Top 10: Drug Kingpins

 

#10 - Monty Brogan

25th Hour
Drugs dealt: Heroin
Edward Norton is a perfect actor to play a drug dealer this complex. He didn’t grow up on the mean streets and his two best childhood friends, Jacob and Frank, are now an English teacher and a stockbroker. He lives in a classy uptown New York apartment with his beautiful girlfriend, Naturelle. Not exactly the typical dealer M.O. However, the uniqueness made him successful, until his partner ratted on him and got seven years in prison.

#9 - Jay & Silent Bob

Clerks
Drugs dealt: Pot
Considered iconic losers, Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith’s characters are the most zen drug dealers of all time. They don’t need Xboxs, plasma TVs or Harold and Kumar DVDs. They’re happy standing outside a convenience store slinging dirt weed, smoking cigarettes and listening to Jay ramble on. They live without desire. Western culture definitely views people like this as failures, but how to let go of society’s demands and live in the present is what Buddhists meditate about for decades.

#8 - Caine Lawson

Menace II Society
Drugs dealt: Crack cocaine, heroin
Much better than Boyz n the Hood, this film is an often overlooked gem from gangster culture. Caine, played by Tyrin Turner (what happened to him?), lives in one of Los Angeles' most dangerous housing projects. Barely out of high school, Caine and his main homey O-Dog rule their area slinging dope, carjacking suckers, banging hood rats, and shooting whoever gets in their way. All this and he has time to care for his girlfriend Ronnie and her son.

#7 - Mr. Nice Guy

Half Baked
Drugs dealt: Pot
Thurgood (Dave Chappelle), Brian (Jim Breuer) and Scarface (Guillermo Diaz) transform from lazy potheads into the weed kingpins of New York, all in an effort to bail their friend Kenny (Harland Williams) out of jail. They do all this in a short time by stealing the best marijuana from a scientific testing facility. They attract famous clientele, bail out their buddy and take out the evil drug lord Samson. A truly feel-good drug tale that spawned the popular slang term: "I wanna talk to Samson!"

#6 - Walter White

Breaking Bad
Drugs dealt: Crystal meth
In his younger days, this chemistry wunderkind (Bryan Cranston) discovered formulas that established a multimillion-dollar empire -- that his partner and ex-girlfriend cut him out of later. Now he’s been reduced to teaching high school chemistry and washing cars as a part-time job to support his pregnant wife and son who has cerebral palsy. When he gets terminal cancer, he stops being scared of life, cooks up the best meth even seen in New Mexico trailer parks, and begins a drug empire all while leading a double life as a responsible father.

#5 - Nancy Botwin

Weeds
Drugs dealt: Marijuana
Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) was a bored soccer mom until her husband dies and leaves the family nearly destitute.  Without any marketable skills, Nancy starts slinging pot to other bored suburbanites to makes some cash. She ends up being amazing and builds her own green kingdom, only to burn it in the wake of her Segway. Now, she has the Mexican cartel under her thumb after refusing to bend in fear and marrying Tijuana’s biggest drug lord.

 

#4 - George Jung

Blow
Drugs dealt: Marijuana and cocaine
Based on the true story of how Pablo Escobar infiltrated the American market with his tasty cocaine, the movie follows American George Jung (Johnny Depp). The resourceful smuggler and dealer became Escobar’s middleman, making millions every run. He originally learned the drug trade by rising to the top of Los Angeles’ pot pyramid and became the main exported of buds to the dry East Coast.

 

#3 - Frank White

King of New York
Drugs dealt: Cocaine
Christopher Walken’s performance as drug lord Frank White may be his best behind Nick in The Deer Hunter and Vincenzo Coccotti in True Romance. He’s a fearless monster, but also has class, charisma and intelligence. After being incarcerated, he wants to give back to the city he loves. He doesn’t volunteer in a soup kitchen. Instead, he tries to use drug money to rebuild a crumbling Bronx hospital. He also has morals and “never killed anybody that didn't deserve it.”

#2 - Omar Little

The Wire
Drugs dealt: Whatever he steals from other dealers, mostly heroin and crack
Little is unlike any other dealer on this list. A pseudo-Robin Hood of the ghetto, he robs from the biggest drug dealers and passes it on to the people in a nicer, more humane manner. He doesn’t give it away, unless a crack mother really needs it, after all, he’s a businessman. People all over Baltimore know his name and fear his shotgun, while he fears no one. If anyone crosses him, he will get even, but only kills other criminals due to his strict moral code. Oh, and did we mention he’s gay in the ghetto. That’s makes him twice as badass.

#1 - Tony Montana

Scarface
Drugs dealt: Cocaine
Who would have thought the Spanish words for mountain would became synonymous with mountains of cocaine? Easily the most iconic drug dealer in cinema history, Tony Montana is the iconic character created by Al Pacino, who is the only actor who could make his cartoonish Cuban accent sinister. A “political refugee” from Cuba, Montana turns into the biggest drug kingpin in Miami. Nearly 30 years after the film’s release, college and thug culture alike still wear T-shirts with Montana’s image and hang his posters on their walls.