30 most notorious famous mobsters and gangsters of all time

Throughout history, organized crime syndicates have been responsible for some of the most heinous and ruthless acts of violence and corruption. These criminal organizations are often led by notorious mobsters and gangsters who have become infamous for their brutal tactics and exploits. From Al Capone to John Gotti to Pablo Escobar and El Chapo Guzman, the world has seen its fair share of criminal masterminds.

Organized crime has been a prominent feature of many societies throughout history, and some of the most notorious figures in this criminal underworld have become household names. Below is a list of some famous mobsters' mugshots and brief histories about these gangsters:

Most notorious famous mobsters and gangsters of all time

These famous gangsters have built vast criminal empires, engaging in racketeering, extortion, murder, and other crimes. Here are some of the gangsters that have been mentioned in this article and their gang affiliations:

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This article reveals some of the world's most famous mobsters and their nicknames. You also get to learn how they got into the life of crime. Some of these gangsters have several things in common, such as being raised in humble homes or broken homes and dropping out of school at a young age. You will also notice that some of these mobsters were childhood friends and have worked together in different gangs.

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1. Al Capone - The Chicago Outfit syndicate

• Full name: Alphonse Gabriel Capone
• Nicknames: Big Al, King Alphonse, Scarface, Snorky, The Big Fella
• Birthdate: 17 January 1899
• Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, United States
• Died: 25 January 1947
• Age: 48 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: Miami Beach, Florida, United States
• Parents: Gabriele Capone and Teresa Raiola Capone
• Siblings: 8
• Children: 1
• Spouse: Mae Capone (1918–1947)

Al Capone, an Italian-American gangster/businessman, was famously known as Scarface. He was the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1925 to 1931. The Chicago Outfit crime ring was also known as the Chicago Mob or the South Side Gang.

Scarface was a promising student but struggled with the rules at his strict parochial Catholic school. He stopped schooling at the age of 14 after being expelled for hitting a female teacher in the face.

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Capone joined the Five Points Gang (in Lower Manhattan) as a teenager and became a bouncer in organized crime premises such as brothels. He also worked at odd jobs around Brooklyn, including a candy store and a bowling alley, and played semi-professional baseball from 1916 to 1918.

Scarface moved to Chicago in his early twenties and became a bodyguard of Johnny Torrio, the head of an Italian criminal syndicate protected by the Unione Siciliana political party.

Al Capone became one of the most famous gangsters in America during the Prohibition era in the 1920s and 1930s after Torrio retired and handed control to him.

Nonetheless, his seven-year reign as a crime boss of the Chicago Outfit crime empire in the Windy City ended when he was sentenced to 11 years over tax evasion.

Monster Al Capone served his sentence at Alcatraz Island before being released in 1939 after almost eight years of incarceration. He died in 1947 at the age of 48 due to complications from syphilis.

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2. John Gotti - The Gambino family gang

• Full name: John Joseph Gotti Jr.
• Nicknames: The Teflon Don, The Dapper Don, Johnny Boy, Crazy Horse, Black John
• Birthdate: 27 October 1940
• Birthplace: The Bronx, New York, United States
• Died: 10 June 2002
• Age: 61 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: Springfield, Missouri, United States
• Parents: John Joseph Gotti Sr. and Philomena "Fannie" DeCarlo
• Siblings: 13
• Children: 5
• Spouse: Victoria DiGiorgio (1962–2002)

John Gotti was among the most famous mobsters in New York, having led the Gambino crime family from 1985 until his conviction in 1992. He grew up in poverty and resented his father for being unable to provide for his family.

Due to truancy and bullying by other students, Gotti dropped out of Franklin K. Lane High School at 16. By then, he had been involved in street gangs associated with New York City Mafiosi since he was 12.

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Gotti even attempted to steal a cement mixer from a construction site at age 14, but it fell and crushed his toes, leaving him with a permanent limp.

After quitting school, John Gotti worked with the Mafia-associated Fulton-Rockaway Boys gang. Around that time, he met his mentor, Gambino's underboss, Aniello "Neil" Dellacroce.

Gotti would later plot and order the murder of Gambino boss Paul Castellano in December 1985 and take over the gang shortly after that. As the gang's leader, he reportedly earned between $5 million and $20 million annually.

John's underboss, Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, aided the FBI in his conviction in 1991 after hearing belittling remarks the Gambino boss made about him on a wiretap that implicated both of them in several murders.

As a result, Gotti was convicted of murder, tax evasion, racketeering, and other crimes in 1992. He died of throat cancer at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri, while serving a life sentence.

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3. The Kray twins - The Firm crime ring

• Full names: Ronald Kray and Reginald Kray
• Nicknames: Ronnie and Reggie
• Birthdate: 24 October 1933
• Birthplace: Hoxton, London, United Kingdom
• Parents: Violet Lee Kray and Charles David Kray, Sr.
• Siblings: Charles James and Violet
• Ronnie's spouse: Kate Kray (1989–1994)
• Reggie's spouse: Frances Shea (1965–1967), Roberta Jones (1997–2000)
• Ronnie's date of death: 17 March 1995 (age 61)
• Reggie's date of death: 1 October 2000 (age 66)

Ronnie and his identical twin brother Reggie were among the most feared British gangsters. They ruled a criminal organization known as the Firm in London for more than a decade until their arrest in 1968.

Growing up, they looked up to their mother since their dad had alcoholism and traveled a lot looking for junk to sell. The twins were called up to do National Service in the British Army in March 1952, but they were dishonorably discharged from the army in September due to bad behavior.

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After the dishonorable discharges ended their boxing careers, the brothers turned to crime full-time. The Kray twins gained fame in the 1960s by mixing with celebrities and operating the Krayleigh Enterprises, a bodyguard and security business for Hollywood stars, with their older brother Charlie Kray.

Ronnie and Reggie were sentenced to life in prison in 1969. They attended their mother's funeral in 1982, who died from cancer but did not ask for permission to attend their father's funeral in 1983.

Ronnie was eventually certified insane and was committed to the Broadmoor Hospital in Crowthorne, Berkshire, from 1979 until his death on 17 March 1995.

