no mention of George Jung?? - Cocaine Cowboys (2007) Discussion

[–] kevinice 17 years ago

Yes, having seen 'Blow' I was thinking of George Jung the whole time while watching 'Cocaine Cowboys'. According to 'Blow', Jung was well acquainted with Pablo Escobar and other Colombian drug lords, so I am surprised that he was never even mentioned in this documentary. Evidently the filmmakers just wanted to limit the scope to the Miami scene, which was fascinating indeed.

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[–] mia-beach 17 years ago

Don't forget, this was the Medellín cartel. Jung could have been dealing the Cali cartel or one of the other cartels. But I did wondered the same thing about the no mention of Jung.

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[–] fulanito_uk 17 years ago

There is a short bit when Jon Roberts states he had a friend in california etc, that may be Jung... i think like 10 mins in.. Jung was also working with the medellin cartel.

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[–] Bxbomber07 16 years ago

In one scene theres a news report that shows 3 faces, with last names in order, lehder, escobar, and ochoa i believe, lehder was carlos lehder, which was george jung's partner in blow but in the movie he was named diego delgado, in blow george goes to miami to pick up the 50 keys for diego, diego/carlos lehder had his connects in miami, while george had his own "west coast operation", like they say in blow, thats why he was so in with the medellin cartel because he started the market in california, cocaine cowboys was more about the effect on miami as opposed to the medellin cartel so i think thats why you never heard george jungs name in the film

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[–] dramamama98 16 years ago

I got the feeling that his guy in CA was Jung because of his mention of stewardesses. I mean I'm sure a lot of people transported like that, but on that level?

...It'd be a lot cooler if you did!

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[–] DHutch1201 16 years ago

The charcter of Diego was mentioned in this movie, as pointed out in an earlier comment. Diego in "Blow" was based on the characted of Carlos Lehder. If you read the book "Blow," there is a great deal of information not covered in the movie, the movie would have been much too long to tell the complete story from start to finish.

George set-up operations in Miami, and ended up working out a deal with the authorities after one of his many arrests to trap Lehder. He lived in Miami for awhile, and lived in a hotel on the waterfront with Carlos. The scene in "Cocaine Cowboys" about the hotel is very similar to the Miami hotel described in the book "Blow," and I kept waiting for George to be mentioned.

In the end, according the book, George was arrested in Miami. The movie was based on his life in Boston and California for the most part, but the final arrest was in Miami. I think they tried to portray that in the movie, as the scenes at the end where he was walking his daughter to school and trying to get on with his life were in Florida.

I am not sure why he was left out of this, but it would seem that he was involved in Miami.

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] flk1940-1 16 years ago

ya reality and movies get blurred the fbi dea knows all the whos and whats but i am not going to go on what i learned about drug smuggling by a movie
that has bobcat and pee wee herman

har har

its never the same in movies as it is in real life

blow had an art department
real life doesnt

blow was great but

i think its hard to make movies just the same as the reality some are really close though

sorry to ramble but a movie that has junkies not being able to get heroin in new york and having to go to fla is stupid.......
name that bad drug movie .......

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[–] gregpattersondp 15 years ago

George Jung was small compared the the rest of the smugglers in Florida. When I saw that movie Blow i laughed and thought what a bunch of BS. I grew up near Lakeland Fla, near where Mickey Munday grew up and there was little runways all over Florida that everybody used for smuggling. There were many other people that were in the busness like Jon Roberts and Mickey Munday. We would always see it in the papers. There would be 10 DC 3 planes empty in the middle of some cow pasture runway that the cops would find weeks later all the time.

Over 90% of the pot coming in to the US was coming through Florida in the 60's and 70's suppling the whole east cost and coke started coming in with the pot in the mid 70's up the whole east coast. From the east coast it went west. It just grew from there. The killing started with the colombians and cubans and the heat came and closed Florida almost completely down. It then started to come though LA and the killing started there. Were there is coke there is killing. I knew lots of people the were in on it. Lots ended up in jall or died.

There is very few people from that line of work that will even talk about it. Guys with the big mouths or flashy got caught or shot. Most guys who get out of jail lay very low. The guys who kept a low profile are the few that got away. The smart ones had put their money all around the world under differnet names and countries so if they got caught which was part of that line of work they would have something when they got out.

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[–] ReillyFilms 15 years ago

Jung dealt with Escobar in California. Roberts/Munday dealt with Ochoa. No need to mention Jung because he had zero connection to the South Florida cocaine trade in the late 70s early 80s.

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[–] sljones44 13 years ago

Supposedly, the same could of the Ochoa family. They were very famous, but all the stories were about the Pablo Escobar Cartel.

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[–] henfruit 12 years ago

I kept waiting fo them to mention George also - then when they said California connection, and stewardess - thought that was skirting around him!

Ole George!!!

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[–] ahamwi3333 14 years ago

Was it ... Requiem for a Dream?

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[–] hammerbutt 14 years ago

Jung was pretty much all done by 78 when Carlos Lehder dumped him and started Norman's Cay Roberts and Munday were just getting rolling. A lot of Lehder's drugs flew in to Georgia instead of Florida. Mostly though the film makers just concentrated on this small group that got ratted out by this Max guy.

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] 14 years ago

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[–] LeeVing88 12 years ago

He had nothing to do with the Cocaine Cowboys of Miami. Why mention him?

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[–] henfruit 12 years ago

When I think of 70s/cocaine I think of George - and at the end of the movie did he say, he brought in 80% of the cocaine into the US at that time. Not downing him by no means - love the movie Blow, and George seemed likable. Wish he had a relationship with his daughter.

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[–] WhenGreyjoysCry 11 years ago

Possible Jung could have wanted to much to cooperate with the movie makers....using his Blow fame, so they only mentioned him indirectly

“There are no ordinary moments. There is always something going on.” – Peaceful Warrior

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