All of you would be very well aware that to become rich, you need to enter into some great business—be it for the good or the bad. There is one such business which makes a common man the richest in the world. Yes, what we talking about is the drug business. Listed here are the 10 richest drug lords who are still shining in the market of drug business.
Top 10 Richest Drug Lords
Frank Lucas
Place of birth: North Carolina, United States
Net worth: $52 billion
This man was born in 1930 and was the drug "Kingpin" who constructed into this international drug market with all his business expanding from New York to the South of East Asia. He took up monopoly drug marketing from the Italian mafia. He was in the line of selling illegal drugs, heroine and more. His brand “Mean Machine” has captured lots of drug users, by which he made hefty profit.
Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar
Place of birth: Allahabad district, India
Net worth: $6.7 billion
Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar tops the list of richest drug lords. This Indian crime and drug lord was linked to the political bombing happened in Mumbai in 1993 , which took lives of more than 250 people. Hewas also linked to Osama Bin Laden, and the organization “Goldman Sachs of organized crime” he runs is very famous. Besides his drug operation, he still runs things like counterfeiting arms, terrorism, film industry financing, and extortion works. His substantial revenue comes from Bollywood as well.
Ochoa Brothers
Place of birth: Medellin, Columbia
Net worth: $6 billion
As we know Columbia is a big country in drug dealing. Let's take a look at who the richest Colombian drug lord is. Three brothers, Jorge, Juan and Fabio, who were from the upper middle class and well educated, too, were all in the line of drug selling and made a huge fortune up to $6 billion. They are known for their special team work to make revenue. They were arrested in 1991 and were out of prison in 1996. In 1999, the youngest brother was arrested again and sentenced to jail for 30 years.
Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela
Place of birth: Mariquita, Tolima
Net worth: $3 billion
Gilberto Orejuela is a Colombian drug lord. He has earned lots of money along with his brother by trafficking cocaine to the US during 1990s. He runs the Orejuela brothers’ drug business and is the largest supplier of cocaine to many countries, which makes him the most notorious and richest drug lord ever. He was convicted in September, 2006 for his conspiracy in money laundering and was sentenced to thirty years in federal prison.
Carlos Enrique Lehder Rivas
Place of birth: Armenia, Colombia
Net worth: $2.7 billion
Here comes the second Colombian drug lord on this list. Co-founder of Medellin Cartel, Rivas is the son of a German father and a Colombian mother. He used to do cocaine business, and he commandeered one small island in Bahamas, where he used to supply drugs to many places, and he also commanded the veritable drug smuggling base which has a complete set of armed troops and multiple hangers. He used the private planes for smuggling business. He was sentenced to life plus 135 years in 1987 but was offered testimony later in 1992, which makes his life sentence reduced to 55 years.
Rafael Caro Quintero
Place of birth: Mexico
Net worth: $650 million
Here comes the first Mexican drug lord. Rafael Caro Quintero is the oldest among his four brothers. He was primarily into the business of marijuana and he has many farms in Sonora where he can reap the plants. He also sells cocaine and methamphetamine and makes plenty of dollars from this business. In 1980, he along with his brothers ingratiated with the local government and law enforcement to such an extent that they were able to operate and function with impunity. And the only reason why that could work is that they invested a large amount of money to improve the community for various financing activities like real estate and construction projects. However, this Mexican drug lord was still sentenced to jail for 40 years in 1985.
George Jung
Place of birth: Boston, Massachusetts, United states
Net worth: $100 million
George Jung is one of the richest drug deallers and is well known for being portrayed by Johnny Depp in the movie “Blow” in 2001. He was a cocaine seller in the Medellin Cartel and made money when he was in power, he made lot of money and supplied cocaine to many parts of United States. He has made 100 millions at least and he bought many houses with his money instead of just storing them. He was taught coke smuggling by his cellmate Carlos Lehder while he was in prison. In November 2014, he has been slated for release.
Freeway Rick Ross
Place of birth: Troup, Texas, United States
Net worth: $52 million
Freeway Rick Ross, original name Ricky Donnell Ross, is known as a celebrity to be precise. His role behind the cocaine crack distribution in 1980 is true and genuine, and he was the cocaine supplier that led to the death of several millions of people in 1999, making piles of dollars out of it. He has been into drug selling since 19 years old. In fact, we can say he is the one who has created this addiction in LA. His crack factory can produce and sell drugs of 2-3 millions of dollars on a daily basis.
Khun SA
Place of birth: Myanmar
Net worth: $5 million
Also known as the drug lord of Myanmar, Khun SA has been into this field ever since 1974 and spent two decades minting money from drug trafficking. He covers three regions: Laos, Thailand and Myanmar, and he makes money from this field like as if no one else has made it. He has also built the largest heroine empire in this world. As he is the richest drug lord, he openly mocks at the hypocrisy of American drug war and challenges the US government to purchase his opium. He, however, surrendered to the Myanmar authorities in 1996, and what happened to him later is known by little.
Griselda Blanco
Place of birth: Cartagena, Colombia
Net worth: $2 million
As another Colombian drug lord and the only female on the list, Griselda Blanco is the cocaine god mother and is one of the most dangerous and vicious drug lords of all time. She was a prolific smuggler who used to run cocaine business in many places like Miami, Southern California and New York. She was known for her shipping cocaine of 150 kilograms in 1975 - the largest coke shipping ever. She has murdered more than 200 people while she was in this business. She was sent to prison in 1985 and later released in 2004.
View All Comments /Add Comment