The DEA Sues American Gangster

Last November American Gangster went head-to-head with Bee Movie at the box office, but now the film faces an off-screen battle. The NY Sun reports that Former DEA agents are suing NBC Universal for being falsely depicted on-screen.

They feel their characters were portrayed as villains and the lawsuit, filed yesterday in federal court in Manhattan, claims "the movie defamed hundreds of DEA agents and New York police officers by claiming at the end that Frank Lucas's collaboration with prosecutors led to the convictions of three quarters of New York City's Drug Enforcement Agency." The DEA claims that Lucas, a government informant after his conviction, never got any of them convicted.

"This is absolutely off-the-wall," a prosecutor in the federal case against Lucas in 1975 who now represents the DEA agents, Dominic Amorosa, said.

Mr. Amorosa said the filmmakers had unfairly blackened the reputation of agents who risked their lives to put away Lucas and other drug felons in the 1970s and 1980s.

"I don't know what these people were thinking, but they are going to pay for it," he said.

Universal maintains that "the corrupt law enforcers depicted in the film were supposed to be New York police officers." Wonder if the NYPD will be next to file suit! Incidentally, the movie has grossed $127 million...and the lawsuit is for $62 million.

Pictured: Movie still from American Gangster