Meanwhile, their brother, Charlie, was released from prison in 1975 after serving seven years for his role in their gangland crimes. Charlie was later sentenced to 12 years in 1997 for conspiracy to smuggle narcotics in an undercover drug sting. He died in prison on 4 April 2000, aged 72.

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Reggie was allowed out of prison to attend the funerals. He was released on 26 August 2000 on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with terminal bladder cancer and died on 1 October 2000, aged 66.

Ronnie married Kate Kray from 1989 to 1994, while his brother married Frances Shea in 1965. It was presumed she took her own life in 1967, but two days after her death, Ronnie confessed to Reggie that he had killed her.

In 1997, Reggie married Roberta Jones, whom he met while still in prison as she was marketing a film she was making about Ronnie. He spent the final weeks of his life with his wife, Roberta. The Kray twins didn't have any children, but one woman claimed to be Reggie's daughter from an affair and even met him in prison.

4. Meyer Lansky - The National Crime Syndicate

• Full name: Meyer Lansky
• Nickname: The Mob's Accountant
• Birthdate: 4 July 1902
• Birthplace: Hrodna, Belarus
• Died: 15 January 1983
• Age: 80 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: Miami Beach, Florida, United States
• Parents: Max Lansky and Yetta Lansky
• Siblings: 1
• Children: 3
• Spouse: Thelma Schwartz (1948–1983), Anna Citron (1929–1947)

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Meyer Lansky was known as the "Mob's Accountant" because of his expertise in money laundering and financial management for criminal organizations.

He was born in Grodno, Russian Empire (now Belarus), as Maier Suchowljansky to a Polish-Jewish family, but emigrated to the United States with his mother and brother Jacob in 1911.

They joined their father, who had immigrated to the USA in 1909, in Manhattan, New York. Lansky met American mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel when they were children and became close friends with Charles "Lucky" Luciano as teenagers.

Lansky and Luciano were key figures in forming the National Crime Syndicate, a network of organized crime families controlling illegal activities across the United States.

The famed gangster had a strong influence on the Italian-American Mafia. Despite nearly 50 years as a member/participant in organized crime, Meyer Lansky was never convicted of a significant crime other than illegal g*ambling.

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Before the Jewish-American mobster fled Cuba, he was said to be worth an estimated $20 million. Lansky retired in Miami and spent his last 10 years quietly at his home in Miami Beach until his death of lung cancer in 1983. After his demise, his family learned that his estate was worth only around $57,000.

5. Bugsy Siegel - New York gangs

• Full name: Benjamin Siegel
• Nicknames: Bugsy, Benny
• Birthdate: 28 February 1906
• Birthplace: New York, New York, United States
• Assassinated: 20 June 1947
• Age: 41 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: Beverly Hills, California, United States
• Parents: Jennie (Riechenthal) and Max Siegel
• Siblings: 5
• Children: 2
• Spouse: Esta Krakower (1929–1946)
• Partner: Wendy Barrie

American mobster Bugsy Siegel was one of the biggest gangsters of all time. He was born into a poor Ashkenazi-Jewish family that had emigrated to the US from the Galicia region (what was then Austria-Hungary).

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As a boy, Benny left school and joined a gang on Lafayette Street in Manhattan. In his adolescence, he befriended Meyer Lansky, and they formed a small gang called the Bugs and Meyer Mob, which operated out of Manhattan's Lower East Side.

Benny rose to prominence as a hitman in the 1920s and 1930s. He later gained significant influence within the Italian-American Mafia and the largely Italian-Jewish National Crime Syndicate.

Siegel was also a boyhood friend to Al Capone and helped him hide with his aunt when a warrant for Capone's arrest on a murder charge was released.

Benny was a driving force behind the development of the Las Vegas Strip. Despite his success in developing Las Vegas, his criminal activities eventually caught up with him. He was assassinated in 1947 in Beverly Hills, California.

Siegel was sitting on a sofa reading a copy of the Los Angeles Times with his associate Allen Smiley when an unknown assailant fired into the living room through a window.

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6. Carlo Gambino - The Gambino family gang

• Full name: Carlo Gambino
• Nicknames: Don Carlo, The Godfather
• Birthdate: 24 August 1902
• Birthplace: Palermo, Italy
• Died: 15 October 1976
• Age: 74 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: Massapequa, New York, United States
• Parents: Tommaso Gambino and Felice Castellano
• Siblings: 2
• Children: 4
• Spouse: Catherine Castellano (1926–1971)

Sicilian crime boss Carlo Gambino led the Gambino crime family until his death from a heart attack in 1976. He took over the syndicate after American mobster Vito Genovese was imprisoned in 1959.

During a criminal career of over fifty years, Gambino served only twenty-two months in prison for a tax evasion charge in 1937. Carlo maintained a low profile and avoided public attention throughout his life, but his ruthless and effective leadership was well-known.

Carlo married one of his cousins, Catherine Castellano, the sister of future Gambino family boss Paul Castellano. He died of natural causes in 1976 at his Massapequa home.

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Against expectations, Carlo had previously appointed Castellano to succeed him over his underboss, Aniello "Neil" Dellacroce. The deal split the Gambino family into two rival factions.

7. Dawood Ibrahim - The D-Company crime syndicate

• Full name: Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar
• Birthdate: 26 December 1955
• Birthplace: Khed, India
• Age: 68 years (as of 2024)
• Parents: Ibrahim Kaskar and Amina Bi
• Siblings: 11
• Children: 4
• Spouse: Catherine Castellano (1926–1971)

Dawood Ibrahim is an Indian crime boss and the leader of the organized crime syndicate D-Company, which he founded in Mumbai in the 1970s. His father, Ibrahim Kaskar, worked as a head constable with the Mumbai Police.

Ibrahim dropped out of Ahmed Sailor High School. He began committing fraud, theft, and robbery while still in his teens before joining a local gang. In the late 1970s, Dawood Ibrahim created his gang with his elder brother, Shabir Ibrahim Kaskar, who was later killed by the rival Pathan gang.

