Heroin-filled coffins? Death of ‘American Gangster’ Frank Lucas recalls tall tales of Thai drug smuggling

Frank ‘Superfly’ Lucas, who died on Thursday aged 88, was the subject of 2008’s ‘American Gangster’, by director Ridley Scott

The film was based on Lucas’ fanciful recollections of the Thai-US drug trade in the 1970s, including his now infamous claims of a ‘Cadaver Connection’

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Frank ‘Superfly’ Lucas, who died on Thursday aged 88. Photo: AP

Published: 8:15pm, 2 Jun 2019Updated: 11:26pm, 2 Jun 2019

The recent death of ageing Harlem gangster Frank “Superfly” Lucas, who embellished his otherwise colourful life with a litany of lies, revives the story of the so-called Cadaver Connection.

Despite being portrayed as fact in the 2008 film American Gangster, starring Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington, this tale of a plot to smuggle heroin out of Thailand in the coffins of US servicemen who had died in the Vietnam war never actually happened.

It was based on Lucas’ own fanciful recollections, including a supposed visit to the Golden Triangle to conclude a supply deal with exiled remnants of Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang army.

Lucas, who died on Thursday aged 88, has been credited with helping break the Italian Mafia’s hold on the US heroin trade. But in reality, he was just a buyer and distributor who made only one trip to Thailand in 1969, when he stayed close to the Dusit Thani Hotel in central Bangkok and needed someone to hold his hand throughout his visit.

His suppliers were a ring of retired African-American servicemen and a slang-talking, pudgy-faced Chinese-Thai used-car salesman named Luechai Ruviwat who acted as their invaluable link to the network of tribal armies along the Thai-Burmese border and their Chiang Mai-based wholesalers.

Their front was Jack’s American Star Bar, a popular hang-out for colourfully attired African-African soldiers on leave from Vietnam between 1968 and the end of US involvement in the war, which featured tasty soul food such as ham hocks and black-eyed peas.

Heroin-filled coffins? Death of ‘American Gangster’ Frank Lucas recalls tall tales of Thai drug smuggling

Frank ‘Superfly’ Lucas, who died on Thursday aged 88, was the subject of 2008’s ‘American Gangster’, by director Ridley Scott The film was based on Lucas’ fanciful recollections of the Thai-US drug trade in the 1970s, including his now infamous claims of a ‘Cadaver Connection’

Frank ‘Superfly’ Lucas, who died on Thursday aged 88, was the subject of 2008’s ‘American Gangster’, by director Ridley Scott

The film was based on Lucas’ fanciful recollections of the Thai-US drug trade in the 1970s, including his now infamous claims of a ‘Cadaver Connection’