Line #62 Main/TheCartel


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6	[[quoteright:350:[[Series/{{Narcos}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cali_cartel_800x450.png]]]]
7	[[caption-width-right:350:The Gentlemen of Cali.]]
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9	The Mafia... [[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace BUT HISPANIC!]]
10
11	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.
12
13	One of the most infamous cartels was the Medellin Cartel and its leader [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Escobar 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 were 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).
14
15	The cartel was a popular villain in fiction during TheEighties and TheNineties, 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.
16
17	For their adversaries and affiliates, see TheMafia, TheMafiya, KosherNostra, {{Yakuza}}, TheTriadsAndTheTongs, and GangBangers. See also TheSyndicate. Usually the RuthlessForeignGangsters in works set during the 80's, and occasionally engaged in a MobWar with another organized crime group.
18
19	Not to be confused with literal cartels in the sense of small groups of [[MegaCorp large companies]] [[CorruptCorporateExecutive conspiring to manipulate the market]], though that's the source for their name, since each group tries to corner the drug market by violence.
20	----
21	!!Examples:
22	[[foldercontrol]]
23
24	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
25	* ''Manga/BlackLagoon'' has a Colombian drug cartel as one of the {{four\|IsDeath}} criminal organisations in Roanapur, who were the focus of one StoryArc. Just to give you an idea of how insanely dangerous [[WretchedHive Roanapur]] is, they are depicted as the ''least threatening'' faction (even the Italians are more ruthless).
26	** Although it has to be noted that the most dangerous individual in this universe also works for a Cartel - but this Cartel is benign compared to everyone else, as long as you do not threaten its heir.
27	* ''Manga/{{Teekyuu}}'' has a festival hosted by the "Mexican mafia". Said "mafia" ends up having a shootout with the local ''{{yakuza}}'' after a fireworks show.
28	[[/folder]]
29
30	[[folder:Comic Books]]
31	* ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'': While Frank was taking a [[BusmansHoliday vacation]] in the pages of ''The Punisher War Journal'', he ran afoul of a Peruvian crime lord who became his prime target after an terror attack on a judge that left several innocent bystanders dead.
32	* ''ComicBook/TheKiller'': The protagonist's employers in several albums are members of a Colombian narco-cartel, who thinks he still owes them a favor after botching a previous hit in Paris (he did kill the intended target, but only after gunning down several other people).
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
36	* In ''FanFic/WorldwarWarOfEquals'', when The Race's Mexican invasion force reaches the city of Ciudad Juarez, every drug cartel in the city, including the infamous Juarez cartel, fight ''[[EnemyMine alongside]]'' the Mexican garrison in the city to combat the Race.
37	* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/14997911/chapters/34760702 The Horsewomen Of Las Vegas]]'' has La Eme, led by Wrestling/MilMascaras, and a smaller GangBangers group, the Latin American Exchange.
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Films]]
41	* ''Film/Scarface1983'' involves Cuban-born Miami drug lord Tony Montana participating in a cocaine trafficking operation run by the Bolivian mobster Alejandro Sosa. Eventually though Tony runs afoul of Sosa, which leads to Sosa sending out dozens of his henchmen to attack Tony's mansion in the film's ending.
42	* The plot of ''Film/NoCountryForOldMen'' is kicked off when a local Texas man named Llelwyn Moss finds a bag of money next to several dead or dying Mexican cartel members in an apparent drug deal gone wrong. It's later revealed that they worked for real-life drug kingpin Pablo Acosta's Juarez cartel; Acosta then hires the hitman [[ImplacableMan Anton Chigurh]] to kill Moss and get the money back. Chigurh kills his handler and later three other cartel members to take the prize himself, and it becomes a three-way hunt for the money. [[spoiler:Ultimately, cartel hitmen end up killing Moss offscreen (at the cost of two of their own dying in the process); while Chigurh escapes with most of the cash (though, given his injuries and the ongoing manhunt, he's probably not going to get far). While no one in this story gets a happy ending at all, the Juarez cartel gets particularly screwed over, having lost over a dozen members and millions of dollars during the events of the film.]]
