Mexican drug kingpin ‘Chapo’ drops off Forbes billionaire list

Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman has fallen off Forbes magazine’s annual list of the world’s billionaires.

Guzman, who has been in hiding since escaping from a maximum-security prison in 2001, is chieftain of the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico’s biggest and oldest drug-trafficking network.

He first made the billionaire list in 2009 and remained on it until this year.

Luisa Kroll, an editor at Forbes, said that Guzman’s “whereabouts are unknown” and therefore it’s difficult to verify his assets.

“Forbes has been unable to reach him to verify figures and believes an increasing chunk of money is going to protect him and his family,” Kroll wrote on the Forbes site. “He is one of the most powerful people in the world, but no longer someone we are confident enough to call a billionaire.”

Kroll added that there have been unconfirmed rumors of Guzman’s death, but he is believed to be “alive and living in Mexico.”

Guzman’s wife, a former beauty queen who holds American citizenship, gave birth to twin daughters in Southern California in 2011, according to records.