The profits of organized crime from drug trafficking alone over the last 38 years (1988–2025) amount to 17,641 billion dollars.[1]
In 2025, there were 3,028 billionaires with a net wealth of 16,100 billion dollars.[2]
The accumulated profits obtained by organized crime from drug trafficking alone during the last 38 years are higher than the wealth of all the billionaires in the world.
The combined wealth of organized crime is much higher than the wealth of all the billionaires in the world because:
- Organized crime achieves substantial profits apart from drug trafficking. Profits from human trafficking account to $150 billion annually,[3] and counterfeiting activities bring between $923 billion and $1,300 billion annually to organized crime.[4]
- The profits of organized crime invested in legal businesses generate, in turn, significant revenues.
- We can expand the timeframe from 38 to more than 100 years, as organized crime has been making a profit for centuries.
There are only two possibilities: either the profits of organized crime are used by private individuals, or, for the most part, the profits are not used by private individuals.
If the profits of organized crime are used by private individuals in the world, there should be thousands of billionaires in dollars, more illegal billionaires than legal ones. Because organized crime is richer than all the billionaires in the world, it has real economic power. Holders of economic power are also the dominant force of political power. If the profits of organized crime are used by private individuals, we come to the conclusion that organized crime is the main force that dominates the global economic power, implicitly the political power.
In the second case, the profits, for the most part, are not used by private individuals, but by states. In this case, the perpetrators of organized crime are millionaires, but not billionaires. The profits of organized crime, for the most part, are spent, year after year, by the states and thus there are no billionaires from illegal activities.
Because billionaires from illegal activities are not known now,[5] and because in the past it is known that Western states were the ones who organized drug trafficking, the second option is the right one: states control organized crime.
Consider that estimates are largely inaccurate. Even if the profits invested from drug trafficking alone were 10 times smaller, organized crime would have a fortune of 8,802 billion dollars.[6] A sufficiently high amount to make those who control organized crime some of the richest men on the planet, and there should be hundreds of billionaires from illegal activities. As both versions are false, even in the case where the organized crime’s profits were only a fraction of the real ones, we reach the same conclusion: states control organized crime.
If the Western States are those which organize the global drug trafficking, this means that:
- there is no democracy because there is an unseen side of the State which remains unchanged regardless of the result of the elections;
- there is no rule of law because there are no laws for the powerful;
- capitalism is a system where the most immoral individuals are those who lead society.
For the first case, in which we come to the conclusion that organized crime is the dominant force on the planet:
- there is no democracy because the dominant force is the organized crime;
- there is no rule of law, most of the organized crime is above the law;
- in the capitalist system organized crime comes to govern the society.
Whether the profits of organized crime are used by private individuals or by states, the conclusion is the same: there is no democracy, no rule of law, and capitalism is an immoral, inhuman system.
The dominant ideology of the world: liberal democracy - based on democracy, the rule of law, capitalism - in practice is false.
Notes:
1. Taking inflation into account:[1.1] drug revenues of $124 billion in (December) 1988 [1.2] would be equivalent to $333 billion in December 2025, drug revenues of $400 billion in 1997 [1.3] would be equivalent to $803 billion in 2025, drug revenues of $321.6 billion in 2003 [1.4] would be equivalent to $565 billion in 2025, drug revenues of $539 billion in 2014 [1.5] would be equivalent to $743 billion in 2025. Linearly interpolating the missing values gives a total revenue of $25,202 billion,[1.6] from 1988 to 2025. 70% [1.2] of these revenues are profits available for investment: $25,202 x 70% = $17,641 billion.
1.1 https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl
1.2 "The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) estimated that in the late 1980s, sales of cocaine, heroin and cannabis amounted to approximately US$124 billion per year in the United States and Europe, of this total some US$85 billion or 70% was considered to have been available for money laundering and investment."
"The $124 billion referred to estimates for 1988;"
https://www.unodc.org/pdf/WDR_2005/volume_1_chap2.pdf p. 123
1.3 "1997 World Drug Report estimated a likely turnover of the illicit drug industry at around $400 billion."
https://www.unodc.org/pdf/WDR_2005/volume_1_chap2.pdf p. 124
1.4 "Based on the inputs and the calculations explained above, the value of the global illicit drug market for the year 2003 was estimated at US$13 bn at the production level, at $94 bn at the wholesale level (taking seizures into account), and at US$322bn based on retail prices and taking seizures and other losses into account."
https://www.unodc.org/pdf/WDR_2005/volume_1_chap2.pdf p. 127
1.5 "Drug Trafficking between $426 billion to $652 billion" - average of $539 billion
http://www.gfintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Transnational_Crime-final.pdf p. xi
1.6 The Dark Wealth https://thedarkstates.blogspot.com/p/the-dark-wealth.html Note 8
2. 2025 "The 39th annual Forbes list of the world's billionaires found a record 3,028 billionaires with a total net worth of $16.1 trillion."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World%27s_Billionaires
3. https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_243201/lang--en/index.htm
4. http://www.gfintegrity.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Transnational_Crime-final.pdf p. xi
5. https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/
6. The Dark Wealth https://thedarkstates.blogspot.com/p/the-dark-wealth.html
