Dawood, Osama among World's Most Wanted Fugitives

Underworld don and India's most wanted fugitive Dawood Ibrahim, mastermind of the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, figures third on Forbes' Most Wanted list that has been topped by Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden.

The magazine pointed out that Dawood, who is believed to be hiding in Pakistan, possibly helped the Lashkar-e-Tayiba execute the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and also shares smuggling routes with the Al Qaeda.

"Though the Pakistani government denies it, Ibrahim is probably in Pakistan, where he has important ties to the powerful intelligence service," it said.

The article described Dawood as "the most wanted man in India" who has for years led a 5,000-member criminal syndicate known as D-Company.

"The organised crime group has engaged in everything from narcotics to contract killing, working mostly in Pakistan, India and the United Arab Emirates," the magazine said.

Dawood has moved up from the fourth spot to the third.

Eight years after the 9/11 terror attack, bin Laden, who has a $25 million bounty on his head, successfully continues to escape the manhunt.

"He is assumed to be hiding in Pakistan's tribal areas, but US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said in recent months that the US does not have good intelligence on bin Laden's whereabouts and it might be years before he is caught," Forbes said.

He is reportedly hiding in the tribal belts of Pakistan, but US drones and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's forces have failed to find him, while Islamabad has repeatedly claimed that the world's most wanted terrorist is dead.

The list, carried in the latest edition of the Forbes magazine, also has Mexico's most powerful drug trafficker Joaquin Guzman at second spot. The magazine has been releasing a list of most wanted fugitives for the past three years.

According to the magazine, he is the world's most notorious and powerful drug trafficker. As most of his rivals have been killed in the bloody clashes between the Mexican army and the drug cartels, Guzman has emerged as the most dangerous drug trafficker in the world.

The criminal, known as 'shorty', is the biggest supplier of cocaine and marijuana to the United States. The US administration has placed a $5 million bounty on his head.

He had escaped from a local prison after the Mexican government decided to allow his extradition to the US.

Hector Gonzalez, Federal Bureau of Investigation's supervisory special agent, told Forbes, "Many of these criminals are hiding behind governments for protection."

The article pointed out that since the 2008 list was published, not a single one of the world's most notorious criminals has been brought to justice

He is the boss of the Italian mafia, the most notorious organised criminal gang in the world.

Denaro, also known as Diabolic, became the new chief of the dreaded Italian mafia after the arrest of top boss Bernardo Provenzano, according to Forbes.

Often dubbed as Italy's biggest corporation, the mafia has flourished under Denaro, who is notorious for his playboy antics. He reportedly has a penchant for fast cars and Rolex watches.

"The world has gotten smaller, and there has been globalisation of everything, including crime," said Bradley Bryant, the FBI's violent crimes unit chief told Forbes.

"But the entire process of an international investigation takes longer. It can be a frustrating process and, sometimes, it is a lot slower than we would like it to be," he said.

He is the man behind the heinous Rwandan genocide, one of the worst and goriest mass murders in history. He financed the mass slaughter of over 800,000 Tutsi men, women and children in 1994.

The most wanted man in Africa, who is also a rich businessman, is reportedly hiding in Kenya. The radio station owned by Kabuga not only incited Hutu civilians and the militia to perpetrate violence against their Tutsi neighbours and friends, he also supplied the machetes and hoes that were used to hack the victims of the genocide into pieces.

Other criminals in the list include the Russian face of organised crime Semion Mogilevich, Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, a Russian mobster originally from Uzbeikistan and head of the Lords Resistance Army in the Democratic Republic Congo -Joseph Kony.

At number nine is James Bulger, leader of Boston- based Winter Hill Gang, an Irish American family that controlled illicit drug trade and extortion rackets. At number ten is Omid Tahvili, kingpin of a Persian organised crime family in Canada.