<P> Marcos Arturo Beltrán Leyva (September 27, 1961--December 16, 2009) was the leader of the Mexican drug - trafficking organization known as the Beltrán - Leyva Cartel, which is headed by the Beltrán Leyva brothers: Marcos Arturo, Carlos, Alfredo and Héctor . The cartel was engaged in cocaine, marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine production, transportation, and wholesaling . It controlled numerous drug - trafficking corridors into the U.S. and was also responsible for human smuggling, money laundering, extortion, kidnapping, murder, contract killing, torture, gun - running, and other acts of violence in Mexico . The organization was connected with the assassinations of numerous Mexican law - enforcement officials . </P> <P> Frank Lucas is a former heroin dealer and organized crime boss who operated in Harlem, New York during the late 1960s and early 1970s . He was known for cutting out middlemen in the drug trade and buying heroin directly from his source in the Golden Triangle . Lucas boasted that he smuggled heroin using the coffins of dead American servicemen, but this claim is denied by his South Asian associate, Leslie "Ike" Atkinson . His career was dramatized in the 2007 feature film American Gangster starring Denzel Washington . </P> <P> Leroy Antonio "Nicky" Barnes (born October 15, 1933) is a former drug lord and crime boss of the notorious African - American crime organization known as The Council, which controlled the heroin trade in Harlem, New York during the 1970s . In 2007 he released a book, Mr Untouchable, written with Tom Folsom, and a documentary DVD of the same name, about his life . In the 2007 film American Gangster, Barnes is portrayed by Cuba Gooding, Jr . </P> <P> Zhenli Ye Gon (traditional Chinese: 葉 真理; born January 31, 1963, Shanghai, People's Republic of China) is a Mexican businessman of Chinese origin accused of trafficking pseudoephedrine into Mexico from Asia . At the time of his arrest, he had $207 million cash and 18 million Mexican pesos in his house . He claimed that he was forced by Javier Lozano Alarcón, putatively identified as the Secretary of Labor, to keep it at his home and that this money would be used during Felipe Calderón's presidential campaign in 2006 . He is the legal representative of Unimed Pharm Chem México . The charges against him were dismissed with prejudice in August 2009 as a result of the efforts of his attorneys, Manuel J. Retureta and A. Eduardo Balarezo . </P>

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