There are many ways to become popular; you could decide to conquer one of the different facets of the entertainment universe or become a gangster and drug dealer like Frank Lucas. Needless to say, the latter is not worth the stress it will cause you.
However, this Frank is a former American drug lord who operated out of Harlem from the late 1960s to the 1970s. He made his name by completely eliminating the middleman and buying his heroin directly from a source in the Golden Triangle. It was once believed that he was able to smuggle heroin into the country in the coffins of slain American soldiers, but this claim was disputed by one of his associates named Leslie “Ike” Atkinson. The drugs were actually transported in the pallets underneath, not in the actual coffins. Lucas and his activities were so notorious that his life story inspired the Academy Award-nominated film American Gangster, although most of it was heavily fictionalized for a more dramatic effect.
Frank Lucas (Drug Dealer) Biography
The legendary drug lord was born on September 9, 1930, in La Grange, North Carolina, the son of Fred Lucas and Mahalee Jones. He grew up in a time when the fires of racism raged boldly and furiously against blacks. When he was young, he witnessed his 12-year-old cousin from the Ku Klux Klan being brutally murdered for allegedly looking at a white woman, and this senseless incident set him on a path that led directly to the crime.
He committed numerous petty crimes and became involved in a billiard business until the gangster and mob boss Bumpy Jimpson took him under his protection after Lucas moved to Harlem. However, their legendary connection raised doubts, as Lucas claimed that he had worked as Johnson’s driver for 15 years, even though he had only been out of prison for five years before he died in 1968.
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Frank Lucas quickly realized that the only way to succeed in the drug business was to break the monopoly of the Italian mafia, so he set off for Thailand, where he met Leslie Atkinson, a former U.S. Army sergeant who knew everything and everyone, and they began to smuggle drugs back into the basement of custom-made coffins of dead soldiers. Leslie was his direct link to Asia, and thanks to him, Lucas earned hundreds of thousands of dollars a day selling drugs on 116th Street. His gang quickly became one of the most outrageous and ridiculously successful international drug smuggling rings of all time.
He was wise enough to trust only close friends and family members with aspects of his operation. His brand of heroin called Blue Magic was reported to be 98-100% pure and it was one of the strongest narcotics on the market. Lucas became notoriously wealthy and made profits large enough to buy real estate throughout the country. He owned office buildings, several thousand-acre ranches, and residential buildings. He consorted with high-ranking members of society. In the mid-1970s, Lucas was arrested and all his assets were confiscated.
The crime boss was convicted of drug-related crimes at the state and federal levels and was sentenced to 70 years in prison, which was reduced after he presented evidence that led to the conviction of over 100 people for drug-related crimes. He entered witness protection with his family in 1977, and after 5 years his sentence was reduced to life probation. He was caught with drugs in 1984 and sentenced to seven years in prison.
Wife and Children
Lucas may have had other lovers in his life, but he is best known for his relationship with Julianna Farrait-Rodriguez, the woman he married. They loved each other dearly and often showered each other with expensive and exquisite gifts.
Given this, it is not surprising that the woman was involved in the man’s crime. For this, she was imprisoned. After five years in prison, she was released and lived apart from her husband before returning to Puerto Rico. But as fate would have it, she and Frank Lucas got back together in 2006 and have been married for over four decades.
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The couple has seven children, including a son named Frank Lucas Jr. and a daughter named Francis Lucas-Sinclair, who went into witness protection with her father. Lucas and Julianna still live together today, although Lucas is only a shadow of his former self.
Net Worth
At the height of his drug business, Frank Lucas is said to have been worth about $30 billion and was one of the richest gangsters in the business until the government seized his property and arrested him. He also had 56 million dollars hidden in the Cayman Islands.
