The full list

The global credit crisis may have cost the world’s richest men billions of pounds but one industry seems virtually recession-proof. Mexico’s most wanted drug baron has leapt on to the annual Forbes rich list after a bumper year of cocaine trafficking.

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who is thought to be responsible for thousands of murders, made his debut on the authoritative list with an estimated personal fortune of $1 billion.

Guzman is nicknamed The Dwarf because he is just 5ft tall but he is one of the most feared men in Mexico. His Sinaloa cartel is involved in a vicious drug war that has killed around 7,000 people since the start of last year.

He has been on the run with a $5 million reward on his head since 2001, when he escaped from prison apparently hidden in a laundry truck. He is the number one most wanted man in Mexico and on the Interpol and US wanted lists.

"He is not available for interviews," said Luisa Kroll, senior editor of Forbes magazine. "But his financial situation is doing quite well."

The magazine places Guzman’s worth at £726 million, putting him at number 701 on the list, in between a Swiss oil-trading tycoon and a US chemical heir.

Forbes cited estimates that Guzman and his operation is likely to have grossed 20 per cent of the $18 billion to $39 billion in drug revenues that Mexican and Colombian traffickers laundered last year - “enough for him to have pocketed $1 billion over his career and earn a spot on the billionaires list for the first time”.

Guzman’s fortunes in the past year compare favourably to the rest of the billionaires on the list. Sir Richard Branson and Sir Philip Green were among the nine in 10 billionaires who lost money over the past 12 months. On average, the world’s wealthiest people are estimated to have lost 23 per cent of their total wealth in a year.

When Guzman escaped from prison to the fury of the Mexican authorities, he was serving more than 20 years for criminal association and bribery. Mexican officials are convinced that he leads the Sinaloa drug gang, though he has never been convicted on drug trafficking charges. The government has no comment on the list.

Guzman, 54, is not the first drug trafficker to make the list. Pablo Escobar, the Colombian cocaine lord, was once included, before dying in a shootout with the South American nation’s security forces in 1993.

Times Recommends

• Patty Hearst, the SLA and me
• Palin caught with crib notes scrawled on hand
• Hugo Chávez takes to the airwaves – 24/7