Frank Lucas: Man who inspired American Gangster dies aged 88

Frank Lucas, the notorious Harlem drug lord whose life inspired the 2007 film American Gangster, has died.

Born in North Carolina in 1930, he moved to New York where he became a prolific heroin trafficker throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1976 he was sentenced to decades in prison, but later provided evidence to police and was freed after five years.

A family member told US media he died from natural causes, aged 88, on Thursday in New Jersey.