Cocaine smuggler and “Blow” inspiration George Jung was released from prison this week after serving almost 20 years.
Jung, now 71, was released from New Jersey prison FCI Fort Dix and is moving to a halfway house on the West Coast, TMZ reports. He is said to have been responsible for nearly 90 percent of cocaine smuggled into the U.S. in the ’70s and ’80s and was portrayed by Johnny Depp in the 2001 biopic “Blow.”
Jung started smuggling marijuana in the ’70s but connected with Colombian drug lord Carlos Lehder during a prison sentence and began smuggling cocaine. He was arrested again in 1994 with nearly 2,000 pounds of cocaine in Topeka, Kansas, and sentenced to 60 years, until he testified against Lehder.
He recounted to PBS in In an interview about his experiences in 2000, Jung told PBS: “Basically I was no different than a rock star or a movie star. I was a coke star.”
He was married at the time of his arrest with a one-year-old daughter.