According to Wikipedia: A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin or narcotrafficker is a type of crime boss, who is in charge of a drug-trafficking network, organization, or enterprise. Members have been arrested in Argentina, Brazil, Honduras, Peru and Spain. Drug Lord Name Generator. Legends state that he bought drugs from the "Golden Triangle" and smuggled them into the U.S. using the coffins of servicemen. Photo credit: EPA. Eventually, he controlled over 80 percent of the cocaine . [12][15] Escobar and many other Colombian drug lords bought Colombian politicians, in both the New Liberalism Party and the Colombian Liberal Party, by contributing political donations to their political campaigns. This is a list of Mexico's 37 most-wanted drug lords as published by Mexican federal authorities on 23 March 2009. Explore in 3D: The dazzling crown that makes a king. A snappy nickname is not uncommon in Mexico, but it seems to be a prerequisite to being a Mexican drug lord or top enforcer. Comment here. In 1991, Escobar surrendered to authorities, and was sentenced to five years' imprisonment on a host of charges, but struck a deal of no extradition with Colombian President Csar Gaviria, with the ability of being housed in his own, self-built prison, La Catedral. Right IconThis ranking is based on an algorithm that combines various factors, including the votes of our users and search trends on the internet. On 7 February 1990 Barrera was arrested on drug charges by Colombian authorities. All rights reserved. Escobar has been the subject of several books, including the following: Two major feature films on Escobar, Escobar (2009) and Killing Pablo (2011), were announced in 2007. In the early 1970s, he began to work for various drug smugglers, often kidnapping and holding people for ransom. (Former crime boss, active in New York City during the 1970s), (American Mobster in the Bonanno Crime Family), (Fugitive and convicted murderer who was added to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list on December 7, 1996), (Former drug kingpin known for his notorious ways throughout the 1980's and 1990's in New York and Washington, D.C.), (Former Manhattan Triad leader and Drug dealer). [71], On 22 February 2019, at 11:53 AM local time, Medelln authorities demolished the six-story Edificio Mnaco apartment complex in the El Poblado neighborhood where, according to retired Colombian general Rosso Jos Serrano, Escobar planned some of his most brazen attacks. De Berdouare would later hire a documentary film crew and professional treasure hunters to search the edifice before and after demolition, for anything related to Escobar or his cartel. This article is about the Colombian drug lord. Initially, Escobar tried to bribe the Medelln judges who were forming the case against him. [1] Escobar and Carlos Lehder worked together to develop a new island trans-shipment point in the Bahamas, called Norman's Cay. Besides his illegal activities, he also maintained several legitimate businesses. Along with his brother Miguel, he ran the Cali drug cartel in the mid-1990s. List of the most dreaded drug lords in American history. Ultimately, authorities were unable to link her funds to illegal activity, and she was released. Dairo Antonio suga was led away in handcuffs following the raid. Mr Duque, quoted by AFP news agency, described the operation as "the biggest penetration of the jungle ever seen in the military history of our country". The gang derives its name from "showering" communities with bullets and was blamed for more than 1,000 murders during the 1980 . -Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota", "Military & Defense: A luxurious Miami mansion built by the 'King of Cocaine' is no more", "Military & Defense: This dilapidated villa once served as a Caribbean getaway for drug-kingpin Pablo Escobar", "Drug boss Pablo Escobar still divides Colombia", "Colombian Attorney General on Virginia Vallejo's offer to testify against Santofimio", "Virginia Vallejo takes refuge in United States", "Pablo Escobar's Ex-Lover Flees Colombia", "Virginia Vallejo testific en el caso Palacio de Justicia", "Truth Commission Blames Colombian State for Palace of Justice Tragedy", "Colombia ex-officer jailed after historic conviction", "Colombian 1985 Supreme Court raid commander sentenced", "Galan Slaying a State Crime, Colombian Prosecutors Say", "Colombian Leader Disputes Claim of Tie to Cocaine Kingpin", "A Cursed Family: A Look at Pablo Escobar's Family 21 Years After His Death", "Se conoce foto de la hija de Pablo Escobar en Buenos Aires", "Pablo Escobar's widow and son in Argentina money laundering probe", "Pablo Escobar's widow and son held on money laundering charges in Argentina", "Pablo Escobar's widow, son charged with money laundering in Argentina", "Narcos season 2: Pablo Escobar's son labels Netflix show 'insulting', lists 28 historical errors", "Pablo Escobar's sister trying to pay for the sins of her brother (Luz Maria Escobar), the sister of Colombian cartel boss Pablo Escobar, has told how she is trying to make amends for her murderous brother", "California Business Portal: Successor-In-Interest", "Pablo Escobar's Escaped Hippos Are Thriving in Colombia", "Zoo Gone Wild: After Escobar, Colombia Faces His Hippos", "Could Pablo Escobar's Escaped Hippos Help the Environment? He created a zoo, a lake and other diversions for his family and organization. His killing was mourned and his funeral attended by over 25,000people. Lehder and Robert Vesco purchased most of the land on the island which included a 3,300 feet (1,000m) airstrip, a harbor, hotel, houses, boats, aircraft; he even built a refrigerated warehouse to store the cocaine. [53] On 5 June 2018, the Argentine federal judge Nestor Barral accused her and her son, Sebastin Marroqun Santos, of money laundering with two Colombian drug traffickers. [60] Escobar's