WASHINGTON, Nov 12, 2009 (AFP) - The leader of a Mexican drug cartel made Forbes' magazines list of the world's most powerful people, well ahead of France's President Nicolas Sarkozy and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman, head of the feared Sinaloa cartel, was number 41 on the Forbes list, published Thursday on the business magazine's website.

The magazine said he was believed to have shipped between six and 19 billion dollars (S$26.4 billion) worth of cocaine to the United States over the last eight years, using elaborate tunnels to evade border controls.

"Diminutive nickname "El Chapo," or Shorty, belies fearsome behavior: as power behind struggle with government forces to control transport corridors to US, responsible for thousands of deaths," the magazine said.

Guzman was arrested in 1993 on homicide and drug charges, but escaped in 2001.

The magazine's list of the world's most powerful persons was led by President Barack Obama, followed by China's President Hu Jintao, and Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The 67-person list is populated by politicians, billionaires and even religious leaders like Pope Benedict XVI, who was number 11, behind Microsoft founder William Gates and just ahead of Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Osama bin Laden was 37th on the list, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was 40th, Medvedev was 43rd, Sarkozy was 56th and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez was 67th.