1. Leo Sharp was born in Michigan City, Indiana, and was raised in the city of Detroit, Michigan.
17 Facts About Leo Sharp
1. 2.
Leo Sharp fought in the Italian Campaign in World War II and received a Bronze Star Medal for his service.
3.
Leo Sharp claimed to have been an owner of a small airline company that eventually went bankrupt.
4.
Leo Sharp later became a horticulturist and florist known for hybridizing popular new breeds of flowers, specifically the daylily.
5.
Leo Sharp became world renowned for his hybridizing of popular new breeds of his flowers.
6.
Leo Sharp gained popularity for producing relatively small flowers with vibrant colors.
7.
The daylily Hemerocallis 'Siloam Leo Sharp' is named after him.
8.
Leo Sharp became despondent from financial problems with his flower business and was approached by Mexican laborers at his Michigan farm who solicited him into transporting narcotics for the Sinaloa Cartel.
9.
Leo Sharp was very successful in eluding the detection of law enforcement for over ten years while transporting thousands of pounds of cocaine, which catapulted him into urban legend among drug traffickers who knew of his exploits.
10.
Leo Sharp used a Lincoln Mark LT pickup truck to transport between 100 and 300 kilograms of cocaine at a time from the southern US border to Detroit, Michigan.
11.
Leo Sharp was arrested by Trooper Craig Ziecina from the Michigan State Police in October 2011 during a coordinated arrest operation led by the DEA; Leo Sharp was in possession of 200 kilograms of cocaine.
12.
Leo Sharp's arrest was captured on the dashboard camera of the Michigan State Police cruiser and published in the New York Times.
13.
Leo Sharp was allowed to speak at his sentencing hearing before Judge Edmunds.
14.
Leo Sharp's defense stated that Sharp had dementia and would do poorly in prison.
15.
Leo Sharp was released in 2015 due to declining health after only serving a year of his sentence.
16.
Leo Sharp died of natural causes on December 12,2016, in Michigan at the age of 92.
17.
Leo Sharp is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.