'Freeway' Ricky Ross

Ricky Donnell Ross, a k a "Freeway Rick," was a drug kingpin in the 1980s in South Central Los Angeles, supplying cocaine to other parts of the country. In the course of his rise, prosecutors estimated Ross exported several tons of cocaine nationally and made more than $600 million in the process. Ross dropped out of Dorsey High School in Los Angeles his senior year. He played for the tennis team, but, because he was illiterate, was unable to get a scholarship to attend college. In 1996, Ross was sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted of selling 100 kilograms of cocaine to a federal agent. The same year, a series of articles published by the San Jose Mercury News and written by Gary Webb exposed the connection between Ross's main cocaine source and the CIA as part of the Nicaraguan Contras scandal that funded the rebels. Because of a legal technicality, the U.S. federal court of appeals reduced Ross's life sentence to 20 years and he was released from prison in 2010. Ross, who has since reformed, lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children, speaking to high school students and community groups of staying away from drugs.