7 Most Notorious Drug Lords of the 20th Century

Griselda Blanco

Griselda Blanco (February 15, 1943 to September 3, 2012) was also a member of the Medellin Cartel, founded by Pablo Escobar. Often called “the Black Widow” or the “Cocaine Godmother,” Blanco pioneered the Miami-based cocaine trade from Colombia in the 1970s and 1980s. The nickname “the Black Widow” almost certainly referred to accusations that she had killed her second husband and had had her third husband killed in Colombia.

After leaving home at 14, Blanco supported herself as a small-scale thief and pickpocket through her teen years. In her 20s, she entered the drug trade, eventually immigrating to New York with her second husband, Albert Blanco. The two ran a sizeable cocaine operation in Queens, and were eventually indicted on federal drug charges. They fled to Colombia, but returned to the U.S., settling in Miami, Florida in the late 1970s.

Blanco’s return to the United States led to the start of the Miami Drug War and a period of intense crime and violence in the city of Miami through the 1980s. By the early 1980s, Miami’s drug operations, led by drug lords often called the Cocaine Cowboys brought in some $80,000,000 per month. Soon, conflicts between Blanco and other drug lords led to repeated attempts on her life. While Blanco was responsible for a large number of murders, both by her own hand and through her actions, she was never convicted of any of them.

Arrested by the Drug Enforcement Agency in 1985, Blanco continued her cocaine trafficking from prison for a number of years. Following a failed indictment on three counts of murder in Florida, she was released from prison and deported to Colombia in 2004. She lived in relative hiding until her death in 2012, spotted only once in Bogota, Colombia.

Frank Lucas

Frank Lucas (September 9, 1930) is a former heroin dealer who played a key role in the American heroin trade in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Lucas was born in North Carolina, and claimed to have turned to crime following the lynching of his 12-year-old cousin. According to Lucas’ own telling of his story, he eventually found his way to the service of gangster Bumpy Johnson; however, Johnson’s family has questioned this.

Johnson died in 1968. Recognizing opportunity, Lucas traveled to Bangkok, Thailand. At the time, the New York drug trade was largely in the hands of the Italian Mafia; controlling it would require access to a source of drugs outside of the Mafia. Lucas claims, even today, to have smuggled drugs in the coffins of U.S. soldiers killed in Vietnam; however, there are significant questions about the validity of this claim, with others involved suggesting pallets that held the coffins were used to smuggle drugs. Regardless of the validity, Lucas was remarkably successful, both as a smuggler and drug trafficker.

By the mid-1970s, Lucas owned property across the United States, ranging from office buildings to a North Carolina ranch. He ran with the social and cultural elites of the time, but made an effort to keep a relatively low profile.

Following his arrest in January 1975, Frank Lucas was sentenced to 70 years in federal prison. Lucas provided evidence leading to more than 100 other drug-related convictions after his sentencing. He was released in 1981 to lifetime probation, but later arrested for another drug offense. He served an additional seven years in prison between 1984 and 1991. He has not been arrested since his 1991 release.

Amado Carrillo Fuentes

Amado Carrillo Fuentes (December 17, 1956 to July 3, 1997) was a Mexican drug lord associated with the Juarez Cartel. Fuentes is sometimes called the “Lord of the Skies”. He maintained a fleet of jets used to transport cocaine from Colombia to Mexico, and relied upon connections in Colombia to launder large amounts of money. By the 1990s, much of the cocaine entering the United States came through Mexico, and Fuentes and the Juarez Cartel were responsible for a significant portion.

Fuentes entered the drug trade quite young. He was the nephew of Ernesto Fonseca Carillo, head of the Guadalajara Cartel. He initially worked for his uncle, learning the trade. By the 1980s, the drug trade in the city of Juarez was under the control of Aguilar Guajardo. Amado Carrillo Fuentes was Guajardo’s lieutenant, and following his death under suspicious circumstances, Fuentes took control of Juarez.

Under Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the organization in Juarez grew substantially. He pioneered the use of air traffic to move cocaine into Mexico. The cocaine was then transported into the U.S. by land. He established significant distribution networks in the United States and became a key target of drug enforcement officials. His actions contributed to the violence in Juarez, Mexico. This drug-related violence continues to trouble the region even today.

In 1997, Carrillo Fuentes underwent significant plastic surgery to change his appearance. He died during surgery, perhaps due to an issue with the respirator. The tortured bodies of his surgeons were later found, and his brother Vicente Carrillo Fuentes took over his role in the Juarez Cartel. The Juarez Cartel remains powerful today; however, their influence and potential for violence has gradually decreased over time.