43	* ''Film/{{Blow}}'' is about a white American dealer who deals with the cartels, including Pablo Escobar.
44	* [[Creator/RobertRodriguez Robert Rodriguez's]] ''[[Film/ElMariachi Mariachi]]'' [[Film/{{Desperado}} tri]][[Film/OnceUponATimeInMexico logy]] pits the protagonist against the Cartels.
45	* The cocaine business of Franz Sanchez (Creator/RobertDavi) in ''Film/LicenceToKill'' is described as an "invisible empire from Chile to Alaska". Film/JamesBond has no governmental reason to be involved since Sanchez has no apparent part in the ongoing UsefulNotes/ColdWar (rather it's the Hong-Kong Narcotics who handle it, and Bond precisely runs afoul of their operation), it's just that Sanchez [[ItsPersonal made it personal]] by having Bond's BestFriend Felix Leiter maimed by sharks and Leiter's newlywed wife raped and killed. A RoaringRampageOfRevenge against Sanchez's cartel ensues, and by the end the cartel is completely wiped out.
46	* ''Film/XXx'': Xander and two other potential recruits for the CIA are flown to Colombia and dropped off in narco territory as a test to see which of them would be badass enough to survive. Just as they're about to become victims to a TortureTechnician, the Colombian army swoops in to dismantle the farm.
47	* ''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.
48	* ''Film/Traffic2000'' features a Mexican cartel as the antagonist.
49	* ''Film/ClearAndPresentDanger'', with Ernesto Escobedo, a Colombian cartel leader who had a close friend of the US President murdered for cheating him on his money laundering.
50	* In ''Film/ActOfValor'', the terrorist BigBad is being aided by a Ukrainian crime lord who controls a drug-running cartel stretching from Central America to Mexico. The SEAL team first has to rescue a CIA agent being tortured by the cartel in Central America before tracking their operations across the globe and raiding the Ukrainian leader's boat. The final battle is between the combined US Navy SEAL[=/=]Mexican SOF team and the cartel soldiers and terrorists, the former of whom are trying to smuggle the latter's suicide bombers into the United States.
51	* In the 2000 remake ''Film/{{Bedazzled\|2000}}'', Elliot wishes to be "very very rich and very very powerful and married to Alison" (his crush). How does the Devil grant his wish? By making him a rich Colombian drug lord (a clear {{Expy}} of Escobar). Oh, and his wife is not only having an affair, she hates his guts. [[LiteralGenie Well, he never said she had to love him]].
52	* Mexican drug cartels are among the antagonists in ''Film/{{Machete}}''.
53	* ''Film/CodeOfSilence'': The Comachos are a Colombian drug syndicate involved in a MobWar with TheMafia.
54	* ''Film/{{Sicario}}'' is about an FBIAgent tagging along on a CIA operation to dismantle a Mexican cartel. She later discovers that [[spoiler:the mysterious Alejandro is actually working for the new Medellin cartel, which is being backed by the US to stabilize the drug trade]].
55	* ''Film/TripleFrontier'': Five friends, all US military veterans, gather to rob a Colombian cartel from several hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cash in the Amazon rainforest.
56	* The 2004 film ''Maria, Full of Grace'' features an unspecified Colombian cartel, which provides the title character with money and papers to travel to New York--provided that she [[TreasureChestCavity takes a little something]] with her on the flight.
57	* ''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.]]
58	* The Bisante Cartel in ''Film/FireBirds'' are a very militant drug cartel, complete with a pair of fighter jets and a mercenary pilot in an attack chopper.
59	* These are the main antagonists of ''[[Film/CrocodileDundee Crocodile Dundee II]]''.
60	* In ''[[Film/IronEagle Aces: Iron Eagle III]]'', [[ThoseWackyNazis Kleiss]] runs a drug cartel in Peru.
