Hollywood would have you believe that the drug world is full of decent guys who just got caught up in the wrong business. However, nothing could be further from the truth. In order to make it in the drug world, one has to be merciless, violent, and most of all not afraid of taking risks; risks that wouldn’t just lose someone some money, but rather could get hundreds of people killed. Only the most ruthless people make it to the top of the drug game, and for those who do, the top is full of mansions filled with cash, cars, guns, and beautiful women. These are the Drug Godfathers who rule their part of the world with money, guns, drugs, and fear.
Here are the top, most ruthless drug godfathers in the world today:
1. Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán
Guzmán is currently considered to be one of the most top wanted drug traffickers today. This is probably because he had already been captured and has escaped from prison not once, but twice. Guzmán is known in his world as “El Chapo”, meaning “Shorty”. This can be attributed to the fact that he looks like an average middle aged guy, and could be mistaken for someone’s uncle rather than one of the most notorious drug traffickers of our time.
Guzmán is the kingpin of the Sinaloa Cartel, and is responsible for the largest percentage of drugs imported into the United States every year. His cartel mainly traffics tons of cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine, and heroin.
2. “Omar” Alejandro Trevino-Morales
Omar Alejandro Trevino-Morales, also known as “42” is the leader of the Los Zetas cartel. In 2012, he single handedly controlled 11 states in Mexico, due to which he is listed as one of Mexico’s most-wanted drug lords. In addition to controlling one of the most brutal drug smuggling organizations, he is also responsible for several murders and abductions over the years.
3. Vicente Carrillo Fuentes
Vicente Carrillo Fuentes a.k.a. “The Viceroy” is the head of the Juárez Cartel. The Juárez Cartel primarily imports cocaine and marijuana into the United States, but what instills fear in their rivals’ minds is that Fuentes is known to decapitate his rivals and display their mutilated corpses in public places.
4. Héctor Beltrán Leyva
Héctor Beltrán Leyva was originally a member of the Sinaloa cartel, but in 2008 he broke ties with the organization and started his own enterprise. The Beltrán Leyva Organization is currently run by Leyva and his four brothers, as well as several former Sinaloa Cartel members. Today, they traffic large quantities of cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine into the U.S.
5. Kenichi Shinoda
Shinoda is the current kumicho, meaning supreme Kingpin, of Japan’s largest yakuza organization, the Yamaguchi-gumi. The Yamaguchi-gumi has hands in extortion, gambling, the sex industry, guns, drugs, real estate, construction kickback schemes, stock market manipulation, and Internet pornography. Shinoda took over the syndicate in 2005 and has since expanded the business into new areas of Tokyo.
6. Semion Mogilevich
Semion Mogilevich is a Ukrainian-born organized crime boss and is currently believed to the leader of the Russian Mafia. Mogilevich is nicknamed “Don Semyon” and “The Brainy Don” because of his intelligence. He even holds a degree in economics, which certainly helps him run his empire effectively. After all, a crime organization is just like a corporation.
7. Domenico Condello
Condello is part of the ‘Ndrangheta syndicate, which is considered to be one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in the world. It is based out of Calabria, Southern Italy, and controls up to 3% of Italy’s total GDP. Drug trafficking is just one of its businesses; others include extortion, money laundering,and other illegal operations. Condello was one of the main traffickers who smuggled cocaine between
Colombia and Italy.
In addition to these, there are many other drugpins who currently control large portion of the drug trafficking business. Some of these drugpins are Juan José Esparragoza, Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano,Adams Family, Ismael ZambadaGarcía, Diego Perez Henao, and DautKadriovski. However, this list is nowhere close to being comprehensive.
Drugs and Money is such a lucrative business, that many try to make it to the top, but most don’t succeed. Still there are so many smaller fish in the sea, that it is basically littered and overflowing. Due to this, the drug and crime business has become a major problem in the world, and the world’s police forces have their hands full. It’s a dark and scary world out there which we often forget when we are safe in our houses.
