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The world likes lists, it kind of creates a framework for competition to be included. One of those is the list of richest in the world, recently:



https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/012715/5-richest-people-world.asp (https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/012715/5-richest-people-world.asp)

But now, some unofficial figures for less public people are worth a second thought. For example:


25B in 1989 would make Pablo one of the richest persons on earth. By comparison, today's most notorious narcos are not making the cut. It seems like "the business" has become more complicated than before.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/el-chapo-12-richest-drug-214253459.html (https://finance.yahoo.com/news/el-chapo-12-richest-drug-214253459.html)

Narcotics are still sold as they were 30 years ago, only the distribution of the money from the earnings is divided into many more parts than before - so that the drug at the source has become even cheaper, and at the final destination many times more expensive than in the past. The golden age of Escobar and the Medellin cartel has not existed for a long time, and I doubt that drug lords can be measured today in wealth with the people you listed.

The poorest on the top 10 list has Net Worth: $84.5 billion, and I doubt that any of the drug dealers can side with him - and even if he could, we wouldn’t see him on the official list of the world’s richest people because selling narcotics isn’t something to be promoted as a successful business.

The people on this list are categorizing their wealth based on the analysis of the stock market, assets, and others, and it may not be accurate, in fact, unlike the United States and some countries, many countries do not have an accurate mechanism to track the wealth of individuals, especially in corrupt regimes that resentment over raw resources that can be managed in a controlled manner. Countries.
There are those who have gold mines, others for oil, and other leaders who have an alliance that may directly or indirectly control wealth higher than the people on this list.

Therefore, the classification of this list is based on those who issued it, but it does not represent the truth.

Escabar had something like 30 billion dollars attributed to him before he died - and a lot of it was liquid cash.  They're a lot more wealthy than most people would expect and they exist mostly as cash so no one can opine on their true net worth without any significant accuracy. I wondered how the narcos would adopt crypto currency to tuck away their funds, it'd be easy to evade federal law enforcement and launder their money away so I'd assume they'd dabble in whatever crypto they could get their hands on.

Those mainstream media stories about the richest people in the world don't tend to mention people who've attained their wealth through criminal activities, do they?  And yeah, paxmao, I think if that kind of reporting didn't sanitize those articles I'm pretty sure there would be a lot of Mexican cartel bosses included on the lists.  I'm not exactly sure how big the illicit drug market is (particularly cocaine and heroin), but my guess is that it's made a lot of people extremely rich.  Probably not on the level of Elon Musk or Warren Buffett, but who knows?

I'd say if there was a list made which was based off of complete information about exactly how much each person is worth, the top 10 wealthiest individuals would include at least one of those narco trafficers.

Quite possible! But since their actual income and networth is not known to public or sometimes even the enforcement agencies, criminals to do make it to the top 10 list. But it is very much possible that these criminals hold unaccounted amount of wealth which can make them one of the top 10 richest human alive. But it is good to keep these criminals out of such lists so that their names do not get publicized and create an impact on the human mind.

There is no chance that any Narco could make the top richest list anymore.  I am certainly very aware of Pablo Escobar and how rich he was.  He was the riches drug dealer of all time (Chapo was not even close) and will remain the richest drug dealer ever, no questions asked.  So no, it would be way too difficult for a narco to amass that sort of wealth that these mega rich tycoons have.

Possible, given that narcos don't really care about declaring their wealth at all, and they are avoiding publicity at all costs as it can potentially dismantle their operations, thus thwarting their moves and risking their freedom. The money involved in illicit drugs around the world is quite huge, with some estimates putting it at $360 billion around the world (https://www.worldometers.info/drugs/). Not to mention that there are also the infrastructures, lands, and other such assets entailed with illicit drugs, which can easily bump that numbers up. Perhaps some narcos may be in the top 100 rich list, but I don't think one can ever come close to the top 10 of today.

I've actually watched the series and it's said that Pablo has been declared the richest during his time. And for the current generation, we just don't know how much these narcos have made because it seems that they've became quiet about wealth but they've never stopped their operation. Do not forget about El Chapo, he's likely the new Pablo of this generation based from the videos that I've watched. But with such list, these narcos don't really mind if they're part of it.

I would say that it was a lot possible back in the day, but I doubt it is possible right now. Not because Narcos could not make a lot of money, they could make a ton of money and it is obvious that we could see people end up making billions upon billions on drugs. However the top 10 rich people are now at 100+ billion level, and that is not something that many people can achieve, it is amount of money that is definitely not drug lord level, drug people could reach to maybe 10 or even 20 billion but by the time they reach those levels they get caught eventually.

