Kriti Mehrotra
As a documentary exploring the way a Portuguese Island turned upside down after a cocaine shipment washed ashore, Netflix’s ‘Turn of the Tide: The Surreal Story of Rabo de Peixe’ is gripping. After all, what many locals initially believed could be a ticket into wealth soon spiraled into chaos, greed, and survival as they sadly ended up either addicted or involved in criminality. Amongst those to reiterate the same are Sandro Gomes and António “Tony” Arruda, two proud natives who were once criminals not only in their homeland but also in the United States.
Sandro Gomes Has Made a Name For Himself as a Rapper
Although born in the municipality of Santa Clara in São Miguel Island, Portugal, Sandro Gomes was primarily raised in Massachusetts after his family relocated when he was merely 9 years old. According to his own accounts, they settled in the predominantly Irish-Italian neighborhood of Winter Hill, Boston, which is how he ended up getting involved with drugs as well as the mafia. He admittedly started dealing in hard narcotics such as cocaine at the young age of 13, resulting in him gradually developing connections across both his base and his homeland.
Therefore, when Sandro learned that over 750 kilos of 95% pure, uncut cocaine had washed up on the São Miguel Island coastline in the summer of 2001, he immediately traveled back home. As per the aforementioned original, he admittedly knew how lucrative the drugs could be, so he tried to acquire as much as he could before starting to deal them to the best of his abilities. He eventually returned to his growing family in Boston, Massachusetts, where he reportedly received a massive wake-up call in 2009 when his second son was born weighing just 2 pounds. That’s when he promised to turn over a new leaf for good, understanding how his actions likely hurt countless people as he inadvertently fed their addictions, and he has managed to abide by it.
In fact, today, Sandro proudly resides in Fall River, Massachusetts, where he is surrounded by his loving wife, his eldest son Sandro Gomes Jr., his younger son Lesandro Prince, and a daughter. Apart from his personal standing, he is an artist who is actually considered the godfather of Azorean rap, particularly for the way he blends music with messages that cross generational boundaries. From what we can tell, he has been serving as a rapper for over two decades, with his namesake also following in his footsteps with the sole aim of keeping their homeland’s legacy alive. Moreover, we should mention that he is happily associated with the Amigos de Rabo de Peixe Foundation and is the owner-operator of a local construction business with over 40 employees as of writing. According to court records, he is not allowed to leave the United States due to his past criminal record, so he last visited his homeland in 2013.
António “Tony” Arruda is Doing His Best to Rebuild His Life
Like Sandro Gomes, António “Tony” Arruda is also a proud native of São Miguel Island, Portugal, who immigrated to the United States at a relatively young age alongside his loving family. However, again like the former, he soon fell into the wrong crowd, resulting in him allegedly getting involved in not only petty crimes like theft but also drug trade, armed robbery, and more. In the end, he was arrested, charged, convicted, sentenced, and eventually deported back to his homeland, where he fell into old habits not long after, as per his own accounts in the documentary. In other words, despite his return without his own young family following a rather significant prison stint, he continued his spiral into criminality with drugs, unlawful driving, and allegedly aiding an international criminal’s escape.
In the summer of 2001, Tony was actually serving a weekend sentence at Ponta Delgada prison on charges related to unlawful driving when he came across an Italian native named Antonino Quinci. As per his own accounts, he soon realized this was the same man accused of trafficking over 750 kilos of uncut cocaine before his yacht broke down near the local coastline, following which they developed a friendship. Therefore, on July 1, 2001, it was reportedly Tony who was waiting outside the prison on his moped to help Antonio escape, after which he took the fugitive to an acquaintance’s home for safety reasons.
However, an unexpected narcotics raid on the latter’s home on July 16 of the same year led to Antonio’s rearrest by pure chance, with Tony also gradually realizing the error in his ways. In fact, since then, it appears as if he has completely turned over a new leaf by not only avowing to follow the straight path but also sticking to it day in and day out for years. From what we can tell, he was deported from the United States around 2000, so he hasn’t been able to return to see his family or spend time with his loved ones for over 25 years. He has seemingly since evolved into a local wood artisan with the sole aim of building a comfortable, stable life for himself, but his primary dream is still to one day live with his family again in the United States.
Read More: Where Are Antonio Pacheco and Rui Couto Now?
