by Christo­pher S. Stew­art
PORTFOLIO
Octo­ber 2007 Issue

Inside the apocalyptic—and profitable—gun empire of Justin Moon, the C.E.O. who may some­day lead the Uni­fi­ca­tion Church.

On a blus­tery night in Decem­ber 1999, Dan­ny Guz­man left his house in Worces­ter, Mass­a­chu­setts, and head­ed down­town to Tropi­gala, his cousin’s night­club. Tropi­gala occu­pied a bunker­like, one-sto­ry brick build­ing on Main South, a street that was home to shut­tered store­fronts, room­ing hous­es, and a creep­ing under­world of drug deal­ing and pros­ti­tu­tion, punc­tu­at­ed by the occa­sion­al shoot­ing. Despite the upcom­ing hol­i­day, Tropi­gala was packed with its usu­al, most­ly His­pan­ic, crowd, and Guz­man, a hand­some 26-year-old with a mus­cu­lar build and deep-olive com­plex­ion, set­tled in with a drink.

Just before 2 a.m., as the club shut down and crowds spilled onto the street, a man named Edwin Novas—a 20-year-old hero­in deal­er from the Bronx who sport­ed a boy­ish mustache—started caus­ing a dis­tur­bance. Details about what hap­pened are murky, but Guz­man was some­how drawn into the scuf­fle. Novas alleged­ly drew a 9‑millimeter pis­tol from his waist­band and fired, and Guz­man was hit. Novas fled, fol­lowed by two friends. And at 2:12 a.m. on Decem­ber 24 at Saint Vin­cent Hos­pi­tal, Guz­man was pro­nounced dead. SEE ORIGINAL ARTICLE