PREMIERING WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31 AT 10PM*
Frank Lucas Himself Takes Viewers on a Journey of His Childhood and the Events That Led to His Life of Crime
NEW YORK – October 17, 2007 – In the late ’60s and early ’70s, Frank Lucas was the king of the Harlem drug scene. He was also one of the toughest, dangerous and most unforgiving criminals in the country before he was caught. The real Frank Lucas – whose rise and fall is chronicled in the Universal feature film “American Gangster” starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe – retraces his early childhood, the turns of events that led to his life of crime, his criminal past on the streets of Harlem and his reign for the first time with BET on this season of AMERICAN GANGSTER. This episode of BET’s critically acclaimed series premieres Wednesday, October 31 at 10PM*.
“I wanted to be rich. I wanted to be Donald Trump rich,” Lucas, 75, said during an interview for the episode. “And so help me God, I made it.”
He sure did. It is estimated that Lucas made up to $1 million a day selling heroin that he shipped over from Southeast Asia in the coffins of dead soldiers during the Vietnam War. But while he was becoming a multi-millionaire, his drug of choice was devastating Harlem’s community and the families in it. And according to sources also interviewed for the episode, the CIA knew all about his shipments and even made it possible for Lucas to bring the dope to America. Lucas was such an astute businessman that he even had the mob, the Sicilians and Mexicans as clients. Everybody wanted what Lucas was peddling.
