George Jung



Ever wonder how much money some drug smugglers or traffickers make. Well George Jung reaped in millions and was one of the largest drug traffickers ever, he smuggled in cocaine and marijuana to the U.S.

Start of his marijuana smuggling
Jung realized the enormous profits by smuggling the marijuana he bought in California back to New England. Jung's initial smuggling operation had the drugs being transported by his girlfriend, who would carry them in her suitcases on flights. In search of even greater profits, Jung expanded his operation to flying the drugs in from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico using stolen airplanes from private airports on Cape Cod and professional pilots. At the height of his scheme, Jung was reportedly making $250,000 a month, the same as $1.6 million in today’s money. This ended in 1974, when Jung was arrested in Chicago for possessing 660 pounds of dank marijuana. He was to meet a connection that would pick up the marijuana. However the connection was arrested for smuggling heroin, and snitched to the authorities about George in order to get a reduced sentence. Jung was sent to a prison in Connecticut.

Start of his cocaine business
After his release from prison he started a relationship with Carlos Lehder the man who introduced Jung to the Medellin which was responsible for up to 85 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the United States. He specialized in the smuggling of cocaine from Columbia on a very large scale. Their plan was to fly hundreds of kilos of cocaine from Pablo Escobar's Colombian ranch to the U.S., and the help of his old marijuana connection in California, Richard Barile, would take it from there. Jung made millions off the operation as only the middle man. He came up with the idea to steal single-engine airplanes for his transportation and charge $10,000 a kilo with five planes going from Colombia to California, carrying 300 kilos a plane. This translated into $15 million a run for Jung. In order to avoid 60% surcharges, as well as a need to launder his money, he kept his money in the national bank of Panama City. In the late 1970’s Lehder betrayed him by cutting him out and going straight to jungs connection, Richard Barlie.

His Falls
This ended in 1974, when Jung was arrested in Chicago for possessing 660 pounds of dank marijuana. He was to meet a connection that would pick up the marijuana. However the connection was arrested for smuggling heroin, and snitched to the authorities about George in order to get a reduced sentence. Jung was sent to a prison in Connecticut.

Jung began to work in the marijuana business again. In 1994, he reconnected with his old Mexican marijuana smuggling partner and was arrested with 1754 pounds of marijuana in Topeka, Kansas and faced a 15-year mandatory sentence. He pleaded guilty to three counts of conspiracy. He was imprisoned at Otisville Federal Prison in Mount Hope, New York, but has since been transferred to La Tuna in Anthony, Texas. His projected release date was December 18, 2011, however it has since been extended until November 27, 2015, when Jung will be 73. He also got busted with two ounces of heroin in 1978 but the documents were lost so it got dropped.

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