The Misery Machine - The Real Life ”Paid in Full” - Alpo Martinez Hiding Out in Lewiston?

Starting point is 00:00:00 So something really strange happens on Halloween, and you wouldn't think it has ties to Maine, but it does. It absolutely does, especially our home city of Lewiston. So born in Spanish Harlem, Alberto Alpo Martinez, was one of two children raised by his single mother. He attended three schools, a Roman Catholic school, Automotive Mechanical High School, and Julia Richmond High School before he dropped out his sophomore year. Martinez started selling drugs at 13 years old where he met Westside Harlem drug dealer A. Z. Fasin. Martinez started to put in work over the years and eventually became one of the biggest drug dealers in the city. He later moved to Washington, D.C. to expand operations where he quickly became involved in the city's underworld and elevated drug activities. He later met Wayne Silk Perry, who was a notorious gangster and D.C. enforcer who would later become his bodyguard and hitman.

Starting point is 00:00:55 So Martinez was indicted on federal drug charges in July of 1990 with two other men. The indictment against Martinez was dismissed when he remained a fugitive at the time when their trial began in November. According to the affidavit, a man by the name of Nathaniel Watkins, who was Martinez's co-defendant, told the FBI that he was present when Martinez gave $300,000 to a fellow drug dealer in Crystal City, Virginia, in a hotel room, and then instructed the man to take the money to New York in 1980. Watkins informed the FBI that this drug dealer rode to New York in a limousine, which Watkins and his girlfriend followed, and they all went to an apartment in Harlem where they met Alpa Martinez,

Starting point is 00:01:37 who had flown to New York. Several witnesses testified that Martinez was a supplier of crack and that members of the drug ring were involved in several killings. Now you're wondering how this ties in with Lewiston. We're going to get there. So on November 7th of 1991, Martinez was arrested in Washington, D.C., for selling drugs. He was charged with conspiracy to commit murder of various drug charges and 14 counts of murder, including the murder of DC drug dealer Michael Anthony Salters, aka Frey,

Starting point is 00:02:06 and Brooklyn drug dealer Dementio Benson. Facing the possibility of either the death penalty or life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, Martinez turned informant and testified against members of his organization. For his testimony against Silk Perry, who received five consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Martinez, in turn, was sentenced to 35 years in prison. So Martinez was released in 2015 after serving his time at ADX Florence, which is a federal Supermax prison located in Fremont County, Colorado. It's where they put the worst of the worst.

Starting point is 00:02:43 He then entered the federal witness protection program and assumed the identity of Abraham Rodriguez, and he was relocated to Maine. First staying at an extended stay hotel in South Portland. Portland, and then in Lewiston, Maine, where he lived a quiet life in a three-bedroom apartment building at 169 College Street, which is coincidentally across the street from the apartment I lived in for six years. And he lived below former Lewiston Mayor Kaylee Terra. And also, Vin from Vin and Sorri, who you saw in our last episode, actually stayed in this building. He lived there when he first came to Maine. Yeah, so we never knew Alpo.

Starting point is 00:03:24 but there was quite a few people that did. During his stay here in Maine, he put in long hours working for a Pepsi distributor, as well as the Walmart distribution center. He then shifted to the construction business, so he formed his own construction company called Five Star Construction Cleanup. He also had his CDL and he drove 18-wheeler's and hung sheetrock. He was looking into other business opportunities as well as having talked with his lawyers if he could get into the medical marijuana business legally without violating any conditions of his, deal with the government. However, he wasn't keeping a low profile at all. He traveled extensively with friends. He had access to VIP rooms at clubs. He hung out with famous rappers and producers and appeared in YouTube videos bragging about his past exploits. There's one in particular where he drives to the site of where he basically ordered the killing of a man named Rich Porter. There's tons of stuff on YouTube about this. He was very open about talking about the things that he did. I believe Nathaniel Watkins is co-defendant. was actually cousins with Rich Porter.

