Richard 'White Boy Rick' Wershe Jr. set to be released from Florida halfway house

Richard "White Boy Rick" Wershe Jr., who is serving time in a Florida halfway house, is set to be released July 20, according to the Florida Department of Corrections.

His release will come nearly a month earlier than previously expected.

Wershe, 50, was paroled in Michigan in 2017 after serving 30 years in prison on drug charges. He was then sent to Florida to serve time for a 2006 conviction for his role in a car theft ring. 

Wershe was once one of the FBI’s youngest informants. He was the subject of the Hollywood movie "White Boy Rick," which premiered  in September 2018.

The Florida Department of Corrections has moved Wershe's release date up numerous times from his initial release date of April 20, 2021. In late 2018, corrections officials announced he would be released Nov. 25, 2020 for good behavior, and then moved it to a month earlier.

In late 2019, he was then scheduled to be released in August 2020. 

The Florida Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment. 

In 1988, Wershe was 17 when he received a life sentence without parole for possession to deliver more than 650 grams of a controlled substance. That sentence was later amended to life with the possibility of parole.

Wershe dealt drugs on Detroit's east side where authorities say he would rise to become a ranking drug lord in one of the city's roughest neighborhoods. However, his supporters, lawyers and retired FBI agents say he was an informant who helped to put away the city's most notorious drug kingpins.

When he was arrested in 1987, he had 9,000 grams of cocaine and $30,000 in cash on him.