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Today, he is one of the most wanted criminals in the world. Dawood Ibrahim is accused of drug trafficking, extortion, terrorism, and other crimes. He is believed to have connections with various terrorist organizations, including Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Ibrahim was designated a global terrorist by India and the United States in 2003, with a reward of $25 million on his head for his suspected role in the 1993 Bombay bombings.

In 2020, the Pakistani government listed him and 87 others on its sanction list. He has been reported to live in Karachi, Pakistan, though the government of Pakistan denies it.

8. Vito Genovese - The Genovese crime family

• Full name: Vito Genovese
• Nicknames: Don Vito, The Chin
• Birthdate: November 1897
• Birthplace: Ricigliano, Italy
• Died: 14 February 1969
• Age: 71 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: Springfield, Missouri, United States
• Parents: Frances Felice Genovese and Nunziata Aluotto
• Siblings: 2
• Children: 7
• Spouse: Anna Vernotico (1932–1969), Donata Ragone (divorced in 1931)

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Vito Genovese was a notorious American mobster and boss of the Genovese crime family. He was a childhood friend and criminal associate of the Italian mobster Lucky Luciano.

Genovese immigrated to the United States with his family in 1913, aged 15, with an educational level equivalent to fifth grade in America.

He began stealing merchandise from pushcart vendors, ran errands for mobsters, and collected money from people who played illegal lotteries. At 19, Vito Genovese was jailed for a year for unlawful possession of a firearm.

By the 1920s, Genovese worked for powerful gang lords like Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria and Arnold "The Brain" Rothstein. He was also the acting boss of the Luciano crime family before he formed the Genovese crime family.

Genovese was sentenced to 15 years in 1959 but continued to run his organization from jail until he died in 1969 at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners. He mentored Vincent "the Chin" Gigante to take after him.

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9. Charles "Lucky" Luciano - The Luciano crime family

• Full name: Charles Luciano
• Nickname: Lucky
• Birthdate: 24 November 1897
• Birthplace: Lercara Friddi, Italy
• Died: 26 January 1962
• Age: 64 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: Naples International Airport, Italy
• Parents: Antonio Lucania and Rosalia Caffarella
• Siblings: 4
• Partner: Gay Orlova (1929–1936), Igea Lissoni (1948–1959)

Charles "Lucky" Luciano, born Salvatore Lucania, is an Italian-American mobster who is known as the "Father of Modern Organized Crime" and the "Father of the Italian-American Mafia."

Luciano was eight years old when his family emigrated to the US in 1906. At age 14, he dropped out of school and started a job delivering hats. He started his criminal career in the Five Points Gang as a teenager and later played a pivotal role in developing the Luciano crime family and the National Crime Syndicate.

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He was also the first official boss of the modern Genovese crime family. Lucky Luciano was sentenced to 30 to 50 years in prison in 1936 for compulsory prostitution and running a prostitution racketeering.

He continued to run his crime family from prison, relying on acting boss Genovese. In 1937, Genovese fled to Naples to avoid an impending murder indictment in New York, forcing Luciano to appoint Costello as the new acting boss.

Luciano died of a heart attack in 1962 at Naples Airport in Italy, where he had gone to meet a Hollywood movie producer.. He had several long-term mistresses in the United States and Italy, but never married and claimed no children.

10. Frank Costello - The Luciano crime family

• Full name: Francesco Castiglia
• Nickname: The Prime Minister of the Mob
• Birthdate: 26 January 1891
• Birthplace: Cassano allo Ionio, Italy
• Died: 18 February 1973
• Age: 82 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: Doctors Hospital, Manhattan, New York City, United States
• Parents: Luigi Castiglia Costello and Maria Saveria Aloise Costello
• Siblings: 4
• Children: 2
• Spouse: Lauretta Giegerman (1918–1973)

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Italian-American crime boss Frank Costello was the head of the Luciano crime family. He relocated from Italy to the US in 1895 with his mum and brother to join their father, who had moved to New York City's East Harlem several years earlier.

While Francesco was still a boy, his brother introduced him to gang activities. At 13, he became a member of a local gang and started using the name Frankie.

Costello met Sicilian leader Charlie "Lucky" Luciano while working for the Morello gang. They formed a Luciano-Costello-Lansky-Siegel alliance with Italian-American associates Vito Genovese and Tommy "Three-Finger Brown" Lucchese and Jewish associates Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel.

Costello was known as "The Prime Minister of the Underworld." He was famously involved in the 1951 Senate hearings on organized crime, during which Senator Estes Kefauver questioned him.

During his retirement, Francesco was still influential in New York's Mafia. Cosa Nostra bosses and old associates like Gambino and Lucchese visited his Waldorf Astoria penthouse, seeking advice on important Mafia affairs.

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Costello suffered a heart attack at his Manhattan home in 1973 and was rushed to Doctors Hospital in Manhattan, where he passed away. He is remembered for his diplomatic skills and ability to avoid conflict.

11. Sam Giancana - The Chicago Outfit syndicate

• Full name: Sam Giancana
• Nickname: Mooney
• Birthdate: 15 June 1908
• Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, United States
• Died: 19 June 1975
• Age: 67 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: Oak Park, Illinois, United States
• Parents: Antonio Giangana and Antonia DeSimmona
• Siblings: 7
• Children: 3
• Spouse: Angelina DeTolve (1933–1954)

American mobster Sam Giancana was the infamous boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1957 to 1966. Giancana was born in Chicago to Italian immigrants and joined the 42 Gang as a teenager. The juvenile street crew worked for political boss Joseph Esposito.

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Giancana later became a hitman for Al Capone in the 1920s, developing a reputation in organized crime that gained him the notice of the leaders of the Chicago Outfit.

He joined the Chicago Outfit in the late 1930s and became the boss from 1957 to 1966. Sam was assassinated on the night of 19 June 1975, allegedly on the orders of his former associates in the Outfit.

Shortly before Giancana was scheduled to appear before the Church Committee, which was investigating CIA and Cosa Nostra collusion, a gunman sneaked into his home through the basement and shot him.

