I'm Andy Domingo Pellerano, former soldier of the Latin Kings. I used to run a drug-trafficking
network in New Orleans, and this is how crime works. So, it was in 1995 when I got involved. It was because of the name, because of the weight
that that name carried. When you say Latin Kings,
they're like, oh, you know, they thinking, like, "Man,
don't play with him." Like, "He's a Latin King." Initially, it's to uplift our people. This is not a gang, right? This is like a organization, just like you might have
the Knights of Columbus. First, it would be a validation of who you were in the streets. You just couldn't come from anywhere. "Hey, I want to be a Latin King." Who are you? What type of work you put in? Who knows you, you know what I'm saying? Are you violent? You know what I'm saying? Like, things gotta line up
with this specific lifestyle. So, when you have two or three people, they want you to be initiated, they'll have five men that jump you, beat you up in a circle,
two to three minutes. How you handle that
process allows you to know if you made the initiation
to become a Latin King. I remember specifically
when I got jumped in, I was 14, 15 years old, man, it felt like the longest
three minutes of my life. I thought they was giving me extra time. I'm like, "What time is it?" And it was like, "It's
only been one minute!" And I'm fighting, I'm
fighting for my life. But when you fall down,
they don't stomp you out. They let you get back
up and keep fighting, and that's part of the initiation because if you just stay
down, then you not ready. Then when the time is up,
it's all hugs and daps. "Amor de rey, amor de rey." Everybody's saying, "King
love, king love, king love." You hug, and now we're laughing about it. You feel a sense of worth. You feel like you have a sense of purpose. Now you a part of something
that is so great that you a part of something
that's bigger than you. You get in a gang, they give you a name. They change your name.
They called me Paco. I eventually turned into
Paco, the pope of the streets, and I became a slave to my own name. So whether if I had to kill you, if I had to steal from
you, if I had to rob you, if I had to hurt you, you're
not going to shame this name because my identity was in this name. And I went hard behind that name. So, they had the peewee
when you first got in. That was the trial period just to see your character, see if you a man, if you're willing to fight,
if you're willing to die, if you ready for war. If you're a juvenile, you're
a peewee for two years, and then from there a soldier, and then from a soldier
you could rise in ranks. So, in the ranking, they had
the first Inca, president, they had the vice president,
they had the warlord, which is basically the enforcer. They had the council that would see, it's just like a counselor. Somebody that had a lot of
wisdom, a lot of knowledge that you would have access to. And then they had the treasurer that would control the finances to allocate where the funds would go. So basically that was
the chain of command. So, the first Inca, you
gotta think, Inca: Power. You know what I'm saying? So that was a position of authority. And the one that had rank
over the New Orleans chapter in that period was Paco, and I think in New
York, it was King Blood. So, they had some people
that would not rise in ranks because they just simply
didn't put in enough work or didn't take it seriously. And then there was cases where some people would get demoted, then somebody else would
rise in that position. And there was instances where
some people switched sides and there was a green light on them that if they seen them, smash on sight. I kind of skipped the peewee stage because I was doing things
that soldiers was doing that peewees shouldn't have been doing. When I was in prison, I
had a guy, he was a Piru, he was a Blood, and I was a King, so then we just joined it together and was able to run the whole compound. Now, in that organization, I
was the Inca, I was the crown. I was the president of that, and in Blood, he was the vice president. And I took that from the
prison to the streets and was really, that's where I
just got into the drug trade. Just really transporting
and just dealing with a lot. When you in poverty,
you aspire to make money because you think money is
going to solve your problems. We would steal cars. We had the keys to the Camrys. We had the skeleton keys. You could just go unlock the
