Others Say Recent Girlfriend’s Ex Shot Him, While Some Say He was Back in Harlem and Ready to Die
By Dan Murphy
We continue our coverage and discussion about Alpo Martinez, the legendary Harlem drug dealer from the 1980’s and 90’s who was gunned down in Harlem on October 31. Alberto “Alpo” Martinez was known as the ‘Mayor of Harlem,’ who became the #1 Cocaine dealer in NYC and the crack king of Washington DC, before his arrest in 1991.
He was charged with 14 murders and drug trafficking, and to avoid dying in jail, Alpo testified agaisnt his former friends and other drug lords and got 35 years. He was out in 25 years in 2015.
The 2002 Movie “Paid in Full” features Alpo and his two partners, Rich Porter and Azie Faison. It is a cult classic and helped makie Alpo even more famous. But by the time the movie came out, Alpo was doing hard time in the Supermax Prison in Colorado.
After serving his time, Alpo was released and given a new identity, (Abraham Rodriguez), in a new location, in Lewiston Maine, in 2015. But Abraham couldn’t shake off the legend of Alpo, and he soon began making trips back to the big city.
Alpo’s life came to an end on Halloween night 2021, when he was shot to death in his pickup truck at 330 in the morning at the corner of 147th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard. He was 55 years old.
Since our last story, we have enjoyed and consumed the many YouTube videos about Alpo and the different views on who killed him and why. Several of those YouTubers reached out to us to push there side of the story.
We will try and give the YouTubers credit where credit is due. In the final days and weeks of Alpo’s life, it seemed like he either had a death wish, or knew that his life was coming to an end. Gene Deal, in his YouTube video, claims that he spoke to Alpo shortly before his death and that Alpo told him “I’m still a man,” and “I accept my fate.”
There were so many people in Harlem who had a big beef with Alpo that we are surprised that somebody didn’t pull the trigger earlier. But who knows if the people who Alpo shamed 35 years ago are still around to hire a killer, or have a close friend or family member bring their revenge.
Another YouTuber, The Real Rap Show, has some tales about Alpo doing people wrong during his time as the King of Harlem. These tales include sleeping with girls with boyfriends in Harlem, videotaping his sexcapades, and showing the video to a large crowd in a club or a group of drug dealers, with the boyfriend stuck to have to watch his girl sleeping with Alpo.
These sexual conquests continued with Alpo until he ratted out much of Harlem and went away. But in recent months, Alpo’s sexual appetite returned, and one theory is that he was sleeping with a woman who had a man, and that man had a gun, and the rest is history. One report had Alpo waiting for that girl at 3am on Halloween morning when he was killed.
At the final months, Alpo was back in Harlem, dealing drugs, and openly touting who he killed and what he did. “It was almost as if he was daring someone to do something about it,” said Harlem’s Clarence C.
The final nail in his coffin, many believe, was the video Alpo shot on Nov. 3, 2019, where he traces the path he took when he killed his partner, Rich Porter. Some believe that Alpo was jealous when he killed Porter, others say he just wanted all the power and money for himself. But it took 2 years from when Alpo shot that disrespectful video to when he was gunned down.
Alpo’s explanation, which can be found on this video, link here –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWND3umM7tw, is that Porter was stealing from the partnership by buying drugs at a lower price and then charging Alpo the larger price. It all amounted to around $300,000 from a drug ring that was making $1 Million per week, or $50 Million a year.
Rich Porter’s family is said to be jubilant over Alpo’s death. Porter’s neice, Lorell, is quoted as saying, “We waited for a long time for this day to come and we are happy, we’re out here celebrating drinking champagne. It’s a celebration for Harlem, period. Now my uncle can finally rest in peace, 32 years later,” she continued. “Every dog has their day and today was his.”
Another account had Alpo slapping some man over a fight about a woman. “Po was a foul grimey dude. Loved to slap men. Make sex vidoes with hidden camera, then play it in public. Po liked taking people pride. Make a woman suck his dog in front of a crowd. He fd up and slap the wrong cat on Halloween. My mans laid him in his grave where he need to be.”
The other scenario was that when he Alpo entered witness protection in 2015, he was sent to Lewiston Maine. Eventually, Alpo got bored with Maine and his new life and started going back to Harlem. That is what one of his neighbors in Maine said.
Eventually, those trips from Maine to Harlem got more frequent and he started spending more and more time in Harlem. And the drug dealing began again, with according to Sub-O, Alpo would park his motocycle in the early morning hours and collect his drug money from his dealers in the housing projects on the East side of Manhattan-Harlem, blasting the song “Back to Life” from 1989.
Most observers who have spoken out believe his past caught up with him. Others say that Alpo was up to his old games of sleeping with women and pissing off the boyfriends. He could care less, because in those final days, he didn’t care, or knew that he was going to die soon, or that he was embarrased that his mother and sister were being hassled by the Police and the Feds. Was Alpo running out of money? Or as The Real Rap Show surmises, “He didn’t want to die broke and just another somebody.”
The one remaining member of the trio, and from the move “Paid in Full” is Azie Faison, who has survived getting shot multiple times (not by Alpo) and not serving any time for his massive drug dealing. Azie has given multiple interviews on YouTube. Just plug in his name and check them out, his version of the life with Alpo in the 1980’s is amazing.
Azie also tells a story of meeting up with Alpo shortly after he killed Rich Porter. Azie sees Alpo’s blood scratched hands and asks what happened? Alpo lies and says it was his girlfriend buy Azie knows that Rich had long fingernails and surmised that he fought back when Alpo killed him. Later that day, Alpo returns to Azie apartment and tries to lure him into his car to kill him, but Azie is hip to the scheme.
A one and a half hour interview that tells it all is linked below.
Despite what some reports claim, the police have not arrested the killer of Alpo, and may never make that arrest. That is because nobody in Harlem is talking. And that is because there is no love for Alpo on the streets of Harlem.
A few believe that the shooting of Alpo was staged, and that he is still alive, because there was no body found and no funeral. Gene Deal says that the family was given 30 minutes to view the body before he was cremated.
Alpo’s son, Popperazzi PO, has also appeared on YouTube and on Social Media to talk about his father. Apparently, the two did not have a close relationship, and Popperazzi has feared for his life. But there doesn’t seem to be any desire to kill Alpo’s son.
Alpo did have a movie deal in the works, with the help of Mary J. Blige, and Lionsgate studio, who is about to open their $100 Million film complex in Yonkers. What happens to that deal is now unknown. Dame Dash, who made Paid in Full said he is ready to film Paid in Full 2 after the death of Alpo, because the case is now closed.
