George Jung

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Template:Cleanup-date George Jung (born August 6, 1942) was a major player in cocaine importation 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.

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Biography

George Jung was born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Weymouth. He started out as a marijuana dealer in the 1960s with his friend "Tuna", importing hundreds of pounds from Mexico, stealing planes, and flying from Puerto Vallarta to Palm Springs, California. After quite a while his business grew to the point where he was making over $100,000 a month and had started using professional pilots; he was eventually arrested in Chicago after having to leave approximately six hundred sixty pounds of marijuana at the Playboy Club. "Some people were movie stars, and some people were rock stars. I was a pot star," he has said.

He was sentenced to 26 months in Danbury, Connecticut, his cellmate was Carlos Lehder, a young Colombian man, arrested for grand theft auto. 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. They gave bribes to anyone who stood in their way, and killed anyone who opposed. By the late 1970s, Lehder took his plans to the next level. By going straight through Richard Barile, Lehder no longer needed Jung in his operation. Jung made more than $100 million.

He was later arrested in Massachusetts in 1987 at his mansion on Nauset Beach, 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 then US President George Bush he went into witness protection and has not been heard from since.

After working for some "clean" jobs, Jung began to work in marijuana business again. In 1994 he was arrested in Mexico with 500 pounds of Mexican marijuana, but faced a 15 year mandatory sentence. He plead guilty to three counts of conspiracy. He is incarcerated at Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institute in New Jersey. He is scheduled to be released on November 27, 2014, at age 72. After his release, he will still have eight years of parole.

He has not seen his daughter Kristina Jung since his last arrest. She was portrayed in the movie "Blow" and now lives in California with her spouse and children. In the spring of 2002, she visited him and said "[she] was sorry for not coming sooner."

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