body was exhumed on 28 October 2006 at the request of some of his relatives in order to take a DNA sample to confirm the alleged paternity of an illegitimate child and remove all doubt about the identity of the body that had been buried next to his parents for 12 years. The proposal was initially answered in the negative, and Escobar subsequently founded and implicitly supported the Los Extraditable Organization, which aims to fight extradition policy. The film was shown at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and premiered in the US on HBO in October 2010. Marcos Arturo Beltran Leyva. It was in 2004 that heir to her legacy and to some of her vast fortune that . He led a now-defunct criminal group called the Guadalajara Cartel alongside Rafael Caro Quintero and Miguel ngel Flix Gallardo. He flew a plane himself several times, mainly between Colombia and Panama, in order to smuggle a load into the United States. He was known for cutting out middlemen in the drug trade and buying heroin directly from his source in the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia. 2 leader" of the same Medellin Cartel that Carlos Lehder helped establish, Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha was one of the most wanted men in Colombia while he . In 1996, the Medelln and Cali cartels were estimated to control 7580% of the Andean region's cocaine traffic, and a similar percentage of the U.S. cocaine market, earning $68 billion a year. Worth $1 billion, he's been hiding out since 2001, when he escaped a maximum-security prison in Mexico by bribing . The list you're viewing has a variety of people, like Amado Carrillo Fuentes and Pablo Escobar, in it. He first entered into the criminal world by selling stolen vehicles at his fathers used car business. From 1978 to 1982, this was used as a central smuggling route for the Medelln Cartel. The two dropped out of school after more than a year, but Escobar, who did not give up, briefly became autonomous in Latin America by forging high school diplomas. Members of the Cali Cartel even replayed their recordings of her conversations with Pablo for their wives to demonstrate how a woman should behave. Escobar managed to change the first judge in the lawsuit and bribed the second judge, so he was released along with other prisoners. The journalist stated that Escobar had financed the operation, which was committed by M-19; but she blamed the army for the killings of more than 100 people, including 11 Supreme Court magistrates, M-19 members, and employees of the cafeteria. Otoniel was escorted by the security forces after his capture - and some posed for photos, The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure. He goes by a whopping 21 different aliases and is suspected to have been involved in the Mumbai terrorist attacks of 1993 and 2008. He alleged once in an interview that his fortune came from a bicycle rental company he founded when he was 16 years old. [32], Escobar also owned a huge Caribbean getaway on Isla Grande, the largest of the cluster of the 27 coral cluster islands comprising Islas del Rosario, located about 35km (22mi) from Cartagena. [34], On 4 July 2006, Virginia Vallejo, a television anchorwoman romantically involved with Escobar from 1983 to 1987, offered Attorney General Mario Iguarn her testimony in the trial against former Senator Alberto Santofimio, who was accused of conspiracy in the 1989 assassination of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galn. Frank Lucas (September 9, 1930 - May 30, 2019) was an American drug trafficker who operated in Harlem during the late 1960s and early 1970s. [31] When he was captured, the Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos described him as "perhaps the most wanted kingpin in recent times". [4] Jos Santacruz Londoo, Gilberto Rodrguez Orejuela, and Miguel Rodrguez Orejuela were key figures in the Cali Cartel in the end of 1970s. According to the Colombian National Police intelligence service DIJIN, Barrera bribed numerous Colombian policemen in order to maintain his drug emporium in Bogot. In March 1976, the 26-year-old Escobar married Mara Victoria Henao, who was 15. The video was seen by 14 million people, and was instrumental for the reopened case of Galn's assassination. Otoniel had used a network of rural safe houses to move around and evade the authorities, and did not use a phone, instead relying on couriers for communication. So, just how much money can these violent criminals make by peddling forbidden substances? Even though I was a casual fan of The Lord of the Rings and having already taken two pharmacology courses in college, . With an estimated net worth of $1 billion, Guzmn is extremely powerfulthere is no doubt why the Sinoloa Cartel won a bloody battle against its former partner, the Juarez Cartel. They would find unusual holes in floors and walls, as well as a safe that was stolen from its hole in the marble flooring before it could be properly examined. Several other films include Blow with Johnny Depp show the activities of Pablo Escobar. . Escobar was buried at the Monte Sacro Cemetery. [18], Escobar was also involved in philanthropy in Colombia and paid handsomely for the staff of his cocaine lab. [1][7] U.S. law enforcement officials in the 1990s estimated that Colombian drug cartels spent more than $500 million on bribing officials every year. Later, the dilapidated property was owned by Christian de Berdouare, proprietor of the Chicken Kitchen fast-food chain, who had bought it in 2014. El Chapo. Escobar then planted a bomb on Avianca Flight 203 in an attempt to assassinate Galn's successor, Csar Gaviria Trujillo, who missed the plane and survived. DAS agents found 39kg of cocaine in the spare tire of Escobar's car. [41][42] These events led to further investigation into the siege that resulted with the conviction of a high-ranking former colonel and a former general, later sentenced to 30 and 35 years in prison, respectively, for the forced disappearance of the detained after the siege. $5 million is offered to anybody who can reveal him. Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar is currently the most wanted criminal in India, with a reward of $25 million being offered in return for his capture. This list of notable drug lords is ordered by their level of prominence, and can be sorted for various bits of information, such as where these historic drug lords were born and what their nationality is. Otoniel was captured in his rural hideout in Antioquia province in north-western Colombia, close to the border with Panama. Londoo escaped La Picota Prison in Bogot on 11 January 1996. [62], After Escobar's death, the ranch, zoo and citadel at Hacienda Npoles were given by the government to low-income families under a law called Extincin de Dominio (Domain Extinction). Lucas boasted that he smuggled heroin using the coffins of . He began gearing up much of the government resources into cracking down on the Medelln Cartel. Arturo Beltran Leyva's own downfall was even more unsubtle. So here, we have assembled 15 of the most famous Mexican drug lords who terrorized half of the world with their cruel and insane doings. Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (/skbr/; Spanish:[palo eskoa]; 1 December 1949 2 December 1993) was a Colombian drug lord, narcoterrorist, and a politician, who was the founder and sole leader of the Medelln Cartel. [26] She was noted for her ruthlessness and use of extreme violence, employing tactics such as publicly assassinating people in broad daylight, bayoneting a rival trafficker inside Miami International Airport, and inventing the drive-by motorcycle shooting execution method. Birth Year: 1947. Escobar's influence allowed him to discover the plan in advance and make a successful escape, spending the remainder of his life evading the police.[25][26]. For other uses, see, infiltrate every level of the Colombian government, Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw, Pablo Escobar: El Patrn del Mal (Pablo Escobar, The Boss Of Evil), "10 facts reveal the absurdity of Pablo Escobar's wealth", "Here's How Rich Pablo Escobar Would Be If He Was Alive Today", "Pablo Escobar Gaviria English Biography Articles and Notes", "Pablo Emilio Escobar 1949 1993 9 Billion USD The business of crime 5 'success' stories", "Familiares exhumaron cadver de Pablo Escobar para verificar plenamente su identidad", "Decline of the Medelln Cartel and the Rise of the Cali Mafia", "Escobar's Former Mansion Will Now Be A Theme Park", "Colombia: Coexistence, Legal Confrontation, and War with Illegal Armed Groups", "Cali Colombia Nacional Pablo Escobar financi la toma del Palacio de Justicia Escobar financi toma del Palacio de Justicia", "25 years on, Colombia still mourns Escobar plane bombing, still wants answers", "Colombian Drug Baron Escapes Luxurious Prison After Gunfight", "Escobar escape humiliates Colombian leaders", "Loving Pablo Director on Reuniting Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz: It's Been Very Intense", "Me Matan, Limon! (LSTM) to classify Tolkien characters and prescription drug names using Keras. Tuco Salamanca. While arrest records have been lost, Escobar apparently sat in a Medellin prison for several months before his 20th birthday. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. prison. He was known for cutting out middlemen in the drug trade and buying heroin directly from his source in the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia. Levyas forfeiture amount was set based on a forgiving estimate of the value of the cocaine that he smuggled to the United States border. He died in a U.S prison May 31, 2022. Following in the footsteps of his father Christopher Coke, founder of the notoriously violent Shower Posse, this Jamaican drug lord trafficked huge amounts of cocaine, marijuana, and firearms. [27][28] It is estimated that she was responsible for the homicides of around 200 people in Colombia, Florida, New York, and California. [29] She was killed by motorcycle hitmen in Colombia on 3 September 2012 as she was coming out of a butcher's shop. After many months, the case was dropped. Barnes led The Council into an international drug trafficking ring, in partnership with the Italian-American Mafia, until his arrest in 1977. Pablo Escobars accountant claimed that he spent $2,500 a month on nothing but the rubber bands needed to wrap up his staggering amount of illegal cash. Ismael Zambada. [38] In January 2020, it was announced previous Pablo Escobar associate Luis Del Ro Jimnez, alias "el To", or "Seor T", was among 10 people arrested during an operation conducted by Colombian and DEA forces on 24 November 2019. In 1976, Escobar founded the Medelln Cartel, which distributed powder cocaine, and established the first smuggling routes from Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, through Colombia and eventually into the United States. The action was seen as too late. He dominated the Golden Triangle, controlling up to 70% of its heroin trade and becoming one of the most wanted men in the world by 1990. I met a man who claimed to be Ersa at a ball and took her on the road of drug trafficking. Is climate change killing Australian wine? Joaquin "El Chapo" (Shorty) Guzman is the world's most wanted drug lord. Mayor Federico Gutierrez had been pushing to raze the building and erect in its place a park honoring the thousands of cartel victims, including four presidential candidates and some 500 police officers. In addition to his drug-related crimes, he also laundered money through Colombia to finance his fleets. [21] Lehder's ultimate scheme was to revolutionize the cocaine trade by transporting the drug to the United States, using small aircraft from Norman's Cay.