I just read this book and loved it. Hollywood will certainly make a film about Cuban born criminal named Jose Vigoa, that literally robbed Las Vegas. The best part of the book, is that you still couldn’t figure out if he was an agent of Cuba, or just a Cuban gone bad. Robert Baer(former CIA employee) was interviewed about this guy, and he thought that Vigoa was an agent that slipped in during the eighties Cuban boat crisis. A sleeper agent that went off the deep end, so to speak. Or maybe he had orders to cause havoc in Vegas?
Either way, Vigoa makes Tony Montana from “Scar Face” look like a child. True crime, to me, is always more fascinating than the fictional stuff, and this guy was larger than life. Not only was he a highly trained and experienced warrior from the cold war era, but he also was an effective drug dealer and violent robber that took down the ‘strip’.
From a tactical thought process point of view, Vigoa was a fascinating study. Mentally, this guy operated like a soldier behind enemy lines, rather than a criminal. And the various stories about his time in Angola and Afghanistan were really interesting windows, upon the mentality of Vigoa. From his use of top Private Investigators to collect information on enemies and associates, to controlling the meeting places (controlling your battle space) where very telling, as to Vigoa’s background and capability. What was really frightening about the guy, was his mental kill-switch. He was not hesitant in this regard, and that is also what made him such a vicious criminal.
This book also talked about the bravery of the guards that defended their Armored cars to the death, against Vigoa’s crew and their vicious take downs. It is a stark reminder, of how dangerous transporting money can be and what the worse case scenario for an armored transport professional could be. I highly recommend this book. –Head Jundi
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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Network producer and onetime Miami Herald columnist Huddy tells a gripping story of greed, violence, theft and public relations. Las Vegas had just launched its new blitz of advertising—advancing itself not as Sin City but as a family-friendly vacation destination—when Jose Vigoa (a Cuban-born commando veteran of the Soviet Army) hit town in the late 1990s. Vigoa and a small crew embarked on a violent 16-month crime wave, targeting some of the Strip’s most prominent (and, as Vigoa showed, vulnerable) institutions. A 23-year veteran of the Las Vegas Police Force, Lt. John Alamshaw was charged with finding and capturing the men behind the crime spree—without allowing the robberies to become national news and spoil Vegas’s new image. Huddy traces Vigoa’s personal history from his childhood in Castro’s Cuba to fighting for the Red Army in Afghanistan, his return to Cuba and eventual resettlement in the United States. Then he chronicles the Cuban’s increasingly audacious grabs for Vegas riches and his ultimate sentencing to more than 500 years in prison with no possibility of parole. This debut is a must for true-crime enthusiasts. B&w photos.
It was a good book.
The guy was pretty good on the planning, but was hamstrung from having a sub-par team. Getting quality people is the real problem when setting up a crew. Very few people know what the word discipline is. And almost all of those forget it at the time they ETS from the military.
It is also enormously expensive to run a job right. There are back ups, to back ups to backups. The money gained from a job should be reinvested into the team for better gear, training and weapons. Most people are unwilling to do that. They would rather keep it all and make minimal investment.
The next thing was he was really bad at picking targets. If you are going to hit an armored car, there is no reason whatsoever not to walk away with $500,000 – $3,000,000 in cash each and every time. Im not talking about checks, receipts, coins and cash, but actual untraceable paper money.
His crew was taking risks for $100,000. That amount is a joke. He really messed up in that field.
Another error was purchasing homes. When you are anything other than retired, you always rent homes. Rotating them out every so often.
Also weapons, gear & clothing used on robberies should be one time use. Ex. Even if you wear a wedding ring into a crime, it is gone at the end of crime. no clues, no exceptions.
Next he wasn’t ruthless enough. Not even close. He performed robberies in the Western Warfare style. In which all of his problems during his jobs resulted from that.
Eastern style is simple and effective. Walk up, shoot guards in the head, pick up money and walk away. Over and done with in 10 seconds. None of this western style of 2 minutes at the crime scene fire fights with security and your men getting shot or people calling in your id to cops. F*ck that shit.
Besides, when you hit an armored car, the amount of money on the inside dictates that even if you don’t pull a gun, that you will do 20-30 years mandatory. If your looking at a 20-30 year stretch, why on earth would you want to leave a witness.
Next problem is weight. Money is HEAVY. (Think about carrying a bag of phone books.) If you takedown a courier, you can hit & be gone with in seconds. However, on taking millions it takes a lot of time to literally pick up and move all the bags of money. So don’t do it in public like he did. Hit the car, take the car, drive it to semi-private spot where you have time to do a full unload.
If you plan a robbery correct, a 3 man crew will only have to pull 1-3 robberies total, before each man has 1-2 million in cash. Once you do that retire. The more you do it the greater the odds stack up against you.
The difference between an amateur and professional is knowing when you have won. Vigoa talks about this in his book. His drug boss did exactly that. He made enough to retire, and he did. Very smart & disciplined man.
You must know when to walk away. Sit down and figure out exactly how much you need. Then once you get it, WALK AWAY!
Next, don’t do all the jobs in the same city with the same MO. Move around pick your targets better. Train hard away from family and friends for 3-4 months. Then go to work. Each armored car target can be scouted out and have routine down in 1-4 weeks pending on the type of car & region.
Hit that target, then move to another city or state and repeat. 2-3 months later everyone has a couple million in cash and can retire to the islands.
Simple and effective.
The cops & security guards in the book were considered “armed heroes who out fought badguys”. Give me a break. With all due respect to our Law Enforcement Community, in a firefight all a cop is, is nothing but a Private with a pistol. (Outside of 5 yards completely useless.) Just imagine even something as simple as an normal infantry squad coming back from iraq who has been burned by the military, can’t find good jobs due to trashed economy. All they will need is to remember their combat training & experience and they will OWN any city, cops or SWAT team they choose.
As long as they retire before the FBI can sick their HRT SWAT team on them, they win.
But like I said, one must have a good tight crew. Outside of Hollywood they only exist in elite military units and East Asia. Finding people with discipline who take their work seriously is all but impossible.
Overall what Vigoa did was much better than average.
Good book. thanks for the recommendation
Comment by Doug — Sunday, May 4, 2008 @ 6:54 PM
Thanks for the review and comments Doug. Cheers.
Comment by headjundi — Monday, May 5, 2008 @ 6:58 AM