Profile: Johnny Montalvo

W A S H I N G T O N, July 20 -- Thirty-six-year old Johnny Montalvo grew up on the streets of Sunset Park, an area in New York City's Brooklyn borough, in the late 1970s and 1980s. Sunset Park was nicknamed Gunset Park then, and there were rival gangs every few blocks. It was an environment in which not belonging to a gang got you beaten up. But belonging to the wrong gang also got you beaten up.

Montalvo became a member of a local street gang, the Rican Saints, when he was nine years old. At age 14, he joined the La Familia gang after the Rican Saints broke up. He quickly rose through the ranks to president. The young men and women in the gang formed a strong bond while they sold drugs, stole cars, did stick-ups, and fought other gangs.

Montalvo, known as "Johnny Whiteboy" on the street, was feared for his ruthless reputation. In 1983, at the age of 18, he was sent to prison, convicted of criminal possession of a weapon, possession of a controlled substance, and two counts of grand larceny. He served four and a half years, returning to the streets of Brooklyn in 1987.

Within nine months of his release, he was heavily using heroin and cocaine, as well as selling it.

Then, on the night of October 24, 1988, on Fourth Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets, a car pulled up and Montalvo was shot for the seventh time.

Dealing From A Wheelchair

Two of the bullets ended up lodged near his spine, causing him to lose the use of his legs. This only briefly slowed Johnny down. Soon he was selling drugs from the corner of Sixth Avenue and 51st Street, keeping his guns under the seat of his wheelchair.

A few months later, in January 1989, he was convicted of criminal possession of a weapon and first-degree robbery and sent back upstate to a maximum security prison. He served two years and was back on the streets of Brooklyn for only four and a half months before being arrested and convicted of possession and sale of a controlled substance. He went back to prison, serving two and a half years, before being released in July 1993.