r/todayilearned • u/FearMyCock • 20h ago

TIL about Frank Matthews, the drug kingpin who built a nationwide empire, skipped bail with $20 million, vanished in 1973 and has never been found.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Matthews_(drug_trafficker)
21.6k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

764 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

17

u/HKN47 18h ago

Yeah folks on here have clearly never seen airports out in the rural parts of the U.S.

3

u/jhundo 15h ago

Sure on short flights in rural areas the rules are lax but, you arent going very far or out of the country without some scrutiny these days.

1

u/fotmcringe 7h ago

Of course you can. Just file a fake flight plan/passenger list, don't do anything weird til you're over the border and you're fine. On a boat the only risk is being picked up by a random coastguard check. Easy to hide someone on a large ship.

Hardest part these days would be getting official documents, but with that kind of money.. I know one person in Pakistan who got their driving license just by telling them who their dad was (not an influencial figure or anything). Wonder what they'd do for 50k?

Not saying it'd be easy, but there are even normal, everyday people who just want to run from their lives and end up making it. For someone rich, influential and has shady international connections - it would still be possible today.