12. John Dillinger - The Dillinger Gang

• Full name: John Herbert Dillinger
• Nicknames: Gentleman John, The Jackrabbit
• Birthdate: 22 June 1903
• Birthplace: Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
• Died: 22 July 1934
• Age: 31 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: Chicago, Illinois, United States
• Parents: John Wilson Dillinger and Mary Ellen "Mollie" Lancaster
• Siblings: 4
• Children: 1
• Spouse: Beryl Hovious (1924–1929)

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John Dillinger was a notorious American gangster during the Great Depression era in the 1930s. He became involved in criminal activities at a young age and was frequently in trouble for fighting and petty theft.

He quit school to work in an Indianapolis machine shop. Fearing that the city was corrupting him, John's father relocated the family to rural Mooresville, Indiana. In 1923, John enlisted in the United States Navy. A few months into his service, he was dishonorably discharged after deserting Boston.

Dillinger returned to Mooresville, where he married Beryl Ethel Hovious and developed a criminal lifestyle. From June 1933 to July 1934, John Dillinger and his gang were known for a series of robberies and escapes, including robbing twenty-four banks and four police stations.

After evading police in four states for almost a year, Dillinger's life of crime ended on 22 July 1934, when he was ambushed and killed by FBI agents outside the Biograph Theater in Chicago.

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13. Whitey Bulger - The Winter Hill Gang

• Full name: James Joseph Bulger Jr.
• Nickname: Whitey
• Birthdate: 3 September 1929
• Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts, United States
• Assassinated: 30 October 2018
• Age: 89 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: USP Hazelton, West Virginia, United States
• Parents: Jane Veronica "Jean" McCarthy and James Joseph Bulger Sr.
• Siblings: 2
• Children: 1
• Spouse: Lindsey Cyr (1966–1978)
• Partner: Theresa Stanley

Whitey Bulger was among the most famous mobsters in America. The organized crime boss and fugitive led the Winter Hill Gang in Boston from the 1970s until the mid-1990s.

Early in his criminal career, local police gave Bulger the nickname "Whitey" because of his blond hair. He was known for his involvement in various illegal activities, including extortion, racketeering, and murder.

In 1943, 14-year-old Bulger was charged with larceny and sentenced to a juvenile reformatory. By then, he had joined a street gang known as the Shamrocks. Shortly after his release in April 1948, he joined the United States Air Force, where he earned his high school diploma and trained as a mechanic.

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Despite the regimented military life, Whitey Bulger had not reformed. He spent time in the military prison for several assaults and received an honorable discharge in 1952.

Whitey returned to Massachusetts and sunk deep into crime. The authorities investigated his operations for years and put him on a manhunt. After sixteen years at large and twelve years on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, he was arrested in Santa Monica, California, on June 22, 2011.

Bulger was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences plus five years in prison for 11 murders and various other crimes. He was found dead in jail in 2018 at the age of 89. Bulger was in a wheelchair after being beaten to death by multiple armed inmates.

14. Pablo Escobar - The Medellín Cartel

• Full name: Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria
• Nicknames: El Patrón (The Boss), Don Pablo (Sir Pablo), El Padrino (The Godfather), El Diablo (The Devil), El Doctor (The Doctor)
• Birthdate: 1 December 1949
• Birthplace: Rionegro, Colombia
• Assassinated: 2 December 1993
• Age: 44 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: Medellín, Colombia
• Parents: Abel de Jesús Escobar Echeverri and Hermilda de los Dolores Gaviria Berrío
• Siblings: 7
• Children: 2
• Spouse: Maria Victoria Henao (1976–1993)

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Pablo Escobar was a notorious Colombian drug lord and leader of the Medellín Cartel, one of the largest drug trafficking organizations in the world during the 1980s and early 1990s.

Escobar was born into a peasant family and studied at Universidad Autónoma Latinoamericana of Medellín without graduating. Instead, he got into crime, selling illegal cigarettes and fake lottery tickets, as well as participating in motor vehicle theft.

In the early 1970s, Pablo Escobar began to work for various smugglers and founded the Medellín Cartel in 1976. At the height of their operations, Escobar's cartel smuggled around 80% of the illegal narcotics that entered the United States.

Escobar was eventually killed on 2 December 1993 by Colombian police in a rooftop shootout in Medellin, Colombia, ending his reign as one of the most notorious drug lords in history. He was considered one of the wealthiest people in the world, with an estimated net worth of over $30 billion by the time of his death.

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15. Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman - The Sinaloa Cartel

• Full name: Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera
• Nickname: El Chapo
• Birthdate: 4 April 1957
• Birthplace: La Tuna, Mexico
• Age: 67 years (as of 2024)
• Parents: María Consuelo Loera Pérez and Emilio Guzmán Bustillos
• Siblings: 6
• Children: 2
• Spouse: Emma Coronel Aispuro (2007–present)

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was a prominent drug lord from Mexico and served as the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of the largest drug trafficking organizations globally.

He was raised in a poor farming family and endured much physical abuse at the hands of his father, who also introduced him to the drug trade. Joaquin helped his dad grow hemp plants for local dealers during his early adulthood.

By the late 1970s, El Chapo was working for Mexican drug lord Héctor Luis Palma Salazar and later supervised logistics for Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, one of Mexico's leading kingpins in the mid-1980s.

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El Chapo founded his cartel in 1988 after Félix's arrest and distributed his substances throughout the United States and Europe. Guzmán is believed to be responsible for the deaths of over 34,000 people.

He was arrested on multiple occasions but escaped prison several times through various ways, like bribing multiple correctional officers and using a tunnel dug into his cell in 2001 and 2015.

El Chapo was finally extradited to the United States in 2017 and sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of numerous drug trafficking charges in 2019.

16. Michael Franzese - The Colombo crime family

• Full name: Michael Franzese Sr.
• Nicknames: Yuppie Don, Prince of the Mafia
• Birthdate: 27 May 1951
• Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, United States
• Age: 73 years (as of 2024)
• Parents: Sonny Franzese and Cristina Capobianco-Franzese
• Siblings: 2
• Children: 3
• Spouse: Camille Garcia (1985–present)

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Michael Franzese is a former American mobster who was associated with the Colombo crime family in New York City during the 1970s and 1980s. He grew up under the name "Michael Grillo" until he was 18.

