Julianna Farrait
Julianna Farrait is a former Puerto Rican homecoming queen and most notoriously the wife of former drug trafficking kingpin turned informant, Frank Lucas. Her husband died at the age of 88 on May 30, 2019.
Julianna’s husband once controlled the gang, referred to as the “Country Boys,” from a mansion in Teaneck. However, the law soon caught up to Lucas.
Born September 9, 1930; the North Carolina native was mentored by Harlem gangster Ellsworth “Bumpy” Johnson after he made the move to Harlem in 1946. By the 60s, he had constructed an international drug empire that spanned from New York to South East Asia. Killings, extortion, and bribery were his modus operandi. Lucas had millions in cash and property in several cities when he was busted in 1975.
Richard Roberts, who oversaw the Essex County Prosecutor’s Bureau of Narcotics in the 1970s, indicted Lucas after shutting down a heroin market run by Lucas’ brother, Vernon, according to The Star-Ledger.
Lucas flipped and became an informant and his entire family was placed under the witness protection program. He led the government to arrest numerous drug dealers. After serving less than 10 years of his sentence, Lucas moved to Newark in the ’80s.
His life and work are portrayed in the critically acclaimed 2007 film American Gangster.
79-year-old Julianna Farrait also known as Julianna Farrait-Rodriguez and Julianna Lucas -didn’t scape jail either. She met Lucas at a bar during one of his trips to Puerto Rico.
The wife and mother spent five years in prison for participating in her husband’s drug enterprise. Once Farrait got out of prison, the couple lived a part for many years but got back together in 2006.
In 2010 she was arrested once again for trying to sell drugs — this time in her native Puerto Rico. She was given five years of jail time.
Julianna and Frank are the parents of seven adult children, Francine Lucas-Sinclair, Frank Lucas Jr., Ray Lucas, Betty Lucas, Candace Lucas, Ruby Lucas and Tony Walters.
Their daughter Francine who was mostly raised by her maternal grandparents, is known for having launched the service Yellow Brick Roads, a safe haven for children of incarcerated parents.
