Boston George was the most infamous drug trafficker in the US in the 1970s. He was born George Jacob Jung on August 6, 1942 in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in Weymouth, Massachusetts - a middle sized city approximately thirty minutes outside of Boston. George’s parents, Frederick and Ermine Jung, were a typical All-American couple that struggled financially. After barely graduating high school, where he was a star football player, George decided to pursue a higher education at the University of Southern Mississippi. After a brief enrollment at USM George decided that he would like to see what California was like and had to offer, so he moved in hopes of obtaining a degree in advertising.

After arriving in California in 1968, George began to use marijuana recreationally and soon began to sell marijuana to offset the costs of his habit. During his time distributing marijuana along Manhattan Beach, CA he became known as “Boston George” among his local clientele. Within an eighteen month time period, Boston George went from small time marijuana dealer to trafficking large quantities of the substance from Mexico, which he then distributed as far away as his native New England, where marijuana was of a lot less quality and could be sold for much more of a profit. In 1974 George’s drug trafficking business came to a screeching halt when George was arrested in Chicago, Illinois for possessing 660 pounds of marijuana in the trunk of his car. George was convicted of possession with intent to distribute and trafficking and sentenced to 26 months in federal prison for his drug crimes. George was subsequently transported to the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, CT to serve out his sentence.

When George arrived to the prison in Connecticut he was placed in a cell with a man by the name of Carlos Lehder and the they soon became friendly. Carlos Lehder was a man of Colombian and German descent who was doing time for a running an organization that transported stolen vehicles from the US and Canada to Colombia, which were then sold at used car dealerships owned by Carlos’s family in Colombia. While the two were incarcerated they developed a plan that would flood the streets of the US with high quality cocaine, while George at the time knew nothing about cocaine he believed Carlos’s plan had potential to be very profitable. While cocaine sold for around $60,000 dollars per kilo in the United States, a kilo could be purchased for $5,000 in Colombia. The duo believed that a partnership exploiting both their individual specialties would complement one another. While George had a background in drug trafficking, Carlos had the resources to obtain the large quantities of cocaine thru his associations with Pablo Escobar, a founder of a large drug cartel in his native Colombia. Boston George was instructed to contact Carlos upon his release, as Carlos had already served his prison sentence and had been released well before George.

Upon release Jung contacted Carlos who had already began preparations for their new drug crime business venture. Their plan was to smuggle into the US kilos of cocaine, hundreds at a time, from Pablo Escobar’s ranch in Colombia and George’s California connection, Richard Barile, would distribute the drugs. At the beginning they brought in the drugs using suitcases with hollow bottoms but gradually graduated to flying the cocaine in, after they were introduced to a pilot. The pilot would then smuggle the drugs from Colombia using the Bahamas as a home base. The plan had become reality and with great success, they became the first large scale drug smuggling operation bringing cocaine into the United States, later to become known as the “Medellin Cartel” . The smuggling operation was as successful as it was lucrative, that within the next few years Boston George accumulated nearly 100 million dollars in accounts at different Banks in Panama, where there are stringent secrecy laws regarding bank accounts.

While Boston George lived a high class lifestyle and enjoyed the fruits of his business, Carlos was making other plans. Unbeknownst to George, Carlos had been researching an island 210 miles off the coast of Florida, known as Norman’s Cay and had decided to purchase it. Norman’s Cay was an island that encompassed an air strip, a small marina, a yacht club and around a hundred homes. He used the island as a base for planes to fly from Columbia and then shuttle smaller planes filled with cocaine into the United States. Estimates put the purchase price of the island at around 4.5 million dollars. While the plans were ambitious there was one problem, Boston George was not in them. Carlos felt that he no longer needed George and that going straight thru Barile, George’s one time California connection, George could bypass George and he did just that, not wanting to pay George his fee as a middle man. While George was no longer in business with Carlos, he still had connections with Pablo Escobar. Without his long time partner, George continued to contract independent loads on his own accord.

In 1987 George was arrested at his Nauset Beach Cape Cod, Massachusetts mansion for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine. He quickly posted bond and upon learning he was facing a 10 year mandatory sentence he decided to become a fugitive from justice, and travel with his Family to Miami, FL. Upon arriving in Miami George reached out to an old pilot friend of his that that used to transport drugs for him in the 1960’s. The two quickly put together a deal to bring some cocaine in from Colombia for a large payday, but upon arrival of the drugs George was taken into custody and arrested. George had not known that his old pilot friend had been cooperating with the Drug Enforcement Agency. Around the same time that George was arrested, his old friend Carlos was also arrested for drug trafficking by DEA in Colombia and transported to the United States, where he began cooperating with authorities regarding Panama’s president Noriega. At that time, with the approval of Pablo Escobar, Boston George agreed to testify against Carlos Lehder with the conditions that he would receive full immunity for his participation. George was released from prison and in turn testified as a witness against Carlos in a Florida Federal court room. Carlos Lehder was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole plus 135 years, but his sentenced was reduced to 55 years after Lehder agreed to testify against Manuel Noriega.

After his release George Jung attempted to leave the life of crime behind him and was successful staying crime free for many years. After years of struggling financially, George decided to get into the marijuana smuggling business once again. In 1994 he was arrested for possessing 754 pounds of marijuana in Topeka, Kansas. He plead guilty to three counts of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and was sentenced to a mandatory 15 years. He is currently inmate 19225-004 at the Federal Correctional Intuition – La Tuna in Anthony, Texas. In 2001 director Ted Demme made a film about George’s life entitled “Blow”, which of course is slang to describe cocaine. Apparently Boston George has not lost his entrepreneurial spirit as in 2007 he launched his official website GeorgeJung.com, which includes links to his up and coming clothing label “Smuggler Wear”, which can be purchased in stores in Canada or on-line at smugglerwear.com. He is currently 67 years old and scheduled to be released at the ripe old age of 72 .