20 richest in the history of criminals

If you want to be a millionaire, try not to mess with crime. For many, this is obvious. Nevertheless, many ignored this law and became indecently rich due to this. There is always a risk that someone will take your place, which is probably why criminals have so much money. Trade in things that you can never buy in a store is a huge source of income for the rich criminals of the world. Of all the criminal authorities that ever lived, we compiled a list of those who earned the most money. Remember, do not try to repeat it yourself. You will notice that there is something in common between all these people. Namely, where they ended their lives - in prison.

20. Frank Lucas ($ 52 million)

According to the biography of Frank Lucas, he is a former drug dealer. Despite the fact that the drug turnover makes a profit in millions, in prison he spent only 12 years of his life. Lucas specializes in transporting heroin to the United States and he did it the worst possible way. Contraband was hidden inside the coffins of dead American soldiers. Lucas's life was reflected in the movie "American gangster" (2007), starring Denzel Washington.

19. Jose Figueroa Agosto ($ 100 million)

Jose Agosto is a guy who really did not like dealing with the authorities. He was the largest drug dealer in Puerto Rico, for which he was arrested and sentenced to 209 years in prison. But soon he fled and appeared in the neighboring Dominican Republic.

Instead of changing his life and going to the bottom in a new country, Figueroa returned to the game with drug trafficking. He was arrested, but released, as Agosto used fake documents. In 2009, another arrest followed. In 2010, Agosto was again caught, and he even tried to escape. His condition - $ 100 million - the criminal hid in cash in a separate place, which he refused to call the police. So if you find it's all yours! But you must share your find with the feds.

18. George Young ($ 100 million)

George Young is from Boston, Massachusetts, for which he received his not very creative pseudonym Boston George. In the 1980s, Young was a man who transported almost all cocaine to the shores of America. In 1984, he was arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prison, but only in June 2014 he was released.

Probably, in order to mitigate the blow from the time spent in prison, a biographical film about the life of the criminal was made. Most people were delighted when they saw that the main role in the film will be played by Johnny Depp. But since Young was locked at the time of the release of the film, he could not enjoy his fame.

17. Nicky Barnes ($ 105 million)

Nicky Barnes had a much better nickname, compared to Yang - Mr. Inviolable. Now he is 81 years old, and he is still alive. Barnes started with the fact that he began to use heroin. After the young Barnes was imprisoned for heroin use, he abandoned the addiction, but got into the drug business instead. Probably, on the sale of drugs you can earn much more money than buying them for yourself.

Barnes earned a lot of money, and he managed to avoid the police for a long time. Mainly because many policemen worked for him. Claiming that he was untouchable, he so angered Jimmy Carter that the president himself had signed a decree on his arrest. So Barnes received a life sentence. But he still came out in 1998 and although he quit the drug business, he began to make money telling his story. Imagine what it was necessary to do, so that the president personally signed a warrant for your arrest?

16. Pavel Lear Alexander (170 million)

Alexander, or El Loco Parito, as everyone called him, was a businessman. Controlling the supply of cocaine in the US, he at the same time helped the federal government to arrest other smugglers, pretending to be a law-abiding citizen. He accumulated fortune, being the only smuggler in the city, and soon moved to the US from Brazil.

In America, he was caught, and Alexander had to spend 12 years in prison. Then he was sent back to Brazil, where he was sentenced to 42 years in prison. He could leave in 2011, but he managed to escape. The police still can not find him.

15. Zhenli Ye Gong (300 million)

His story is quite interesting. Instead of selling drugs on the street, he worked for a pharmaceutical company in Mexico, where he supplied pseudoephedrine from China. After he earned a lot of money, he began to live in Mexico, and now is a member of the Sinaloa cartel.

Its assets in the US reach $ 200 million. He also has income from Mexico, Europe and Hong Kong. Most can become rich even in one country, not to mention four.

14. Joseph Kennedy (400 million)

Joseph Kennedy, the father of President John F. Kennedy, was an ambassador to the UK during his career. However, this was not the main source of his income. He was born into a wealthy family, but in the era of the ban, he smuggled alcohol. However, this has not been confirmed officially. The money he received from bootlegging, he invested in real estate. All this together helped him become a really rich politician.

13. Ricky Ross (600 million)

Do not confuse him with a famous rapper, even if they look like. Ricky Ross earned millions on cocaine smuggling in Los Angeles in the 1980s, when he was widely circulated. He was arrested in 1996 during a special operation, when the feds purchased more than 90 kilograms of drugs from him. But Ricky Ross's term was reduced, and he was released in 2009. In June 2014, he issued a book with a history of his life, and sued the above-mentioned rapper for using his name.

12. Rafael Quintero Caro (650 million)

He created a cartel of Guadalajara in Mexico and, together with his brother, made it a family business. Not quite a normal start-up to date, but they were able to earn a lot of money. Karo is on the wanted list for the numerous murders of both the members of the cartel and the federal agent and pilot.

Quintero was sentenced to 40 years in prison for murder (but not for drug trafficking) in 1985, but in 2013 he was released from the prison of Costa Rica. In the US and Mexico, federal services are still welcome to meet with him, he is now at large.

11. Joaquin Guzman Loera (1 billion)

In 2009, Forbes magazine named Guzman Loera one of the most powerful people in the modern world. He was the head of the famous cartel "Sinaloa" in Mexico, and since 2003 was the best in the business of drug trafficking.

