King Of Kings Foundation Christmas Carnival Slideshow

KING OF KINGS

Todd and Lance Feurtado are two brothers who made millions running a notorious drug gang in the borough but now work to steer young people away from violence. They once headed the Seven Crowns outfit in southeast Queens in the 1970s and 1980s. They, too, have noticed a shift in how conflicts are dealt with on the streets, where today's youth are more prone to settling scores with guns than earlier gangs were.

After being released from prison in 2003, the Feurtados started the King of Kings Foundation, designed to prevent youth in Queens and other parts of the city from turning to drugs and violence. It was a remarkable change in priorities for the brothers, who said at one time their gang made $30 million a week and they became millionaires before their 20th birthdays.

"We were trendsetters, but we weren't violent," Todd Feurtado said. "And that's not to say that if someone thought we might've wanted a foot to trip Johnny, Johnny didn't get tripped, but we don't condone stuff like that and if there was ever a time where Richie and Harold were getting ready to clash with each other, back then we were even mediators back then, so we were anti-violence."

Lance Feurtado said the streets of southeast Queens during his heyday "had rules. There were laws. There were rules, codes and there was a level of respect.

"Today's youth ... they're just running reckless. They have no sense of direction at all and they have this whole, 'I don't care,' attitude," he said.

The Seven Crowns, the brothers said, was strictly about making money and not about instilling fear or violence while today's gangs might even target those with no gang affiliation.

"If you were a civilian, then you were a civilian," Lance Feurtado said. "There was no going out and taking down a civilian. We were respecters of life and we respected our neighborhood and our communities. We believed in the preservation of life. We didn't take lives or nothing like that."

Lance Feurtado said today's youth have more opportunities to get into trouble, especially drug dealers who distribute their wares outside corner stores.

"Back in our day and time, stores didn't stay open 24 hours, so you couldn't hang out in front of a store at 1, 2, 3 o'clock in the morning. Now you got cats hanging out at 3, 4 o'clock in the morning in front of stores. You could just be going in the store to grab knick-knacks and they look at you like you're prey."

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Nonprofits & Activism

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