At the time of his death in May 2021, George Jung’s net worth was minimal, with most public estimates placing it near zero. Decades of federal prison sentences, legal fees, and forfeitures wiped out whatever remained of the vast sums he handled during his years as one of America’s most prolific drug traffickers and smugglers.
- George Jung: Career, Family, and Net Worth Facts
- George Jung's Early Life and Path Into Drug Dealing
- How George Jung Became a Major Cocaine Smuggler
- George Jung's Arrests, Prison Sentences, and Final Conviction in 1994
- George Jung Net Worth: How Public Estimates Explain the Near-Zero Figure
- George Jung Net Worth Breakdown
- The Movie Blow, Johnny Depp, and What It Meant Financially
- George Jung's Personal Life: Mirtha Jung and Kristina Sunshine Jung
- Where George Jung Stands Among Famous Drug Traffickers by Wealth
- What George Jung's Story Tells Us About His Net Worth in 2026 and Beyond
- Frequently Asked Questions About George Jung
George Jung: Career, Family, and Net Worth Facts
| Full Name | George Jacob Jung |
| Known As | Boston George |
| Date of Birth | August 6, 1942 |
| Birthplace | Weymouth, Massachusetts, USA |
| Nationality | American |
| Profession | Drug trafficker and smuggler |
| Years Active (Criminal) | Late 1960s to 1994 |
| Famous For | Cocaine smuggling with the Medellín Cartel; portrayed by Johnny Depp in Blow (2001) |
| Spouse | Mirtha Jung (married 1977, divorced) |
| Children | Kristina Sunshine Jung |
| Date of Death | May 5, 2021 |
| Estimated Net Worth at Death | Near zero (public estimates) |
| Peak Estimated Earnings | Tens of millions during the late 1970s and early 1980s |
George Jung’s Early Life and Path Into Drug Dealing
He was born on August 6, 1942, in Weymouth, Massachusetts. A working-class Boston upbringing and a father who struggled financially shaped his early years. Jung was a star football player in high school and later attended the University of Southern Mississippi on a partial scholarship.
College did not hold him long. Jung dropped out and drifted toward California in the early 1960s. He started using and selling marijuana in Manhattan Beach, quickly realizing the enormous profit margins in moving marijuana from Mexico to the East Coast.
Those early marijuana runs gave Jung a smuggler’s education. He learned how to move weight across state lines, avoid law enforcement patterns, and build the trust of suppliers. That education would later help him step into cocaine on a scale that few Americans had ever attempted.
How George Jung Became a Major Cocaine Smuggler
Jung’s real rise came through his partnership with Carlos Lehder Rivas. The two met in a Connecticut federal prison in the mid-1970s after Jung was arrested in Chicago on marijuana charges. Inside, Jung and Lehder talked constantly about cocaine and logistics. Jung had the American distribution connections. Lehder had the vision for a new smuggling route.
Together, Jung and Rivas would eventually connect with Pablo Escobar and the Medellín Cartel. Jung became the American end of a pipeline that flew cocaine from Colombia through the Bahamas and into the United States. At the peak of the operation in the late 1970s and early 1980s, public accounts and law enforcement records credit the network with moving a significant portion of all cocaine entering the United States.
He reportedly moved tens of millions of dollars’ worth of cocaine. None of it survived the arrests, forfeitures, and prison decades that followed.
Jung realized the enormous profit cocaine offered versus marijuana. The margins were far larger, and his existing networks gave him a head start most traffickers did not have. For several years, money came in faster than he could spend or hide it.
George Jung’s Arrests, Prison Sentences, and Final Conviction in 1994
The rise did not last. Jung was arrested multiple times across his career. His first major cocaine arrest came in 1974 in Chicago. After serving time and being released, he returned to drug trafficking almost immediately.
The most consequential arrest came in 1994, when federal agents caught Jung in a sting operation. He faced charges that eventually resulted in a 60-year federal prison sentence, later reduced. Jung was released from federal prison in 2014 after serving roughly 20 years across multiple stints.
Each arrest brought forfeiture. Cash, assets, and property disappeared into federal seizure proceedings. By the time Jung was released in 2014, nothing of his criminal earnings had survived in any documented form.
George Jung Net Worth: How Public Estimates Explain the Near-Zero Figure
Estimating George Jung’s net worth requires separating two very different periods: the criminal peak and the post-prison reality.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Jung reportedly moved tens of millions of dollars in cocaine. Some accounts suggest his personal earnings ran well into eight figures over the full run of his trafficking career. However, criminal earnings of this kind almost never survive. Federal forfeiture laws allow prosecutors to seize assets tied to drug proceeds, and Jung faced exactly that across multiple cases.
Legal fees for decades of federal litigation consumed additional funds. Prison costs, supervised release conditions, and the practical reality of re-entering society after nearly 20 years in federal prison left Jung with no documented assets and no verified income sources.
Celebrity net worth sites have occasionally placed estimates between $10,000 and $100,000 for his later years, but these figures have no clear public basis. The most honest answer is that Jung’s net worth at his death in 2021 was minimal. The real figure could only be confirmed through private estate records, which Jung’s family has not made public.
