History Main / TheCartel

One of the most infamous cartels was the Medellin cartel, and its leader [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_cartel2_884.jpg Pablo Escobar,]] who ran most of the cocaine trade in the Americas during the '80s and '90s until he was taken down by the Colombian Search Bloc with the assistance of the United States. Escobar's power and reach was so big during his heyday that he was (and still is) referred to as the "world's greatest outlaw." Additionally, the financial magazine ''Forbes'' described him as the [[https://www.forbes.com/sites/halahtouryalai/2015/09/15/watching-netflixs-narcos-heres-pablo-escobar-in-forbes-first-ever-billionaire-issue-in-1987/#1ea33a5b4369 "world's richest criminal."]] Even today, when most people think of Colombia, they think "Cocaine Land" (or should we say, ''País de la Cocaína?" Because "cocaína" is a really common word when discussing these people).

* ''Film/EndOfWatch'': After uncovering a house in South Central with trafficked people inside, Taylor and Z lose the case to the feds. It turns out this was used by the Sinaloe Cartel, who order them murdered.

* "Film/ToySoldiers": The villains of the show are a group of narco-terrorists, the leader of which is the son of a Columbian drug lord whom is imprisoned by the American authorities. The terrorists take an entire boys' boarding school hostage to secure his release.

* ''Series/{{Reacher}}'' has a Venezuelan cartel that's facilitating its operations by cooperating with a criminal syndicate in a small town in the United States with the acquiesce of said town's local government. Together they run a counterfeiting operation for the global black market. When said operation looks to be in danger they and their partners act quickly and brutally to silence any leaks - or at least, they try. They provide a convenient source of mooks for the titular protagonist to slaughter.

* ''Film/ClearAndPresentDanger'', with Ernesto Escobedo, a Columbian cartel leader who had a close friend of the US President murdered for cheating him on his money laundering.

* A Columbian gang appears in ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami2WrongNumber'' as the rivals to TheMafiya, having taken over some of their area as the latter is looking to reclaim it.

The cartel was a popular villain in fiction during the '80s and '90s, when [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnDrugs the drug trade made the headlines]] big time. It made a comeback in the 2010s with the Mexican drug war, which saw the rise of a new breed of brutal cartels that became infamous for their graphic executions and use of propaganda to recruit new foot soldiers and scare their enemies, so expect to see these guys as popular antagonists for the foreseeable future.

* Franz Sanchez' cocaine business in ''Film/LicenceToKill'' is described as an "invisible empire from Chile to Alaska".

* ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' features these as enemies at different points. One mission in ''VideoGame/HitmanCodename47'' is a ShoutOut to ''Film/Scarface1983''.

* ''Series/GangRelated'': Los Angelicos is a Mexican-American crime family in Los Angeles involved with drug trafficking. Even more powerful are their partners, the Metas Cartel from Mexico. The lead character Ryan is Los Angelicos [[TheMole mole]] in the LAPD. [[GoodFeelsGood He starts to enjoy being the good guy]], which causes problems when the police start investigate them.

* ''Series/GangRelated'' is about a cop who's actually TheMole for a Mexican mob. [[GoodFeelsGood He starts to enjoy being the good guy]], which causes problems when the police start investigating his gang.

** ''Better Call Saul'' gives them much more focus, with the other half of the show's plotline and tritagonist Ignacio "Nacho" Vargas allowing the audience to view more of the organization's inner workings.

In the underworld, there are several factions, [[MetroSpecificUnderworld usually based on location and ethnicity]]. The cartel is an umbrella term for many mafia-like groups based in Latin America. In real life, these cartels are behind trafficking cocaine, and occasionally arming and supporting various armed groups, [[WarForFunAndProfit both revolutionaries and counter-revolutionaries]]. Cocaine supplied to the US is refined to crack and sold by GangBangers. Sometimes, they will even engage in HumanTrafficking especially when they are the ones smuggling people into the United States.

