Drug Kingpins for Rudy Giuliani

America's Mayor is a "principled guy."

Published October 25, 2007 2:18PM (EDT)

Here's an endorsement the Rudy Giuliani campaign probably won't be putting up on its Web site: a video clip of two legendary drug lords riffing on what a stand-up guy America's Mayor really is.

The guy in the wheelchair is Frank Lucas, who once claimed to make $1 million a day selling drugs, some of which he says he had smuggled in from Vietnam in the coffins of dead U.S. soldiers.

The guy on the phone is Leroy "Nicky" Barnes, one of the most famous drug dealers in U.S. history and a man Time once called the "reputed Godfather of a multimillion-dollar drug empire."

After Barnes, aka "Mr. Untouchable" and "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown," was convicted on federal drug charges, Giuliani advocated for the commutation of his life sentence on the ground that he had become a valuable informant for prosecutors. Barnes is now living under the government's Witness Protection Program, which is one reason -- among others -- that you won't be seeing him on the campaign trail with America's Mayor anytime soon.


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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