American Gangster is fictionally based on an American former drug trafficker, who operated where in the late 1960s and early 1970s?
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American Gangster (film) American Gangster is a 2007 American biographical crime film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by Steven Zaillian. The film is fictionally based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, before being detained by a task force led by detective Richie Roberts. The film stars Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington in their first lead acting roles together since 1995's "Virtuosity". The film also co-stars Ted Levine, John Ortiz, Josh Brolin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Norman Reedus, Ruby Dee, Lymari Nadal and Cuba Gooding Jr.
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Frank Lucas (drug dealer) Frank Lucas (born September 9, 1930) is an American former drug trafficker, who operated in Harlem during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was particularly known for cutting out middlemen in the drug trade and buying heroin directly from his source in the Golden Triangle. Lucas boasted that he smuggled heroin using the coffins of dead American servicemen, but this claim is denied by his South East Asian associate, Leslie "Ike" Atkinson. Rather than hide the drugs in the coffins, they were hidden in the pallets underneath as depicted in the 2007 feature film "American Gangster" in which he was played by Denzel Washington, although the film fictionalized elements of Lucas' life for dramatic effect.
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K&amp;A Gang The K&A Gang (currently known as the Northeast Philly Irish Mob) is a predominantly Irish American criminal network based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The K&A Gang was started following World War II and controlled the city's Irish-American criminal underworld for much of the late 20th century. The group was mainly a burglary ring for much of its early history, but shifted into loansharking, gambling, and ultimately drug trafficking in its later existence. The name "K&A" is derived from Kensington and Allegheny, the road intersection where the gang originally formed.
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Adolfo Constanzo Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo (November 1, 1962 – May 6, 1989) was a Cuban-American serial killer, drug dealer, and cult leader of an infamous gang dubbed by the media as The Narcosatanists (Spanish: "Los Narcosatánicos"). His cult members nicknamed him The Godfather ("El Padrino"). He was reportedly responsible for the murder of Mark Kilroy, an American student killed in Matamoros in 1989, along with several other cult killings.
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James McElroy James "Jimmy Mac" McElroy (1945 - 2011) was an Irish American mobster and racketeer from Manhattan, New York who was an enforcer for The Westies, a criminal organization that operated out of Hell's Kitchen.
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Meyer Lansky Meyer Lansky (born Meier Suchowlański; July 4, 1902 – January 15, 1983), known as the "Mob's Accountant", was a major organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the National Crime Syndicate in the United States.
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Stanley Williams Stanley Tookie Williams III (December 29, 1953 – December 13, 2005) was an American gang member and convicted murderer, who co-founded the West Side Crips, a street gang which has its roots in South Central Los Angeles in 1969. In 1979, he was convicted of murdering four people— a 7-Eleven employee, and in a separate occasion, an elderly Taiwanese couple and their daughter — and sentenced to death.
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Cowboy Mafia The Cowboy Mafia was the nickname for a group of marijuana smugglers who operated in the United States during the 1970s. At the time they were reportedly the largest drug smugglers in Texas. The nickname was given to the group by the Dallas media, as the capture and trial of the group created significant media coverage throughout Texas.
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John Dillinger John Herbert Dillinger ( ; June 22, 1903 – July 22, 1934) was an American gangster in the Depression-era United States. He operated with a group of men known as the Dillinger Gang or Terror Gang, which was accused of robbing 24 banks and four police stations, among other activities. Dillinger escaped from jail twice. He was also charged with, but never convicted of, the murder of an East Chicago, Indiana, police officer who shot Dillinger in his bullet-proof vest during a shootout, prompting him to return fire; despite his infamy, it was Dillinger's only homicide charge.
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Emanuel Weiss Emanuel "Mendy" Weiss (June 11, 1906 – March 4, 1944) was a New York organized crime figure who was an associate of the notorious Louis Buchalter and part of Buchalter's criminal organization known as Murder, Inc. during the 1930s and up to the time of his arrest in 1941. The Federal Bureau of Narcotics claimed that Weiss and his partner in crime Philip "Little Farvel" Cohen were heavily involved in narcotics trafficking. Although he was indicted on multiple drug charges, Weiss was never sentenced for any of these crimes.
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East Harlem Purple Gang The East Harlem Purple Gang was a semi-independent gang of Italian American hit-men and heroin dealers who, according to federal prosecutors, dominated heroin distribution in East Harlem and the Bronx during the late 1970s and early 1980s in New York City. Though mostly independent of the Italian-American Mafia and not an official Italian-American Mafia crew, the gang was originally affiliated with and worked with the Lucchese crime family and later with the Bonanno crime family and Genovese crime family. It developed its "closest ties" with the Genovese family, and its remnants or former members are now part of the Genovese family's 116th Street Crew.
