Gangster of the Week: George Jung

Johnny

Depp’s depiction in the cult favorite, Blow, revived the famed story of the incalculable success of George Jung. Jung was one of the most prolific players of the cocaine trade during the 1970s and early 1980s. He played a key role for the Medellin Cartel which had controlled 89% of the cocaine smuggled into the US.

Like so many self-made entrepreneurs, George grew up with humble beginnings. He followed the road less traveled and made a series of unfortunate decisions. In the end, Jung managed to become a millionaire several times over and to land himself under incarceration in Texas.

George strayed from the role of the killers and street level killers; instead he served as the transporter, or middle man. With each run for the Medellin Cartel, Jung made an easy $15 million and quickly began to experience a life that most could never even dream.

Just because you’ve watch Blow, it does not mean that you have heard even half the story. Here are some facts that you probably didn’t know coming from the legend himself:

Biggest Binge

You know, I mean–you know, like in “Scarface”, just dump it. You wanted this whole table filled with cocaine; I’ll fill it three feet high. Who the hell cares? Snort it. Stay here twenty days if you want. I don’t care. Burn some money in the fireplace, fuck it, you know, I mean–it all meant nothing. It was insanity. The money meant nothing. After a while, the cocaine–I didn’t have any friends, you know. I was just alone and I didn’t even like myself.Biggest Downfall

Basically in the beginning it was some fear, but like anything else if you do it enough time you lose your fear, or if you don’t, you get out of the business. I analyzed this over the years, I was a fear junkie. That’s what happened to me. The fear is the high itself. It’s an adrenaline pump.

When the FBI busted in

Yeah, that was terrible. You know, I mean, they took the baby out of the crib and took it away and–you know, my house was invaded, ripped apart. That was really the end of it, you know. That was the end of it—all coming down, house of cards. I went back there. There was only, like three or four ounces of coke there and the police thought that a huge load had been flown in and the house was full of kilos of cocaine and money. And they’d been watching and waiting for so long they got tired and when we were in there they came busting in and they didn’t find what they wanted to find. They were highly disappointed but there was still enough to arrest everybody, you know, and the last I saw was my daughter who was only a year old being taken away by a police officer. That was the end of it.

How It All Went Wrong?

Colombian greed – Pablo Escobar Pablo Escobar basically had a Neanderthal ideology. He didn’t understand supply and demand, you know. It’s that if you flood the country with cocaine the price is going to go down and also it’s going to expose everyone and bring in more people at greater threat of being arrested or caught or what-have-you. Why not keep the operation small and the price high and run it that way? It would be highly efficient and people would be more or less safe from being arrested or what-have-you. Because the bigger the operation gets, the more people who come into it, the more you’re at risk and the trust factor or what-have-you.

Where He Stored His Money

What did I do with it? At first I used to hide it in certain homes that I had and then it became so much that I felt it best to get it out of the country so I transported it down to Panama, the Bank of Nova Scotia in Panama. At that time a lot of smugglers were using it. That’s where I kept it, with the intention of transporting it out of Panama into other banks throughout the world.

Drug of Choice

Marijuana. I thought that pot was okay. That it wasn’t a bad thing and so therefore thought I wasn’t doing a bad thing. I knew I was breaking the law but I thought that the law was wrong also. So I morally justified what I was doing.

Most Intense Experience with the Medillin cartel

Over the few days that I was there, an individual was brought to the ranch in a Chevy Blazer and he was taken out by two of Pablo’s bodyguards and we were sitting at a table on the patio in the back and he simply said, “Excuse me.” He walked over and executed the man and then he came back to the table. He simply looked at me and he said, “He betrayed me.” They took him away and then he asked me what I’d like for dinner that night.

Total Amount Made

$100,000,000. Unfortunately, most of it was spent frivolously and the FBI seized the rest along with all my assets.

Elite.