Loera was arrested in 1993, but used his enormous wealth to bribe the guards of the prison in Guatemala. He escaped in 2001. Mexico and the United States offered a significant award for his arrest. After 13 years of searching, the Mexican government was able to find him in February 2014. He surrendered peacefully, which is quite a rare occurrence for people from this list.

10. Al Capone (1.3 billion)

Al Capone is perhaps the most famous gangster in the history of the United States. In his youth, he moved from New York to Chicago to become a security guard for smugglers who were involved in the supply of alcohol at the time of the ban. In those days, evidence against him was very difficult to find. Nevertheless, the US government was able to arrest him, but only on charges of tax evasion. For these crimes, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison, but served only 8. He died just a few years later, when he suffered a stroke. Given his way of life, it was only a matter of time.

9. Griselda Blanco (2 billion)

She is the only woman on this list. Griselda became one of the leaders of the Medellin cartel in Colombia, and also had shops in Miami. Every year under its control in the United States came a huge amount of cocaine. Her hard ways of working brought her the nickname of the Black Widow. Blanco's relationship with the cartel almost stopped when she joined the Ochoa family. For a long time she was on the run, but in 2012 she was found a drug dealer, she was shot during a shootout on the road.

8. Carlos Leder (2.7 billion)

He is one of the founding members of the Medellin cartel in Colombia. Like many people on this list, he received cocaine in South Florida and distributed it throughout the country. At a young age, he was arrested for stealing a car in Connecticut, where he met George Young.

After liberation, Leder and Young sold enough cocaine to buy a stolen plane. It was on this Leder earned his money, but fell into the hands of federal agents. He is still serving his term in prison for illegal smuggling.

7. The brothers Rodriguez Orejuela (3 billion)

Gilbert and Michel Orejuela, together with another partner, created their own cartel, known as the "Cali", to prove that entrepreneurship is common even in the world of drug trafficking. They started with the smuggling of marijuana, but soon switched to cocaine. They were responsible for virtually all production in the United States and Europe.

The brothers were arrested in June 1995, during a raid by the Colombian police. It was possible to collect a lot of evidence, so that the brothers were sentenced to imprisonment. Within six months (2002-2003) they were released, but soon again arrested. Currently, Orejuela brothers are in the US prison.

6. Jose Rodriguez Gonzalo (5 billion)

Gonzalo was also a member of the Medellin cartel. There he managed to make so much money that in 1988, Forbes was forced to call him one of the richest people in the world. After President Bush's order to punish money laundering, Gonzalo was forced to hide his income. He was also the organizer of the murder of more than two dozen people. During the arrest, the people of Gonzalo staged a shootout, which resulted in the death of his son. Gonzalo killed himself, pressing a grenade to his face. Despite many enemies, thousands of people came to his funeral.

5. Hung Sa (5 billion)

Hung Sa was not only engaged in drugs, but also very profitable arms smuggling. Even at a young age, he studied fighting and organized his army during the Civil War in China. She quickly grew up and began to engage in smuggling weapons and opium.

Hun Sa was able to increase his supply of opium to New York from 5 to 90%. He also offered to sell his opium fields in Australia for $ 400 million, although they refused to do so. The US government demanded the extradition of Hung Sa, but the government of Burma did not do so. His last years he spent there.

4. Ochoa brothers (6 billion)

The brothers Jorge Luis, Juan David and Fabio Ochoa were also members of the Medellin cartel. They started very modestly, from their own restaurant and animal farm. However, they were not as profitable as the drug business. Like many Colombians on this list, they encountered difficulties in the 1980s, when the new government leader said he wanted to start detaining criminals and handing them over to the court. The brothers went to a deal to confess guilt, thereby reducing their length of stay in prison. Now they are at large.

3. Daud Ibrahim Kaskar (6.7 billion)

He is not from Colombia or China, but he still managed to earn millions through organized crime. He took part in the financing of terrorist organizations, the sale of weapons and drugs. His al-Qaida affiliation attracted the attention of the United States, who called on the UN to freeze his accounts. Since then, Ibrahim is wanted in both the US and India.

2. Amado Carrillo Fuentes (25 billion)

Amado began his journey to the top, killing the boss of the cartel Juarez, of which he was a member. So he became his leader. With the help of two dozen aircraft, he supplied cocaine to Mexico from Colombia, which helped to increase his own capital.

To avoid accusations from the US and Mexico, Fuentes changed his appearance with the help of a plastic surgery. Some believe that Fuentes's bodyguards killed his surgeons while he was on the operation, and then himself. But for sure it is not known to this day.

1. Pablo Escobar (30 billion)

This list is headed by the most famous drug lord, a man who has many names, but remains known under his own - Pablo Escobar. He was the head of the Medellin cartel and dealt exclusively with the drug business. Every day Escobar's men supplied cocaine worth $ 500 million to the US.

Even though Escobar was a famous drug baron, he was elected a member of the Liberal Party in his native Colombia. He was so charismatic personality that many ordinary people loved him. But the US government and Colombia do not share this opinion. He was accused of drug smuggling, murder, bombing, bribery, money laundering, corruption. This brought him millions of income, but led to the fact that in 1993, during a shootout with the forces of the Colombian government, he was killed.