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Authors: Evan Wright
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three-year-old son, Fisten saw the Tabraue cats and became “outraged to the point of physically ill.”
His anger motivated him to redouble his efforts to solve the 1980 murder of the ATF informant that was believed, but not yet proven, to have been committed by the Tabraues’ enforcer, El Oso. Fisten turned witnesses who provided evidence against El Oso, who was about to be released from prison after serving time for illegal-weapons convictions. Fisten staked out the bus station where the convict’s wife and twelve-year-old son waited to be reunited. As El Oso stepped off the bus, Fisten arrested him in front of his family. “I wanted him to have that little taste of air, so he would know what he was missing when we took it away,” Fisten says. “That’s fair. He murdered a person, and he was going to prison for it. That’s how it’s supposed to work in this country.”
None of what happened next in Fisten’s career would go according to that principle. After El Oso pleaded guilty and accepted a twenty-year sentence, Fisten left the CENTAC and was reattached to the MDPD Homicide Bureau.
Around that time, Ed Hinman, a sergeant in the MDPD’s Organized Crime Bureau, decided Bobby Erra was a worthy target for his squad. Though Erra was suspected to be a top mafioso, no one had ever made a case against him. “Bobby Erra was an arrogant asshole who thought no one could touch him,” Hinman says. He met with federal prosecutors, who are called assistant U.S. attorneys, and proposed federalizing his squad to target Erra in a RICO investigation. The prosecutors suggested Hinman augment his squad with a strong homicide investigator: Fisten. Hinman had never met Fisten before, but the two hit it off, though they were a study in opposites. Fisten spoke in New York inflections and moved at a frenetic pace; Hinman was a lanky Southerner known for his unflappable cool. Over a few days together, they wrote a formal request to target Erra in a RICO investigation that Hinman named Operation RHABDO—phonetic slang for “rabid dog,” his code for Erra.
Dexter Lehtinen approved the operation, and Hinman was given an office near his in the federal building, from which to oversee more than a dozen personnel assigned to the OCS: a half dozen MDPD detectives, two FBI agents, and support staff. No one—certainly not Lehtinen himself—could have anticipated that the investigation of Erra would circle back to Albert San Pedro and bring to light his secret immunity deal. Nor could anyone have imagined that Albert’s trail would take them to a CIA officer named Enrique Prado, who was then stationed in the Philippines. “If they had known the can of shit we were about to kick open,” Hinman says, “they never would have authorized our task force.”
The “Quiet Man”: Ricky Prado at a family party, circa 1977. From the OCS files
“The Maniac” and his “Legs on the Street”: Albert San Pedro and his third wife, Lourdes, enjoying a nother night on the town, circa 1990. Courtesy of Lourdes Valdez
“It was like playing cops and robbers”: Detective Mike Fisten, in blue, with a MDPD decoy squad in 1980, before the pursuit of Prado and San Pedro began to consume his life. Courtesy of Mike Fisten
The “last true crime fighter”: Fisten listening to surveillance tapes while on the OCS, circa 1991. Courtesy of Mike Fisten
Man in a Lego House
Hinman’s primary hope in nailing Erra resided in a coke-addicted Miami attorney named Mark Baer, who had recently been arrested for embezzling money from a client. Hinman had learned that one of Baer’s longtime clients was Bobby Erra. Out on bail and facing financial ruin, Baer was living in a Miami Beach apartment, near his eighty-five-year-old mother. When Hinman sent detectives to offer Baer a deal on his embezzlement charges if he would cooperate against Erra, Baer told them to get lost.
But Fisten saw an interesting detail in
His anger motivated him to redouble his efforts to solve the 1980 murder of the ATF informant that was believed, but not yet proven, to have been committed by the Tabraues’ enforcer, El Oso. Fisten turned witnesses who provided evidence against El Oso, who was about to be released from prison after serving time for illegal-weapons convictions. Fisten staked out the bus station where the convict’s wife and twelve-year-old son waited to be reunited. As El Oso stepped off the bus, Fisten arrested him in front of his family. “I wanted him to have that little taste of air, so he would know what he was missing when we took it away,” Fisten says. “That’s fair. He murdered a person, and he was going to prison for it. That’s how it’s supposed to work in this country.”
None of what happened next in Fisten’s career would go according to that principle. After El Oso pleaded guilty and accepted a twenty-year sentence, Fisten left the CENTAC and was reattached to the MDPD Homicide Bureau.
Around that time, Ed Hinman, a sergeant in the MDPD’s Organized Crime Bureau, decided Bobby Erra was a worthy target for his squad. Though Erra was suspected to be a top mafioso, no one had ever made a case against him. “Bobby Erra was an arrogant asshole who thought no one could touch him,” Hinman says. He met with federal prosecutors, who are called assistant U.S. attorneys, and proposed federalizing his squad to target Erra in a RICO investigation. The prosecutors suggested Hinman augment his squad with a strong homicide investigator: Fisten. Hinman had never met Fisten before, but the two hit it off, though they were a study in opposites. Fisten spoke in New York inflections and moved at a frenetic pace; Hinman was a lanky Southerner known for his unflappable cool. Over a few days together, they wrote a formal request to target Erra in a RICO investigation that Hinman named Operation RHABDO—phonetic slang for “rabid dog,” his code for Erra.
Dexter Lehtinen approved the operation, and Hinman was given an office near his in the federal building, from which to oversee more than a dozen personnel assigned to the OCS: a half dozen MDPD detectives, two FBI agents, and support staff. No one—certainly not Lehtinen himself—could have anticipated that the investigation of Erra would circle back to Albert San Pedro and bring to light his secret immunity deal. Nor could anyone have imagined that Albert’s trail would take them to a CIA officer named Enrique Prado, who was then stationed in the Philippines. “If they had known the can of shit we were about to kick open,” Hinman says, “they never would have authorized our task force.”
The “Quiet Man”: Ricky Prado at a family party, circa 1977. From the OCS files
“The Maniac” and his “Legs on the Street”: Albert San Pedro and his third wife, Lourdes, enjoying a nother night on the town, circa 1990. Courtesy of Lourdes Valdez
“It was like playing cops and robbers”: Detective Mike Fisten, in blue, with a MDPD decoy squad in 1980, before the pursuit of Prado and San Pedro began to consume his life. Courtesy of Mike Fisten
The “last true crime fighter”: Fisten listening to surveillance tapes while on the OCS, circa 1991. Courtesy of Mike Fisten
Man in a Lego House
Hinman’s primary hope in nailing Erra resided in a coke-addicted Miami attorney named Mark Baer, who had recently been arrested for embezzling money from a client. Hinman had learned that one of Baer’s longtime clients was Bobby Erra. Out on bail and facing financial ruin, Baer was living in a Miami Beach apartment, near his eighty-five-year-old mother. When Hinman sent detectives to offer Baer a deal on his embezzlement charges if he would cooperate against Erra, Baer told them to get lost.
But Fisten saw an interesting detail in
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