car, just start it right up. I was selling drugs, I was robbing people. By any means necessary, whatever I had to do to get
that money, I was getting it, because I was deluded by my own vanity. It was whatever came along the way that you was able to get money and put your hands on, you would do. I used to run a drug-trafficking network. One point in time I was going to Houston to bring bricks back from the cartel. We going out to Houston,
$48,000 cash money. It takes a long time to count 20s and fives and ones of $48,000. And then dealing with the clubs, we would deal with the
dancers, the strippers. I'd give it to them wholesale to where they'll break it all the way down, and they're making money off of that so then I'm making money off of them, but they're making money too. They had a lot of strip clubs. Like, they had Visions. A lot of them was in New Orleans East. One of the clubs on Bourbon
Street was just a club that we frequented where we
would get the VIP section every time we were there, popping bottles, throwing money in the air. All of this a part of that life. But the more money I was making, the more money I was spending,
the more money I was wasting. I just think about how
ignorant and foolish I was, throwing money in the air. I can remember everybody
following us to go to the club, and I'm hanging out the window throwing money out the
window on the interstate just so everybody could see money flying down the interstate. So, when the Latin Kings
started, like Chicago, it started in Chicago, which
they deemed the motherland. So the Latin Kings was formed
to uprise the Latin race so they could combat the
influences that was around them based upon the Aryan Brotherhood and the other Black gangster disciples and these other factions, so they came together
because they were being oppressed in that time. There was a lot of Puerto
Ricans and Mexicans, but then it was just
anything from Latin descent, you know what I'm saying? Chicago, New York. Those were the main chapters, and Miami, and then it filtered to kind
of Metairie, New Orleans, and I remember just at the parades, we would be over 100 deep at the parades. Every King, regardless of where you at, you would fly those colors. The gang signs were still the same, when they would throw up the crown. And every greeting would
be, they would dap up and they would touch the
points of their hands to unite the crown, and
they would bring the crown to their heart, tapping their heart. And they would say, "Amor de rey." They would throw that up. That's why I don't,
like, still to this day, like, people do that
sign language as "love," and I don't do it because to me, that brings me back to that place. Like, they would do that.
They would touch the points. They would bring it
and then bring it down. Like, that ain't, you
know what I'm saying? So it's a lot with that. But the points, they stood for something. And you gotta think, I'm thinking that in the mind of a child, because I was a child. Like, love, honor, respect,
obedience, loyalty, these are good attributes, right? The five-pointed crown is
basically like the royalty. They go into the religion of Kingism. The colors black and gold, the black symbolizing the darkness, the gold being the king
out of the darkness, rising out of the darkness
to uplift the people. So, the five points in
love, honor, respect, obedience, loyalty. In other factions, it was righteousness that
was added into there. And then they would have a tattoo where they have a crown,
a five-pointed crown, and they'll have five points. I got five points up here. I got the five-pointed crown right here. I got the five-pointed
star coming all up here. That's how you could identify one another. You would see that on the arm, you would know that's a King. They had Banks Street
Posse, they had Hoover, 31st Hoovers, they had Folks and Crips. All of that was rivals. And that's why basically the
Latin Kings and the Bloods ride under the five,
under the People's Nation, because they have the same rivals. When you think about gangs
in California and Chicago, everything was segregated within blocks, within demographics. So
this block banged this, so you knew not to go on that block if you was part of a
different sect, right? So that was based upon demographics. And then also it's territorial, so like, who's going
to run this territory? So if you're selling
drugs in this territory, this other section can't come in and make money on your street
because this is your street. You had a force behind you. It was like a machine.
