Former drug kingpin Freeway “Ricky”
Former drug kingpin Freeway “Ricky” served nearly 15 years of what was originally a life sentence for his involvement in the Iran-Contra during the Reagan administration. After he was released from jail for a separate case, fellow drug lord Oscar Danilo Blandón reached out to him for one last job. At this point Ricky had stopped selling cocaine, but was asked to introduce Blandon to a deal, which ultimately turned out to be faulty. “People’s head are popping up at out cars and it was a set up,” Freeway Ricky says of the day he was arrested for his ties to the Contras. “I wanted a 20-year deal, and they offered me a plea where I plead guilty, and if the judge wanted to give me 20 she could. If she wanted to give me life, she could. I said ‘Nah, I’ll take my chance on appeal.'”
It was this case that made Freeway Ricky teach himself to read and write. “I just started practicing reading everyday,” he remembers. “Started reading law books and then one day I’m sitting there reading and the words that I needed – continuous criminal spree – popped out and I was like ‘Oh wow, that’s what I been needing [sic].”
