, right. Okay, I remember him.

Okay. And he wrote a book named Good Cop by Cop. And he wrote that, and he wrote a couple of pages he wrote it very clear, he says. We try to extradite Adam Diaz from the Dominican Republic, but the Dominican Republic is a country full of tips. And Adam Dia, I had them out pay up. Did you have cops down here? No, I got big military guys back then.

Military guys. Not anymore. Now, it's amazingly, I belong to this religious group called Emmaus. And sometimes I go to the penitentiaries and teach the guys English

and we do special things for them. Okay, that's cool. So you're sending money back here and you're just buying real estate? Are you developing real estate? Developing and buying real estate. Wow. And like I say,

And then back then, you know, now I have, like, I know a couple of generals, but they, like, very honest guys. And they know I'm out of the game definitely. And they, like, they even asked me. I don't, because they feel they amazed about my story. And they're like, please tell me. And they'd sit me down and question me and they asked me. They even gave me a badge for a private investigator. Because I did, of course, they about private investigating.

I was going to do an agency, but then I stopped. and they gave me a badge for that. So I'm a privately private, legally private investigated in the Dominican Republic. Wow. Now, at this time, I imagine that's why probably a lot of Dominican drug dealers from New York

and from the States, if they would get a case, if they could bond out, they would just fly back here. And they get away with it. You get away with it. That's probably why a lot of money was coming back here. There's a famous guy that,

they accused him of killing a cop back in the 70s. Lake 70s. His name is Hustino de Los Santos. I met this guy. I know this guy. He had a club in one of the provinces called 7-Eleven. And I met a guy personally, drug dealer.

And they accused him of killing a cop back in the late 70s, which I don't think it was him, but he was at his place. And there's a conspiracy scene there somehow. And they tried to extradize this guy so bad. Yeah. You know, the cops family and they couldn't make,

they couldn't do it. Now, why was that? Because I think the economy back then was so slow in the Middle Republic and the government knew the old drug dealers were bringing so much money

by the millions. Right. And the guy, the guy back then, his name is the president but a very old guy, he got nothing loose. He could fucking die tomorrow,

who cares? Fucking 90 years old president. Yeah. He's fucking blind already. Yeah. Fucking. And he doesn't care about the shit about the states, nothing.

And as a matter of fact, they grab a guy, the FBI came into the country, grab a guy for doing something similar, not getting a cop, but something they got to do with laundering a lot of fucking fake dollars or stuff. And they try to send him back

and they arrest his ass and they put him in a prison here and they tried to, they were about to a story like him, but guess what the president did? The president killed him before fucking, I'm going to kill him before I fucking but I'm not going to send. He's going to get, and he killed the guy.

He killed him? No, the guy. Adam killed. The guy is called Palacio Nacional, of National Palace, where they have this type of prisoners, right? They couldn't fucking put him in a regular prison, so I put him there. And it's like a turf floor. It's like a, it's like an apartment building, and it's like offices, offices, offices.

And it's like a turf floor. They threw him up, the fucking turf floor down. And then they fucking, they probably put him in the envelopes, Scoop the guy. Fucking killed. But he's not going back to the seas. Yeah. As the crispy chicken sandwich from 7-Eleven,

people always call me loud. And I'm like, yeah, I know. I'm crispy. Did you expect me to whisper? If you want quiet, go eat some soup and reflect. Like, I know I'm a handful. I'm bold, I'm juicy. Throw some pickles and barbecue sauce on me,

and baby I'm a whole meal. And with seven rewards, I'm just $4. Quiet? No. Crispy, saucy, and $4? Very. Only at $7. 11. Valley through 62326 participating stores only well supplies lastly out for full terms.

Um, okay, so it's 89. You eventually, how did you catch your case? You find the feds finally got you. Well, and I always, I always try to tell all these young kids this shit, right? My advice to all these young drug leaders, right? I said, you don't want to bring cops attention.

Don't kill people. Don't shoot. Don't try violence, zero violence. Even if it costs you a lot of money and even if you have to walk away from crime, don't shoot anybody. That's what I'm going to bring caps attention. That's what happened to the fucking Israeli mafia and all the fucking mafia.

Of course. You start violence, they're coming after you. Yeah. Don't bring, it happens to the blacks, to the Spanish, to the Italian, to everybody else. And I said, I learned that from my life, from my life on crime. So were you guys dropping too many bodies?

No. Thank God. I shot people, I did. I'm not gonna, I don't know, I don't blame it. And anybody that I shop did deserve it. Deserved there. Trust me. I believe it.

