Leo Earl Sharp Sr. (May 7, 1924 – December 12, 2016), also known as El Tata,[2][3][4] was an American World War II veteran, horticulturist,[5] and drug courier for a branch of the Sinaloa Cartel.

Sharp’s neighbors in Michigan City recalled buses filled with customers outside his front gate waiting to buy his signature flowers, almost all named after his business Brookwood Gardens.

[2] Sharp traveled across the country for daily speaking engagements and conventions, and boasted at the time of his arrest that he had once been invited to the White House where he planted flowers in the Rose Garden for President George H. W.

[2] Sharp became despondent from financial problems with his flower business and was subsequently approached by Mexican laborers at his Michigan farm who solicited him into transporting narcotics for the Sinaloa Cartel.[when?

][2] He 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.

[2][10] The criminal investigation was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Chris Graveline in the Eastern District of Michigan, culminating with indictments of 25 members of the organization including Sharp.