George Jung Net Worth Breakdown
| Income / Asset Source | Estimated Role | What It Means |
|---|---|---|
| Cocaine trafficking earnings (1970s to 1980s) | Originally major | Tens of millions reportedly moved; virtually all seized or spent before his death |
| Marijuana smuggling earnings (1960s to 1970s) | Early contributor | Provided startup capital for later cocaine operations; no surviving assets documented |
| Film rights and story licensing | Possible minor contributor | Blow (2001) was based on his life; neither Jung nor the studio publicly disclosed the licensing terms |
| Post-prison income | Public details limited | No verified employment, business, or income source documented after 2014 release |
| Federal forfeitures and legal fees | Major negative factor | Multiple seizures across multiple cases effectively eliminated accumulated wealth |
The Movie Blow, Johnny Depp, and What It Meant Financially
The 2001 film Blow, directed by Ted Demme, brought George Jung’s story to a mainstream audience. Johnny Depp portrayed Jung as a charismatic but ultimately tragic figure. The film was based partly on Bruce Porter’s 1993 book about Jung’s life and career.
Jung reportedly had some involvement in the production and received compensation, though neither he nor the studio ever disclosed the exact terms. Given that Jung was still incarcerated at the time of the film’s release and federal proceeds-of-crime rules can apply to criminal subjects profiting from their stories, any financial benefit from the film was likely limited or restricted.
The movie did make Jung more recognizable. After his 2014 release, he appeared in interviews and maintained a public profile, but no documented business ventures or substantial income sources emerged from that visibility.
George Jung’s Personal Life: Mirtha Jung and Kristina Sunshine Jung
George Jung married Mirtha Jung in 1977. The couple had one daughter, Kristina Sunshine Jung, born in 1978. The marriage did not survive the pressures of the drug trade and the arrests that followed. Mirtha eventually cooperated with federal authorities, and the two divorced.
Kristina Sunshine Jung later became publicly known in her own right. She appeared in Blow in a brief cameo and has spoken publicly about her complicated relationship with her father. The two reportedly reconciled before his death.
Jung’s final years, after his 2014 release, appear to have been spent in relative obscurity. Public reports suggested he struggled with health issues. He died on May 5, 2021, at the age of 78.
Where George Jung Stands Among Famous Drug Traffickers by Wealth
Comparing George Jung’s financial position to others in the cocaine trade makes the contrast stark. Pablo Escobar, who ran the Medellín Cartel that Jung worked with, reportedly amassed billions before his death in 1993. Carlos Lehder Rivas, Jung’s original partner, built personal wealth that went far beyond anything Jung retained.
Jung’s position in the operation was important but not at the ownership level. He was a skilled smuggler and distributor, not a cartel boss. Smugglers and distributors at his level earned well during active years but rarely built the kind of protected offshore wealth that cartel principals accumulated. His repeated arrests and the proximity of his assets to domestic legal jurisdiction left him far more exposed to forfeiture than the Colombian principals he worked with.
Among American drug traffickers of his era, Jung ended up where many ended up: legally stripped of whatever he made and dependent on whatever the post-prison economy offered. The celebrity net worth figures that float around are largely guesswork.
What George Jung’s Story Tells Us About His Net Worth in 2026 and Beyond
George Jung died in May 2021 with no verified assets, no business income, and no publicly documented estate to speak of. Any 2026 discussion of George Jung’s net worth is really a discussion of his legacy rather than a live financial profile.
His story endures through Blow, through interviews, and through his daughter Kristina, who has spoken about his life publicly. Whatever residual value exists in the George Jung name comes through licensing, media interest, and cultural reference. His estate’s ability to benefit from that, if at all, is governed by private legal arrangements that have not been made public.
The honest answer remains what it was at his death: George Jung’s net worth was near zero. He made enormous sums, spent freely, lost it all to forfeitures and legal battles, and spent nearly two decades in federal prison. The rise and fall of Boston George is a story about how criminal wealth almost never survives its makers.
Frequently Asked Questions About George Jung
What was George Jung’s net worth at the time of his death in 2021?
At the time of his death in May 2021, George Jung’s net worth was near zero by most public accounts. Federal forfeitures across multiple criminal cases, decades of legal fees, and nearly 20 years in federal prison eliminated whatever he had earned during his years in the cocaine trade. Some celebrity net worth sites cited small figures, but none of those estimates rest on verified public records.
How much money did George Jung make from cocaine trafficking?
Jung reportedly handled tens of millions of dollars during the peak years of his cocaine smuggling operation in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Some accounts suggest his personal share ran well into eight figures across the full run of his career. However, federal forfeiture laws stripped most documented assets, and no reliable accounting of his total criminal earnings has ever been published.
Did George Jung make money from the movie Blow?
The 2001 film Blow, which starred Johnny Depp as George Jung, was based partly on a book about his life. Jung reportedly received some compensation connected to his story, but the exact terms were not publicly disclosed. Federal rules around criminals profiting from their crimes may have limited what he could retain. No verified figure for any film-related earnings has appeared in public records.
Who is Kristina Sunshine Jung?
Kristina Sunshine Jung is George Jung’s daughter, born in 1978 to George and Mirtha Jung. She has spoken publicly about her relationship with her father and appeared briefly in the film Blow. After a difficult childhood marked by her parents’ arrests and the collapse of their marriage, she and her father reportedly reconciled before his death in 2021.
Was George Jung connected to Pablo Escobar?
Yes. Through his partnership with Carlos Lehder Rivas, George Jung developed a working relationship with Pablo Escobar and the Medellín Cartel. Jung provided the American distribution network and smuggling logistics. The Medellín Cartel provided the cocaine supply. At the operation’s peak, the network reportedly moved a large share of the cocaine entering the United States.
When did George Jung die?
George Jung died on May 5, 2021, at the age of 78. He had been released from federal prison in 2014 after serving roughly 20 years across multiple sentences. Reports in the period before his death indicated he had been dealing with significant health issues.
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