I didn't fucking go out there and try to look for trouble. But we should. shot that guy 27th time like I said and that was the last person I shot and right after that I got arrested. Okay. And the feds? This was the DEA. Yeah, the federal got me. I never forget that day because the guy, the guy's

been such on time after me that he said, that's Adam. The rest of the cops didn't know whoever was and that guy said, that's Adam. How are we messing? That's his name. Old cop. He saw such an old cop. He didn't have a pistol. He had he had a pistol.

He had a revolve. I'll tell you a revolve. I don't forget that. I looked at it in his hand and I say, that's a nice fucking revolver. Started laughing with me. Serpico. Okay, so you must be looking at life numbers.

Because this is when they really start to crack down, like give out huge time for drugs. And I didn't know, of course. I didn't know. No, no. You probably thought it was like, oh, they didn't get me selling drugs. Fucking game. Yeah.

It is. Okay, so you went on the run after that? No. What happened? No. No. On my first case, I didn't even fucking ask for bail. I said no.

On my first case, my lawyer advised me not to ask to get bailed out. So I could get a good deal. I had a pretty good prosecutor named Dan DeVita. Danny DeVita. Back then, I used to look at him with hate, but after a couple of years in the case, I looked at him with admiration. Because he didn't look at us as criminals.

That's how I see it, my point of view. Because he told me straight up. He said, but you fucking guys are kids? What are you doing in the street sending so much drugs? He told me straight up in my face. He said, what are you doing selling so much fucking drugs in the street? I said, we told you I'm sending drugs. And, you know, this guy, he didn't want to, he didn't really want to hit me with time.

He just wanted to investigate the case and get it over with. And, but then he had my brother-in-law, like that, who sold two kilograms of cocaine in the store under his name. And the guy was refusing to talk about me. And he was like, this are crazy times. So, so Don DeVita, Danny DeVita was a prosecutor that And all those feds, they were like, they couldn't prove the case Well, how do they make the case? They didn't make the case.

Okay, what the fuck you're talking about? I never plead out to drugs. Okay, so what do they have on you? They didn't have shit on me. None of your crew was talking about. They had a lot of money in my house. What do they take? A lot of fucking money.

How much? a lot of money I'm just saying it's not in the books it's not in the books but the thing is that oh you mean they didn't declare someone oh I don't know what I

wow that ran off well this is New York in the 80s of course they did but but David took a fucking sex tape that I had with my wife okay were any of your workers talking

most of them but I have two guys that were my body guards and there were and they had a long record, criminal record. And so when they got me and they arrested me, what happened is they lie too much. You can't lie on the federal case.

They could do that in the state, but not in the federal case. For example, they said, oh, June, March 14 or so, March 12, On 1987, we read it this place on New Latte and Vermont and we had all these drugs and Adam happened to get away. I wasn't even in the fucking country. Then March 28, 1988, they read it my place on Van Sikland and Atlantic and Adam got away through a fucking firescape.

I wasn't even in the country, but they didn't know I wasn't even in the country because they were made their statement based upon a government informant statement but my guys never knew when I was on that was in the country. I called my guys and when I talk, when I call my guys, where are you at, Adam, I'm watching you. Because I had a girlfriend on the third floor. And she told me everything, step by step,

and how all the people watching them. But they never knew where I was, and I was in Dominican Republic. So did your lawyer present that? Well, we proved it with my passport. Right. You know, I proved him with my passport. And the judge was pretty fair, too. The judge was pretty fair.

I mean, the prosecutor tried to do it best. We did a hearing, and it's called a fabric of hearing. We tried it so hard, but he couldn't fucking do it. Because at the end, he's like, well, Mr. Diaz had connections even in the airport. He's got this fucking, because we presented copies on my passport. And, you know, and my lawyer was like, This guy wasn't even in country. He had nothing to do with all this

bunch of criminals. So then, you know, the prosecutor was like, oh, no, he's got, you know, connections here, there, even in the airport. We, you know, we rotate fucking immigration inspectors in the, in the, maybe he's got the Dominican ones on his budget,

but not the fucking United States, you know, inspectors on his budget. How do you manage that? It's impossible. and then you got when you get into the airport from from Dominican to most of the time I fight from Dominican Republic to

Kennedy you got like seven lanes when you go through to check in. Yeah. You got all seven fucking inspectors. Yeah, are all paid off. Come on, man. Okay, so that, did that get dismissed? That motion?

You never get dismissed. You got to be totally innocent to get the smiths and not all the time. And I know that. Yeah. Because remember, before I got arrested, you know how many guys I had to pay lawyers and, you know, and defend in the court?

You have no idea. Even customers. So, finally, the judge, then I forget his name, George Platt. George Platt. Tough judge.

