Anyone know any info about El Negro from Murder Machine? Interested to know the reputation and power of this guy and how big his crew was. Must have been a pretty crazy bastard considering he was ready to kill Demeo despite the fact he was Nino Gaggi's biggest earner, there's no doubt there wouldn't have been a lot of retaliation if Demeo ever got clipped.

He was with Griselda Blanco Jorge "Rivi" Ayala crew

The Colombians are crazy enough to not give a shit about the mafia. I never heard for sure, but like Paulie said I think El Negro aka Carlos Vanegas. They called him El Negro because of course he was real dark. As crazy as they were they probably would have popped him if they could have and I'm not sure the Italians could have done much about it.

As far as power they were the strongest of all the Colombians at the time as they were tied to Pablo Escobar and the Ochoa's. They worked under Griselda Blanco and you couldn't get any higher in the U.S. than they were.

These were guys stupid enough to bayonet a Colombian who just got off a plane at the Miami Airport because she wanted him to die like a pig. They had the "Murder Wagon" at Dadeland Mall as well.

^This pretty much

A) Castellano, and by extension Nino, did not want ANY fuss or trouble, legal or otherwise, stemming from lower echelon members being involved in drugs, it appears that you were only tolerated doing that insofar as you kicked up the proceeds from it, so the hornet's nest(to put it lightly) that would have been open from a confrontation with the Colombians is precisely why Nino made sure that the cubans/colombians's demands were met to avoid the headache.

B) The Colombians had too much reach in that era for the Italians to just try to retaliate or take them on over a stupid drug ripoff from their own ranks, best case scenario if SHTF would be that whoever was killed from Roy's crew etc would have been killed, and possibly a settlement made through backchannels to make sure the violence didn't explode in NYC.

I have read murder machine and watched cocaine cowboys, never came to conclusion they were same as have heard nickname used before. Rivi got the raw deal alot of people from that time are out and he's still being shafted by an embarrassed government.

Yes, what a shame that a ruthless serial killer is not back out on the streets!

Many more who were more ruthless are out and they didn't help the government out like Rivi did. I should have clarified I do not necessarily believe any should be free but usually the guy who helps out the government gets out first.I believe his phone sex scandal with government employee has him still locked up more then the murders did or he'd be free like Miquel Perez and others.

Isn't Rivi dead?

He was a prolific killer. He should have been locked up. I don't feel bad for him, at all.

El Negro from MM was Cuban, El Negro who worked for Griselda was Colombian no?

I never read MM Vette so I'm not sure, but yes the 2nd part is correct he was Colombian.

And mighty, no Rivi is still alive as far as I know.