His father, Sonny Franzese, was an underboss in the same gang from 1963 until 1967, when he was sentenced to 50 years in prison for orchestrating several bank robberies across the country.

In the following decades, Sonny was re-jailed at least six times for parole violations and became the Colombo family's underboss again in 2005.

He was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2011. At the time of his release on 23 June 2017, Sonny was 100 years old. He died in a New York City hospital on 24 February 2020 at the age of 103.

Michael was enrolled in a pre-med program at Hofstra University but dropped out to make money for his family after his father was sentenced to 50 years in prison for bank robbery in 1967.

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At the height of his career, Michael Franzese generated up to $8 million weekly. In the early 1980s, he helped implement a scheme to defraud New York state of around $250 million in gasoline taxes yearly before moving on to Florida, where he lost $40 million to $250 million.

Michael was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 1986 on conspiracy charges and released in 1989. He was re-arrested in 1991 for a parole violation and released in 1994. Soon after, Michael retired to California and became an author, motivational speaker, and consultant.

17. Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bonanno - The Bonanno crime family

• Full name: Joseph Charles Bonanno
• Nickname: Joe Bananas
• Birthdate: 18 January 1905
• Birthplace: Castellammare del Golfo, Italy
• Died: 1 May 2002
• Age: 97 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: Tucson, Arizona, United States
• Parents: Catherine Bonventre and Salvatore Vincent "Bill" Bonanno
• Siblings: 2
• Children: 3
• Spouse: Fay Labruzzo (1905–1980)

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Joe Bananas was born in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, where his father was also involved in organized crime. At the age of three, Joe lived with his family in New York City for about ten years before they moved back to Italy.

He slipped back into the United States in 1924 on a Cuban fishing boat. After his father was murdered in 1931, Joe Bonanno became one of the youngest-ever bosses of a crime family at age 26.

Joe was known for his business acumen and ability to maintain a low profile while directing the family's criminal activities, including extortion, racketeering, and murder.

In 1963, Joe made plans to assassinate several rivals on the Mafia Commission, but hitman Joseph Colombo revealed the plot to the targets.

Joe fled to Canada and briefly returned to New York in 1964 before disappearing until 1966. He retired to Arizona after the "Banana War" ended in 1968. Bonanno became a writer and died in 2002 at the age of 97.

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18. Tony Accardo - The Chicago Outfit syndicate

• Full name: Anthony Joseph Accardo
• Nicknames: Joe Batters, Big Tuna
• Birthdate: 28 April 1906
• Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, United States
• Died: 22 May 1992
• Age: 86 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: Chicago, Illinois, United States
• Parents: Francesco Accardo and Maria Tilotta Accardo
• Siblings: 5
• Children: 4
• Spouse: Clarice Pordzany (divorced in 1992)

Tony Accardo was one of the most powerful organized crime syndicates in the United States. At 14, Tony left school and started loitering around neighborhood pool halls.

He soon joined the Circus Cafe Gang, run by Claude Maddox and Tony Capezi. Later, Jack "Machine Gun" McGurn, one of the toughest hitmen of Chicago Outfit boss Al Capone, recruited Tony Accardo into his crew.

During Prohibition, Tony was nicknamed "Joe Batters" after using a baseball bat to kill three mobsters who had betrayed the Outfit. In 1932, Al Capone was convicted of tax evasion, and Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti became the new Outfit boss.

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Nitti was named as the Outfit's head of enforcement. Paul "The Waiter" Ricca took over after Nitti ended his life in 1943. He made Tony an underboss, and they worked together until Ricca died in 1972.

Tony became boss of the Outfit and expanded into Las Vegas. After 1957, Accardo turned over the official position as boss to Giancana. He retired from the Chicago Outfit in 1992 and died in 1992.

Giancana was murdered in the basement apartment of his home in Oak Park, Illinois while cooking Italian sausages and escarole.

19. Vincent "Chin" Gigante - The Genovese crime family

• Full name: Vincent Louis Gigante
• Nicknames: Chin, The Oddfather, The Enigma in the Bathrobe
• Birthdate: 29 March 1928
• Birthplace: New York, New York, United States
• Died: 19 December 2005
• Age: 77 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: Springfield, Missouri, United States
• Parents: Yolonda Gigante and Salvatore Gigante
• Siblings: 4
• Children: 6
• Spouse: Olympia Grippa (1950–2005)

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Vincent "Chin" Gigante started as a professional boxer, fighting in 25 matches between 1944 and 1947. He then began working as a Mafia enforcer for the Luciano crime family, which later became the Genovese family.

As a teenager, Chin became the protégé of future Genovese crime family patriarch Vito Genovese, who had helped pay for Gigante's mother's surgery.

Gigante was the shooter in the failed assassination of longtime Luciano boss Frank Costello in 1957. He quickly rose to power during the 1960s and 1970s and became the boss of the Genovese crime family from 1981 to 2005.

In 1981, Genovese's successor, Philip "Benny Squint" Lombardo, stepped down due to poor health and appointed Gigante as boss of the Genovese family.

Chin ordered the failed murder attempt of Gambino crime family boss John Gotti in 1986. With the arrest and conviction of Gotti and various Gambino family members in 1992, Vincent Gigante had to feigned insanity for about 30 years in an effort to throw law enforcement off his trail.

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The media called him "The Oddfather" and "The Enigma in the Bathrobe" because he often wandered the streets of Greenwich Village in his bathrobe and slippers, mumbling incoherently to himself.

In 1997, Vincent was tried and convicted of racketeering and conspiracy, and sentenced to 12 years in prison. He died at the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners on 19 December 2005 at the age of 77.

20. Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano - The Gambino crime family

• Full name: Salvatore Gravano
• Nickname: Sammy the Bull
• Birthdate: 12 March 1945
• Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, United States
• Age: 79 years (as of 2024)
• Parents: Giorlando Gravano and Caterina Gravano
• Siblings: 4
• Children: 2
• Spouse: Debra Scibetta (1971–1992)

Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano is a former high-ranking member of the Gambino crime family. Born with dyslexia, he was bullied and did poorly in school. Salvatore also punched school officials on two occasions.

