Overview
Blow is the unlikely story of George Jung's roller coaster ride from middle class high school football hero to the heart of Pablo Escobar's Medellin cartel—the largest importer of the United States cocaine supply in the 1980's. Jung's early business of flying marijuana into the United States from the mountains of Mexico took a dramatic turn when he met Carlos Lehder, a young Columbian car thief with connections to the then newly born cocaine operation in his native land. Together they created a new model for selling cocaine, taking it from a drug used by the entertainment elite, to a massive and unimaginably lucrative enterprise-one whose earnings, if legal, would have ranked the cocaine business as the sixth largest private enterprise in the Fortune 500.The ride came to a screeching halt when DEA agents and Florida police busted Jung with 300 kilos of coke, effectively unraveling his fortune. But George wasn't going down alone. He planned to bring down with him one of the biggest cartel figures ever caught...
A riveting insider account of the lurid world of international drug smuggling and a supercharged drama of one man's meteoric rise and desperate fall, Bruce Porter chronicles Jung's life using unprecedented eyewitness sources in this critically acclaimed true crime classic.
About the Author:
Bruce Porter, a former newspaper reporter and editor of Newsweek, teaches at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has also written for the New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Playboy, and Connoisseur, among other publications.
This mesmerizing true account details the freewheeling evolution of the cocaine trade, following the career of a high school football star from a middle-class suburb who became a drug kingpin. George Jung began as a small-time dope dealer but was soon operating a scheme that grossed $35 billion annually--until his arrest in 1985. 8-page insert.
Synopsis
Blow is the unlikely story of George Jung's roller coaster ride from middle class high school football hero to the heart of Pablo Escobar's Medellin cartel—the largest importer of the United States cocaine supply in the 1980's. Jung's early business of flying marijuana into the United States from the mountains of Mexico took a dramatic turn when he met Carlos Lehder, a young Columbian car thief with connections to the then newly born cocaine operation in his native land. Together they created a new model for selling cocaine, taking it from a drug used by the entertainment elite, to a massive and unimaginably lucrative enterprise-one whose earnings, if legal, would have ranked the cocaine business as the sixth largest private enterprise in the Fortune 500.The ride came to a screeching halt when DEA agents and Florida police busted Jung with 300 kilos of coke, effectively unraveling his fortune. But George wasn't going down alone. He planned to bring down with him one of the biggest cartel figures ever caught...
A riveting insider account of the lurid world of international drug smuggling and a supercharged drama of one man's meteoric rise and desperate fall, Bruce Porter chronicles Jung's life using unprecedented eyewitness sources in this critically acclaimed true crime classic.
About the Author:
Bruce Porter, a former newspaper reporter and editor of Newsweek, teaches at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He has also written for the New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Playboy, and Connoisseur, among other publications.
This mesmerizing true account details the freewheeling evolution of the cocaine trade, following the career of a high school football star from a middle-class suburb who became a drug kingpin. George Jung began as a small-time dope dealer but was soon operating a scheme that grossed $35 billion annually--until his arrest in 1985. 8-page insert.
Editorials
From the Publisher
"Extraordinarily interesting...Mr. Porter has done an excellent job telling the tale of a very unusual entrepreneur."— The New York Times Book Review
"The story belongs to anyone who has ever savored a well-told tale of adventure, greed, deceit, and revenge. Best of all, it's true."— Houston Chronicle
"A sleigh-ride-to-hell story of how '60s hippie innocence turned into '80s megadepravity...finely researched, told with pizzazz."— Kirkus Reviews