drug cartel
A transnational criminal network controlling stages of the illegal drug trade
A drug cartel is, in an international context, a criminal organization or network that systematically controls one or more stages of the drug trade — typically the production, transport and distribution of illegal substances such as cocaine, heroin or methamphetamine. The term does not belong to any single national legal system, but is used broadly in international law and within the United Nations framework on transnational organized crime. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) describes drug trafficking as one of the most widespread forms of transnational organized crime.
A cartel differs from individuals or smaller gangs through its organizational capacity: control over routes, markets and supply chains, often with an internal hierarchical structure and violent enforcement of territories and agreements. The purpose is primarily economic — to create and maintain profit by dominating illegal drug markets. To achieve this, cartels use means such as bribery of officials, intimidation of witnesses, internal disciplinary violence and armed conflict with rival networks. It is these mechanisms that in a true-crime context are described as the violence and power struggles of the "cocaine wars".
In the articles on Miami's cocaine economy — including the Falcon & Magluta network and the geographical traces of the cocaine war — "drug cartel" is used about specific criminal actors who in the 1970s and 1980s controlled large parts of the cocaine imports into the United States via Miami. These networks operated across Latin America and North America and are central examples of how cartels function as transnational criminal actors.
The term is not a formal legal designation with a fixed definition in international treaty law, but is used consistently by UNODC, law enforcement authorities and courts to describe this type of organized, profit-driven cross-border drug trafficking.
