If you're in the Witness Protection Program

[George K]

Don't go back to the 'hood.

An infamous drug kingpin who was in witness protection for testifying against his associates was killed in a drive-by shooting early Sunday morning in New York City.

Alberto ‘Alpo’ Martinez, whose cocaine empire stretched from New York to Washington, DC, was shot five times in the chest, chin and arm while sitting in the driver’s seat of a Dodge Ram in Harlem, police told The New York Times.

Police responded to the scene around 3.30am after receiving 911 calls reporting gunshots. Martinez, who was 55, was transported to Harlem Hospital, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival.

Martinez confessed to 14 murders before becoming a government witness, last living in Maine under the name of Abraham Rodriguez. He had been released from ADX Florence federal prison in 2015.

A high-ranking police source told the New York Post that Martinez was in danger as soon as he returned to his old territory.

‘You were in the witness protection program because you testified against other drug dealers,’ the source said. ‘You’d make a lot of enemies who have a score to settle. When you return to the same area, word will get out very fast.’

[Mik]

Must be hard to give up everything you ever were. A prison of its own.