Ever heard of a guy named Yayo? No, not the slang term—the man. If you lived in New York City during the gritty mid-80s, his name carried a certain weight that made people either very rich or very dead. Santiago Luis Polanco Rodríguez wasn't just another street dealer. Honestly, he was the guy who basically wrote the manual on how to turn a neighborhood drug trade into a corporate-style empire.
He was the "King of Crack."
While the Medellín and Cali cartels were fighting wars in the Colombian jungles, Polanco Rodríguez was doing something much more "business-casual" in Washington Heights. He took a product that was mostly a West Coast curiosity and turned it into a New York City epidemic. It’s wild to think about, but before him, crack wasn’t the organized, branded monster we remember it as. He fixed that.
The Birth of the "Based Balls" Brand
Polanco Rodríguez was born in 1961 in Santiago, Dominican Republic. His family moved to Manhattan legally in 1969. By 1982, he was already running a tight-knit crew selling high-end cocaine near West 174th Street. But the pivot happened in 1985. There are a few theories on how he got into crack. Some say Jamaican gangs showed him the ropes. Others claim the Medellín Cartel saw his talent and taught him the "cook."
Whatever the spark, the result was a brand called Based Balls.
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He didn't just toss drugs in a bag. He used heat-sealed glassine envelopes. He even handed out business cards. Think about that: a drug dealer in 1985 using business cards that said "Cop and Go." It was efficient. It was disciplined. And it was making him about $36 million a year.
A Family Business with a Hit Squad
Yayo didn't work alone. He kept it in the family, which is a classic move but he took it to another level.
- Chiqui (half-brother): Ran the show when Yayo was traveling.
- Elvis (brother): Handled the street-level deliveries.
- Santiaguito (brother): The cash courier.
- Dulce Elizabeth (sister) & Luisa Ordalina (mother): They actually managed the "stash houses" where the crack was cooked and the money was counted.
It sounds like a dark version of a mom-and-pop shop. But don’t let the family ties fool you. He had a hit squad. The DEA linked his crew to at least five murders. They were known for rolling into the Bronx or Brooklyn and just... taking over. They would steamroll smaller gangs with automatic weapons and bulletproof vests.
The Fall and the Great Escape
By 1986, the heat was unbearable. Rudy Giuliani, who was the U.S. Attorney back then, signed a massive 58-count indictment against him. The feds raided his spots on Webb Avenue and found over 100,000 empty crack vials. That’s not a typo. One hundred thousand.
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But when the handcuffs came out, Polanco Rodríguez was already gone. He used a fake passport and slipped back to the Dominican Republic.
Now, this is where it gets kinda movie-like. He didn’t just hide in a basement. He bought a pharmacy. He opened a nightclub. He set up a finance company. He was laundering money in broad daylight. The U.S. wanted him back, but the Dominican government wasn't exactly jumping to extradite their new local "entrepreneur."
Life in La Victoria and Beyond
He wasn't untouchable, though. In 1988, he got into a shootout at a nightclub over a woman. He got shot in the leg, and the Dominican authorities finally threw him in La Victoria prison.
Prison wasn't exactly a deterrent. He bribed guards for luxuries. He fought other inmates. At one point, he supposedly stopped the attempted rape of a female prisoner, and the other inmates tried to burn him alive in his cell as revenge. He survived, and by 1992, he was a free man again.
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Where is Santiago Luis Polanco Rodríguez now?
By 1996, he told The New York Times he was retired. "I'm a different man," basically.
Most reports suggest he’s still in the Dominican Republic. He reportedly owns a casino and lives a pretty comfortable, lavish life. The DEA eventually stopped seeing him as an active threat because, well, he actually stayed out of the game. Or at least, he stayed out of their sight.
Key Takeaways for the History Buffs
If you're looking for the "so what" of the Santiago Luis Polanco Rodríguez story, here it is:
- Innovation over Raw Power: He didn't just sell drugs; he branded them. The "Based Balls" logo and standardized packaging changed how the street game worked.
- Corporate Structure: He used the Colombian "cell" model but applied it to NYC street corners. Everyone had a specific job—cooks, transporters, sellers, and muscle.
- The Extradition Gap: His story is a prime example of how international borders used to be a "get out of jail free" card for high-level traffickers before extradition treaties got more teeth.
For anyone researching the history of the 80s drug trade, you have to look past the big names like Escobar. The guys like Yayo were the ones actually putting the product in the vials and changing the face of American cities forever. To understand the crack epidemic, you have to understand the marketing genius of a man who treated the Bronx like a boardroom.
To dig deeper into this era, look up the 1987 federal indictment records or the archives of the New York Times 1996 interview with Polanco Rodríguez. These primary sources offer the most unvarnished look at how the "King of Crack" built and lost his throne.