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A school for "incorrigibles" refused to keep him just before he reached 16. By this time, the teen had joined the Rampers street gang in Bensonhurst at age 13.

Gravano's father tried to discipline him in vain. He was drafted into the United States Army in 1964 and rose to corporal rank before being granted an honorable discharge after two years.

Gravano became an associate of the Colombo crime family and was a favorite of family boss Carmine Persico. Later in his mob career, he was ordered to arrange the murder of his brother-in-law, Nicholas Scibetta, and also joined a group that conspired to murder Gambino boss Paul Castellano.

When Gravano Salvatore became the underboss, he played a significant role in prosecuting his boss, John Gotti, in 1991 by agreeing to testify against him in exchange for a reduced sentence.

In February 2000, Gravano and other ring members—including his ex-wife, daughter, and son—were arrested on federal and state drug charges.

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In 2002, Salvatore was sentenced to twenty years in prison. A month later, he was also sentenced to nineteen years in prison, both of which ran concurrently. Gravano was released in September 2017.

21. Khun Sa - The Shan United Army

• Full name: Zhang Qifu
• Nicknames: Khun Sa, The Prince of Death, The King of the Golden Triangle
• Birthdate: 17 February 1934
• Birthplace: Loi Maw, Myanmar (Burma)
• Died: 26 October 2007
• Age: 73 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: Yangon, Myanmar (Burma)
• Parents: Nang Saeng Zoom and Khun Ai
• Children: 8
• Spouse: Nan Kyayon (divorced in 1993)

Khun Sa was an ethnic Han drug lord and warlord. Before he assumed the Shan name "Khun Sa" in 1976, he was known primarily by his Chinese name, Zhang Qifu.

His Han grandfather primarily raised Khun. He was three years old, his father died, and his mum died two years after marrying a tax collector. SA received no formal education but had military training as a soldier with Chinese Nationalist forces.

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His stepbrothers were sent to missionary schools, while he spent a few years as a Buddhist novice. Through the 1960s, Khun Sa became one of Burma's most notorious drug traffickers.

Sa retired in 1996 when he surrendered to the Burmese government, gave up control of his army, and moved to Rangoon with a large fortune and four young Shan mistresses.

He enjoyed his wealth for 11 years until his death in 2007. His children were educated abroad and are wealthy business people in Myanmar today.

22. Arnold Rothstein - The East Coast Mob syndicates

• Full name: Arnold Rothstein
• Nicknames: The Brain, Mr. Big, The Fixer, The Man Uptown, The Big Bankroll
• Birthdate: 17 January 1882
• Birthplace: Manhattan, New York, United States
• Assassinated: 6 November 1928
• Age: 46 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: Stuyvesant Polyclinic
• Parents: Abraham Rothstein and Esther Rothstein
• Siblings: 4
• Spouse: Carolyn Greene (1909–1928)

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Arnold Rothstein was an American racketeer, crime boss, and businessman who became a kingpin of the Jewish Mob in New York City. He mentored future crime bosses Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello, Bugsy Siegel, and others.

Rothstein's father was an upright man who had acquired the nickname "Abe the Just ."Arnold, on the other hand, was highly skilled at mathematics but uninterested in school.

He began g*ambling as a child, and by 1910, Arnold Rothstein had moved to the Tenderloin section of Manhattan, and established an important casino at age 28. His successes made him a millionaire by age 30.

Rothstein was widely reputed to have organized corruption in professional athletics, including conspiring to fix the 1919 World Series. He refused to pay a large debt resulting from a fixed p*oker game and was murdered in 1928.

His illegal empire was broken up and distributed among other underworld organizations. Ten years after his death, his brother declared Rothstein's estate was insolvent.

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23. Frank Lucas - The Country Boys syndicate

• Full name: Frank Lucas
• Nickname: Superfly
• Birthdate: 9 September 1930
• Birthplace: La Grange, North Carolina, United States
• Died: 30 May 2019
• Age: 88 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: Cedar Grove, New Jersey, United States
• Parents: Mahalee Lucas and Fred Lucas
• Siblings: 4
• Children: 7
• Spouse: Julianna Farrait (1967–2019)

American drug lord Frank Lucas operated in Harlem, New York City, in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He was known for cutting out intermediaries in the drug trade and buying directly from his source in the Golden Triangle in Southeast Asia.

The incident that motivated him to embark on a life of crime was witnessing his 12-year-old cousin's murder at the hands of the Ku Klux Klan for looking flirtatiously at a white woman.

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Frank quickly began indulging in petty crime and pool hustling before he was taken under the wing of gangster Bumpy Johnson before he formed the Country Boys crime ring, which his family helped operate.

In 1976, Lucas was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to 70 years in prison, but after becoming an informant, he and his family were placed in the Witness Protection Program.

In 1984, he was convicted a second time for drug offenses and was released from prison in 1991. In 2012, Lucas pled guilty to attempting to cash a $17,000 federal disability benefit check twice and, because of his age and poor health, received a sentence of five years' probation.

24. Bumpy Johnson - The Genovese crime family

• Full name: Ellsworth Raymond Johnson
• Nickname: Bumpy
• Birthdate: 31 October 1905
• Birthplace: Charleston, South Carolina, United States
• Died: 7 July 1968
• Age: 62 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: Harlem, New York, United States
• Parents: Margaret Moultrie and William Johnson
• Siblings: 2
• Children: 2
• Spouse: Mayme Hatcher Johnson (1948–1968)

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American crime boss Bumpy Johnson was associated with the Genovese crime family, previously known as a Harlem gang. He was a close associate of Charles "Lucky" Luciano, a leader of the Genovese crime family.

Johnson's nickname "Bumpy" is derived from a bump on the back of his head. When he was 10, his older brother Willie was accused of killing a white man. Afraid of a possible lynch mob, his parents mortgaged their tiny home to raise money to send Willie to live with relatives.

