I Believe All Shoe Repair Shops Are Fronts For Illegal Operations

[Sohh_lifted]

Depends on that cole Hann...I'm a Allen Edmonds man from the heart.

Cole Haan has all they shyt made in China now, and the quality is shyt since Nike sold them. They don't even make leather bottom shoes anymore if i recall correctly.

 

[Double Burger With Cheese]

It’s clear you have no shoes worth repairing. I’ve had some Italian leather shoes for nearly 2 decades now and fit like a glove. Why go buy new ones when you can get em fixed up as good as new. They will last for life

I go and buy new ones because I got 6 certs.

You dudes getting all worked up over some cobblers smh. I can buy all that fancy shyt too. When I was in corporate my shoes costed like $150. I wasn’t going higher than that though, shyt wasn’t that serious. But yeah, I never really took care of them or used the polish or nothing and would just buy a new pair every year. I knew I wasting money by not taking better care of them, but I never once thought to get them repaired or no shyt. I’m not into fancy ass shoes like that though. I only wore dress shoes when I was in corporate for a few years. I didn’t know people was getting shoes repaired like that

 

[⠀X ⠀]

I go and buy new ones because I got 6 certs.

You dudes getting all worked up over some cobblers smh. I can buy all that fancy shyt too. When I was in corporate my shoes costed like $150. I wasn’t going higher than that though, shyt wasn’t that serious. But yeah, I never really took care of them or used the polish or nothing and would just buy a new pair every year. I knew I wasting money by not taking better care of them, but I never once thought to get them repaired or no shyt. I’m not into fancy ass shoes like that though. I only wore dress shoes when I was in corporate for a few years. I didn’t know people was getting shoes repaired like that

Youre doing your feet a disservice... I have both cheap dress shoes and good ones. The good ones are well worth the extra money.

 

[Tommy Lee Jones]

I remember a shoe repair/shoe store in Philly got busted because bikers were getting meth shipped to it from Mexico.

THE PORCELAIN dolls arrived by mail, carefully packaged and left for pickup at an Old City shoe store.

But Christopher McDaniel was no doll collector.

Rather, the burly 54-year-old regularly took the dolls from the store to his Queen Village home, where he smashed them to bits for the treasure inside: millions of dollars worth of crystal methamphetamines smuggled from Mexico, police said.

Authorities yesterday arrested Mc-Daniel and 12 others for allegedly running a drug ring they say smuggled at least $6.6 million worth of crystal meth into Philadelphia that dealers then sold to thousands of users in Philadelphia and Bucks, Chester and Montgomery counties.



Dubbed "Operation Broken Doll," the investigation has all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster: Mob connections, a beheading and bad guys with nicknames like "Jimmy Nutt" and "Kokomo Joe."

Philadelphia authorities began monitoring McDaniel in January after learning that he sold crystal meth regionally, state Attorney General Tom Corbett said.

After a series of controlled buys, they set up court-approved wiretaps to learn the scope of his operation and help identify his suppliers, Corbett said

Within a few months, investigators determined that McDaniel was getting his shipments from Estela "Monica" Elenes, a supplier based in Culiacan, Mexico. She mailed pound packages, sealed inside the gaudy, oversized porcelain dolls, to Ben's Shoes on Market Street near 2nd, where McDaniel would pick them up, Corbett said.



Authorities are still investigating what role employees of Ben's Shoes may have had in the operation. McDaniel did not own or work at the store, and authorities are unsure of his connection to it. No one connected to the store has been charged.

The shop apparently has gone out of business since the probe. A "For Rent" sign hung in the narrow storefront's picture window yesterday beside a padlocked door.

McDaniel received at least seven one-pound shipments from Elenes; he paid her $22,000 per pound and netted a $13,000-per-pound profit, Corbett said. After diluting the drug, the operation distributed at least 100 pounds of crystal meth, valued at more than $6.6 million, to users on the street, Corbett said.

Flor Amaya, 31, of Chino, Calif., acted as a go-between, getting the meth from Mexico and then packaging and mailing it to Philadelphia, Corbett said.



In an April raid, investigators found five demolished dolls inside McDaniel's home on 2nd Street near Queen and another two dolls, with pound packages of meth still sealed in their backs, just outside his home, Corbett said.

