Drug cartel

Drug cartels are criminal organizations developed with the primary purpose of promoting and controlling drug trafficking operations. They range from loosely managed agreements among various drug traffickers to formalized commercial enterprises. The term was applied when the largest trafficking organizations reached an agreement to coordinate the production and distribution of cocaine. Since that agreement was broken up drug cartels are no longer actually cartels in the proper sense of the word, but the term stuck and is now popularly used to refer to any criminal narcotics related organization.

Drug cartels operate in many countries, including Colombia, Brazil, Central America, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Mexico, Afghanistan and South Asia. Some cartels are even establishing themselves in U.S. cities like New York, Phoenix, Houston, Atlanta, Los Angeles and San Diego.

Colombia

Colombian or just Colombian cartels is a generic term that usually refers to three, usually rival, criminal organizations involved in narcotrafficking in Colombia:

• Medellín Cartel
• Cali Cartel
• Norte del Valle Cartel

It sometimes also refers to other, lesser-known criminal organizations:

• North Coast Cartel

Other organizations in Colombia involved in drug trafficking include:

• Black Eagles
• AUC
• ELN
• FARC

Significant cartels in Mexico

• Gulf Cartel - based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas
• Juárez Cartel - based in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua
  • La Línea - based in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua
• Sinaloa Cartel - based in Culiacán, Sinaloa
• Tijuana Cartel - based in Tijuana, Baja California
• La Familia Cartel - based in Morelia, Michoacán
• Beltrán-Leyva Cartel - based in Sinaloa
• Los Zetas - based in Reynosa, Tamaulipas
• Los Negros - based in Coahuila

References

• PBS. 2006. Frontline: Drug Wars.
• Worldpress.org. 2006. "Mexico: Drug Cartels a Growing Threat." Worldpress.org.