Sunday, March 27, 2011

Most Powerful Drug Lords

We have all heard of wealthy businessmen like Bill Gates – but there is also an underworld of incredibly rich and powerful men who control much of the international trade in drugs. Their many successes makes one wonder whether there is any point in having a “war” on drugs – it seems to not be helping a great deal. This list looks at ten of the most powerful drug lords in modern history.

10
Zhenli Ye Gon
Zhenli Ye Gon280X390
Zhenli Ye Gon born January 31, 1963, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China) is a Mexican businessman of Chinese origin accused of trafficking pseudoephedrine into Mexico from Asia. He is the legal representative of Unimed Pharm Chem México. He is claimed to be tied with the Sinaloa Cartel. He became a citizen of Mexico in 2002. Two Mexican Federal agents who were involved in the arrests at the Zhenli Ye Gon mansion were found dead in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero, as reported on August 2, 2007. It has since risen to $350 million and a lot of his fortune found its way to Las Vegas. On the Strip, he was known as Mr. Ye, the highest of high rollers. He stayed primarily at the The Venetian (Las Vegas) where he regularly wagered $200,000 per hand in the baccarat salon. He lost big. The original estimate by DEA was $40 million in losses. They now think it was closer to $126 million — an astonishing sum. When authorities raided his home in Mexico they found $200 million in cold hard cash a photo of which can be seen here.

9
Frank Lucas
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Frank Lucas is a former heroin dealer and organized crime boss who operated in Harlem during the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was particularly known for cutting out middlemen in the drug trade and buying heroin directly from his source in the Golden Triangle. Lucas boasted that he smuggled heroin using the coffins of dead American servicemen, but this claim is denied by his South Asian associate, Leslie “Ike” Atkinson. His career was dramatized in the 2007 feature film American Gangster.

8
Klaas Bruinsma
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Klaas Bruinsma was a major Dutch drug lord, shot to death by mafia member and former police officer Martin Hoogland. He was known as “De Lange” (“the tall one”) and also as “De Dominee” (“the minister”) because of his black clothing and his habit of lecturing others. On October 2, 2003, a former bodyguard of Bruinsma, Charlie da Silva, declared in the television show of Peter R. de Vries, that Mabel Wisse Smit had been a very close friend of Bruinsma’s, and had been a regular guest on his yacht during the nights. Wisse Smit, who at that point was engaged to Prince Friso, had told prime-minister Jan Peter Balkenende and Queen Beatrix that she had only been vaguely acquainted with Bruinsma. Because of this incident, the Dutch government decided not to request permission of parliament for the marriage, causing Prince Friso to lose his claim to the Dutch throne after his marriage to Wisse Smit.

7
Ismael Zambada García
Ismael Zambada G
Zambada is hardly a household name, yet he has become the most wanted drug smuggler in Mexico,and is expected to be added soon to the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and DEA most wanted list, U.S. and Mexico drug agents told AP. Mexico’s top anti-drug prosecutor, José Santiago Vasconcelos, called Zambada “drug dealer No. 1″ and said the fugitive has become more powerful as his fellow kingpins have fallen, including one who was allegedly killed on Zambada’s orders.

6
Manuel Noriega
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For more than a decade, Panamanian Manuel Noriega was a highly paid CIA asset and collaborator, despite knowledge by U.S. drug authorities as early as 1971 that the general was heavily involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. Noriega facilitated “guns-for-drugs” flights for the contras, providing protection and pilots, as well as safe havens for drug cartel officials, and discreet banking facilities.


Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria
Pablo
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was the most notorious and violent drug lord of the Medellín Cartel. Escobar was killed by the Search Bloc, a group of Colombian police devoted to capturing Escobar, on a Colombian rooftop in 1993; by this time, the cartel had already been severely damaged. However, there would be no rest. After Escobar’s death, the Medellín Cartel fragmented and the cocaine market soon became dominated by the rival Cali Cartel, until the mid-1990s when its leaders, too, were either killed or captured by the government.

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