Rick Ross

“Freeway” Rick Ross (January 26, 1960) is a former drug lord and kingpin. Ross attended high school in Los Angeles, but remained illiterate. Ross was a skilled tennis player, but his illiteracy made him ineligible for college scholarships. One of the teachers at his high school dealt cocaine and offered Ross the chance to begin dealing. Soon, Ross was selling more than the teacher could provide, and moved onto working in the drug trade on a larger scale.

Ross made connections with the Nicaraguan drug trade, providing him access to significantly cheaper cocaine. Ross’ empire dealt in crack cocaine, rather than powder cocaine. With those connections, he could buy and sell in large quantities. Initially, Ross worked primarily with gang-related dealers in the Los Angeles area.

By 1982, Ross was selling up to three million dollars’ worth of cocaine daily in Los Angeles. Ross’ network expanded to include dealers in locations around the United States. Ross’ drug dealers and traffickers were equipped with the best equipment, including police scanners, to help them evade capture.

Ross was arrested on drug trafficking charges in 1996 and sentenced to life in prison under the Three Strikes law. This sentencing was later deemed erroneous and his sentence was reduced to 20 years. Ross was released in 2009, but was again arrested in the fall of 2015 for possessing funds related to the drug trade. He produced an autobiography and documentary following his 2009 release, and did a number of speaking engagements.

Khun Sa

Khun Sa (February 17, 1934 to October 26, 2007) was a Shan warlord commonly known as the “Opium King”. During his lifetime, Khun Sa served both a military role and that of a drug lord. He ran a significant portion of the opium trade in the Golden Triangle. The Golden Triangle is a key opium-producing region in the mountainous areas overlapping Laos, Thailand and Burma.

As a young man, Khun Sa took on military roles, forming his own militia in 1963 in support of Gin Ne Win’s Burmese government. By the mid-1960s, his growing militia was operating independently and in direct support of his efforts in the opium trade. Khun Sa was a prisoner of the Rangoon government in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but returned to the opium trade following his release in the mid-1970s.

A U.S.-supported assassination attempt in 1981 failed, but military efforts in 1982 forced Khun Sa and his forces from Thailand to Myanmar. In 1985, Khun Sa joined forces with a number of other military groups in the region, expanding his power and control. Khun Sa retained control of a significant portion of the opium trade from the Golden Triangle. The drug trade, including the activities of Khun Sa, contributed significantly to ongoing political unrest in Southeast Asia.

Between 1974 and 1994, the share of opium in New York City coming from the Golden Triangle increased from five percent to 80 percent. The quality of heroin from the Golden Triangle was the best available, with a typical purity of around 90 percent. Opium trafficked by Khun Sa made up a significant proportion of that available on the streets of New York, after the drug was processed into heroin.

During the late 1980s, Khun Sa offered to allow Australia, and later the United States, to purchase his annual opium production; however, both declined. Indicted in 1989, Khun Sa made an international offer to largely stop the drug trade from the Golden Triangle, but this was again refused. Khun Sa may have surrendered to Burmese officials in 1996, but was allowed to live out the rest of his life as a free man in Rangoon. He was never extradited to the United States to stand trial.

Felix Mitchell

Felix Mitchell (August 23, 1954 to August 21, 1986) led the criminal organization known as the “69 Mob” and was a key figure in the creation of a gang-based drug trade in the United States. From Oakland, California, Mitchell’s drug empire eventually spread to the Midwest.

Born in Oakland, Mitchell grew up in the 69^th Avenue housing projects, and his criminal organization took its name from those projects. He founded the 69 Mob after dropping out of high school, and over the following years, took control of a significant portion of the heroin trade on the West Coast and further inland. Heroin use was significantly more common in the United States before it was overtaken by the cocaine trade in the mid-1980s. At his peak, Mitchell was earning approximately $800,000 per day in drug sales.

Targeted by law enforcement, Mitchell was sentenced to life in prison in 1985. He was stabbed and died in prison a year later, in 1986. Mitchell’s arrest and death led to an increase in crime and drug sales in Oakland, as smaller gangs attempted to fill his place in the drug trafficking economy, and fought for that place. It is likely that Mitchell had served as a sort of control, limiting gang activity and interactions.

Mitchell’s 1986 funeral in Oakland involved a massive procession, attended by thousands. The funeral, involving a horse-drawn carriage and 14 Rolls Royce limousines was compared to that of Martin Luther King, Jr. This illustrated the prominence of drug culture at the time, drawing attention to the role Mitchell had played in Oakland, and in the drug economy of the 1980s.