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Updated by Instant Checkmate on Mar 22, 2024
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The 18 Richest Gangsters Ever

With a bankroll of a cool mill to a couple billion, there is little these criminals won’t do for money, cars, and luxury items. Check out the list of the most wealthy gangsters of all time.

Pablo Escobar (Colombia, $30 Billion)

With a speculated wealth ranging from $9 to $30 billion, Escobar became the world’s richest criminal. He also was the world’s most dangerous: three Colombian presidential candidates, over 200 judges, dozens of journalists, over 1,000 police, and countless civil citizens died under his command.

2

Amado Carrillo Fuentes (Mexico, $25 Billion)

Amado Carrillo Fuentes (Mexico, $25 Billion)

The leader of the Juarez cartel, Fuentes was called “Lord of the Skies” because he used 22 private airliners to import cocaine from Colombia to Mexico.

3

Shinobu Tsukasa, a.k.a. Kenichi Shinoda (Japan, Multi-Billions)

Shinobu Tsukasa, a.k.a. Kenichi Shinoda (Japan, Multi-Billions)

He is the current ring leader of Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest crime syndicate in Japan’s seedy underbelly of mobsters (called yakuza). The Yakuza crime network brings in “billions of dollars” a year from drug and weapons trafficking, prostitution, and money laundering.

4

Roman Abramovich (Russia, $10.2 Billion)

Roman Abramovich (Russia, $10.2 Billion)

Roman Abramovich has made his wealth conducting illicit activity such as protection rackets, contract killings and arms dealings.

5

Semion Mogilevich (Ukraine, $10 Billion)

Semion Mogilevich (Ukraine, $10 Billion)

The supposed leader of the Russian Mafia and considered the world’s most powerful money launderer.

6

Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar (India, $6.7 Billion)

Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar (India, $6.7 Billion)

An extortionist and gold smuggler in the Mumbai who has also been implicated in terrorist networks, such as al-Qaeda.

7

Kim Jong-Un (North Korea, $5 Billion)

Kim Jong-Un (North Korea, $5 Billion)

The North Korean dictator has an estimated $5 billion net worth and a propensity for extravagant things, like parties on private islands and a 200-foot yacht.

8

Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman Loera (Mexico, $5 Billion)

Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman Loera (Mexico, $5 Billion)

Head of the Sinaloa cartel, “El Chapo” has capitalized on funneling drugs and money between Colombia, Mexico, and the U.S.

9

Khun Sa (Myanmar, $5 Billion)

Khun Sa (Myanmar, $5 Billion)

Khun Sa was lord of the heroin drug trade that encompassed Burma (now Myanmar), Laos and Thailand. He controlled an estimated 70 percent of Myanmar’s heroin business in the 1980s.

10

Carlos Lehder (Colombia, $2.7 Billion)

Carlos Lehder (Colombia, $2.7 Billion)

Using small, low-flying airplanes that could move undetected by radar to drop points in Florida and Georgia, Lehder set up a cocaine transportation empire.

11

Griselda Blanco (Colombia, $2 Billion)

Griselda Blanco (Colombia, $2 Billion)

The “Cocaine Queen of Miami” worked under Pablo Escobar’s Medellín Cartel during the ‘70s and ‘80s.

12

“Fat Tony” Salerno (U.S., over $1 Billion)

“Fat Tony” Salerno (U.S., over $1 Billion)

He’s the front man for the Genovese crime family, one of the Big 5 mob families in New York.

13

Meyer Lansky (Poland/U.S., $600 Million)

Meyer Lansky (Poland/U.S., $600 Million)

He was head of the Italian and Jewish Mafias and one of the 400 richest people in America in 1982.

14

Manuel Noriega (Panama, $300 Million)

Manuel Noriega (Panama, $300 Million)

Once in power, he served as a CIA and DEA informant while simultaneously accepting payments from Colombian drug traffickers wanting to push their cocaine through Panama and into the U.S.

15

Adams Family (UK, $200 Million)

Adams Family (UK, $200 Million)

Terry Adams is the boss of north London’s family-run syndicate, also known as the “A Team.”

16

Frank Lucas (U.S., $52 Million)

Frank Lucas (U.S., $52 Million)

Sourcing heroin directly from Khun Sa, the “King of the Golden Triangle,” he would stash the drugs into the coffins of fallen Vietnam War soldiers and fly them to the U.S.

17

John Gilligan (Ireland, Multi-Millions)

John Gilligan (Ireland, Multi-Millions)

John Gilligan is one of Ireland’s most notorious crime bosses.

18

Radovan Krejčíř (Czech Republic, $19 Million)

Radovan Krejčíř (Czech Republic, $19 Million)

The businessman turned fugitive is alleged to possess millions in undisclosed financial transactions.