RIP to My Hometown's Proudest Son, Cocaine Smuggling Legend George Jung of Johnny Depp's 'Blow" Fame

You'll have to pardon me for an expression of hometown pride. But it's not every day that the most famous and celebrated resident of my ancestral homeland goes to his final reward. 

Weymouth, MA is a large, almost exclusively blue collar town on Boston's South Shore. Known as the birthplace of historic figures such as Abigail Adams, "Hot Tub Time Machine's" Robb Coddry, the Bruins Charlie Coyle, Jerry Thornton and the man we just lost, the father of the U.S cocaine smuggling industry back in the 1970s.

TMZ -  George Jung -- the prolific cocaine smuggler portrayed by Johnny Depp in the movie "Blow" -- has died ... TMZ has learned.

Sources close to the situation tell TMZ ... George died Wednesday morning at home in the Boston area. The cause of death is currently not known, though he had recently been experiencing liver and kidney failure. ...

"Boston George," as he was known, served 20 years in prison for running drugs. He was released in 2014, but ultimately landed back behind bars just 2 years later for violating his parole by failing to inform his parole officer he would be hitting up San Diego.

He was famous for being part of the Medellin Cartel and helping Pablo Escobar smuggle planeloads of cocaine into the U.S. That was a big deal because, at the time, Escobar's cartel was responsible for distributing 80% of the world's cocaine -- and about 15 tons of blow reportedly came into the U.S. per day ... for a weekly haul of $420 million.

It's hard to really put into words the type of civic pride we Weymouth Wildcats got out of Jung's success. A guy who, like most of us, grew up middle class. I don't know what house he lived in, but if it was like most of my friends' it was a one-bath and probably didn't have a basement. But through his vision, his believe in himself, and his work ethic, he managed to build a $100 million empire. The cliched headline "Hometown Boy Makes Good" never fit anyone better. 

Sure, you can argue that creating a drug smuggling operation is not the most noble of pursuits. To which Jung himself would counter with this Tweet, which is still pinned at the top of his page:

For better or worse, Jung saw a need for what was still considered a sexy, glamorous narcotic for Baby Boomers, and he filled it. Sure, cocaine ruined an untold number of house parties where lot of really terrible conversations where insufferably wired up douchebags would pin you up against a wall and talk your ear off until you pretended you had to got to the bathroom. But it got an awful lot of ordinary looking guys with money to burn laid as well. 

As far as Jung the protagonist of a major motion picture, that had us residents of Weymouth Hills 02190 beaming with pride as well. "Blow" is more than just Johnny Depp's most underrated performance, it's the most accurate portrayal of a Masshole Hollywood has ever done. And I'm including them all. Affleck and Damon. All the Wahlbergs. Everybody in "The Departed." Even, dare I say, Christian Bale in "The Fighter." I met the guy he played in that, and while he won an Oscar for it, he deserved the Nobel Prize in acting. It was just that good. But Depp as Jung was better. As my oldest brother says, he went to school with two dozen guys who looked and sounded exactly like this:

And now, tragically, George Jung is taken from us, all too soon. He got out of jail in 2014, and ever since I've been hoping to see him around town. Invite him to the Knights of Columbus over in Columbian Square. Grab some of the South Shore's signature bar pizza at Olympic. Maybe hit the Sandtrap up on 3A in North Weymouth and swap stories. But alas, that ship has sailed. He's flown his cash-laden prop plane to that great money laundering operation in the sky. Goodnight, Sweet Prince. You'll be doing rails of the purest, uncut stuff with the angels now.