STRIP STAKEOUT Storming Las Vegas examines the series of brazen late-'90s Brink's truck heists orchestrated by gangster Jose Vigoa
STRIP STAKEOUT Storming Las Vegas examines the series of brazen late-'90s Brink's truck heists orchestrated by gangster Jose Vigoa
Book Review

Storming Las Vegas (2008)

EW's GRADE
B

Details Release Date: Feb 19, 2008; Writer: John Huddy; Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime; Publisher: Ballantine

Like a real-life Danny Ocean, Cuban-born gangster Jose Vigoa ransacked Sin City's strip during a two-year crime spree in the late '90s. But instead of cracking vaults with tech smarts, he and his cronies took AK-47s to the armored Brink's trucks picking up cash from the Bellagio, MGM Grand, and Mandalay Bay. It took five heists — and a double homicide — before Vegas police took Vigoa down. In Storming Las Vegas, John Huddy draws surprising sympathy for the meticulous crime boss, painting Vigoa as a child who grew up too fast, a businessman, a father, and a drug lord. The result is a thought-provoking, demented Horatio Alger story. B

Originally posted Feb 15, 2008 Published in issue #979 Feb 22, 2008 Order article reprints

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