George Jung
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George Jacob Jung (born August 6, 1942), nicknamed "Boston George"; was a major player in the cocaine trade in the United States in the 1970s and early 80s. Jung was a part of the Medellín Cartel. His life story was portrayed in the 2001 movie Blow, starring Johnny Depp.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
George Jung was born and raised in Weymouth, Massachusetts, the son of Frederick and Ermine Jung.[1] While Jung did not excel at his academics at school, he was a star football player and was described by his classmates as "a natural ringleader."[1] After a brief stint at the University of Southern Mississippi, he traveled to California where he hoped to get a degree in advertising. However, he soon became involved with drugs.[1] Jung began recreationally using cannabis, selling a portion of everything he bought to continue his habit. In 1967, after meeting with a childhood friend from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Jung realized the enormous potential for profits by smuggling the cannabis he bought in California back to New England.[1] Jung's initial smuggling operation had the drugs being transported via his stewardess girlfriend, who would carry them in her suitcases on flights.[1] In search of even greater profits, Jung expanded his operation to flying the drugs in from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico[1] using planes stolen from private airports on Cape Cod[2] and professional pilots.[3] At the height of this enterprise, Jung and his associates were reportedly making $250,000 a month.[1] This soon ended however, when Jung was arrested in Chicago for marijuana smuggling in 1974. He had been staying at the Playboy Club where he was to meet a connection that would pick up the marijuana, the connection however, was arrested for heroin smuggling and informed on Jung.[3]. After arguing with the judge about the purpose of sending a man to prison "for crossing an imaginary line with a bunch of plants,"[2] Jung was sent to a federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut.[1]
[edit] Introduction to the Medellín Cartel
At Danbury, Jung's cell mate was Carlos Lehder, a young German-Colombian man, convicted of motor vehicle theft. Lehder introduced Jung to the Colombian Cartel and Jung taught Lehder how to smuggle. The day that Jung was released he was to contact Lehder in Florida, in order to begin preparation. Their plan was to fly hundreds of kilos of cocaine from Pablo Escobar's Colombian ranch to the U.S., where Jung's California connection, Richard Barile, took it from there. George never had a problem with exchanging the smuggled cocaine for his transportation fee. Initially, it was $10,000 per kilo but later it went down to $5,000 per kilo as supply grew. He had a security man that would accompany him to the exchanges where George would give the keys to a car and half the cocaine to his connection and leave. A day or two later they would meet up again and exchange keys to cars. Jung was hesitant to allow Lehder, or any other cartel member to know Barile's identity, as his "California connection" was what gave Jung his edge in the smuggling game and kept others from simply cutting him out.
[edit] Betrayal by Lehder
However, in what turned out to be an error in judgment, Jung introduced Lehder to Barile. By the late 1970s, Lehder took his plans to the next level. As Jung had initially feared, by going straight through Richard Barile, Lehder no longer needed Jung in his operation. However, Jung recovered from the betrayal and found other schemes that made him more than $100 million.
Jung was later arrested in Massachusetts in 1987 at his mansion on Nauset Beach, ("True Crime Authors, History Channel, 3-14-08) near Chatham. With his family, he skipped bail, but very quickly became involved in another deal, where he was betrayed by a pilot of his acquaintance. During this time, Carlos Lehder began cooperating with the government against Noriega. With Escobar's approval, Jung agreed to testify against Carlos Lehder and was set free. Lehder received life plus 135 years but after making a deal with the federal government,, he went into the Bureau of Prisons' version of the federal Witness Protection Program.
[edit] Current incarceration
After working some "clean" jobs, Jung began to work in the marijuana business again. In 1994, he reconnected with his old Mexican marijuana smuggling partner and was arrested with 700 pounds of marijuana and faced a 15 year mandatory sentence. He pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy. He is currently incarcerated at Federal Medical Center (FMC) Devens, MA[4]. He is scheduled to be released on November 27, 2014, at age 72. After his release, he will still have eight years of parole.
His daughter, Kristina Sunshine Jung, was portrayed in the movie Blow by Emma Roberts (and briefly by Jaime King) and now lives in California with her spouse and children. In the spring of 2002, a year after the film was made, she eventually visited him. Kristina Jung was filmed for another role in Blow, but the scenes were not in the final film.
In September 2007, the new official site www.georgejung.com was launched with the announcement of a new graphic novel "The Adventures of George Jung"( illustrated by Nathan Srigley http://www.nathanscv.com/ ). Published and distributed by Garcia Publishing, George wrote and consulted on the creation of the novel based on his life.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Graham, Renee (7 July 1993), “Weymouth's Wayward Son”, The Boston Globe: p49
- ^ a b Pearson, Patricia (24 July 1993), “Up and down on a mountain of cocaine”, The Globe and Mail
- ^ a b Interview with George Jung. PBS. Retrieved on 2007-11-10.
- ^ [1] United States Bureau of Prisons, Inmate Finder
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