drug cartels
Narcotics crime organizations
Drug cartels are criminal organizations that control the production and distribution of illegal drugs, typically operating across international borders.
The term evokes large-scale operations with hierarchical structures, territorial control, and willingness to use violence: Mexican drug cartels have battled for control of smuggling routes.
Cartels often wield enough power to corrupt or intimidate government officials, blurring lines between organized crime and political force.
- MexicoNorth American southern nation
- sicarioHired killer, Latin American
- hit squadAssassination team
- traffickerIllegal goods dealer
- money launderingDisguising criminal proceeds' origins
blood money · Colombia · enforcer · mules · Golden Triangle · asset seizure · narco state · extortion · extradition · smuggling · organized crime · cocaine · Honduras · Bolivia · plaza · tunnels · racketeering · surveillance
- ColombiaBogota, Medellin, Cali, Colombian flag, Colombian coffee
- black marketblack market, illegal trade, smugglers, contraband, traffickers
- global crimehuman trafficking, arms trafficking, terrorism, money laundering, organized crime
- secret networkssecret societies, cabals, cells, hidden networks, criminal networks
- smugglingcontraband, smugglers, human smuggling, smuggling rings, people smuggling
- drug crimesnarcotics trafficking, cocaine trafficking, fentanyl trafficking, felony possession, illegal possession
drug cartelsBig Pharma
Major medication corporations collectively
Pfizer · Johnson & Johnson · Merck · pharmacies · pharmaceutical industry
drug cartelsDEA
Federal narcotics agency
Drug Enforcement Administration · law enforcement agencies · law enforcement · FBI · police forces
drug cartelshumanitarian organizations
Groups providing emergency relief
charitable foundations · NGOs · Doctors Without Borders · public health agencies · rehabilitation facilities