The ex-wife of legendary drug kingpin Frank Lucas — whose murderous exploits inspired the controversial movie “American Gangster” — was busted yesterday for allegedly selling two kilos of cocaine to undercover agents in Puerto Rico, The Post has learned.
Julianna Farrait, 70, was nabbed inside an unidentified hotel after handing over the drugs in exchange for $60,000 in cash, sources said.
“They say life imitates art and this arrest proves the point yet again,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge John P. Gilbride. “Like in the movie the ‘American Gangster’ Frank Lucas was known to have made millions of dollars peddling heroin throughout the streets of New York City.”
“Well, his wife has taken up his role by trying to sell two kilograms of cocaine in Puerto Rico with the goal of sending them to be sold on the New York City streets while she is in comfort 2200 miles away.”
The former beauty queen — who was called “Eva” in the the 2007 film that starred Denzel Washington as Lucas — had been under surveillance by the DEA ever since a deal to sell 10 kilos in New York six months ago fell through.
It was unclear why the earlier deal collapsed.
Farrait, who has homes in New Jersey and Puerto Rico, was slapped with a federal narcotics-trafficking charge and is expected to be presented before a federal magistrate in Puerto Rico later today.
The feds plan to extradite her to New York to face prosecution in Manhattan federal court within the next two weeks, sources said.
Lucas made millions as one of the city’s biggest heroin dealers during the drug epidemic of the 1970s until his Harlem based-racket — called the “Country Boys” — was busted.
Lucas, who bragged that he smuggled smack in the coffins of American soldiers killed in Vietnam, was sentenced to 70 years in the slammer but was served only 12 after cooperating with authorities.