(WWJ) The countdown is on to the long-awaited release of White Boy Rick.
The 50-year-old former FBI informant, who was imprisoned as a teen on a drug conviction, is set to be released from a Florida halfway house on July 20 and return to metro Detroit, according to the Detroit News.
While Richard Wershe, Jr. was paroled in Michigan three years ago after serving 30 years behind bars, he was sent to Florida to spend time in prison for his part in a car theft ring.
Wershe was sentenced to life in 1988 at 17 years old for possessing more than 650 grams of cocaine. It was later discovered that he had been an informant for Detroit police since he was 14.
Wershe was granted parole in Michigan, 2017 but owed the state of Florida 22 months on racketeering charges for his role in an interstate car theft ring.
Wershe’s story made headlines around the world when, at the request of Detroit police and FBI agents, he infiltrated local drug gangs and turned in evidence that convicted 14 dealers and gangsters. His attorney claimed that, as a direct result of Wershe’s help, the FBI was able to infiltrate a gang of Detroit cops that was transporting drugs from the Wayne County Airport to the streets of the city’s east side.
Friends and family say he risked his life to help the FBI convict some of the city's worst drug kingpins, although federal investigators say he was ranking drug lord in one of Detroit's roughest neighborhoods.
Wershe was long denied parole as the longest-serving non-violent juvenile offender in Michigan's history.