The Richest Gangsters in the History of All Time
Criminals have been existing and amassing riches all over the world since the beginning of time. These individual's entire lives were filled with run-ins with the law and that never seemed to bother them. Today we are counting down on the gangsters who amassed their riches through sheer menace, and cunning. Before starting, it's important to note that the exact net worth of the gangsters on our list today is hard to determine, however, we have scoured to get an estimate. Let's begin...
1. Pablo Escobar – $30 Billion
Perhaps the most famous on the list and the most notorious in the lot. Pablo Escobar ran the Medellin Cartel, which raked in billions. Pablo's money bought him power and he dreamt of becoming the president of the United States of America. In 1993, he was killed by Colombian forces with U.S. assistance after he escaped from a prison in Colombia. The world tuned in to watch his life story when Netflix released a docu-drama called "Narcos". At the time of his death, Escobar was worth an astounding $30 billion.
2. Amado Carrillo Fuentes – $25 Billion
The head of the Mexican Juarez Cartel. He was known as the "Lord of The Skies" because of the fleet of planes he had. Carrillo used the fleet to import cocaine from Colombia to Mexico. People knew him for his ability to traffic drugs. He died while getting plastic surgery in 1997. He was one of the most powerful drug lords in the 1980s and 1990s and his net worth was somewhere around $25 billion at the time of his passing.
3. Semion Mogilevich – $10 Billion
He was blamed for murdering more than 400 individuals and was associated with crimes like drug dealing, prostitution, and, weapons dealing. Presently, Mogilevich resides in Moscow and is considered as the manager of the bosses of the Mafia in Russia. The outlaw is said to have ties with the current Russian president as well as with former U.S. President Donald Trump. His Net Worth is estimated to be somewhere around $10 billion as of 2023.
4. Dawood Ibrahim – $6.7 Billion
The company led by Ibrahim is classified as both a drug cartel as well as a terrorist organization. Dawood was the mastermind behind the 1993 Mumbai bombing in India that killed more than 257 people and injured 713. He has been a wanted person ever since and the Indian Government has a reward of $25 million. His location is still unknown and he has reportedly joined Al-Qaeda. Dawood Ibrahim's net worth is around $6.7 billion.
5. Leona Roberts Helmsley – $5 billion
Leona Roberts Helmsley was one of the richest criminals in the world. The businesswoman from the United States is often dubbed the "Queen of Mean" and was worth a whopping $5 billion. She was found guilty of three counts of tax evasion along with other crimes. She died on the 20th of August 2007 at the age of 87. The judge in 1989 deemed her a "product of naked greed" as she was convicted of evading taxes.
6. Carlos Lehder – $2.7 Billion
Lehder was one of the founders of the Colombian Medellin Cartel. While in prison, Lehder met Boston-born drug trafficker, George Jung who helped him distribute cocaine from Colombia into the States. The drug made him very rich and he went on to buy an island in the Bahamas and offered to pay off Colombia's debt twice. He was later convicted but his sentence was reduced after he agreed to testify against the Panamanian President in 1992. He was worth a whopping $2.7 Billion.
7. Griselda Blanco – $2 Billion
Known as the "Black Widow" and "The Cocaine Queen of Miami" Griselda Blanco was a drug lord who belonged to the Colombian Medellin cartel. Before Pablo Escobar's reign, she was the one who controlled the cocaine trade through violence that made her close to $80 million a month. After serving in jail for 10 years, Blaco returned to her native land in 2012 only to be gunned down by a contract killer. She was worth $2 billion at the time of her death.
8. Al Capone – $1.3 Billion
Al Capone is known to be one of the most notorious gangsters of all time and one of the richest. He was known to control the illegal alcohol, prostitution, and gambling rackets in Chicago, which raked in $100 million a year. He was known to have a good rapport with the police and even the Mayor of Chicago. Unfortunately, he failed to bribe the IRS, who caught him in tax evasion in 1932. His net worth was close to $1.3 billion.
9. Anthony Salerno – $600 Million
Nicknamed "Fat Tony", Anthony Salerno known for wearing a woolen hat and smoking cigars was the right-hand man of the founder of the American Mafia, Charlie Luciano. In the 1980s, he accumulated a lot of wealth by opening usury, and casinos. Salerno was once featured in the Fortune magazine's "50 Largest Mafia Bosses" list with his personal net worth somewhere around $600 million.
10. Frank Lucas – $52 Million
He was in the heroin trade in the 1960s and 70s and was known for using an East Asian connection during the Vietnam War. He successfully cut off the Italian mafia and gained control of Harlem. Lucas who was from North Carolina took over the heroin trade in New York and New Jersey. He once claimed to sell over one million dollars worth of heroin in a single day. His story was told in the 2007 movie "American Gangster". Lucas' net worth was somewhere around $52 million.