The reason for this is not because they are dealing with drugs, it is because nobody in the world could devalue dollar like a drug lord and that pisses USA off and that's why they are caught and punished, not because of drug but because of money. This is why I doubt Narcos could ever crack into top 10 ever again.

Myself too have the same thought. Based on the Google search engine data Pablo Escobar networth was about $30 billion when he died. Based on present day it is calculated to be $64 billion. He can be said as the richest among the drug traffickers. Even the last on the list mukesh Ambani's networth is about $100 billion in present day valuation. So these drug traffickers into the top 10 richest list won't happen.

Maybe if Pablo Escobar was alive, this calculation might've changed because there happens diversification of investment and earning. What he had earned is only through drugs, if he had got multiple businesses the valuation surely differs on the positive/negative note.

as seen on movies they keep their money in a safe places. it could be exageratted though.
pablo is somewhat a robinhood who steals from the rich and givss to the poor, he must have more.

HSBC had been very involved about dirty money of these cartels which they launder for them. if any institutions qualified to check whose richer it should be them that will make the list of " 10 worlds richest druglords.".

Uhm, your data is not accurate. On the top ten list of the world’s richest people, then lowest on the top ten list is worth over $100 billion ($102.1 billion to be precise), and that’s MukeshAmbani. There’s a list on Forbes where it is being updated on a daily basis, and the top on the list is Elon Musk with a net worth that is around $219 billion. If you’re to include the two people that the op has mentioned (Pablo Escobar and Dawood Ibrahim) they would be nowhere close to the top fifty on the list, because the top fifty on world’s richest people according to Forbes is worth over $30 billion.

So, Escobar with his $25 billion wouldn’t be on the top fifty and Ibrahim is far off, lol. With that said, Criminals remains criminals and it isn’t something to be proud of and they shouldn’t be on any list, because those are stolen money and not something they worked for.

The official list people want is of some renowned personalities who have attained this networth with their hard work or say have ancestoral properties inherited in legit area of work like real estate, liquor, business and many more but they don't include any criminals over the list because it's not justified.The race to become rich is right and top the forbes list but not the other way because they are some kind of role models for the normal citizens and they cannot portray a bad one on the charts.Suppose i want to be richest person on list but that doesn't mean i choose wrong way and enter the criminal world.

There are many gangs and drug cartels who have undisclosed amount of money lying in lockers and spread over various places and in billions but they can't show it and Forbes also estimate that with their spread over business and drugs confiscated as they are not filing for income tax returns.You have said about Dawood Ibrahim and he is still wanted criminal in Mumbai Blast cases and has networth and you can also see his tall building in Dubai with his 'D' mark on that.There are some others also like El chapo was billionaire in 2009 with $3 billion networth and ranked up as influential drug lord and now still Sinaloa cartel is responsible for 25% of drugs deal in Mexico and have billion dollar worth of revenue per year.

 Richest Drug dealers in world (https://www.google.com/amp/s/finance.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/el-chapo-12-richest-drug-214253459.html)

But you see this is unofficial and they have more cash than these richest person as you have seen in movies but you can't have a full fledged list for them as they have gained it all with illicit crimes like murders, burglary and drug dealing which makes people suffer.So we don't need a list for them.

AFAIK they do not, they do not also include individuals who have made their wealth through inheritance, that's the reason why despite the fact we know there are many Billionaire princes and Kings from the Arab world, you hardly ever find their names on the list of richest people cause their wealth is to a large extent inherited.

Having said that, it's just basically the same thing with quite a lot of politicians especially in Africa who have embezzled a lot of money, but they are never included as part of the richest individuals in their respective countries/continent because they conceal such wealth as it's illegal/stolen. There are many rich people in the world, possibly even one or two that would compare with the richest people we know on paper, but we'll never get to know them because of the source/manner of the wealth.

The data is from a link posted in the OP, but that doesn't change things too much - 20 billion in the world of billionaires is not something that plays a big role.


You didn’t take into account that that $25 billion would be worth twice as much today, so technically Escobar would surely be among the top 100 richest people in the world today. And as for the fact that criminals did not earn it, I would not agree - because although it is a job that is considered a crime, there is a lot of work from production to the moment when the product reaches the final consumer.

Only if illegal money is to be calculated then sure the should end up in the top 10 list. However, this also makes me think there are arms and weapons dealers, gold smugglers, money launderer who could be actually having great amount of money and assets with them.

