The “war on drugs” hasn’t exactly stopped the drug game from being a solid and financially viable industry. According to estimates, drug trafficking is a $400 billion business.
Over the weekend Mexican officials arrested notorious cocaine trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, one of the last people at large on a short list of the world’s billionaire drug traffickers. Authorities nabbed Guzman hiding out inside a condominium in Mazatlan Saturday (Feb. 22) bringing to an end 14 years on the run.
Not unlike many of his kingpin counterparts, Guzman’s drug cartel crossed foreign waters; extending to more than 50 countries around the globe, including Africa and Europe. Although his capture could lead to violence in Mexico, bloodshed is the unfortunate price the country may have to pay for bringing down one of history’s most wanted drug dealers.
As the world’s top coke supplier, Columbia is perhaps the most well-known for its work in the illegal drug industry, but other regions have made substantial contributions over the years. For example, in 2007 Afghanistan produced 93 percent –or $4 billion worth –of the world’s opium poppy plants (used to make heroine). Other spots like the Bahamas, Brazil, and Burma, are all responsible for growing, and exporting millions of tons of marijuana, heroine, and cocaine.
So who are some of the drug dealers that aided in the global drug push? Hit the gallery to see our list of seven of the some of world’s richest drug dealers in history.
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Photo: AP
George Jung
George “Boston George” Jung belonged to the Medellin Cartel –the notorious collective of drug suppliers responsible for nearly 90 percent of the cocaine smuggled into the U.S. during the 1970s and ’80s.
He was introduced to the Medellin Cartel by cellmate and Columbian-born drug dealer, Carlos Lehder. Together Jung and Lehder moved pounds upon pounds of cocaine between Columbia and the U.S. bringing in billions for the Medellin Cartel, but by 1987 Jung was sentenced to 60 years in prison.
Jung copped a plea for testifying against Lehder, and is now scheduled to be released this November. He’s also the same guy Johnny Depp portrayed in the film Blow.
Griselda Blanco
Griselda Blanco is known as the La Mirada (aka The Godmother) of the Columbian drug trafficking game. As a leader in the Medellin Cartel, Blanco mentored the likes of Pablo Escobar, and at its height her business dealings brought in more than $80 million a month. She is known for ordering ruthless murders, and lost three of her son’s to drug-related killings.
When she was arrested in 1985, Blanco continued to run her drug empire from behind bars. She was freed in 2004, and in 2012 motor-cycle assassins killed 71-year-old Blanco in Medellin, Columbia.
Khun Sa
Khun Sa aka “Prince Prosperous” was a flashy character who switched up his name from Chang Chi-fu and stepped foot into the heroine game in the mid-70s. The Burmese drug lord was leader of the nonconformist group the Shan State Army, and ruler of the Golden Triangle — comprised of three opium-producing countries Thailand, Laos and Myanmar (Burma).
Sa escaped an assassination attempt in 1981 (39 men tried to take him out), eluded U.S. prosecution for smuggling 1,000 pounds of heroin, and lived the rest of his life in Southeast Asia.
It is estimated that Sha’s net worth was $5 billion. He passed away in 2007 of unknown causes.
Carlos Lehder
Carlos Lehder (George “Boston George” Jung’s drug trafficking comrade) was born in Columbia in 1949. The co-founder of the Medellin Cartel’s first smuggling gig was moving cars between the U.S. and Mexico.
He and Jung brought in billions from smuggling cocaine in and out of the 50 states. The drug scheme basically crumbled after smugglers started snitching on one another in return for legal leniency. Lehder was wanted for extradition to the U.S. and eventually became an outlaw in Columbia and the Bahamas. He was busted on the run and was extradited to the states in 1987.
Currently, Lehder is serving out a lifetime bid in a U.S. prison, plus a reduced 55 year-sentence for testifying against famed drug lord, Manuel Noriega.
The Orejuela Brothers
Gilberto and Miguel Orejuela turned drug trafficking into a multi-billion dollar family business. The brothers led the Cali Cartel in the 1970s, which started out with marijuana trafficking and expanded to coke in the ’80s. In its heyday, the Cali Cartel controlled 90 percent of the global coke market, pioneered trafficking routes through Panama, and moved drug operation out of Columbia to Peru and Bolivia.
Unlike the Medellin Cartel, the Cali Cartel depended on bribery versus violence against the Columbian government, but that didn’t stop authorities from taking them down. Police formed a special task force commissioned to destroy the Cali Cartel.
Gilberto was arrested in June 1995, two months after his brother, Miguel. He was captured hiding in a secret compartment built inside a house bathroom cabinet and sentenced to 15 years. 2002 brought on a temporary release, but Gilberto was sent right back to jail in March 2003 and extradited to the U.S. where he remains.
Miguel was extradited to the U.S. in 2005. He and Gilberto were sentenced to 30 years after pleading guilty to conspiracy to import cocaine into the U.S. They settled on the deal in exchange for the legal immunity of nearly 30 family members.
Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar
The U.S. named Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar a “Global Terrorist” for his alleged ties to Osama Ben Laden, and more. Kaskar helmed an Indian crime syndicate known as the D-Company. He amassed a more than $6 billion net worth mostly from drug dealing, and is believed to have funded the 1993 and 2008 bombings in Mumbai.
Kaskar has yet to be apprehended by authorities. He is rumored to be living in the United Arab Emirates.
Amado Carrillo Fuentes
You don’t grow a $25 billion drug empire without putting in some serious leg work. For Mexican drug lord Amada Carrillo Fuentes, the friendly skies helped him become one of the world’s richest and most powerful criminals. The eldest of six children, and nephew of trafficker Ernesto Conseco Carrillo, he formerly led the Mexican drug monopoly know as the Juarez Cartel.
He earned the nickname El Señor de los Cielos (or, Lord of the Skies) for using more than 27 Boeing 727 jets to transport cocaine to different airports and landing areas around Columbia and Mexico. This was done in addition to the million-ton shipments of drugs he funneled into Manhattan in the ’90s.
Carillo died on July 3, 1997 following complications from facial plastic surgery to change his physical appearance. Four months after his passing, the dead bodies of the two surgeons who performed the surgery were found hidden in steel drums that were encased in concrete.
