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Mexican Drug Lord Makes Forbes Billionaire List
Guzman controls 20% of all cocaine traffic in Mexico, Colombia
By Jason Farago
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Posted Mar 13, 09 7:55 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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Many of the world's richest people have lost their spots on Forbes' list of billionaires, but there's at least one head-turning new addition: the head of the Sinaloa cartel, currently embroiled in a Mexican drug war that's left 7,000 people dead. Joaquin Guzman, the 5-foot-tall drug trafficker known as "El Chapo" ("The Dwarf"), escaped from a prison in 2001 and remains at large. "He is not available for interviews," a Forbes editor conceded.
Guzman hit $1 billion after a banner year for cocaine trafficking; his operation is estimated to gross 20% of all the drug revenues in Mexico and Colombia. Believed to live in Mexico or Central America, he married an 18-year-old bride in 2007 under fearsome security. Guzman isn't the first trafficker to make the Forbes list; Pablo Escobar was once ranked the 7th richest man in the world before dying in a shootout with the Colombian police.