There are many ways to become popular. you could choose to conquer one of the facets of the entertainment universe or become a gangster and a drug dealer like Frank Lucas. Needless to say, the latter is not worth the stress it will bring you.
Anyway, this Frank is a former American drug lord who operated out of Harlem in the late 1960s through the 70s. He made a name for himself by cutting out the middleman entirely and buying his heroin direct from from a source in the Golden Triangle. It was once believed that he was able to smuggle heroin into the country from the coffins of slain American soldiers; However, one of his associates, Leslie “Ike” Atkinson, denied this claim. The drugs were actually transported on the pallets, not the coffins. Lucas and his activities were so infamous that his life story inspired the Oscar nominated film American Gangster,
The legendary drug kingpin was born on September March 9, 1930, in La Grange, North Carolina, to Fred Lucas and Mahalee Jones. He grew up in a time when the fires of racism raged boldly and furiously against black people. As a child, he witnessed the brutal murder of his 12-year-old cousin by the Ku Klux Klan for allegedly staring at a white woman. This senseless incident set him on the path to crime.
He committed many petty crimes and enjoyed swimming pool racing until mobster and mob boss Bumpy Jimson took him under his protection after Lucas moved to Harlem. However, their legendary connection has raised doubts as Lucas claimed to have worked as a driver for Johnson for 15 years, despite the latter only being released from prison five years before his death in 1968.
Frank Lucas soon realized that the only way to succeed in the drug game was to break the monopoly of the Italian mafia, so he traveled to Thailand where he met Leslie Atkinson, a former US Army sergeant who knew all the world, and they began to smuggle drugs into the basement of dead soldiers coffins that they had specially made. Leslie was his direct link to Asia, and through him Lucas made 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 dope smuggling rings of all time.
He was wise enough to only trust close friends and trusted family members with aspects of his operation. His brand of heroin called Blue Magic was 98-100% pure and was one of the strongest narcotics available. Lucas became notoriously wealthy, making large enough profits to buy real estate all over the country. He owned office buildings, a ranch of several thousand acres, and apartment buildings. He rode with high-ranking members of society. Lucas was arrested in the mid-1970s and all of his assets seized.
The crime boss was convicted of state and federal drug addiction and was sentenced to 70 years in prison, a reduction that was reduced after he provided evidence that led to the conviction of more than 100 people on charges drug-related. He entered witness protection with his family in 1977, and five years later his sentence was reduced to life parole. He was caught with drugs in 1984 and sentenced to seven years.
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 very much and frequently showered with expensive and exquisite gifts.
Given this, it is not surprising that the wife took part in this man’s crime. For this, she was locked up. 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 together in 2006 and have now been married for over 4 decades.
The couple have seven children together 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 continue to live together today, even though Lucas is only a shadow of his former self.
At the peak of his drug business, Frank Lucas was reputed to be worth around $30 billion and was one of the wealthiest gangsters in the business until the government seized his properties and arrested him. . He also had $56 million stashed in the Cayman Islands.
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