People say crime doesn’t pay, but if you look back at history, it doesn’t seem to be completely true. People start off living in tough situations, in which their only choice is to turn to a life of crime. Some spend years trying to make money and rise to the top of their gang, only to die or be imprisoned. Meanwhile, others roll the dice and make their way to the top. Three of the most powerful gang members of the past 100 years are Al Capone, Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria, and Joaquin Archibald Guzman Loera. Gangs have always had a strong influence on people. Al Capone was known for getting people to do as he pleased. Heroin, cocaine, and marijuana have come up from multiple Central and South American countries including Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico. Al Capone, also known as “Scarface”, ran a gang worth a hundred million dollars, Pablo Escobar and El Chapo formed two of the most powerful cartels to ever exist in the cocaine smuggling business. The Medellin Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel has had an influence in 80% of the world’s cocaine sales.
Alphonso Capone was born in Brooklyn New York on January 17, 1899. Al Capone has grew his wealth from speakeasies, prostitution, and gambling rings. He started off by working for his friend Johnny Torrio. Torrio took Capone under his wing and molded him into an infamous mob boss. He killed a man that assaulted one of his friends, but was later sent free due to there being a lack of witnesses and evidence. (A&E Networks, 2017) He managed to infiltrate the police force and gain power through elections and extortion. He made money by selling bootleg whiskey during the Prohibition Era. He grew up in New York City, but he ran Chicago. Al Capone was not such a heartless criminal. He set up soup kitchens for the community. He even started expiration dates on food. (Zakovsky, 2011). He married Mae Coughlin. One of Capone’s most infamous moves was the Valentine’s Day Massacre. Men dressed as police officers came to the garage of George Morgan, Al Capone’s Irish enemy. The officers pretended to arrest the men before gunning them down while they were lined up. (A&E Networks, 2017) President Herbert Hoover believed Capone deserved to be in jail. Eliot Ness was able to do this along with Andrew Mellon and the Untouchables. Capone was sent to Alcatraz prison in 1934 for tax evasion. He spent 11 years their and by the time he was released, was too sick to continue running the mob. (A&E Networks, 2017) Al Capone died January 25, 1947.
Pablo Escobar started off by selling marijuana. Then he heard that a new drug was becoming an important deal. He wanted to be a part of it and became one of Forbes 10 richest people of the 1980’s. Pablo Escobar was one of the wealthiest drug lords during the 1980’s, earning about $30 billion in profit from selling cocaine. (A&E Networks, 2017). He founded the Medellin Cartel in Colombia. His dream was to be president of Colombia. He was a man of the people. He sold cocaine from Colombia by plane to other smaller countries in Central America, and then sent it by cargo ships through the United States. Even though Pablo Escobar was a ruthless drug lord, he cared about the poor and founded schools and hospitals. His dream was to become president of Colombia. He ran a campaign that was going very well until the government revealed that he was a drug lord and he lost influence with the people, preventing him from being president. He managed to assassinate a presidential candidate that was in favor of winning. Luis Carlos Galan was in favor of extradition and was against the cartels. He was killed on August 18, 1989 during a public rally. (Bernardo, 2015). He then began a war with the government to prevent extradition of prisoners from Colombian jails to jails in the United States. Pablo Escobar even started a war with the Cali Cartel as he was fighting the Colombian government, another powerful cocaine distributor. The Medellin Cartel controlled parts of the Southern United States, with their biggest target being Miami. The Cali cartel controlled New York and the northeast. He kidnapped the family members of people in power. He would be labeled a narco-terrorist for the amount of deaths he caused. He Pablo turned himself in to stop extradition. He was placed in a luxurious prison that he ran with his own men. The Colombian government tried to place him somewhere more secure, but he escaped. Steve Murphy and Javier Pena were the DEA agents that were in charge of taking down Escobar. He was killed after a shootout on the roof of a building in Medellin by the Colombian National Police on December 2, 1973. After Pablo’s death, the Medellin Cartel disbanded, and was replaced by a different cartell.
Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman was born in LA Tuna on April 4, 1957. Like Escobar, El Chapo grew up in poverty. He wanted to be rich and did so by joining a gang. The Guadalajara Cartel established itself in Mexico. El Chapo oversaw parts of this Cartel before the arrest of its founder. El Chapo rose to power after inheriting parts of this cartel. With his newfound resources, El Chapo Guzman founded the Sinaloa Cartel.
The Sinaloa Cartel used underground tunnels to smuggle narcotics into the United States. It’s power stretches from South America to the United States. The cartel sold narcotics in 5 continents. In 2009, El Chapo reached number 701 on Forbes list of richest people (Bieth, page 4). El Chapo may have been married up to four times. (Bieth, page 3)Bloody feuds with other cartels increased the amount of deaths. The Sinaloa’s biggest rival is Los Zetas. Over an estimated 1000 rival drug members died as a result of the feuds. “El Chapo has said that he has killed between two and three thousand people” (Time, page 5).
El Chapo was arrested in 2014 and sent to prison in Mexico, where he later escaped. A mile long tunnel was constructed under the prisoner’s cell. El Chapo used a motorcycle inside the tunnel. The police found him a few weeks later, and put him behind bars. The government demands 14 billion dollars from El Chapo because they believe it to be the amount that he made selling drugs. (Estevez, 2017) After his arrest, the Sinaloa Cartel began to separate and fight each other. They started on a path toward their own war against themselves. The United States extradited El Chapo in January 2017 and charged with multiple crimes, including narco-terrorism. Right now he is locked up in New York , and he says that he is starting to go insane.
All these men made their money by breaking the law. They played the system until they made it and kept playing until they lost their lives or their freedom. These three gang lords have committed some of the most heinous crimes imaginable, from murder to terrorism. They have a lot in common, from starting with nothing to becoming some of the biggest names in crime. Their nicknames strike fear in people. They have gone down in history as some of the most notorious and powerful men in history. Their organized crime syndicates are responsible for money laundering, movement of contraband, and massacres. All these men were stopped by good police work. Their rein of terror each lasted for decades, but they all came to an end. All of these men went against the government and lost. Their wars had many civilian casualties. They did not care. They only cared about their business and how much they were making.