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Lesser Known But Intriguing Historic Criminals

Khalid Elhassan October 17, 2019 32 min

U.S. Destroyers: An Illustrated Design History - Crime

18. The End of the Road For Lucas

Frank Lucas’ career as a heroin bigwig ended in 1975, when his New Jersey home was raided by law enforcement, who found $584,000 in cash. He was tried on federal and state charges, convicted, and sentenced in 1976 to 70 years in prison. He then cut a deal by testifying against his former colleagues. Lucas and his family were placed in the Witness Protection Program in 1977, and his testimony and evidence he gave the authorities helped secure over 100 drug-related convictions.

He was rewarded for his cooperation in 1981 with a sentence reduction to time served plus lifetime parole, and walked out of prison, a free man. Lucas returned to prison in 1984, after he was caught and convicted of trying to swap some heroin and cash for a kilo of cocaine. He was sentenced to seven years, and released in 1991. He then walked the straight and narrow – or at least was not caught and convicted of anything major – until his death in 2019.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.