The man who brought cocaine to America.

George Jung was born in Boston, MA in the late 1940s. After moving to Southern California in 1968, he started out selling pot to his friends. He gained the nickname "Boston George" and was known as the guy to go to for quality pot. Soon, a friend of his visiting from UMASS mentioned that a kilo of pot that was selling for $60 in L.A. was worth about $300 back east. George's girlfriend was a stewardess at the time and they soon began to use her as a mule to ferry large amounts to the east coast.

Soon Jung grew tired of paying "retail" prices for his pot and traveled to Mexico in order to find a grower he could buy from directly. After two weeks of wandering around he finally found one and was in business. Jung stole a small airplane and was able to smuggle between 600-800 pounds on each flight. Pot he bought in Mexico for $20 he was able to sell in the United States for about $300. The whole operation was making about $300,000 dollars a month.

Jung was arrested in Chicago with 660 pounds of marijuana in 1972 and was sentenced to 5 years in prison. In there he met Carlos Lehder, a Colombian who had connections with cocaine producers. Lehder informed him that cocaine that was selling in Colombia for $4,000 a kilo could be sold in the United States for $60,000. After Jung was paroled from prison Lehder introduced him to Pablo Escobar and the they formed what eventually became the Medellín Cartel. With his already proven method of using single engine planes, the cartel was able to flood the United States with cocaine. Between 1977 and 1984, George Jung was responsible for 85% of the cocaine brought into America. Jung stored his money in a Panamanian bank that was controlled by Manuel Noriega. At one point this bank account reached one hundred million dollars.

In the late 1980s Jung was arrested again for possession of cocaine and was facing a ten year mandatory sentence. After jumping bail he intended on bringing in one last shipment and then retiring to Colombia. Unfortunately this last shipment was all part of a DEA sting operation. Jung was busted and sentenced to 60 years in prison. When Carlos Lehder was captured, Jung testified against him and his sentence was reduced. George Jung is currently scheduled to be released from prison in 2015.

"The war on drugs was an ideology the government came up with, and there never really was a war on drugs. I mean, to stop the importation of drugs into the United States of America is an impossibility. There's 2,000 miles of border along the Mexican border and the coastal areas, thousands of miles, and there is no possible way to stop the importation of drugs into this country." -- George Jung
Most of this is from Frontline.

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