By Michael Morton
“The Lord just laid on my heart that our life story was a life story that needed to be changed-to end the chain of destruction that we caused,” Lance Feurtado, 45, said during an interview last week. “Before the vision we led many people astray,” Todd Feurtado, 43, added. “We was living wrong.”Thus was born the King of Kings Foundation, a non-profit organization the brothers formed when Todd Feurtado was released from prison in 2003 and Lance Feurtado got out the following year. Through their group, they have created education soundtracks and anti-drug films while trying to steer teens away from peer pressure, gangs and violence. They will also release a DVD later this month that not only chronicles their story and warns against life on the streets, but also criticizes the government's approach to fighting drugs. “The deck is stacked against you,” Lance Feurtado said about youths living in urban neighborhoods. He described the statutes known as the Rockefeller drug laws as draconian legislation that sends minorities to feed the prison system. “You're in a lose-lose situation,” he said, noting that teens needed to work extra hard to avoid the twin pitfalls.The Feurtados' journey to that lesson began in South Jamaica, where they grew up in a household run by their single mother. Money was tight, and as youngsters the brothers delivered newspapers, bagged groceries and shoveled snow. In their mid-teens, the odd jobs proved not enough.”You sit down and do the math and say 'we need to do something else,'” Lance Feurtado said.That something else was drug dealing, known on the streets as “the game,” and the brothers soon became high-level leaders in a ring that operated in Queens and neighboring states. They said they eschewed the violence normally associated with the trade, acting as mediators in disputes, and handed out money so 500 neighborhood families could eat.”We were considered the Robin Hood of the game,” Lance Feurtado said. “Our means to get financial gain were wrong, but our hearts were good.”Once established, the brothers tried several times to go legitimate, but were always sucked backed in.”We were millionaires at age 19,” Lance Feurtado said. “If we didn't see instant profit, it wasn't worth it.”One of those abandoned ventures included an idea for the first 24-hour Laundromat.”Imagine if we had just stuck with that,” Todd Feurtado said wistfully.The brothers said they finally went clean in 1993 after Todd Feurtado bought a gun for his safety, then got nailed on a string of weapons charges.”It was time to get a reality check,” he said. “One day it was going to be something more serious.”But despite getting out of the trade before they were busted for drugs, the Feurtados said the authorities had a vendetta against them and kept blaming them for new dealers emerging. When a drug shipment was seized in South Carolina, Queens informants fingered the Feurtados. Faced with a 32-count federal indictment, they pleaded guilty in 1997 to conspiracy and money laundering, but kept their right to appeal.”No, we're not innocent and we're not angels, but what we went to jail for we did not do,” Lance Feurtado said. The Feurtados are still waiting for their appeal to be heard in order to clear their names and hoping that a third older brother also sent to prison in the case is soon released. Once out of jail, the younger Feurtado brothers found themselves starting over.”When the feds get you, they take it all,” Todd Feurtado said. “You come back to nothing.”After taking a course at Jamaica's York College on video production and business management, they are now trying to stop teens from following the route they took.”Never let anyone tell you you can't be a productive citizen,” Todd Feurtado said. “You can be.”Reach reporter Michael Morton by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
