George Jung, the cocaine smuggler and dealer that inspired Johnny Depp’s character in Blow, has been released from prison after serving 20 years.

George Jung Released

Jung, 71, was scheduled for release in November of this year. However, for reasons unknown, he was released from the FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey several months early. Now that he’s out from prison, Jung is being sent to a half-way house on the West Coast, reported TMZ. There, he’ll be aided in transitioning back into society after a pair of decades behind bars.

During the 70s and 80s, Jung was regarded as one of the largest movers of cocaine. At one point, it was believed he was responsible for nearly 90% of the cocaine brought into the United States.

Describing his high-rolling life before the major bust, Jung said it was as though he was a “coke star” comparable to other celebrity types. “I was a guy who had a lot of money and unlimited access to cocaine and even if I looked like Bela Lugosi I still had the most beautiful women on the planet because everybody at that time, especially women, were in love with cocaine and of course in love with the money–the access to the automobiles, the clothes, the dinners, the lifestyle,” he told PBS.

Jung added, “Basically I was no different than a rock star or a movie star. I was a coke star.”

Blow, which came out in 2001, was based on Bruce Porter's 1993 book Blow: How a Small Town Boy Made $100 Million with the Medellín Cocaine Cartel and Lost It All. In addition to Jung, it focused on his contemporaries Pablo Escobar and Carlos Lehder Rivas.