61	* ''Film/RamboLastBlood'' has a powerful cartel led by a man named Don Miguel, whose stock in trade is not drugs but rather HumanTrafficking, particularly selling off young women as [[SexSlave sex slaves]].
62	* ''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. [[spoiler:Taylor and Z put up a good fight when The Cartel soldiers come calling, [[TheHeroDies but they don't make it out alive]].]]
63	* The main antagonists of ''Film/TigersAreNotAfraid'' are the Huascas, a brutal drug cartel seeking a phone with incriminating evidence.
64	* ''Film/{{Peppermint}}'': Diego Garcia heads up the local branch of a powerful Latin American drug-trafficking syndicate in LA. They are the main antagonists as Riley, a woman whose family their thugs murdered, goes after them.
65	* ''Film/DeepCover'': Russell is tasked with infiltrating the fictional Gallegos Cartel, which is said to supply nearly 40% of the entire cocaine supply to the West Coast.
66	* ''Film/{{Snitch}}'': John gets connected to a Mexican drug cartel that is responsible for cocain trafficking in the region, and does a deal with their local boss himself. They have far more reach than other gangs in the area, and power as well, making his undercover operation against them much riskier.
67	[[/folder]]
68
69	[[folder:Literature]]
70	* ''Literature/TheBlackIce'': Humberto Zorillo is head of a Mexican drug-smuggling operation sending black ice into the United States. Bosch eventually discovers that both the Jimmy Kapps drug mule murder and the murder of the Mexican in the alleyway tie in to Zorillo's operation and Cal Moore's death.
71	* ''Literature/TheCartel'' focuses on the war against the cartels in Mexico. The main ones are: the Sinaloa Cartel, Los Zetas, La Familia Michoacana and the Juarez Cartel.
72	* ''Literature/ClearAndPresentDanger'' by Creator/TomClancy features the Medellin Cartel as the primary antagonists of the novel, in a conflict that escalates into something of an unofficial war between them and the United States.
73	* [[Creator/RichardMorgan Richard Morgan's]] ''Literature/BlackMan'' prominently features a cartel comprised of Quechua-speaking indigenous Andeans.
74	* ''Literature/TheFragilityOfBodies'': The main antagonists of the story are a cartel group in Buenos Aires that is behind the GameOfChicken competition that is getting children killed on train tracks. They also deal in all the crimes one comes to expect from cartels, such as drug trafficking, intimidation, blackmail, assassination, and kidnapping.
75	* ''Literature/ThePowerOfTheDog'' and its sequel ''Literature/TheCartel'', both written by Creator/DonWinslow, chart the growth of the Mexican drug trade from its infancy in the Sixties to the unbelievable carnage of the early-2000s. True crime fans will immediately notice that while all names and groups are fictional, almost all of them are either based on or inspired by actual criminals, cops, cartels, terrorist organizations, and events. Chief among the characters are [[CowboyCop DEA Agent Arturo "Art" Keller]] and his lifelong nemesis [[TheDon Adan Barrera]]. Winslow spent [[ShownTheirWork six years]] researching the Mexican underworld, on both sides of the border, to make the first novel as realistic as possible.
76	* ''Literature/PavlovsDogs'' has one of these as one of the few bastions of civilization left AfterTheEnd.
77	* ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'' has a particularly horrible version, where the most extreme gangsters take over as warlords in post-apocalyptic Mexico and set up a cannibalistic ReligionOfEvil dedicated to the Aztec gods.
78	* ''Literature/WarsOfTheRealm'': in ''Light of the Last'', Drew Carter's first mission as a newly-trained CIA agent is to infiltrate a drug cartel in Puerto Rico.
79	[[/folder]]
80
81	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
82	* Season 3 of ''Series/TwentyFour'' prominently featured one run by Ramon and Hector Salazar, [[DiscOneFinalBoss the main antagonists of the season's first half]]. As well as the usual drug smuggling, they're trying to diversify by planning to obtain a deadly virus.