You know what I'm saying? Like, this is what you're doing, and these people are here
to help validate that. Like I said, in the street life, when you in the streets,
you need street cred. When you in the streets, you
need to have power behind you. If not, the Jungle Creed states, "The strong must feed on any prey at hand. I was branded a beast and sat at the feast before I was even a man." That's the creed that they go by. It's taking. You know, I
want it, I'm going to get it. And if you want to go to
war, we can go to war. You know, it's just not having no concern, no appreciation for life. It was all about you. You gotta think, you're in New Orleans, you in the murder capital. So obviously you're going to carry a gun because people are not
always fighting, right? So then you would take
situations as they come. If it's a fight, let's get in a fight. But if you pull out a weapon, I'm not going to let you kill me, so I need to have a weapon. You don't go to a gunfight
with a knife, right? And you just had to be
ready for whatever came. There's consequences to actions, right? Because there's a certain
manifesto in the constitution that you're to honor and live by. Think about the points
that I talked about. Love, honor, respect, obedience,
loyalty. Obedience, right? So, when you're dealing with streets, you're dealing with rebellion. So anytime people are
in a state of rebellion, there must be built-in pressures. There has to have rule;
there has to have order. You wasn't supposed to
touch nobody's girlfriend, even sisters. Family was off limits. Homosexuality, that was not permitted. No, it was once a King, always a King. So there was no walking away. When you leave, you had to go through a protocol so you could leave. You paid dues also, and
there was no running. Another rule was, "One moves, all moves," so basically, if we
together and I pop off, you better pop off too. And if you don't, then you're
going to have a violation. Now when we have a meeting, you're going to get beat up for that, so you either take the
beating with everybody else or you're going to take it aside. When I was a part of it, like, even a guy, he would tell everybody to turn around. Like, nobody was to take pleasure in seeing their brother get beaten. It wasn't entertainment. It's certain degrees of it. There's certain infractions that will enable you to get a violation, then you proceed to move forward, but there was certain infractions to where you would have a green light and it would be smashed on sight. Like, that's it, you're out of here. You're not a part of this. You'll never be a part of this again. And if they see you, it's up. The religious aspect of the Latin Kings is the gravitation
towards the linguistics. Oh, you talking about "amor de rey." All right, Jesus Christ
is the king of all kings, so when you think of
rey, you think the king, amor, you think of love. God is love. How can this be bad, right? The Bible says we're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood. That's Kings. The initiation process to be jumped in, they would call it the baptism. We would have meetings,
they would call it mass, and we would meet in a cemetery. Think about that, right? But we would meet in the cemetery. And then the New Orleans
chapter and the Kenner chapter, now, basically they
had the same manifesto, the same constitution from Chicago. So when we would have meetings, they would open up in prayer. Everybody would get on their
knees, put their head down, they'd open up in prayer, and they would address certain
things that were going on. This is what needs to be handled. This is what needs to be seen at. This what needs to be done
in this area, in this area. I would put my money in
the basket, in the hat, you know what I'm saying,
as a part of my dues, and that was supposed to go to other Kings that were incarcerated or to look out for
everybody else, you know? But ultimately, I don't
know where that went. You know what I'm saying? We didn't meet as much as they probably should have. When I was in prison and I joined the Latin
Kings with the Bloods, because they both run
under the People's Nation, they both ride under the five, we would meet on the big yard. And when we'd meet on the big yard, it would be to address
what needs to be done, any new recruits, you
know what I'm saying? What's going on in this dorm? Where's this money going?
When's this coming in? We've written up and making sure everybody's going to abide by this so we can have a structure
and we could run this yard. The connection between the
Latin Kings in the streets and the ones in jail is
based upon influence. If you're just a peewee
or you're just a soldier, nine times out of 10, you're
not going to see a penny, unless it's your close comrades that was running with you head up. The Latin Kings, to be
dominant in a prison was based upon recognition
of you being about that, like you already having a name and you proving yourself in that prison. So when things came your way, you would handle it with violence. You'd be ready for
violence at any given time. You would form connections
within the prison based upon your street connections to really get influence on the guards. Now you got influence on the guards, you have access to things of the world. The more people I would have,
I understand chain of command. I understand how an organization works. So at this point, I'm
coming in at a high level, so this was based upon my security because I wouldn't really
be touching this stuff, but I would capitalize off of it. So the more people, the
more structure I have, so the less things I have to
do, putting myself in jeopardy, because I have people
under me that I could say, "Look, go do this, go do
that, move this, move this." And then I reap the benefits of it. So then I started going
to war with the tactical. By this time I'm on extended. I'm bored. I have nothing better to do. "All right, let's fight.
