smuggling ring
Illicit trafficking organization
A smuggling ring is an organized group that illegally transports goods or people across borders—drugs, weapons, contraband, or migrants.
The "ring" suggests a network of coordinated participants rather than a lone operator: Authorities dismantled a smuggling ring that had moved cocaine through the port for years.
The term appears frequently in law enforcement and news contexts.
- cartelPrice-fixing coalition
- organized crimeStructured illegal enterprise
- drug lordCriminal trafficking organization leader
- contrabandProhibited trade goods
- traffickingIllegal transport for profit
underground · border · customs · kingpin · drugs · weapons · network · operation · safe house · bust · informant · syndicate · criminal enterprise · laundering · shell company · stash · mule · hideout
- criminal schemesconspiracy, collusion, racketeering, kickback scheme, assassination plot
- crimerobbery, accomplice, alibi, burglary, conspiracy
- criminal groupsgang, mafia, cartel, mob, syndicate
- smugglingcontraband, human smuggling, people smuggling, smuggling routes, drug trafficking
- organized crimemafia, mob, the mob, syndicate, crime syndicate
- secret organizationscabal, secret society, secret societies, conspiracy, spy network
smuggling ringlaw enforcement agency
Body that upholds statutes
customs enforcement · border patrol · Interpol · DEA · port authority
smuggle, smuggled, smuggler, smugglers, smuggles, ring, rings, ringed, ringing