83	* ''Film/{{Arachnicide}}'': The secondary antagonists are a worldwide drug ring using genetic engineering to maximize crops.
84	* ''Series/BreakingBad'' and ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' features a fictionalized version of the Juarez cartel from Mexico, who act as the main antagonists for the first three seasons of the former show (and also play a significant role in the latter show).
85	** The New Mexico branch is initially headed by Tuco Salamanca; his cousins Leonel and Marco are [[ProfessionalKillers highly lethal enforcers]] for the main operation. All three were raised by their uncle, Hector, [[TheDragon the longtime right-hand man]] (until [[RetiredMonster a stroke rendered him mute and paralyzed]]) of the head of the cartel, [[TheDon Don]] [[GreaterScopeVillain Eladio]].
86	** Unlike most other fictional drug cartels, their primary business is crystal meth (at least in the series context; it's mentioned they deal in cocaine and heroin offscreen as well, with cocaine still their primary export in the prequel until it's displaced by meth).
87	** Their relationship with Gus Fring (and therefore Walter White) is... complicated. In ''Breaking Bad'', they aren't as prominent in the plot as other antagonists, especially later on, but it's repeatedly noted that they have by far the most resources of any criminal group featured in the show. While they're still around in Season 4 of the show, [[spoiler:Gus ends up supplanting them as a threat by fatally poisoning most of their leadership, which combined with a successful DEA crackdown, cripples their operations in New Mexico]].
88	** ''Better Call Saul'' gives them much more focus, with the other half of the show's plotline and tritagonist Ignacio "Nacho" Varga allowing the audience to view more of the organization's inner workings.
89	* 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]]
90	* The Cartel--of various ethnic flavors--shows up fairly frequently on ''Series/BurnNotice'', in various roles: sometimes as the enemy, sometimes as the ManBehindTheMan, and sometimes as an unwitting ally.
91	* On ''Series/{{Caprica}}'', the Ha'la'tha is a bizarre merging of this with the more Italian-oriented [[TheMafia Mafia]] as well as, of all things, [[MundaneMadeAwesome Ancient Greek culture]].
92	* ''Series/DeadlyClass'': El Alma Del Diablo runs part of his cartel. In Kings Diamond there are also the Soto Vatos, a gang of cartel kids. Maria is a member.
93	* ''Series/{{Deputy}}'': Latino gangsters connected with Mexican drug cartels serve as recurring villains, given the LA setting.
94	* The characters in ''Series/{{Entourage}}'' at one point work on a biopic of Pablo Escobar titled "Medellin".
95	* ''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. The Metas pretty clearly were based on the real Zetas Cartel, since both recruit from Mexican special forces and they're known as especially vicious.
96	* ''Series/TheGifted2017'': Marcos used his powers as a cartel enforcer for a time, before leaving to join the Mutant Underground.
97	* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': In the second season episode "The Game of ''TabletopGame/{{Go}}''", a US Marine is captured by a drug baron in Colombia while on joint operation with the Colombian authorities.
98	* The Cartel is involved in one of the major subplots of ''Series/KillerWomen''.
99	* The Cartel (usually either Colombian or Mexican) has made many appearances in various shows in the ''Series/LawAndOrder'' franchise, usually portrayed as being untouchable due to their ruthless and violent nature.
100	** Any episode showcasing the cartel has a high probability of ending with all witnesses either dead or too scared to testify (which is TruthInTelevision, as most papers in Mexico are too scared to publish any stories speaking negatively towards the Zetas; hence why Reporters Without Borders [[http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2013,1054.html don't consider their press truly free, even though they legally have the right to print what they want]]), thus allowing the SmugSnake defendant to walk free.
101	** In one instance, on the ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' episode "Loss", this resulted in the show's ADA being forced to fake her own death and [[PutOnABus enter witness protection]] to avoid a contract on her life.
102	** The second SeasonFinale of ''Series/LawAndOrder'' featured Colombian cartels on the rampage. Aside from the large number of people directly killed by the gangsters in order to silence them, Det. Cereta was shot by a scuzzy witness, ending his career on the beat.
