Originally Posted By: Revis_Island
There were some very rich drug dealers like Pablo Escobar, frank Matthews, freeway Ricky Ross, alpo Martinez, Nicky Barnes, bumpy Johnson etc. There's a lot more than I named. But have any mobsters ever matched up against them in terms of power and money? I have a hard time believing it. I was watching a frank Matthews documentary on YouTube and one of the guys said that the mafia was overrated. He said there were many times where they couldn't come up with money. Idk how much stock I would put into what he said but does anyone want to dispute what he said? I know a lot of people have said that carmine lombardozzi made a lot of money. As well as the bosses(obviously).


You have to separate Escobar from the rest of those guys you listed. He was one of the top bosses of a drug cartel that was international in scope. Totally different scale than most of those other guys who operated only within a certain region of the U.S., if not just a certain city.

Guys like Matthews, Ross, Barnes, etc. were millionaires but never saw anything close to a billion dollars. The top guys in the Colombian and Mexican cartels have been worth perhaps $1-2 billion at most. Escobar, the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers, Chapo Guzman, etc.

I personally don't think any American LCN guy ever got close to a billion either. $100 million, yeah. Maybe a few hundred million. But the mafiosi that got close to or north of a billion would probably be found in the syndicates over in Italy.

Last edited by IvyLeague; 09/05/13 02:46 AM.
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