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Storming Las Vegas: How a Cuban-Born, Soviet-Trained Commando Took Down the Strip to the Tune of Five World-Class Hotels, Three Armored Cars, and Millions of Dollars
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About Storming Las Vegas: How A
Product Description On September 20, 1998, Jose Vigoa, a child of Fidel Castro’s revolution, launched what would be the most audacious and ruthless series of high-profile casino and armored car robberies that Las Vegas had ever seen. In a brazen sixteen-month reign of terror, he and his crew would hit the crème de la crème of Vegas hotels: the MGM, the Desert Inn, the New York—New York, the Mandalay Bay, and the Bellagio. The robberies were well planned and executed, and the police–“the stupids,” as Vigoa contemptuously referred to them–were all but helpless to stop them. But Lt. John Alamshaw, the twenty-three-year veteran in charge of robbery detectives, was not giving up so easily. For him, Vigoa’s rampage was a personal affront. And he would do whatever it took, even risk his badge, to bring Vigoa down. Review “An amazing and absorbing story . . . [John] Huddy’s vivid, visceral prose and lean narrative make reading about this episode of extreme criminal violence much more than a guilty pleasure.”— Miami Herald “Harrowing . . . Storming Las Vegas showcases Mr. Huddy’s fine reporting and deft storytelling skill.”— Wall Street Journal“A gripping story of greed, violence, theft and public relations . . . a must for true-crime enthusiasts.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review “Revealing in what it shows about the criminal mind . . . [Huddy has] the perfect blend of skills and experience to tell the story of Vigoa.”— Seattle Times “A total page-turner . . . riveting from beginning to end.” —Laura Ingraham, The O’Reilly Factor “A thought-provoking, demented Horatio Alger story.”— Entertainment Weekly About the Author John Huddy, a network producer and print journalist for three decades, has won two Emmys for editorial writing and on-air commentary and other national awards for producing, newswriting, and documentary filmmaking. Huddy is a former Miami Herald columnist and critic whose print and broadcast subjects have included Charles Manson, Federico Fellini, O. J. Simpson, Steve Martin, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Burt Reynolds. He lives in Granada Hills, California. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. BOOK ONE GUNFIGHT ON LAS VEGAS BOULEVARD Chapter 1 FIRST BLOOD It is June 28, 1999, 9:52 a.m. Pedro Sandoval tosses his empty plastic water bottle into the wheel well and double-checks his paperwork as the moving van threads its way down the Strip to the Desert Inn Hotel and Casino at 3145 Las Vegas Boulevard. It's going to be a long, hard day. The blistering heat rises from the desert, eventually reaching 110 degrees by midday. The crew is scheduled to drop off twenty-four electronic slot machines, each costing $15,000, weighing six hundred pounds, and featuring stars like Pat Sajak whooping and hollering on the sound track. Lots of bells and sirens for the fanny-pack and flip-flop crowd. At 9:54 the eighteen-wheeler pulls up to the south side of the hotel, next to the Desert Inn Race & Sports Book. After manhandling five of the machines onto a forklift, Pedro wipes the sweat from his brow and glances toward the Sports entrance as an off-duty showgirl pedals by on her red bicycle. Beyond the casino doors is a strip of landscaping about thirty feet long and twenty feet wide; there, something catches Pedro's eye. On a morning devoid of breeze, it seems odd that the rosemary plants in the mini-oasis appear to be moving. Pedro looks again. The thick shrubbery shakes vigorously and then, to Pedro's amazement, expels two dark shapes. Pedro blinks. "What the fuck?" As a second, smaller truck-gray and boxlike, with blue striping on its side-turns off Spring Mountain Avenue and approaches the casino entrance, the shapes from the shrubbery come into focus: two men dressed in black from head to toe. They are moving, all too quickly, toward Pedro and the eighteen-wheeler. They are armed. Pedro Sandoval, a former paratrooper, recognizes the firearms and issues new orders to his three-man slot machine crew, perhaps th
