Alberto “Alpo” Martinez died on October 31, 2021, shot in his pickup truck on a Harlem street at the age of 55.1New York Post. Drug Kingpin Alpo Martinez Shot Dead in NYC Drive-By The former drug kingpin, who had spent years in federal witness protection after cooperating with prosecutors, was killed in the early morning hours of Halloween in the same neighborhood where he had built his crack cocaine empire in the 1980s.
How the Shooting Happened
Martinez was sitting in his 2017 Dodge Ram pickup near the intersection of 147th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard at roughly 3:30 a.m. when someone fired five rounds through the driver’s side window and struck him in the chest.1New York Post. Drug Kingpin Alpo Martinez Shot Dead in NYC Drive-By After being hit, he drove about four blocks before crashing into parked cars. He was taken to Harlem Hospital and pronounced dead.2Fox 5 New York. Alpo Martinez Killed Over Road Rage, Not Betrayal
When officers arrived, they recovered .40 caliber shell casings and counted five bullet holes in the truck’s window. A witness in a nearby vehicle had placed the 911 call.3New York Daily News. Harlem Drug Kingpin Alpo Martinez Was Shot Dead Over Minor Traffic Beef Martinez was carrying a driver’s license under a false name, a holdover from his years in the witness protection program.4New York Times. Alpo Martinez Dead, Shakeem Parker
Why He Was Back in Harlem
Martinez had been released from federal prison in 2015 and placed in the witness protection program under the alias Abraham Rodriguez.5Andscape. The Legacy of Notorious Drug Dealer Alpo Martinez6Sun Journal. Former Drug Kingpin Led Surprisingly Simple Life in LewistonAlpo Martinez Death
He never fully left Harlem behind. Neighbors told reporters he traveled frequently to New York City and had barely been in Lewiston in the months before his death. Two or three weeks before the shooting, he returned to the apartment with a U-Haul, loaded it himself, and drove off.7Sun Journal. Former Drug Kingpin Led Surprisingly Simple Life in Lewiston
The Motive Investigators Settled On
Given Martinez’s long history of informing on former drug associates, the initial assumption was that the killing was a settling of old scores. Investigators reached a different conclusion. The NYPD attributed the shooting to what sources called a “minor traffic beef.”3New York Daily News. Harlem Drug Kingpin Alpo Martinez Was Shot Dead Over Minor Traffic Beef
According to police, during the summer of 2021 Martinez, who was known for riding aggressively, had brushed past a Harlem man named Shakeem Parker on his motorcycle in a way Parker considered disrespectful. The grudge sat for months. Surveillance video from a Harlem deli captured Parker and his brother at 2:49 a.m. on Halloween chatting with friends before apparently spotting Martinez drive past in his red pickup. Prosecutors said Parker fired three shots into the driver’s side window, turned away, then returned and fired two more. Investigators described it as a crime of opportunity rather than a hit tied to Martinez’s cooperation with the government.3New York Daily News. Harlem Drug Kingpin Alpo Martinez Was Shot Dead Over Minor Traffic Beef
The Suspect and the Trial
Shakeem Parker, 27, of West 149th Street in Harlem, was first arrested on November 6, 2021, on an unrelated gun possession charge and held at Rikers Island. Authorities used a cellphone recovered during that arrest to track his movements on the night of the shooting.8New York Post. Man Arrested for Murder of NYC Drug Lord Turned Informant Prosecutors said Parker had saved pictures of Martinez and news reports about the killing on his phone.3New York Daily News. Harlem Drug Kingpin Alpo Martinez Was Shot Dead Over Minor Traffic Beef
A Manhattan grand jury indicted Parker on February 7, 2022, charging him with murder and criminal possession of a weapon. Judge Curtis Farber remanded him into custody.8New York Post. Man Arrested for Murder of NYC Drug Lord Turned Informant His case went to trial in June 2024. On July 9, 2024, a jury in New York Supreme Criminal Court, in the courtroom of Judge Daniel Conviser, acquitted him. Parker was released after about two and a half years in jail.9Sun Journal. Man Accused of Killing Drug Kingpin Alpo Martinez Acquitted in New York
No one has been convicted of killing Alpo Martinez.
Who Alpo Was
Martinez was born on June 8, 1966, and grew up in the East River Houses in East Harlem, where he began selling drugs as a teenager.10Amsterdam News. Disgraced Drug Kingpin Alpo Martinez Murdered in Harlem By the mid-1980s he led a cocaine operation that ran from Harlem to Washington, D.C., and styled himself the “Mayor of Harlem.”11BET. Alpo Martinez Killed in Harlem
Arrested by the FBI in Washington, D.C. on November 6, 1991, after a yearlong manhunt, he faced 14 counts of murder and a possible death sentence.12Washington Post. FBI Arrests Long-Sought Drug Suspect He pleaded guilty to contracting seven murders, testified against former associates including D.C. hitman Wayne “Silk” Perry, and received a 35-year sentence in exchange for his cooperation. Among the victims he admitted to killing was his childhood friend and business partner Rich Porter, shot on January 3, 1990, after Martinez suspected Porter of lying about a drug supply connection.5Andscape. The Legacy of Notorious Drug Dealer Alpo Martinez That history is why so many assumed, when news of his death broke, that someone from his past had finally caught up with him. According to the police investigation, it was something far smaller.