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John Patrick Looney John Patrick Looney (1865–1947) was a gangster in the Rock Island, Illinois area during the early 20th century. He began his career as a lawyer, achieved success, but soon became involved in illegal activity. At the height of his power he controlled much of the gambling, prostitution, illegal liquor and protection rackets in Rock Island. Through his newspaper "Rock Island News", he was able to blackmail and intimidate his opponents. His family house is in the Highland Park Historic District in Rock Island, IL.
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Héctor Luis Palma Salazar Héctor Luis Palma Salazar (a.k.a.: "El Güero Palma") is a former Mexican drug trafficker and former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel alongside Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán. Palma was arrested on June 23, 1995 and deported to the United States, where he served a jail sentence until June 2016. He was then extradited back to Mexico in June 2016, where he was charged with a double murder in 1995, in Nayarit.
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Azie Faison Azie Faison (pronounced "A.Z.") is an American former drug dealer, selling cocaine in Harlem, New York, as well as a rapper and founder of the underground hip-hop group MobStyle. His legacy has been referenced by several rap artists, and his life was the basis for the film "Paid in Full" produced by Roc-A-Fella Films.
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Black Mafia Family The Black Mafia Family (BMF) was a drug trafficking organization originally based in Detroit, MI, that was founded in the late 1980s by brothers Demetrius and Terry Flenory. By the year 2000, they had established the cocaine distribution cells throughout the United States. Through their Los Angeles-based drug source, they had direct links to Mexican-based drug cartels.
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William Colbeck (gangster) William "Dint" Colbeck (November 17, 1890 – February 17, 1943) was a St. Louis politician and organized crime figure involved in bootlegging and illegal gambling. He succeeded William Egan as head of the Egan's Rats bootlegging gang in the early 1920s.
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Red Dillard Morrison Dillard Morrison Sr. (1919) — known as "Red" Dillard — was an American mob boss and enforcer in New York City's Harlem neighborhood. Once called the "most dangerous man in the country" by federal law enforcement agents, Morrison’s underworld résumé includes running a multimillion-dollar heroin ring, enforcing, pimping, extortion, and engaging in shootouts with rivals like Bumpy Johnson. A Robin Hood like figure in the Harlem community, Morrison's exploits with crime, women, and music are legendary. Though he would spend decades behind bars over the course of his life, Morrison was never convicted of murder.
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Ken Burnstine Kenneth G. "Ken" Burnstine (died 16 June 1976) was an American drug smuggler and pilot who was described by the Associated Press in 1981 as "one of America's most daring drug smugglers". At the time of his death in an aircraft accident, Burnstine was cooperating with federal prosecutors having been sentenced to seven years in prison for conspiracy to create a $50m drug trafficking ring based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The North American P-51 Mustang in which Burnstine crashed in the Mojave Desert was the aircraft with which he had won the 1974 Reno Air Races.
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Frank Ragano Frank Ragano (January 25, 1923 – May 13, 1998) was a self-styled "mob lawyer" from Florida, who made his name representing organized crime figures such as Santo Trafficante, Jr. and Carlos Marcello, and also served as lawyer for Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa. In his 1994 autobiography "Mob Lawyer", Ragano recounted his career in defending members of organized crime, and made the controversial allegation that Florida mob boss Santo Trafficante, Jr. confessed to him shortly before he died in 1987 that he and Carlos Marcello had arranged for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. These Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories have been called into serious question by others.
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Eliot Ness Eliot Ness (April 19, 1903 – May 16, 1957) was an American Prohibition agent, famous for his efforts to enforce Prohibition in Chicago, Illinois, bringing down Al Capone, and the leader of a famous team of law enforcement agents nicknamed The Untouchables. His co-authorship of a popular autobiography, "The Untouchables", which was released shortly after his death, launched several television and motion picture portrayals that established Ness's posthumous fame as an incorruptible crime fighter.
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Jon Roberts Jon Pernell Roberts (June 21, 1948 – December 28, 2011), born John Riccobono, was a noted drug trafficker and government informant, operated in the Miami area and was an associate of Colombia's Medellín Cartel during the growth phase in cocaine trafficking, 1975–1985. After his arrest, he was able to avoid a lengthy prison sentence by becoming a cooperating witness and proactive informant for the federal government. He was the author with Evan Wright of "American Desperado".
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Kenneth A. Jackson Kenneth A. "Kenny" Jackson is a businessman in Baltimore, Maryland, with past connections to the illegal drug trade in the city. He is one of the Baltimore underworld figures whose stories are dramatized in the HBO series "The Wire", but his actual influence upon the show is disputed. The connections among drug trafficking, legitimate businesses, and political donations depicted in "The Wire" reflect aspects of Jackson’s life.