He'd fucking Jamaican guys 40 years like nothing. His fucking judge black looked at me. I mean, I'm a fucking young guy. He looked at me. Always looking at me. He laughed and he smiles. And he tells the prosecutor, my lawyer,

come to the bench. Let me talk to you guys. And I heard what he says to the guy, make a deal with Mr. Diaz. Make a deal with Mr. Diaz. It's like you don't have a fucking case, man. So you got me and you got Victor and you got Carlos. Carlos is younger than me.

younger than me, I'm the oldest one, and I'm only 22. So I go downstairs to the Bupin, my lawyer go downstairs and goes, Nolan Littman, that's his name, Nolan Littman, young Jewish guy, a brilliant lawyer, brilliant attorney, nice guy, treating me really nice. He goes, Adam, we got a good fucking deal. I said, what do you mean? say if you plead guilty right now to laundering money this is what Don DeVita told me

the prosecutor send this to Adam laundry money for the money we find him for what laundry money for what how much money $18,000 where you got for you find out? I forgot when they arrest me downstairs on them they could put the money upstairs on me what do you mean you got to explain that

because I got to I get to my house I get to my house I live in a on the fifth floor, I live on a seven floor, on Bennett Avenue. That's like near Dyckman. Okay. All right. Jewish community.

Nice building. All the time I had a nice building, beautiful building. My wife is upstairs. They already got her the whole fucking day up there waiting for me. And so they get, I get to the building.

I get there in a car. I park a car. No, I get there in a taxi. And I get there and then, but I notice this, there's like five or six guys in a fucking capric Caprice Classic, right in front of us, and I'm like,

what is this? But I'm in the taxi. We already paid the taxi. Taxis already fucking gone. I'm like, what the fuck? These guys, I'm looking at those guys. So before I get obsessed, let me make a phone call first. So I go right a car shop and I grab the phone.

Well, I'm grabbing the phone. Fucking caps are already on me. So they didn't get me obsessed. I never made it upset. I never made it to the building. I see. But you had money on you? You had $18,000.

$18,000 on me. you know okay and then they rated but then they found a bunch of money in your apartment yeah and they weren't able to link you to that no that's crazy that's dude god you guys had a good back then so so now now the cops saying the prosecutors are saying up says you know okay give them a laundry money deal they gave me a laundry money deal and um and then i say and how much time my attorney says, it's going to be between 18 months and three years, but you're a first offender. Then I'm going to give you three years, Adam. Take it.

Trust me, take it. These guys have been working for me for a while already. We've presented some of my guys. I say, fine. Let me tell you something. That's that damn every day I went upstairs again to the judge. And the judge was happy about it. He never thought I was going to say yes right away.

So we go upstairs And my wife started crying My father was there crying Because I say Yes, I'm guilty, whatever I'll be guilty, whatever And my father was like, what are you doing? You're made a sin

And my wife is like, what are you doing? And I got shut your mouth and go home Let me do this So they fucking I plead out that day But then My Cotherfriender fucked up my that had two multiple defenders and it was six counts first count being a leader of a huge

organization that sells thousands of thousands of kilos second charge attend to kill a government informant third uh laundering money for there was a six counts altogether right was it was a possession of a weapon position of a weapon position It's a normal weapon because they find them with guns. Did you have a kingpin charge? Like a CCE? Charge, yeah. CCE?

Yeah. Continual criminal enterprise. Yeah. Being a leader of organization is a kingpin. I mean, there's a kingpin. So it's the RICO law. Right. So when they did that, but they couldn't prove it.

They just couldn't prove it. And the prosecutor's being, he's being smart. He didn't have a case because they rush. They rushed. Right. And they would take their time with the investigation. they could have grabbed me really good. Oh, they definitely would.

But they fucking rushed to revress me just based upon all women informant testimony. You don't do, you can't do that. Right. Yeah, because you were bringing in tons now, so they would have got a load on you eventually. Listen. Do you feel so lucky?

You could have been doing life. Not only that, listen to me. They told the judge, Your Honor, Mr. Diaz, we are being hunting Mr. Diaz for the last eight months. and we know where he's where about day by day. Where's the pictures? I mean, you're going to take a video,

but you can take the picture. But not only that, the night before I got arrested, I came down from my apartment, no, yes, I came down from my apartment. I lasted like three hours counting money with the machines, and I came down with the big bags of pamper bags, the huge one, right?

Full of money. bring it to the connection. That's huge evidence right there. Why didn't you fucking arrest me right there? I'm bringing down a huge box. Why didn't you fucking arrest me? That's bullshit. You wasn't after me.