So this comparison actually looks vague with some facts like above. I think there is no point in comparing illegal income sources with the one in the OP list. The later is genuine with products and services being run for the benefit of good human use.

By that fact, his not even on the list.

This reminds me of Colombian characters, like Pablo Escobar and the occasional politician from Venezuela, which, if I think they are on the list of the world's most millionaires and that they are probably involved in BTC. Many who are actually narcos and their names do not appear on a list, but due to their growing economic development they cannot hide the money in the big banks, nor in Switzerland, so the best thing for them would be BTC, in fact in Venezuela the activity mining is regulated by the government, which means they are probably very into it. In the case of Warren Buffet and some illustrious people shown on the list, since they have amassed their wealth from years ago, I would think that these people have worked hard to obtain what they have, at least Warren Buffet's books are very demonstrative.

I think there's a fine line between legal, illegal and inherited or even stolen money that's why some of them never gets on the list. I think we know the reasons why those illegal money aren't listed since every name pops-up is a bust already. And I believe this is common among other politicians who did something dirty in order to earn some money IYKWIM but the only difference is they were doing it in front of the people.

I guess they'll just report who are on the top of the list if this is legal earned money only.

The stated list of todays Top 10 richest in the world were the ones that have accumulated their wealth in terms of doing legitimate and legal business, acquiring assets and investments to make profits. In short, from clean and legal money.
And if Narcos were to be compared by the top 10 richest nowadays, for sure Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates would be placed in the 7th or 8th on the list of the richest in the world.
Narcotics especially cocaine and marijuana were introduced in the USA way back 1980s and were supplied by the famous Medellin Cartel (Pablo Escobar), Sinaloa Cartel (El Chapo), and the Cali Cartel (Rodriguez Brothers). Assuming that they're still around these days and given the price of the illegal substance, pretty much these guys are entitled to be the richest in the world.

I doubt any of these super rich people would really care about someone with illicit money having control of much larger amounts than them. Often you'll find these drug lords are in fact rich on paper only - they'll likely be confined to a tiny area of their country because they are hunted by so many law enforcement agencies and rivals. On top of that the money had to be laundered very well, will often get lost in all sorts of dodgy schemes and they will be lucky to make cents on the dollar for drug money that needs to be cleaned. Even when they do clean it, it can still be hard to retain control because if their bank accounts are ever exposed (we've seen several leaks in the last few years) it will be quickly seized.

Narcs are still selling like hotcakes, so I wouldn't really be surprised if these criminals make it up to the top of the ladder and would dare not say they don't deserve it, because it takes a lot of skill in order to climb that which I have to give to them despite the fact that they are literally breaking hundreds of laws and are ruining millions of people's lives in the process. The thing with these criminals is they make a vast network of connections that will keep them scot-free from the law and their rivals. Pablo's supposedly dead already but I wouldn't be surprised if his relatives are into bitcoin, especially if they are still into that kind of business which definitely needs some sort of security and safety against the law. not saying Bitcoin is best for criminals, but is just convenient for most people that they saw into it and had made use of such convenience and security as well. I hope the law makes them pay in the process still but until then, we can only hope and pray.

Top 10? I don't think so. The top 10 richest people on this list are decided based on their disclosed assets, but they might have many undisclosed assets making them wealthier than they seem in my opinion.

The pandemic made it more difficult for people around the world to access narcotics which directly led to a blow to the businesses of mafia leaders based on my research.

However, there are some people in this world who aren't popular and just disclose a small part of their assets who could probably compete with the top 10 on this list.

I think it's still make money for those drug barons, but I don't support money from selling narcotics, although narcotics are of high demand, because of the quick addiction and ecstasys in gives to those using it, but my thoughts on the drop from how wealth drug dealers where and now are of key points
+ Tighter security network on drug control now than then: back then drug dealers had it easier dealing narcotics and their other products than now.
+ Many fractions of dealer, local and big Time increasing competition and reducing profit allocation to a/few particular drug dealers
+ More equipped rehabilitation centers and programs to help addicts

you have valid point on that. the list is for those who disclosed their assets or wealth. but more then likely, a lot are also enjoying their riches without the public knowledge and they don't need any recognition for some personal reasons (maybe to avoid govt chasing after them or the money is acquired by illegal means), but such list for me is just a show to the public. we will never know the truth when it comes to their actual wealth. so probably some narcos can make the cut, however, who knows their actual personal wealth?

The funny thing about the calculation of wealth of criminals is that they are not accurate. I read about the case of Pablo Escobar and he was regarded as a savior in his home country as he used to help the poor which means he is redistributing his wealth and no one knows exactly where he invested and stacked his money globally  ;D.

