Remember this guy? Almost 15 years old now, Johnny Depp’s Blow is up there with Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas for “greatest movie about drugs” of all time. Depp’s portrayal of the infamous cocaine smuggler George Jung is perhaps one of the actor’s most iconic roles.
If you haven’t seen the movie, Jung was one of the biggest coke dealers in the height of the cocaine craze of the ’70s and ’80s. He started out pushing marijuana from Mexico to California in the late 60s, getting nabbed in the mid-70s for smuggling 660 pounds of marijuana into Chicago. In Federal Prison, his cellmate was a man with direct ties to the Medellín Cartel. When he got out, he worked directly with Pablo Escobar and was estimates to be responsible for roughly 89% of cocaine smuggled into the United States at the time. He was busted in 1987, then skipped out on bail. During his “one last horrah,” he was arrested in Kansas with 1,754 pounds of cocaine in 1994. He received a 60-year sentence on three guilty pleas to conspiracy, but received a reduction for testifying against his former cellmate with ties to Escobar.
Today, according to TMZ, he was released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Fort Dix, New Jersey. He’ll be released to a half-way house on the West Coast to transition back into society. TMZ has the pic of what he looks like after 20 years in the clink:
#GeorgeJung the guy @JohnnyDepp played the the movie “BLOW” was released from Prison today after 20years pic.twitter.com/VXGiw2q3NO
— z28CHIEF (@iROCssCHEVYS) June 2, 2014
George Jung got released from prison early today. If you ever seen the movie blow you will understand. Congrats man. pic.twitter.com/m87eCFghRz
— Belle (@Oursimplebelle) June 2, 2014
It’s going to be incredibly interesting to see what media appearances George Jung makes, given his near celebrity status. Stay tuned.
Also, is this the greatest mug shot sequence in movie history or what?
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