You must have heard stories about popular drug Lords like Pablo Escobar and El Chapo and how much wealth they made from dealing drugs? What about Amado Carrillo Fuentes’ ? I bet you don’t know him as much. Surprisingly, he is regarded as the richest drug dealer of all time.
Before we take you through Amado Carrillo Fuentes net worth and how much he made from dealing cocaine, let’s quickly take you through a brief biography of this rich drug baron.
Early life
Amado Carrillo Fuentes was born on December 16, 1956, in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, which is located in the northwest. Raised with eleven siblings, he came from a family with strong connections to the Guadalajara Cartel, thanks to his uncle, who was formerly its head. Fuentes was first introduced to the cartel at an early age by his uncle, Ernesto “Don Neto” Fonseca Carrillo, who later rose to the position of senior lieutenant. Afterwards, Fuentes included his son and brothers in the cartel.
Career
Don Neto assigned Amado Fuentes to supervise the Guadalajara Cartel’s cocaine shipment activities in Chihuahua. Amado gained a lot of knowledge from seasoned drug traffickers like Rafael Aguilar Guajardo and Pablo “The Ojinaga Fox” Acosta Villareal during this period. Later on, Amado’s father and one of his brothers died in mysterious ways.
Rafael Aguilar Guajardo, the former head of the Juarez Cartel, employed Fuentes. By killing Guajardo, his previous leader, in 1993, Fuentes took over the entire Juarez Cartel. Various players in the cartel underworld fought for control in what has been called “the city’s worst and ongoing bout of criminal violence” that followed.
Subsequently, with the Juarez Cartel at the forefront, Amado Carrillo Fuentes solidified his position of authority and started to establish a multibillion-dollar drug empire. Fuentes transformed the drug trade by using privately owned aircraft to transfer narcotics across borders. He also made significant investments in cutting-edge surveillance equipment to spy on his competitors.
Amado Carrillo Fuentes was dubbed “El Señor de Los Cielos” (literally, “The Lord of the Skies”) during this period. In the end, Fuentes put together a sizable fleet of private aircraft, which included more than thirty Boeing 727s. Fuentes established a massive money-laundering enterprise in Columbia to pay for these pricey jets.
Additionally, he began collaborating with some of the most well-known figures in the drug trade in Latin America, including Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, Pablo Escobar, the Tijuana Cartel and the Beltran Leyva Cartel.
His death
Eventually, Amado Carrillo Fuentes rose to such prominence and influence that there was a serious risk of serious political corruption in Mexico. Mexicans noticed that Fuentes lived three blocks from the governor’s mansion, Jorge Carrillo Olea, in the state of Morelos. Once residents connected the dots, they concluded that Jorge Olea was collaborating with Fuentes. Already, Jorge Carrillo Olea was facing criticism for his silence as drug-related violence erupted in the neighborhood.
Jorge Carrillo Olea was arrested as soon as he resigned in response to mounting public criticism. Amado Carrillo Fuentes became uneasy. This is because the Mexican anti-drug squads and DEA officers began to hunt for him. He ran from nation to nation, seeking refuge in places like Russia and Cuba.
He consented, as a last option, to a major plastic surgery procedure that would entirely reconstruct his face. It ended disastrously, despite his hopes that this treatment would allow him to start a new life under a new identity. The physicians did their best, but something went wrong during the procedure and Fuentes died. Later, the same surgeons would be slaughtered, tortured and placed into steel drums filled with concrete.
Another period of drug-fueled violence and unpredictability ensued as other cartel bosses attempted to fill the void Fuentes left. A few senior personnel of Fuentes’ organization appeared to be the target of a Juarez restaurant shooting that the members of the Tijuana Cartel carried out. The police seized Fuentes’ assets, including $10 billion in bank accounts and 60 homes around Mexico purportedly used for drug and weapon storage.
One of Amado Carrillo Fuentes’s holdings was a sizable estate with buildings influenced by Arabic design. The palace, known as “The Palace of a Thousand and One Nights,” is a monument to Fuentes’ incredible fortune and is still standing today. A number of lawmakers from Mexico have called for the home to be destroyed.
Vicente Carrillo Leyva, the son of Fuentes and his wife both managed to escape the violence that followed her husband’s death. Sadly, at the time of his father’s death, his son was already deeply engaged in the drug trade and he was taken into custody alongside a number of Fuentes’ accomplices.
To his credit, Amado Carrillo Fuentes had sent his son to some of the most respected colleges in Mexico and had explicitly warned him not to get involved in the drug trade. Vicente rejected his father’s counsel, though, and following his father’s passing, he was charged with money laundering, gun possession and drug trafficking.
Amado Carrillo Fuentes’ burial has been dubbed one of the most opulent and costly in Mexican history. The burial, which took place in Sinaloa, allegedly gathered hundreds of people who wanted to pay their respects and went on for days.
Media controversies following his death
Owing to his illustrious status as one of the most powerful drug lords in history, a variety of actors have depicted Amado Carrillo Fuentes in a number of TV shows. Three distinct Netflix series, El Chapo, Narcos, Narcos: Mexico and Surviving Escobar, have featured a portrayal of Fuentes. The seasons for these shows ran from 2017 to 2018.
Furthermore, Telemundo produced a series called El Señor de Los Cielos that was solely centered about Carrillo Fuentes. The show aired between 2013 and 2019. Actors including Rodrigo Abed, Rafael Amaya, Jose Maria Yazpik, and Mauro Mauad have all played Amado Carrillo Fuentes.
Amado Carrillo Fuentes Networth
Drug lord Amado Carrillo Fuentes, a well-known figure in Mexico, peaked at a net worth of $25 billion. It’s hardly surprising that Fuentes was (and still is) regarded as the richest drug baron of all time, given his stratospheric level of wealth.
He was well-known for using cutting-edge technology in his illicit activities, especially when it came to using airplanes to move large amounts of cocaine. Amado Carrillo Fuentes passed away in 1997 following a poorly executed cosmetic surgery procedure.