When it comes to Dawood Ibrahim, it is true he started out as a petty criminal and then grew when the Indian economy started growing in the early 90s. He is having many real estate companies globally run by his Benami partners and he is having multiple business ventures in the UAE and he is still running his business even though his current location is unknown and there is no way to access and calculate his entire wealth.

What we are forgetting is the dictators. Sure narcos are probably rich, but the super wealthy people of the world are the dictators. You think china dictator (the one that looks like winnie the pooh) doesn't dwarve all these wealth? That dude basically "owns" china, he could basically do whatever he wants, what do we base wealth on? I mean sure Elon is rich, but is he rich enough to control an entire 1+ billion people nation however he pleases level? Of course not.

Look at North Korea, look at Saudi Arabia. All those people at the top are so rich that just those three, in "theoretical" richness, probably richer than the richest 1000 people alive right now, combined. They are worth trillions upon trillions of dollars. The only difference is that we do not have data that can back that up, it is a psychological wealth since they do not actually need money, they want something and they get it, end of story for them.

Escobar has really struck the proverbial gold mine in the last 70's to early 80's and there's not much competition that time and that's why he has a total monopoly of drugs around the globe. But it has change in the late 90's to up to know. But still they are raking in billions.

That thing with this mafia or cartel is that we really don't know how much value they really have, and it could rivaled the worlds riches. But it's just the question of morality whether we need to include them on the list or not.

Interesting question, I find all narcos stories fascinating, if it is Pablo escobar from the past, the Mafia or Guzman from Mexico. They all made billions from transporting, distributing, and selling drugs. Unfortunately there is no real way of tracking their wealth. Which criminal would make it public how much money he has in hiding. The only way we have is by the court and media when criminals are getting caught and put on trial. Would be crazy if you could earn still earn billions from drugs and be under the top 10 richest people alive in today's time. I am not an expert on drugs but I know that in my country there was a huge epidemic in the 80s and 90s. Hundreds of people where doing Heroin and other hard drugs in the parks in the city center. Today if you go there you see almost no drug users anymore. It might be more hidden in today's time or there is a lower number of drug users. I would expect that we have more people now doing Marihuana than in the past but less people doing hard drugs.

I expect that this list is inaccurate, because most of the rich money men have secret activities that no one knows about. The institutions that track the wealth of the rich depend on what is recorded in banks and real estate as well as in government institutions, but what is not recorded may be much more than that , There are those who like to maintain their privacy and do not reveal all their wealth in addition to they like to evade taxes, so I think that all these lists are inaccurate.
At the present time, with the spread of Crypto around the world, the situation is becoming more and more complicated, as maintaining privacy has become an essential feature, so you can hide a great wealth in Crypto without anyone knowing about it.

Many rich people prefer to be silent without revealing their wealth, usually news about rich people is from the amount of tax they pay, I often hear that Pablo Escobar has a lot of assets from property to stocks, and maybe he is in the top 10 richest people in the world.

What does it help you, if you are $7 billion strong, but you cannot officially announce it and you have to stay in hiding the whole time.  ::)  You are basically a prisoner to your wealth and you can only spend that on trivial things. (Buy any assets in your name and you are f$#%ed)

He also has to use that money to bribe government officials and to pay people to harm or kill others... what life is that? The only people that admire him are the criminals that benefit from his crimes and their family and friend. We live free with the little amount of money that we have and that freedom is priceless.  ;)

It's not just complicated but people are using everything that they can to get better options to sell them at parties it anything. I was so shocked to see a normal vape site in the UK selling *weed vapes* which is illegal and the only method you can use to pay was *bitcoins* thus I didn't only find it shocking but it could also give bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies a negative opinion.

Also people are now a days using Instagram, Facebook to message teens and young adults about their services, which I personally find really appalling. But they are definately making tons of money using that, I do think if we didn't take the legality in the account then the drug lord might be considered one of the world's richest, but that won't be a good thing to start with.

Yes, in fact they captured a drug trafficker days ago, the one who is considered after Pablo Escobar, the so-called "OTONIEL" and at the time of his capture he looked normal, he was not scared, in fact he was laughing, some say he was let the DEA capture intentionally, the motives? only they know it, but such easy captures are very rare.

In fact, yes, Pablo Escobar was killed by the DEA, these days I have been watching the Pablo Escobar series on Netflix, and the intelligence that these beings develop is really well illustrative, the way in which local and international authorities always mock.