Starting point is 00:04:27 I remember reading that as well. When Albo's mother and sister both ended up with cancer, he traveled back and forth from Maine to New York City several times a month, which is no short drive at all. I believe he was flying, and that's kind of a pain as well. It's quicker, but if you have the money, you can definitely do it. Martinez always had a lot of cash on hand and had many vehicles registered in different states under the names of other people.

Starting point is 00:04:52 He was also really well liked by the... the friends that he made in Maine, as well as his neighbors. They would have cookouts. He'd help him out when they were in need. One neighbor said when they broke their ankle, he would order them pizza, take care of them. He was described as being funny, inspiring, fun to be around. He actually never took drugs himself and he didn't drink. He liked to play loud music and he'd play video games on his 85-inch television, which actually seemed really out of place because I guess his apartment wasn't decorated or furnished well at all. It was extremely sparse. Like someone was like half living in it, never bothered to unpack type of thing. He also had away with women and had many girlfriends.

Starting point is 00:05:33 So I guess there was a constant stream of women going in and out of the building. There was a woman at one point who had claimed to be his fiancee. And allegedly he used to hit on Mayor Tara who lived upstairs and she turned him down. So apparently there was this one gentleman. There's a really great article that I've linked in the description in the Sun Journal. It was a friend he made when he first came to Maine when he went to open up his first bank account ever. And I guess they'd go out to the bar not to drink because, you know, he didn't drink. And it would be like 20 minutes before the bar would close. And he would just pick up women. He would say just very straightforward, sometimes kind of awful things about what he wanted. And 100% of the time it would work.

Starting point is 00:06:16 Allegedly. Allegedly. I don't think anyone has 100% success rate. and picking people up, but I digress. So Martinez decided to relocate to New Jersey to be closer to family and spoke about writing his own autobiography. Again, even though he has a witness protection program name, he did not make really any strides to hide where he was or what he was doing. Even though he was like low key here in Maine, aside from his vehicles, he was just still doing his thing.

Starting point is 00:06:43 Yeah. So this past Halloween, all of this would end when he was gunned down in front of a nightclub in Harlem after a gunman shot him six times at close range to the driver's side window of his 2017 Dodge Ram. He was 55 years old. And they don't really know who did it. I mean, there was a lot of people who wanted him dead. And this was kind of the crazy thing that he kept such an open profile when there's still going to be many people who are going to want to kill you. And now that he's dead, it doesn't appear the police really want to get to the bottom of it.

Starting point is 00:07:18 You know, a lot of people call this karma. A lot of people speak negatively about him and who could blame them. I mean, when you are responsible for killing so many people, and a lot of people talk about him as someone that glorified basically being a rat. In his own words, he said, I don't promote being a rat, a government witness. I promote being a man and walking in your shoes. I mean, a lot of people just look at that as a cop out, but neither here nor there. This is somebody who definitely responsible for murder,

Starting point is 00:07:48 but so many people in our community spoke so highly of. It's interesting how people who have committed murder don't necessarily look like evil people. I find that interesting. And I also find it interesting that despite his really public profile and not really hiding who he was, we didn't really know. A lot of people didn't know who he was around here. The banker front he had before Alpo moved back to the New York, New Jersey area, he sat him down and told him to Google Alpo Martinez and was like, wow.

Starting point is 00:08:22 He's like, well, this is not who you are now, but nobody knew. I know, what do you guys think about this? Can somebody really reform themselves like this? Is somebody capable of murder always evil? Is it more complicated than that? If you're interested more in Alpo and everything that he did, there are many, many things on YouTube, many interviews with him, interviews with his close associates, but it is much more than we could cover here in an hour.

Starting point is 00:08:49 I'll just put it that way. But until next time, we love you. We love you. Bye.

The Misery Machine - The Real Life ”Paid in Full” - Alpo Martinez Hiding Out in Lewiston?

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