103	* The Cartel was regularly in the background in ''Series/MiamiVice''.
104	* ''Series/{{Narcos}}'': ''The'' Cartel, in fact. The first two seasons are about the DEA's hunt for Pablo Escobar in [[UsefulNotes/TheEighties the '80s]], as well as his rise to power and eventual fall. And while Pablo and his Medellín Cartel take center stage, the rival Cali Cartel also shows up towards the end of the first season. After Escobar's ultimate demise, the Cali godfathers take center stage in season three. The show also provides a contrast between the two, with the Medellin cartel being run by rural gangsters and using terrorist tactics against the government and its drug rivals, while the Cali cartel rubs shoulders with the Colombian elites and prefers to keep its activities under wraps to prevent scrutiny from law enforcement agencies. From season 4 onward the show moves to Mexico to depict the rise and splintering of the Guadalajara Cartel and the DEA's futile efforts to take them down.
105	* ''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. Their elite enforcers do put up a considerably better fight than all the other mooks though, as they're former Venezuelan military, who are said to be an easy recruiting pool for the cartels. They're also easily identifiable by their tendency to torture their victims before killing them, such as literally crucifying one man and tying another man to a chair, taping his eyelids open, and surrounding him with mirrors so he is physically incapable of not watching his wife being tortured to death. That Reacher can specifically tie this practice to the cartel is an important plot point, as it immediately tips him off that the town's conspiracy goes beyond a local crime ring.
106	* ''Series/PartOfMe'': Carlos Ricalde's bar is just a front for his criminal cartel, which involves gambling, drug trafficking, and (the most relevant to the story) running a prostitution ring via [[HumanTraffickers human trafficking]].
107	* ''Series/QueenOfTheSouth'' is about a young Mexican woman participating in cocaine trafficking and rising through the ranks of the Vargas Cartel (a pastiche of the real-life Sinaloa Cartel). Eventually, she leaves the group to start her own drug cartel.
108	* One of the recurring villains in ''Series/RoboCopTheSeries'' is South American crime boss Reggie Braga.
109	* The second season of ''Series/SEALTeam'' features a 5-episode long story arc to hunt down a drug lord named Andreas Doza in Mexico, who runs one of the most powerful cartels in the country.
110	* ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy'': In season 4, Clay makes a deal with the Mexican Gallindo Cartel, ostensibly to sell them military-grade weaponry from their Northern Irish contacts, but a secret part of the agreement means that SAMCRO will transport their cocaine into northern California while the Mayans will distribute it. This causes an intra-club conflict since the Sons has traditionally been hard on drugs, but Jax chooses to support Clay for his own reasons. They also get involved in a major gang war when the rival Sonora Cartel shows up in the area. Additionally, the end of the season reveals that [[spoiler:the Gallindo Cartel is supported by the CIA to stabilize the drug trade]].
111	* ''Series/VeronicaMars'': A Mexican cartel plays a role in the plot of season 4, when a nephew-by-marriage of the boss is killed in an explosion in Neptune, California. At the behest of his nagging ex-wife, he sends two sicarios into Neptune to track down and kill the bomber. It's also shown that Weevil's gang and the PCH'ers have ties to this cartel.
112	* 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.]]
113	* ''Series/ZeroZeroZero'': One of the three storylines follows the Leyra brothers' cartel, obviously based on the Gulf Cartel, as they sell a $64 million shipment of cocaine to an Italian 'Ndrangheta clan. In the process of the deal, the Leyras are forced to recruit a group of corrupt Mexican Army commandos after the commandos' cover is blown. The commandos, eventually called Los Vampiros, are obviously based on Los Zetas.
114	[[/folder]]
115
116	[[folder:Music]]
117	* Rapper Music/{{Nas}} once adopted the stage name "Nas Escobar" as a reference to the aforementioned Pablo.