The richest people that are listed are the ones that are publicly known and own companies that are worth billions of dollars, but i am sure that there are ones out there who are operating from the shadows in the drug trafficking business that have billions of dollars.
https://www.statista.com/chart/18527/cocaine-retail-steet-prices-in-selected-countries/ (https://www.statista.com/chart/18527/cocaine-retail-steet-prices-in-selected-countries/)
one gram of coke is worth at least 60$ so imagine how much they will be making since every year tons and tons of drugs get smuggled from all over the world, these guys earning so much profit they don't even know what to do with it and even though it is divided still they would probably have a place in the list of the richest people if they were to be considered.

Being a criminal and a gangster isn’t something that one should be proud of. Even if the narcos that you are talking about owns billions of dollars that will make them richer than Elon Musk today, they still won’t be recognized as the world richest man. And another thing you should know that these criminals tends to keep whatever they have a secret.

A criminal wouldn’t like the public to know how much they have and how they got it, because if people should find out then it’s going to make law enforcement agencies to come after them. Because the government are going to question them their source of income, and when they are not able to prove that source of income then it’s going to become a problem for them.

I think they are not richer because part of their fortune is used to pay the corrupt.
In any economic, political or social area, even judicial, the real richest narcos they are hidden, if someone receive bribes as a result of drugs they are narcos too, these narcos famous are just the tip of the profits (iceberg).

And here we are... "The richest people that are listed are the ones that are publicly known and own companies that are worth billions of dollars"! So basically they don't have a lot of money, their money is "locked" in companies, dividends, stocks, banks... while narcos are working with cash, dirty cash, and it's hard for them to wash it and make it legal, so they literally don't know what to do with the money! Do you remember about Escobar, people still search for "cash" he buried everywhere around!


I guess now they make even more money... :)

I believe the majority of them will remain silent out of concern for their family's safety and that of their relatives. However, I believe that wealth is much more difficult to conceal now that there are so many eyes on you and that everyone should declare their assets. In reference to Pablo Escobar. He is a very well-known individual, but his wealth is derived from illegal activities, which they excluded him from because they were illegal, and he does not deserve to be excluded from top riches because they are not good.

If it is true then I am really glad about that. But unfortunately, what I am hearing is, corrupted politicians and businessmen are more richer than what we do see in mainstream media. We need to account the level of smartness has been developed across all human beings and level of possible corruption happens with authorities who are supposed to be making those business complicated.

For some reasons, the real earnings of drug dealers are not coming to limelight. One probable reason must be "setting up wrong example to new generations". Hence, I am not reedy to agree that notorious people are not equally growing up in this modern era by considering the rate of illegal activities at every part of this world.

The world continues to evolve still and with this evolution comes a more crooked ways of generating money and also hiding it to elude the eyes of authorities and investigations. Little wonder why the Narcos of the old in the likes of Pablo Escobar buried quite a huge aspect of his earnings as in cash to reduce the attention and keep people away from asking questions.
Narcotics and Narcos are still in business and the patronage is forever high still, so do the money but, it can be publicly displayed and as such, there is a possibility of having parts of there funds and assets hidden under legitimate businesses and business figures. So, there is a possibility that, should they not list in the list of the world richest persons, there wealth could help elevate another.

They could. We all know how big the drug market is which is happening in the black market and these distributors specially those at the top could have billions of dollars. If they can pay politicians, generals and heads of departments then its safe to say that they have monies to spend for that. They don't even pay for taxes by that and that makes them more wealthier.

I think Escobar's fortune was much higher, but due to his decline in his last year of life, the problem with the Colombian government that triggered many of the Medellin Cartel leaving him alone and did not support him financially because he was killing to almost all his friends, this caused him to have stolen from his own friends, so when he died the lands, goods and everything he had had to be distributed so that they would let his family live, in fact now one of the bosses and The biggest drug traffickers in history is not OTONIEL, (who recently caught) for me they are in Venezuela, since the same government is the punisher for drug trafficking, and the government entities that have many front men have so much money, and Venezuela is exploited every minute in gold and precious stones, so it is incalculable for me now to say who is the most millionaire of all.

Pablo Escobar's eyes was set to only one competitor until he died and it was the Cali Cartel owned by Rodriguez brothers. This cartel was his only opponent and rival Pablo's Medellin Cartel in Colombia, Central America and South America.
There's also this Japanese Mafia, an organized gang who owns many legal and illegal businesses but yes cartels and mafiasc can't be in the worlds richest list due to morality and undeclared assets that's no one can fathom and estimate their assets.