Let's fight, let's go to war." I'm going to get respect from
my comrades, other prisoners, and then on top of that, you get the respect from
the correctional officers because now they know
if you mess with him, you're not going to be able
to go home at shift change because you're going to
have so much paperwork that you gotta do. You been here 10 hours, 12 hours. You might not make it home for 17 hours if you mess with this prisoner. So guess what they do?
They stop messing with you. For me, prison, it made me worse. I didn't get saved in prison. The only thing I got from prison is how to be a better criminal. Man, my breaking point, bro, I didn't care about the fighting. Like, pain don't last long, you know what I'm saying? It was really my kids, man. When I did that five-year bid
and my little girl, Hailey, she was 2 years old when I went. I had been locked up, like, four years, and I was on maximum security. This instant, the officer
that was working the dorm, he was cool with me, so
he's working visit this day and he lets me hold my little girl, even though I'm non-contact. I got a belt, I got
handcuffs, and I got shackles. I'm holding my beautiful baby girl. She's like, "Daddy, what is this?" I said, "That's my bracelet, baby. Daddy's shining, you
don't see they brand new?" And she looks and she
said, "Well, what is this?" And she grabs my shackles,
and I start doing like this, and I'm making them jump like a jump rope. I was like, "Oh, that's
my jump rope, baby." And she looks, she said, "You look stuck. You look like you stuck." I told you, prison didn't make me better. I'm about to start this
empire when I hit the streets. But all of this stuff was breaking me. So getting out, for me, it wasn't even a thought because I didn't care what they would do or what they was going to say. I started going to prison at 12, 13. It was stealing clothes and selling them on the block and then possession of a stolen weapon. They kicked my mama's door
in and they found the gun. Then we was all at a parade. We was really going to
fight another rival gang. We had a eight-ball in a bandana. One of the guys had a knife. But, man, God intervened. We ended up getting caught
smoking weed in the car before we could get out and
do what we was going to do. At 16, one count of
first-degree attempted murder, three counts of aggravated assault, one count of aggravated criminal damage. It was gang-related. Got locked back up, and I was in there 17, and I got a five-year suspended sentence. Then I ended up getting
charged as an adult. I was on the streets two years, and then I got locked back up. I came home 26, 27, I got
locked back up 28, 29. I come home 30, 31. Then 32 I overdosed on
heroin for the third time. I was dead on the floor. And I say the paramedics, awesome. They did their job, but
they didn't bring me back. He brought me back
because I got a purpose. It's like I didn't care about my life. I'm putting myself in jeopardy. You living that life not knowing
that you hurting everybody that loves you in the process. When I overdosed on heroin,
I ended up getting sentenced to the church, mandated by the court with a suspended sentence
saying if he gets kicked out, if he leaves, we vacate
the sentence, take him back to trial on the initial
charge, and multi-bill him. So it's either complete
this one-year discipleship rehabilitation program or go
do 15, 30 years in prison. I went, because I'm like,
I'm going to face this. I said, "Paco's dead. I'm a new creation in Christ." That's where rebirth come from. I'm in the process of
opening up a facility to where we rehabilitate
men and we disciple men. Some people look at me and
be like, "You're a pastor?" Well, what's a pastor
supposed to look like? Older men need to take accountability to be there for the younger men. They want to see you love them. You gotta give your time
to this younger generation. Don't just tell them what they need to do, show them what they need to do, right? So how are you going to do that? By proximity, by inconveniencing yourself and going into these neighborhoods,
going into the projects. I go hood to hood, block to block, prison to project to juvenile facilities, and I share my testimony,
and I make it tangible because I make myself transparent. I don't get cleaned up
like I never been dirty. So, I used to rap for the world. I opened up for Kevin Gates, opened up for VH1 "Love & Hip Hop." I had a beat from Mannie Fresh with Mannie Fresh on the
chorus with Cash Money Records. I got a new single out with my wife and our sister Roxy coming out
as part of the worship team. It's called "Amazing Grace." It's like a 2023 rendition. It's no coincidence, like I'm here talking
about God's amazing grace, you know what I'm saying?