118	* In Mexico in the 2000s, ''narcocorridos'' arose as a type of ballad glamorizing the lives of drug smugglers. Many of the genre's musicians naturally have ties to the cartels and have written ballads for specific drug lords, and needless to say, many of them have been targeted and killed in feuds between rival cartels.
119	[[/folder]]
120
121	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
122	* In ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'', the Latin-American ORO Corporation was at first a money laundering front for several cartels. However, after getting a few mining contracts that turned out to be way more valuable than anyone thought, the company outgrew its origins, reimagining itself as the MegaCorp Aztechnology.
123	[[/folder]]
124
125	[[folder:Video Games]]
126	* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'':
127	** One of the enemy factions is a criminal gang from [[BananaRepublic Santa Prisca]], led by the supervillain crime boss Bane. Most of Bane's henchmen are fellow escapees from the infamous Santa Priscan prison [[HellholePrison Peña Duro]], and they all display a [[UndyingLoyalty fanatical, cult-like loyalty]] to their boss, far beyond what's normally expected of other gangsters. Bane's gang does technically engage in drug smuggling, though instead of any normal narcotic substance, they deal in a special steroid called Venom, which makes its users [[SuperStrength superhumanly strong]].
128	** There's also Copperhead, a female [[ProfessionalKiller assassin]] who was a member of a street gang from an unspecified Central American country; though she has no affiliation or connection whatsoever to Bane, beyond both of them being hired by Gotham City kingpin Black Mask [[spoiler:(who's actually the Joker in disguise)]] to fight and kill Batman.
129	* One of the traditional factions in the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' series since ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII''.
130	* ''VideoGame/CallOfJuarezTheCartel''. Guess what it's about.
131	* ''Franchise/{{Hitman}}'' features these as enemies at different points.
132	** One mission in ''VideoGame/HitmanCodename47'' is a ShoutOut to ''Film/Scarface1983''.
133	** The Delgado Cartel is a cocaine dealer based in Chile, responsible for various acts of terrorism. 47 is contracted to kill their leaders in ''VideoGame/HitmanBloodMoney'' and again in ''VideoGame/Hitman2''.
134	* In ''VideoGame/ScarfaceTheWorldIsYours'', Tony breaks the cartel's hold on Miami and takes Sosa down.
135	* ''VideoGame/{{Freelancer}}'': The Outcasts are this trope [[RecycledInSpace IN SPACE]].
136	* Raul Menendez, the BigBad of ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII'', started off as a drug runner who controlled a very powerful cartel in Nicaragua in the 1980's. He used the money he gained from that operation to finance other operations around the world, up until the CIA tried to kill him, and in the process killed his blind, crippled sister. That led him to use the money invested in his cartel to set up the ''Cordis Die'' network, which became a full-on NGOSuperpower capable of threatening the entire First World.
137	* ''VideoGame/ArmyOfTwo: The Devil's Cartel'' has you fighting one such Mexican cartel.
138	* ''VideoGame/SaintsRow1'' featured a Colombian cartel supporting the Carnales gang. [[spoiler:They eventually switch allegiance to the Saints.]]
139	* Surprisingly they don't make many if any appearances in the ''Videogame/{{Tropico}}'' games, although they are mentioned several times (such as when your main "general" complains the Tropico army is smaller than most Colombian drug barons).
140	* South American drug cartels are a source of Crime.net contracts in ''VideoGame/PAYDAY2''; Hector, specifically, offers several involving the rival Mendoza group. ''Watchdogs'' involves protecting and moving a batch of Hector's cocaine out of the city, stopping the FBI and [=DEA=] from intervening. ''Firestarter'' sees you stealing or destroying weapons meant to arm the Mendoza's soldiers, then destroying their money so the Mendoza operations grind to a halt. ''Rats'' finishes the Mendoza presence in D.C., with the eradication of a bus-load of Mendoza lieutenants as they attempt to flee the city under FBI protection.
141	* In ''VideoGame/GhostReconWildlands'' the player controls a team of United States special forces soldiers sent into Bolivia to combat the Santa Blanca Drug Cartel; an organization so powerful and violent that it has destabilized the entire region.
