Mr. Robinson

Frank Lucas says he paid $4,200 for a kilo of heroin in Thailand. In Harlem, it sold for $60,000 to $70,000. He says he moved the money through Chase Manhattan. In the video below, the real “American Gangster” explains how it worked. Lucas worked under Harlem boss Bumpy Johnson for 13 years. Bumpy wouldn’t touch drugs. When Bumpy died in 1968, Lucas says he went around Harlem and collected the money people owed. About $3 million to $4 million. He put it in Chase Manhattan, in different branches. Chase had a branch in Bangkok. “All I had to do is go over there and draw it out.” In Thailand, he says, he met a man he only calls “007.” Price of entry: $125,000. “He showed it to me for the 300 keys.” He says the heroin came back to the U.S. through military bases. $4,200 a kilo in Bangkok. Up to $70,000 in Harlem. More than 15 times the price. Denzel Washington later played him in “American Gangster.” Asked what he regrets, he talks about the cars, the Rolls-Royce, and a diamond bracelet with his name on it. “It cost me like 100 grand. What did it do for me? Garbage.” The case for Lucas: he says he bought turkeys for Thanksgiving, paid rent for women in the neighborhood and sent kids to college. The case against Lucas: the heroin he brought in by the hundreds of kilos was sold on the same Harlem streets. So was Frank Lucas giving back to Harlem, or just paying it back with its own money?