Who was Alpo Martinez? Infamous drug dealer reportedly shot and killed in Harlem

Alpo Martinez was reportedly shot and killed on the morning of October 31. He died from bullets fired from a passing vehicle. The incident took place in a neighborhood in northern Manhattan. Martinez was 55 years old at the time of his death.

According to details confirmed by the New York Daily News, Martinez was shot multiple times in the chest on West 147th Street near Frederick Douglass Blvd. He was admitted to Harlem Hospital but did not survive.

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A glimpse into the life of Alpo Martinez

Also known as Alberto Geddiz Martinez, he was a notorious drug dealer and became a familiar name during the mid-1980s. Apart from New York, Martinez also expanded his drug trade to other cities, including Washington, D.C.

Martinez was born in the East Harlem section of Upper Manhattan and raised by a single mother. He enrolled in three schools and dropped out during his sophomore year.

Alpo started selling drugs in East Harlem at the age of 13. After meeting Azie Faison, a West Side Harlem drug dealer, Martinez started to move up the drug dealing ladder in Harlem, becoming one of the biggest drug dealers in the city.

Alpo Martinez then shifted to Washington, D.C., to increase his drug business and became a part of the city’s underworld and drug activities. He met gangster and D.C. enforcer Wayne "Silk" Perry and became his bodyguard and hitman.

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Alpo Martinez’s arrest record

Alpo Martinez was a notorious drug dealer and arrested multiple times (Image via JustCallmeBHunt/Twitter)

Alpo Martinez and two more people were accused of drug dealing charges in 1990 but the accusations were dismissed when he was a fugitive at the beginning of the trial in 1991. Various witnesses testified that Martinez was a crack supplier and that drug ring members were involved in a number of killings.

Martinez was again arrested in November 1991 for selling drugs in Washington D.C. There were charges of conspiracy to commit murder, drug charges, and 14 murders, including drug dealers Michael Anthony Salters and Demencio Benson.

Alpo Martinez became an informant and testified against his organization's people and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. He was released in 2015 and remained under the federal witness protection program.