Don Gallego was a drug dealer, moving heavy weight in crack cocaine, using funeral homes and crematoriums as fronts for his labs (and using the incinerator to dispose of any "evidence". In 1987 he was making a deal with Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs for crack when two men in makeup and masks appear at Gallego's limo demanding money and Gallego's briefcase. When the thieves (later shown to be Mikey and Conejo, two actors from the Mi Vida Loca theatre) make off with $20,000 and the case, Gallego begins a search for the men, and finds them at the theatre, he threatens to kill the thieves unless they return his briefcase (which included drug dealing and distribution schedules). Gallego and his goons find Conejo and kill him, then find Mikey and Gallego stabs him and leaves Mikey for dead, later Tubbs,