142	* In ''VideoGame/Uncharted4AThiefsEnd'', Nate's long-lost brother Sam claims that he was broken out of a Panamanian prison by the drug lord Hector Alcazar and his private army, who then forced Sam to help find a lost pirate treasure so that Alcazar could take a huge cut from it. [[spoiler:But it's later revealed that Sam never actually met Alcazar (who has been [[DeadAllAlong dead for a long time]]), and Sam made up this whole story to hide the fact that he was really just bribed out of jail by Rafe Adler, the true [[BigBad villain of the game]].]]
143	* A Colombian 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.
144	* ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfareIi'' features the fictional Las Almas cartel as one of two principal antagonist forces alongside [[MiddleEasternTerrorists Al-Qatala]] from [[VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare2019 the previous game]], which they helped to smuggle weapons and terrorists across the world.
145	* ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'': The ''Phantom Liberty'' DLC introduces the Barghest faction, which essentially operates as a cartel in Dogtown right down to having its own enforcers replace the police that operates elsewhere in Night City. Although they do deal in drugs, much of their activities involve arms smuggling. Later into the storyline, V finds out that Barghest itself is backed by a Cuban cartel, with V impersonating one of the Cartel's deadliest assassins in order to ensure [[spoiler: a smooth transition of power after Bargest leader Hansen is killed]].
146	[[/folder]]
147
148	[[folder:Web Original]]
149	* In ''Roleplay/TheGamersAlliance'', Araña de la Noche is an influential drug cartel which operates in the city of Paraiso in Aison.
150	[[/folder]]
151
152	[[folder:Western Animation]]
153	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBoondocks'' episode "The Lovely Ebony Brown", one of Granddad's many crazy ex-girlfriends happened to be a Dominican drug boss, who brought one of her armed henchmen to the dinner table.
154	* WesternAnimation/AmericanDad: ''[[Recap/AmericanS17E1OneHundredYearsASolidFool 100 Years a Solid Fool]]'' reveals that one of Roger the Alien's many personas is a Colombian drug lord known as [[Series/{{Narcos}} "El Narco."]] Stan encountered this particular persona back in his early days with the CIA [[Series/MiamiVice (when he was intercepting drugs in Miami, Florida back in the 1980s).]]
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157	[[folder:Real Life]]
158	* Mexico has many, but perhaps the most infamous cartel is ''Los Zetas''.
159	** 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.
160	** 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.
161	* The infamous Cali and Medellin cartels during the 1980s and 1990s, which controlled every link in the drug supply chain except street pushing. They flew in coca base from Peru and Bolivia, refined it into cocaine in the Colombian jungle, and flew it on to secret airstrips in the Southern United States. At one point, the Medellin Cartel, under the infamous Pablo Escobar, supplied 80% of the United States' cocaine, and Escobar had a net worth of $30 billion. Their rivals, the Cali Cartel, would put them out of business after Escobar's death, and go on to control 90% of the ''world'''s market, as well as introduce cocaine to Europe. American DEA agents tasked with bringing them down called them: 'The Cali KGB'. While this empire split apart heavily after his death, the remaining coke empires (going from simply huge cartels to actual terrorist groups) were still some of the biggest drug-running organizations one could find until Mexican cartels arrived on the scene.
162	* Far more common in Venezuela than Mexico. To the point where some have argued the recent [[RidiculousFutureInflation hyper inflation]] may have actually been a net ''benefit'' (for everyday people, that is), since worthless currency means kidnapping and drug sales are a barter market at ''best'', but most likely some form of "not viable"; some criminals caught in neighboring/nearby countries have confessed they migrated because there was ''nothing to steal'' back home. Being next door to Colombia had a lot to do with it. The [[UsefulNotes/HugoChavez Chávez]] and Maduro regimes being self serving and accepting bribes to compensate for falling oil prices had a lot more to do with it.
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Context Main / TheCartel