You wasn't fucking hunting me. That's bullshit. All your testimonies and all your fucking evidence were based on whatever the informants were changed. And I knew it was that, in fact, because all the things they were saying, whereas all the things I was saying to them, there was not true. Damn. And they didn't fucking see it coming. So the judge was like,

Make a deal with this. So I made a deal. But then I had a, I had a, a co-defendant named Victor Perez, Tabu. And Victor decided not to plead guilty. And the prosecutor was very, very clear about that. He says, you all three got to play a guilty. Victor got to plead guilty to being your bodyguard. And so is fucking Carlos.

But then Victor had a long preliminary record. And Victor didn't want to plead guilty because all the years it was going to get. Carlos in the other hand, which is, his name is Carlos where they, he basically said his name was Lewis when he wasn't.

And it's funny. Because the guns were used they were at his apartment. I used some guys from from the Lower East Side named Savage. Who was in that? Savage was in the case with the Ricky Millen.

in this case. I don't know if you never heard about Ricky Millenis. This guy was making $100,000 a day in the lower side sending a heroin. Savage was his fucking hitman, but he was also working for me. So Savage and Carlo had an apartment. And so when they arrested us, Calo said, I never forget this because I didn't know this white street guy's way of doing things. And they asked him, where do you live? He said, I'm homeless. Where's your idea? I don't have an ID. I was like, was your family shocked. Your father was a school teacher in the DR, you know, mother was a good Catholic housewife.

Were they shocked to find out the scale that you were moving? Or did they know it already? No, my father didn't know. My father knew I was selling drugs, but not a lot scale. My mother is the gas to run in the family. My mother is a hillbilly from the mountains. She likes money. she don't care.

She was like, oh, fuck it. He's making money. But my father, my father's a school teacher. He was always worrying about that situation. It was always sad about it. And so I had cousins, like I had a cousin named Poppy, Julio Palma. He was the one that taught me how to be a nutrition. And Poppy was like, who was Louis brothers, Bob, as a matter of fact.

And when Louis, when Lewis decided to make me a drug dealer, a main man, let's say, in my style of shit, Julio was very upset at Lewis. He's like, why you bring Primo into this fucking drug war? You know, he's doing good at working electricity tomorrow. He's got his own company. Why are you involved in this shit? Whatever, whatever.

And I don't know, I don't forget, I said that before in the podcast. Pappy, which is Julio Palmer, one time in Miami. That's on my second bit when I came out of jail and then I started doing dealing again. I went to visit him. And his kids are crazy about me. He's got three young daughters, which I have now. I know what it means. And they were teenagers.

And they're crazy about me. They love me. And he says to me, cousin, don't come to my house anymore. Say what? He said, I don't want you in my house because we're dealing with drugs again. And I don't want you around my kids. And I told you before, I can't wait until you can live. that fucking shit alone man.

Leave it alone. I love you. If you need me, trust me. If you get shot, something happens to you, you could call me. I'm gonna go run and help you, man. But don't come to my house. Mm. Okay?

Did that do something to you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Still gets to me, but. So wrapping up your, this first case, you pled guilty. You pled guilty. You have two more people, your co-dees.

Yeah. to you. One of them didn't, which is Victor, he played innocent and we got very upset at him. We got so fucking upset at him. Because you know, the whole thing, the whole thing that was going on. And I said, Victor, why you do that? You're going to make it bad for us. No, I don't want to be guilty. They don't have any shit, man. He was listening to all these fucking Italian gansters that want to go to trial and say, you can't win the feds, man. Can't win the feds. You got to plead. We got a good fucking deal, man. We go to all. our time, come back, back into the game, fuck it.

Yeah. Why are you doing this? Were you all going to get the same time? No. He was going to get more time because he had a criminal record. That's why he was upset. Yeah. He's got a criminal record.

Yeah. And he wouldn't want to do that. And they want to give him a charge for the gun. They got him with a gun. And he said, no, that's five years. And then three more years. And then I say, man, this is it. This is the way it is.

Yeah. And my other co-defendant got upset. him also and says, Vic, man, come on, you know what was going on now, man. Don't play innocent because you didn't fucking innocent. Stop this fucking shit. And then for being stupid like that, not that he's stupid, he's very smart kid, but at that day, at that time, he was stupid for doing that. That he took a trial, man, and that really affected my case.