As a result, Raymond developed a short temper and insolence towards white people. His parents worried about him and sent him to live with his older sister, Mabel, in Harlem.

Raymond dropped out of high school and began working in casual jobs. Gangster William Hewett noticed Johnson, who started working for him.

Johnson became an associate and enforcer for numbers queen Madame Stephanie St. Clair. In the 1930s, he quickly climbed the ranks to become her most trusted soldier.

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In 1952, Johnson was sentenced to 15 years in prison for a drug conspiracy conviction. He served most of that sentence at Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco Bay, California, and was released in 1963 on parole.

Johnson was under a federal indictment for drug conspiracy when he died of a heart attack in 1968. He was eating at Wells Restaurant in Harlem when he fell over, clutching his chest.

25. Griselda Blanco - The Medellín Cartel

• Full name: Griselda Blanco Restrepo
• Nicknames: The Lady of the Mafia, The Godmother, The Black Widow
• Birthdate: 15 February 1943
• Birthplace: Cartagena, Colombia
• Assassinated: 3 September 2012
• Age: 69 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: Medellín, Colombia
• Parents: Ana Lucía Restrepo and Fernando Blanco
• Siblings: 1
• Children: 4
• Spouse: Darío Sepúlveda, Alberto Bravo

Colombian drug lord Griselda Blanco is among the most famous mobsters of the 1970s to the early 2000s. She was part of the Medellín Cartel in Miami and was shot dead in Medellín in 2012.

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At the age of 11, Griselda allegedly kidnapped, attempted to ransom, and ultimately shot a child from an upscale neighborhood near her home. She became a pickpocket before she was a teenager and fled home at the age of 19 to escape the sexual abuse of her mother's boyfriend.

Griselda resorted to theft to survive in the city center until age 20. She became a key figure in the establishment of the drug trade between Colombia and large North America. Her distribution network earned around $80 million per month.

26. Maria Licciardi - The Licciardi clan syndicate

• Full name: Maria Licciardi
• Nicknames: La Madrina (The Godmother), La Piccolina (The Little Girl), La Piccerella (Little Girl)
• Birthdate: 24 March 1951
• Birthplace: Naples, Italy
• Age: 73 years (as of 2024)
• Parents: Giorlando Gravano and Caterina Gravano
• Siblings: 2
• Children: 1
• Partner: Antonio Teghemié

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Maria Licciardi was one of the most powerful bosses of the Camorra gang in Naples from 1993 until her arrest in 2001. She was also the head of the Licciardi clan and one of the bosses of the Secondigliano Alliance.

Maria took over as head of the Licciardi clan after her two brothers and her husband were arrested. She was the first female Camorrista to become the boss of the clan and the Secondigliano Alliance.

Licciardi introduced many revolutionary changes, including the prostitution trade, which had been banned in the clan. She was added to the "30 most wanted Italians" list and went into hiding for two years.

On 14 June 2001, Licciardi was arrested by the Naples police while traveling. Her brother Vincenzo took over but was eventually arrested on 7 February 2008.

In 2009, Maria Licciardi was released after almost 8 years and arrested again at Rome's Ciampino airport on 7 August 2021 when attempting to travel to Spain. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2023.

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27. Jemeker Thompson - No gang affiliations

• Full name: Jemeker Thompson-Hairston
• Nicknames: The Queen Pin
• Birth year: 1962
• Birthplace: United States
• Age: 62 years (as of 2024)
• Children: 1
• Spouse: Champ Hairston

Jemeker rose to the top of the drug trade in the 1980s. She was based in Los Angeles and had distributors in multiple US cities working for her.

When Jemeker Thompson was 8 years old, her mother and five siblings were evicted from their apartment in South Los Angeles. So, she began selling drugs while still in high school and continued the business with her husband when she got married.

After her spouse, Anthony "Daff" Mosley, was killed, Jemeker began to grow her business again in 1984 by recruiting distributors. At age 26, she opened a hair distribution business, which she used for laundering drug profits.

When her business partner, Percy "Cheese" Bratton, was arrested, he made a deal with investigators, providing the evidence to indict Thompson. Jemeker tried to avoid capture but, at the age of 31, was arrested at her son's 6th-grade graduation ceremony.

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She was released from jail after serving 12 of her 15-year sentence and began a Christian ministry called Second Chance Evangelical Ministries. Her son became a professional skateboarder. Jemeker is married to Champ Hairston.

28. Stephanie St. Clair - No gang affiliations

• Full name: Stephanie St. Clair
• Nicknames: Queenie, Madame Queen, Madame St. Clair, Queen of the Policy Rackets
• Birthdate: 24 December 1897
• Birthplace: Martinique
• Died: 1969
• Age: 72 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: Harlem, New York, United States
• Parent: Félicienne
• Spouse: Sufi Abdul Hamid

Stephanie St. Clair ran numerous enterprises in Harlem, New York, in the early 20th century. She became a local legend for her public denunciations of corrupt police and for resisting Mafia control.

At the age of 12, Stephanie left school because her mother was very ill. She managed to save some money and left Martinique for Montreal after the death of her mother.

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In 1912, she moved to the United States and lived in Harlem, New York. Clair fell in love with a small-time crook, Duke, who soon tried to introduce her to prostitution but was shot in a fight between gangs.

After four months, she began selling controlled drugs with the help of her new boyfriend, Ed. After a few months, Stephanie had made $30,000 and wanted to leave Ed to start a business. He tried to strangle her, and she pushed him away with such force that he cracked his skull against a table and died.

For months afterward, she employed men, bribed police officers, and invested $10,000 of her own money in a clandestine lottery game in Harlem. As a result of her success, Stephanie St. Clair became known throughout Manhattan as Queenie and Madame St. Clair.

St. Clair and her chief enforcer, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, refused to pay protection to Bronx-based mob boss Dutch Schultz despite the violence and intimidation by police they faced.

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She passed on her criminal business to Johnson, who eventually negotiated with Lucky Luciano to take over his spots. Later, Schultz was fatally wounded in a shooting ordered by The Commission in 1935.

