Viswa Vanapalli
Until 2009, Coss Marte lived the high life in New York, making an exorbitant amount of money as a drug kingpin. However, his arrest and time in federal prison turned his life around. When inside, the prison doctor told him he was overweight and wouldn’t live long if he continued the same lifestyle. So, Coss turned his life around, and once out of prison, he put his skills to good use, accomplishing great things. The latest episode of VH1’s ‘My True Crime Story’ focuses on Coss’ incredible redemption tale.
Who is Coss Marte?
Coss Marte’s parents moved from the Dominican Republic to the United States when his mother was still six months pregnant with him. When Coss was growing up, he was a good student and got good grades. However, at 11, he first smoked weed and realized he could easily make money selling drugs. So, that’s precisely what Coss did; he began selling weed and cocaine.
At the same time, Coss was great at school and sports and eventually got a scholarship to a boarding school in Rhode Island. He started selling drugs to the students there and said, “I thought selling drugs was not a bad thing. I thought it was just a way of living. And people do this as a job.” Coss eventually got caught with ecstasy in his room and was sent to a rehabilitation facility. There, his roommate taught him how to make crack from cocaine.
While Coss’ family begged him to stop dealing drugs, he didn’t want to. Later, Coss was kicked out from SUNY-Albany in New York after just a semester. Soon after, he began making around $3,000 a day just by selling drugs. Then, when one of his cocaine sources was retiring, he took over, and things went up a notch. Coss partnered with other dealers and had an intricate drug dealing system, ensuring the police never found his stash during a raid.
Over time, Coss had his men deliver drugs using bicycles and later rental cars. He even had them suit up to avoid suspicion from the police. By the time Coss was 19, he was making around $2 million a year through his drug deals. However, Coss was arrested once with cocaine and crack in the lining of his jacket, resulting in a 7-year sentence. But that changed nothing because he ran his empire from prison until he got out four years later.
By the time Coss was 22, he had a son with an on-and-off girlfriend. Then, in March 2009, federal authorities arrested Coss after carrying out an undercover operation. He was sentenced to 12 years before it was reduced to seven. Around that time, he married the mother of his son. By the time Coss started his prison sentence, he was overweight, and the doctor told him he would die in five years if he didn’t change his lifestyle.
That was when Coss began working out with the means he had available. Apart from living off canned tuna, he did everything he could to lose weight and get fitter in his prison cell. The hard work paid off because, over the next six months, Coss lost 70 pounds. For him, his son was part of why he wanted to become a better person. Besides losing weight, Coss helped other inmates with the same by sharing his workout plan.
Coss Marte Has Built a New Life Today
Coss served four years before getting out of prison in 2013. After that, he continued following the same routine and eventually started CONBODY in 2014. It’s a prison-style boot camp where Coss hires previously incarcerated people to teach workout classes. Over the past few years, Coss’ foundation of the same name has made him an advocate for the incarcerated. He has worked with several people who had done time in prison and has gained over 70,000 clients.
Apart from CONBODY, Coss has recently started CONBUD, a cannabis dispensary venture in New York. He planned to hire formerly incarcerated people as employees, giving them a second chance. Coss lives in New York, and in the past, he worked as a resume writer for about two years after being released. Coss is also the co-founder of Second Chance Studios. It’s a nonprofit digital media company aiming to train and employ people in prison.
Coss said, “The fellowship program teaches technical, life, professional, and soft skills to meet the needs of returning citizens to be reskilled for well-paying jobs in areas such as podcasting and video production, in addition to pairing them with seasoned industry mentors. We plan on utilizing the fellows to create content for CONBUD to give opportunities to formerly incarcerated people at all aspects of the business.” On the personal front, Coss recently had another child with his wife, Roxie.
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