Santiago Luis Polanco Rodríguez (born June 16, 1961 in Santiago, Dominican Republic) is a Dominican American former drug dealer considered to be the first mass marketer of crack cocaine in United States. Better known by his street name, Yayo, he carries a special distinction among drug dealers, according to experts in the drug trade. [1] Officials from the Drug Enforcement Agency have portrayed him as a calculating and disciplined criminal who organized Dominican, Jamaican and American street dealers into a marketing empire. Law enforcement officials say he was perhaps the richest Dominican drug kingpin in the United States.
In 1986, the DEA began an anti-crack campaign in New York, rounding up hundreds of buyers and street sellers, many of whom became informers. They led agents to Polanco-Rodriguez's headquarters at 2400 Webb Avenue and 2623 Sedgwick Avenue, in Kingsbridge Heights, Bronx. There, agents found bulletproof vests, automatic weapons, a gas mask and more than one-hundred thousand empty crack vials. In 1987, US Attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani signed a 58-count Federal indictment charging Polanco-Rodriguez with drug trafficking, racketeering and money laundering. On July 3, 1987, Federal authorities announced they had successfully terminated the drug ring, which they described as the biggest distributor of crack in New York City. Twenty-nine people were subsequently arrested for involvement in the drug ring.[2]