29. Assunta "Pupetta" Maresca - The Camora crime family

• Full name: Assunta Maresca
• Nicknames: Pupetta, Madame Camorra
• Birthdate: 19 January 1935
• Birthplace: Castellammare di Stabia, Italy
• Died: 29 December 2021
• Age: 86 years (at time of death)
• Place of death: Castellammare di Stabia, Italy
• Parent: Alberto Maresca
• Siblings: 4
• Children: 3
• Spouse: Pasquale Simonetti (1955–1955)
• Partner: Umberto Ammaturo

Assunta "Pupetta" Maresca, the wife of the drug dealing boss Pasquale Simonetti, was a well-known figure in the Camorra. She made international newspaper headlines in the mid-1950s when she killed her husband's murderer, Camorra boss Antonio Esposito, in revenge.

The six-month pregnant Maresca was sentenced to 18 years' imprisonment, but that was later reduced to 13 years and 4 months by the Court of Appeal. She had her first child, Pasquale, in prison and was pardoned in 1965 but continued to be involved in criminal activities.

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Assunta became the lover of yet another Camorra boss, Umberto Ammaturo, and had twins for him. In 1974, Pasquale was abducted and murdered at the age of 18. Maresca believed that Ammaturo was responsible even when acquitted for lack of evidence.

Maresca separated from Ammaturo in 1982 and continued her involvement with the Camorra criminal activities, from drug trafficking to murder, financial crimes, and more. In the same year, she publicly defied the NCO boss Raffaele Cutolo, who had imposed a 'tax' on every case of smuggled cigarettes.

Later, in 1982, Assunta Maresca and Ammaturo were arrested and charged with extortion as well as the murder of forensic scientist Aldo Semerari. Ammaturo, who was initially acquitted, later confessed to the murder in June 1993.

Maresca served four years in prison and lived alone in Sorrento after that. She died on 29 December 2021 at her residence in Castellammare di Stabia at age 86.

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Assunta was the only daughter and had four brothers. Their father, Alberto Maresca, was a dangerous smuggler.

30. Sandra Ávila Beltrán - The Sinaloa gang

• Full name: Sandra Ávila Beltrán
• Nickname: La Reina del Pacífico (The Queen of the Pacific)
• Birthdate: 11 October 1960
• Birthplace: Tijuana, Mexico
• Age: 64 years (as of 2024)
• Parents: María Luisa Beltrán Félix and Alfonso Ávila Quintero
• Sibling: 1
• Children: 1

Sandra Ávila Beltrán is believed to be a former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel. She is the niece of Rafael Caro Quintero and Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, former leaders of the Guadalajara Cartel.

Family connections have played a major role in her criminal career, having kinship with the Beltrán-Leyva Brothers cartel, whose leaders are associated with the Sinaloa gang.

Ávila reportedly had affairs with several well-known drug barons in her youth and was married twice to ex-police commanders who became drug traffickers. Hired assassins later killed both husbands.

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The police attribute her rise to power in the drug world to her relationship with Juan Diego Espinoza Ramírez, who is an essential figure in the Colombian Norte del Valle Cartel.

The police found more than 9 tons of drugs on a ship in the Pacific port of Manzanillo, Colima, in 2001 and tracked the shipment to the couple. It took more than four years and 30 federal agents to close in and finally arrest Ávila.

She was arrested along with Espinoza Ramírez on 28 September 2007 in Mexico City and charged with and convicted of laundering money and smuggling drugs worth billions of dollars from Colombia to Mexico.

On 25 July 2013, Sandra Ávila Beltrán was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison, with credit for time served. She was rearrested on money laundering charges on 20 August 2013 and sentenced to five more years in jail.

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Ávila was released in 2015 and now lives in the city of Guadalajara. Since her arrest in 2007, she spent a total of seven years in prison, including two years in isolation.

Who is the greatest mobster of all time?

Griselda Blanco, Assunta "Pupetta" Maresca, Maria Licciardi, Sandra Ávila Beltrán, and Stephanie St. Clair are some of the most famous female gang lords of all time.

Who is the toughest gangster of all time?

Frank Lucas, Dawood Ibrahim, Pablo Escobar, El Chapo, and Frank Costello are some of the most ruthless male gang lords of all time.

Who was the most famous Italian gangster?

Some of the most famous mobsters with Italian roots are Assunta "Pupetta" Maresca, Carlo Gambino, Charles "Lucky" Luciano, Frank Costello, Joseph "Joe Bananas" Bonanno, Maria Licciardi, and Vito Genovese.

Which famous mobster's body was never found?

The body of Jimmy Hoffa, a former president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, has never been found because it was quickly dissolved in a chemical vat at a Detroit factory.

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Which famous mobsters are still alive?

Dawood Ibrahim, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Michael Franzese, Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, Maria Licciardi, Sandra Ávila Beltrán, and many other famous ex-drug dealers are still alive.

Who are the real-life mafias?

The real mafias are the five prominent Italian-American Mafia families in New York City: Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese. They call themselves the Five Families.

What is the difference between a mobster and a gangster?

They're generally the same, except a mob is more organized than a gang. A gang is less organized and often implies a street organization.

What are some famous mobsters' movies?

Here are some famous mobsters movies:

• Frank Lucas' life inspired the Fallen Empire: Making 'American Gangster (2008) film.
• The Rise and Fall of El Chapo (2016) is about Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán.
• Legend (2015) tells the story of Kray twins Reggie and Ronnie.
• Loving Pablo (2017) chronicles the rise and fall of drug lord Pablo Escobar.
• Griselda series (2024) on Netflix is a fictional dramatization of Griselda Blanco's life.

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The above infamous mobsters are known due to their ruthless and often violent actions. While their stories have been glamorized in popular culture, it is important to remember the harm they caused to communities and innocent people.

Legit.ng published an article on the longest rivers in the world. Rivers are some of the most awe-inspiring natural wonders on Earth, and they play an essential role in shaping our planet's landscape and ecosystem.

Many people are fascinated by the longest river in the world, and the answer is not as straightforward as one might think. While the Nile is widely regarded as the longest river on Earth, other contenders for the title have sparked debate and discussion among experts.

Source: Legit.ng