"American Gangster"- Entertaining, but Grossly Inaccurate

Recently, I saw "American Gangster", the film about New York heroin dealer Frank Lucas, a true-life figure. My motive was mostly curiosity since I am retired from DEA and was stationed in Thailand from 1975-78. I was familiar with the name Frank Lucas, but not having been stationed in New York, I was not that knowledgeable about the Lucas investigation. I was, however, quite familiar with the investigation regarding Leslie Atkinson and his associates who were Lucas' sources of supply for Southeast Asian heroin. While I found the film entertaining and enjoyed Denzel Washington's acting, there are a number of inaccuracies in the film, which purports to be based on actual history.

In one inaccuracy, the film portrays Lucas traveling to Thailand to set up his connections through a soldier contact in Bangkok. In the film, Lucas actually travels to a heroin lab in the Golden Triangle in Northern Thailand with a bundle of cash and deals directly with some SE Asian heroin producer. That is hogwash. While it is believed that Lucas did, in fact, go to Bangkok on at least one occasion, that is as far as he got. The fact is that it was Leslie Atkinson and his group in Thailand that had a Thai source of supply in Bangkok for heroin.

Leslie Atkinson at the time, was a retired Army man living in Goldsboro, North Carolina. He was the head of a group of black ex-Army personnel who were based in Bangkok and smuggling heroin into the United States. Once the heroin arrived, Atkinson's group shipped it to dealers in major cities like New York. In the case of New York, Lucas received his heroin from the Atkinson organization. In the mid
1970s, the Atkinson organization was indicted in the Federal District of North Carolina in Raleigh as a result of investigation by an international DEA task force. In 1976, Atkinson and most of his co-defendants were convicted. Atkinson was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Another inaccuracy is the part that shows heroin being shipped to the US in coffins of dead soldiers killed in Viet Nam. While there were many rumors that the Atkinson organization was using this method, it was never documented or confirmed. Likewise, there was no such heroin seizure from military coffins that led directly to the arrest of Lucas by Ritchie Roberts of the Essex County, NJ police (portrayed by Russell Crowe). It is true that Atkinson's group used the military transportation system to ship heroin into the United States. This was generally done in the personal effects of some soldiers. In October 1975, 45 kilos of heroin were seized by US Army Customs in Bangkok concealed in the furniture of a soldier returning stateside from Thailand. This heroin was documented to be destined to Atkinson.

Likewise, there was no such incident where DEA agents supposedly raided Lucas' home, shot the family dog, struck a woman and generally terrorized the people present-stealing millions of dollars in the process. It is also untrue, as is claimed in the closing credits, that Lucas' cooperation with Roberts led to the indictments of 3/4 of the New York City "Drug Enforcement Agency". DEA's New York office consists of hundreds of agents, and there has never been any such scandal in that office. All of the above is a smear on DEA.

Recently, a retired DEA agent who was involved in the case and is now an attorney in New York, wrote a letter to the producers of the film demanding that libelous and untrue material relating to DEA be removed from the film. He represents the retired DEA agent who actually led the raid on the house, in which $585,000 was seized. In addition, the attorney had actually interviewed Lucas while he was in custody, and had the opportunity to ask Lucas how much money he normally kept in the house, to which Lucas replied that $585,000 sounded about right.

The letter also claimed that Robert's role in the Lucas case was greatly exaggerated at the expense of the DEA New York office and the US Attorney's Office who did the bulk of the investigation and prosecution.

I am not familiar with Mr Roberts and have no personal knowledge of what he did or did not do in the Lucas case. However, to me, this is another example of Hollywood taking dramatic license to not only distort facts, but smear innocent law enforcement people in the process.