The 10 Richest Drug Cartels in History

The drug trade is an illegal business with enormous profits. Drug cartel bosses can amass fantastic wealth.

Over the past few decades, their wealth has been equivalent to half the gross domestic product (GDP) of a country.

Based on data from worthly.com, here are the 10 wealthiest drug cartel kingpins in history:

1. Pablo Escobar – US$30 billion (Rp430.14 trillion)
2. Amado Carrillo Fuentes – US$25 billion (Rp358.4 trillion)
3. Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar – US$6.7 billion (Rp96.06 trillion)
4. The Ochoa Brothers – US$6 billion (Rp86.02 trillion)
5. Khun Sa – US$5 billion (Rp71.69 trillion)
6. Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha – US$5 billion (Rp71.69 trillion)
7. Gilberto and Miguel Orejuela – US$3 billion (Rp43.01 trillion)
8. Carlos Lehder – US$2.7 billion (Rp38.7 trillion)
9. Griselda Blanco – US$2 billion (Rp28.67 trillion)
10. Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera – US$1 billion (Rp14.34 trillion)

Pablo Escobar tops the list as the legendary and wealthiest drug cartel kingpin in human history, with a net worth of US$30 billion (Rp430.14 trillion). He was one of the founders of the Medellín Cartel in Colombia, along with several other cartel bosses in the region.

At the height of his power, this Colombian criminal mastermind raked in millions of US dollars every week thanks to his ability to flood the lucrative US market with cocaine. Escobar's reign ended when he was shot dead in a shootout during an attempt to arrest him in December 1993.

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