Do you think narcos may actually be on the 10 richest?

[paxmao]

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:

Jeff Bezos
Elon Musk
Bernard Arnault
Bill Gates
Mark Zuckerberg
Warren Buffett
Larry Ellison
Larry Page
Sergey Brin
Mukesh Ambani

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:

Dawood Ibrahim
...
He’s evaded arrest for a good part of three decades. After allegedly masterminding a series of explosions in 1993, Mumbai, Dawood Ibrahim went underground and has stayed away from public glare all these years. He started out as a small-time criminal in the ’70s and rose up the ranks till he became one of the richest drug dealers on the planet. While his estimated wealth comes nowhere close to Pablo Escobar’s estimated $25 billion in 1989, Ibrahim continues to remain alive, at large and worth well over $7 billion

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

[Lucius]

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.

[hugeblack]

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.

[Gyfts]

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.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

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.

[avikz]

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.

[ChiBitCTy]

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.

[dothebeats]

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. 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.

[batang_bitcoin]

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.

[el kaka22]

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.

[romero121]

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.

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.

[electronicash]

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.".

[perfect999]

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.

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.

[aysg76]

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

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.

[Coyster]

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?

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.

[Lucius]

Uhm, your data is not accurate.

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.

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.

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.

$25,000,000 in 1990 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $52,469,395.56 today, an increase of $27,469,395.56 over 31 years. The dollar had an average inflation rate of 2.42% per year between 1990 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 109.88%.

[so98nn]

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.

[LUCKMCFLY]

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.

[Oceat]

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.

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.

[Rufsilf]

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:

Jeff Bezos
Elon Musk
Bernard Arnault
Bill Gates
Mark Zuckerberg
Warren Buffett
Larry Ellison
Larry Page
Sergey Brin
Mukesh Ambani

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:

Dawood Ibrahim
...
He’s evaded arrest for a good part of three decades. After allegedly masterminding a series of explosions in 1993, Mumbai, Dawood Ibrahim went underground and has stayed away from public glare all these years. He started out as a small-time criminal in the ’70s and rose up the ranks till he became one of the richest drug dealers on the planet. While his estimated wealth comes nowhere close to Pablo Escobar’s estimated $25 billion in 1989, Ibrahim continues to remain alive, at large and worth well over $7 billion

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

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.