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Sabu Stanley

I Was a Blood in Brooklyn — Then Got 16 Years in Prison

Sabu Stanley grew up in Brooklyn and lost his father to cancer as a child. His mother kept him grounded and out of trouble — until she passed from cancer too. Without her the streets of Brooklyn became his family. His first run in with the law sent him to Rikers Island where he became a Blood. Gang life eventually led to a 16 year sentence in New York State prison. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, Sabu tells the complete story — from losing both parents to the streets taking him in to Rikers Island in the 90s and early 2000s to becoming a Blood to rising as a major drug player in Brooklyn to the 16 year sentence that defined the next chapter of everything.

Julio Almanza

I Was a Chicago Gang Member Running Drugs for the Cartel — Then Got Locked Up in a Mexican Prison

Julio Almanza grew up in Chicago after his father walked out — and that loss set everything in motion. The streets became his family the Satan Disciples became his identity and the Mexican cartel became his employer. At just 17 years old he was caught smuggling drugs on the Mexico side of the border and spent the next four years locked up in a Mexican prison before being transferred to federal custody in the United States. When he got out he went straight back. Ten more years in federal prison followed. He left the Satan Disciples and joined the Latin Kings — and his former gang immediately put hits out on him. He survived moved to Arizona to start over ended up back inside and finally turned his life around completely.

Howard Robertson

I Was A Warden at Rikers Island — Here's the Truth About America's Most Violent Jail

Howard Robertson had every reason to go down the wrong path. His parents died. His siblings were in the streets. But instead of following them he chose corrections — and over a 22 year career from the late 1970s to the early 2000s he rose from correctional officer to captain to deputy warden to warden of Rikers Island — the largest and most violent jail in America. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, Howard pulls back the curtain on everything — from his brutal upbringing to what made him choose corrections to what Rikers Island looked like from the inside during its most violent era to the notorious inmates he encountered to how programs reduced violence to how politicians destroyed what it could have been to the problems with closing it and what the future of Rikers Island really looks like.

Pasquale Sementilli

I Became an NYPD Cop in the 75th Precinct — Here's the Truth About New York's Most Dangerous Beat

Pasquale Sementilli was born to Italian immigrants who built their life in America — and he became an American citizen himself in his late teens after passing the test. What nobody knew was that as a child he had been sexually abused by a neighbor — something he carried completely alone for years while navigating construction work womanizing and alcohol abuse after high school. Then he lost two close friends on 9/11. And that loss pushed him toward something bigger — the NYPD. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, Pasquale shares the complete story — from his Italian immigrant upbringing to the childhood abuse nobody knew about to his years in construction to losing friends on 9/11 to becoming an NYPD officer in 2003 to working some of the worst precincts in New York City to responding to child abuse cases as a victim himself to the calls that still haunt him to his medical retirement after a line of duty injury in 2011 and what he carries from all of it today.

Frankie Rosario

I Moved Kilos of Heroin for $30 Million+ a Year — Then the Feds Gave Me 10 Years in Federal Prison

Frankie Rosario grew up in Florida after being born in Connecticut — raised by a good family with strong morals and an exceptional mind that made him stand out academically from an early age. He was headed toward a career in medicine. Then his cousin made him an offer that changed the entire direction of his life — $15000 a week to get involved in a drug operation shortly after graduating college in his early twenties. What followed was not street level dealing. Frankie operated in an administrative capacity — handling logistics organizing shipments and laundering money for an operation that moved kilos of heroin and generated thirty to forty million dollars a year. They used his father's flooring business as a front. And when federal investigators finally caught up with the operation Frankie was sentenced to ten years in federal prison — starting in the penitentiaries and working his way down. In this episode of Locked In with Ian Bick, Frankie tells the complete story — from his exceptional childhood and academic success to the cousin's offer that changed everything to building and running a logistics and money laundering operation inside a massive heroin empire to federal charges and sentencing to what ten years inside the federal prison system really looked like and what it finally took to walk away and rebuild his life.

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