* ''Film/SalvationBoulevard'': Guzman is portrayed as a religious version of this, claiming that they're in Mexico, with the guards in his house walking around with automatic weapons and speaking Spanish. [[spoiler: In actuality, they're in a quiet suburban neighborhood and Guzman is in construction.]]

* One of the subplots of ''Series/TheBridgeUS'' involves a cartel operating out of Juarez and using a tunnel on the property of a recently-widowed woman to move their products into the United States. The second season reveals that [[spoiler: the cartel is managed by the CIA to a certain extent, in order to control it]]

* A couple of episodes of ''Series/TheWestWing'' revolve around an international crisis triggered when a group of undercover D.E.A agents are exposed and held hostage by a cartel in Colombia who demand the release of their imprisoned leader (a thinly-veiled version of Pablo Escobar) as a ransom. President Bartlet instead orders a daring covert military operation to rescue them. [[spoiler: Unfortunately the rescuers are led into a trap, several are killed, and the hostages moved to a location so remote and well-defended that the only military option would be to essentially launch a Vietnam-like war to defeat the cartels, leaving Bartlet no option but to negotiate the cartel leader's release via back channels.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Freelancer}}'': The Outcasts are this trope '[[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE]]'.

* ''VideoGame/SaintsRow1'' featured a Colombian cartel supporting the Carnales gang. [[spoiler: They eventually switch allegiance to the Saints.]]

* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': In the second season episode "The Game of Go", a US Marine is captured by a drug baron in Colombia while on joint operation with the Colombian authorities.

* Mexico has many, but perhaps the most infamous cartel is ''Los Zetas''. Their founders were [[FromCamouflageToCriminal Mexican special forces who went rogue and started doing work for the Gulf Cartel]]. Nowadays, they are an autonomous cartel as well as enemies of the Gulf Cartel, and many of their founding members are either arrested or dead, meaning they aren't as deadly as they used to be, but they are still known for their brutality. Just how feared are these guys? Well, one day, they threatened to kill the inhabitants of the small city Ciudad Mier. All 4,000 inhabitants left the town, leaving it completely abandoned.
** Usually Mexican Cartels are business-like and exude a PragmaticVillainy aura: they usually look for profit and if you don't mess with them, they don't mess with you.[[note]]A common adage among criminals is that you only beat the debtor half to death; if he's still in the hospital he can still make the next payment.[[/note]] Los Zetas took this to the opposite extreme: running protection rackets against anyone regardless of economic level or profit, attacking and killing civilians [[ForTheEvulz for little to no reason]], killing the entire family of an enemy instead of only the enemy, kidnapping and horribly killing victims even when the ransom is paid, among other atrocities to a nationwide extent. And we have yet to get to the nasty parts; folks who have pissed off Mexican Cartels particularly badly usually have [[CruelAndUnusualDeath demises of the sort you can only see on [=LiveLeak=] and never leave your mind again even if just described]].
*** To summarize this, while most Mexican Cartels can be considered Italian-styled, the Zetas can be considered TheMafiya - that is, Russian-styled.

* The Chinese Communist Party would often employ cartels to smuggle Fentanyl to the United States which is responsible for a lot of American deaths during their operation, especially during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

* The Chinese Communist Party would often employ cartels to smuggle Fentanyl to the United States which is responsible for lots and lots of American deaths during their operation, especially during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The cartel was a popular villain in fiction during the '80s and '90s, when the drug trade made the headlines big time. It made a comeback in the 2010s with the Mexican drug war, which saw the rise of a new breed of brutal cartels that became infamous for their graphic executions and use of propaganda to recruit new foot soldiers and scare their enemies, so expect to see these guys as popular antagonists for the foreseeable future.

* VideoGame/SaintsRow1 featured a Colombian cartel supporting the Carnales gang. [[spoiler: They eventually switch allegiance to the Saints.]]