They gave me 10 years. Wow. I paid out to 3 years and they gave me 10. because they enhance my guidelines by six levels. Right. Because then, then, then they, you know, it's not the same when you get a judge. Like, we got a judge to accept the charges

and sentencing or whatever. Then a trial judge. They changed the judge for a trial judge. I didn't know that. Arturo spot. And at a tutu spot, didn't fucking want to hear that. Right. So when I came back for sentencing,

he's like, I just find you a fucking co-defendant guilty of working for you, and I'm going to give him 20. Why would I give you three? And you're the boss. Yeah. Yeah. And so he fucked me up with that.

So Victor got 20. Victor got 20. Damn. Damn. Damn. And you know what's so upset about it that they wouldn't sentence me before he finished a trial? And all that time they did it for a reason. They want to make him feel that I was going to testify against it.

I was coming and informing. They separate us. Damn. They send me to Alder's field. They say him to MCC. they say Carlos to New Jersey. So there are everybody thinking crazy that we're all talking about each other.

And then I don't forget that at the end we met at Otisville as a holdovers. And Carlos grabbed Victor right in front of me and told Victor, Victor, you need to apologize to Adam. And so I looked at him and I said, why did he have to apologize?

And Victor, you looked at me, very upset. He says, Adam, please forget me. I thought you was a goal. you was a girl woman informant. I told you we're going to bring you and testify against me. And I say, Victor,

I did a lot of worse shit than you did and you know him. What makes you think I would do that? Like, if you told me, yeah, that would give me life in jail. But you know all the shit I did. I only know half of the stuff you did. So why would I, that don't make any fucking sense, man.

So, but this is 89? 89. Because I think you only did like, what, three years off a 10? No. I did five something years. Yeah, but that's still a deal compared to what you get now. You do 85%. Back then, you got parole out of the feds, right?

I think it was just changing many. No, they give you good time. They don't give you parole. They give you a good time. Right. So I think you got in right before they changed. I did something like six years altogether. Right.

Okay. Well, we're going to wrap, and then we'll come back and do part two because I want to hear about the joint, I want to hear about prison, I want to hear about how you got back in the game, and then we're going to talk about what you're doing now. Back in the game is the most interesting. Oh, God, part two, man.

Adam, can we plug away your cigar company, or can we plug something for you? For people who want to come down to the Dominican Republic, a lot of people coming down here now, so maybe you can sell them something. Look at this, Adam Diaz's cigar. Can they get this anywhere? Are you selling these?

No, no, no. Right now, we were selling it. cigars in the States, we're not allowed to set it here in Dominican. I see. Because they were registered in Washington and they're not registered in Dominican yet. I see. The image is registered but not the company in fact. Okay. So, but we registered in Washington and we started sending cigars to New York, through Miami, through the, through a company that's what they do. They only sell cigars. But then there was a newspaper that wrote an article, a

really negative article about my cigar because it comes from the fucking story that nobody, most people, a lot of people don't like, a lot of people like it. And then that's when shit hits the ground. I was like, this guy named Joe Hall, he's chief of narcotics and he spent a lot of years

so he's like trying to hunt us and he couldn't get us. And then at the end, when he finds out about the cigar, you know, Mike made a couple of mistakes. Mike grabbed some of the cigars, took it to Long Island, tributt rubber up around people's face. And, you know, Long Island is a place, North County.

It's a place that is full of cops. And, you know, and then you got to understand that I have respect for cops, a lot of respect. You know, I have a lot of respect for cops. You know, yeah, you paid them. They did a lot of work for you. But I'm saying, I'm saying, there's cops in my family. There's military in my family.

Right. And there's military in my family is that pay the final, you know, the final prize. So I know. I'm like, you're a citizen, you know what I mean? I know. So I know, you know, there's good, good cops. And, but, you know, this guy in particular never had cross a word with me. And then he talked about me like, he's the word structure in the world.

Listen, man, I'm a kid from New York. I grew up in New York. and this was stopped back in the days and this was what I did. I don't do it out of hate. I do it because that's why life gave me, life teaches me, and that's what I did. And then now, I'm trying to grow as a businessman

based upon my story and you want to take that away from me. Why would you do that? And so he put up a story on the New York Post and Daily News, I think it was. You know, a big drug dealer Adam Diaz and Michael Dowell trying to watch money

I don't have any fucking money anymore you know it's all gone what the fuck are you talking about I did a lot of time in jail you know and I say why would you do that but then I say you know what fuck that's what cops do

and I can't blame them for that I can't blame the guy well dude these are going to be big you're you were that successful for a reason in the game and you're going to be successful in business so fuck it

and it's nothing Let's go smoke one. You guys, we'll see you for part two with the one and only Adam Diaz. Just incredible life story, man. I'm glad we finally hooked up, dude. Okay. My pleasure. My pleasure.

All right, guys. We'll see you later. Peace.