As a grand jury pondered the case over the summer, investigators learned of one major development: Four armed men kidnapped Elenes on June 20 in Mexico and blasted her repeatedly in the head with high-powered guns, decapitating her.

Her body was found near a burned-out SUV that her still-unidentified abductors used to seize her. She was one of 19 people murdered by Mexican drug cartels in Culiacan that weekend, and local authorities believe that her slaying was in part retaliatory for her role as a Philadelphia supplier.

Yesterday, local drug fighters trumpeted the bust as a major victory against local meth distribution, which has gone international in recent years.



"Historically, it was local mom-and-pop, clandestine labs producing ounce quantities, small quantities, of crystal meth," said Timothy Ogden, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Philadelphia field division. "But the meth business has evolved and changed. Federal legislation [passed in 2005] has controlled the precursor chemicals and changed the dynamic of where [meth] comes from. The Mexican cartels have stepped up to fill that void."

Besides McDaniel and Amaya, the other suspects arrested were: Charles "Chaz" Iannece, 50, of 2nd Street near Kenilworth in Queen Village; Joseph "Kokomo Joe" Brabazon, 34, of Frankford Avenue near Stanwood Street in Holmesburg; James "Jimmy Nutt" Ballezzi, 46, of Warnock Street near Wharton in South Philadelphia; Joseph Scavetti, 29, of 10th Street near Moyamensing in South Philadelphia; Frank Piccolo, 27, of 2nd Street near Shunk in South Philadelphia; Kenneth Baker, 57, of Upper Darby; Michael McElroy, 30, of Southampton, Bucks County; Lenora Trombley, 21, of Glenmoore, Chester County; Nicholas Miller, 25, of Downingtown; Charles Blosenski Jr., 43, of Elverson, Chester County, and Gabriel Blackstone, 34, of Clementon, N.J.

Iannece, who is charged with possession with intent to deliver and with related offenses, is the son of jailed mob soldier Charles "Charlie White" Iannece, a killer who specialized in extortions and the meth business in the Nicodemo Scarfo mob in the 1980s.

In 1989, the younger Iannece drew the attention of authorities because he had delivered a controversial kiss on the cheek to Scarfo's son, Nicodemo, shortly before a gunman in a Halloween mask shot Scarfo Jr. five times on Oct. 31 in a South Philadelphia restaurant. He survived the attack. *

 

[Dameon Farrow]

Downtown in my city, all these swanky white clothing stores with goodwill looking clothing, going for neimans prices

marking up clothing is a top tier American hustle. Don't count them out....

 

[Dameon Farrow]

Middle aged white people love Arby’s, that’s who’s keeping that business afloat

like seriously all the Arby's i know of stay as packed as any other fast food joint. I don't like them personally but they have a loyal base

 

[MajesticLion]

In this day and age, any legit craftsman will make bank. You're thinking it's just shoes, when it's also lether working and repair, leather treatment to keep shoes from going stiff and keeping them supple, all sorts of things.

Same thing with those Asian laundry places, people think it's just dry cleaning when a LOT of their money comes from additional tailoring/seamstress work.

 

[Double Burger With Cheese]

In this day and age, any legit craftsman will make bank. You're thinking it's just shoes, when it's also lether working and repair, leather treatment to keep shoes from going stiff and keeping them supple, all sorts of things.

Same thing with those Asian laundry places, people think it's just dry cleaning when a LOT of their money comes from additional tailoring/seamstress work.

 

[Theo Penn]

I just had some heel plates put on two new pairs of Mezlan shoes at my local cobbler

 

[MajesticLion]

I don't know anything, ossifer

 

[pickles]

You clearly don't have nice shoes.

Any shoe of mine that is more than $400 is getting repaired.

The breh I go to is greek or some shyt, and takes pride in his work. He probably did the same thing in the old country. That man is very busy and he is a one man team. Does a great job.

It is the jewelry stores that are suspect. There is this jewelry store near me that has been going "out of business" for a least 10 years. Always has a sign out like "80% off, everything must go". shyt is crazy. I can't imagine business was good prepandemic but his store still open after wards is very suspect.

Also I think Relax the Back type stores are some shady shyt. Who the fukk is paying that much for a chair?

 

[concise]

My local shoe repair shop closed a couple of years ago.