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The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs through the use of drug prohibition laws. The think tank Global Financial Integrity's Transnational Crime and the Developing World report estimates the size of the global illicit drug market between US$426 and US$652 billion in 2014 alone. With a world GDP of US$78 trillion in the same year, the illegal drug trade may be estimated as nearly 1% of total global trade. Consumption of illegal drugs is widespread globally and it remains very difficult for local authorities to reduce the rates of drug consumption.
The Medellín Cartel was a powerful and highly organized Colombian drug cartel and terrorist organization originating in the city of Medellín, Colombia that was founded and led by Pablo Escobar. It is often considered to be the first major "drug cartel" and was referred to as such due to the organization's upper echelons and overall power structure being built on a partnership between multiple Colombian traffickers operating alongside Escobar. Included were Jorge Luis Ochoa Vásquez, Fabio Ochoa Vásquez, Juan David Ochoa Vásquez, José Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha and Carlos Lehder. Escobar's main partner in the organization however was his cousin Gustavo Gaviria who handled much of the cartel's shipping arrangements and the more general and detailed logistical aspects of the cocaine trafficking routes and international smuggling networks which were supplying at least 80% of the world's cocaine during its peak. Gustavo, also known as León seems to have also had a strong hand in the cartel's unprecedented acts of narcoterrorism, right alongside his cousin Pablo and was considered to be second in command of the cartel and therefore one of Colombia's most wanted men, with both him and Escobar having arrest warrants pending from other nations where their criminal activity had spread to, such as in Spain and the U.S. Meanwhile, Pablo Escobar's brother Roberto Escobar acted as the organization's accountant. The cartel operated from approximately 1972 to 1993 in Colombia (Antioquia), Bolivia, Panama, Central America, Peru, the Bahamas, the United States, as well as in Canada.
The Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation is one of the largest Caribbean and Latino street and prison gangs worldwide. The gang was founded by Puerto Ricans in Chicago, Illinois, in 1954.
The Black Mafia Family (BMF) was a drug trafficking and money laundering organization in the United States.
Serbian organized crime or Serbian mafia are various criminal organizations based in Serbia or composed of ethnic Serbs in the former Yugoslavia and Serbian diaspora. The organizations are primarily involved in smuggling, arms trafficking, heists, drug trafficking, protection rackets, and illegal gambling. The mafia is composed of several major organized groups, which in turn have wider networks throughout Europe.
Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, commonly referred to by his aliases El Jefe de Jefes and El Padrino, is a convicted Mexican drug lord and a former Federal Judicial Police agent. He was one of the founders of the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1970s. Throughout the 1980s, the cartel controlled much of the drug trafficking in Mexico and the corridors along the Mexico–United States border.
The Guadalajara Cartel also known as The Federation was a Mexican drug cartel which was formed in 1980 by Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, Rafael Caro Quintero, and Ernesto Fonseca Carrillo in order to ship cocaine and marijuana to the United States. Among the first of the Mexican drug trafficking groups to work with the Colombian cocaine mafias, the Guadalajara Cartel prospered from the cocaine trade. Throughout the 1980s, the cartel controlled much of the drug trafficking in Mexico and the corridors along the Mexico–United States border. It had operations in various regions in Mexico which included the states of Jalisco, Baja California, Colima, Sonora, Chihuahua and Sinaloa among others. Multiple modern present day drug cartels such as the Tijuana, Juárez and Sinaloa cartels originally started out as branches or "plazas" of the Guadalajara Cartel before its eventual disintegration.
The illegal drug trade in Colombia has, since the 1970s, centered successively on four major drug trafficking cartels: Medellín, Cali, Norte del Valle, and North Coast, as well as several bandas criminales, or BACRIMs. The trade eventually created a new social class and influenced several aspects of Colombian culture, economics, and politics.
The Colima Cartel was a Mexican drug trafficking and methamphetamine producing cartel operating in Guadalajara, Jalisco. It was founded and led by José de Jesús Amezcua Contreras and supported by his brothers Adán and Luis.
Juan José Esparragoza Moreno, commonly referred to by his alias El Azul, is a Mexican drug lord and member of the Sinaloa Cartel, Guadalajara Cartel and Juárez Cartel, three large and powerful criminal organizations. Originally a member of the Dirección Federal de Seguridad (DFS) police agency, he founded the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1970s along with other drug kingpins in Mexico. Following its disintegration in the late 1980s, he went on to lead the Juárez Cartel and eventually settled in the Sinaloa Cartel. He worked alongside Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán and Ismael Zambada García, once considered world's most-wanted, powerful and rich drug lords.
The Sinaloa Cartel, also known as the CDS, the Guzmán-Zambada Organization, the Pacific Cartel, the Federation and the Blood Alliance, is a large, international organized crime syndicate that specializes in illegal drug trafficking and money laundering. It was established in Mexico during the late 1980s as one of a various number of subordinate "plazas" operating under a predecessor organization known as the Guadalajara Cartel. It is currently headed by Ismael Zambada García and is based in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa, with operations in many world regions but primarily in the Mexican states of Sinaloa, Baja California, Durango, Sonora, and Chihuahua. and presence in a number of other regions in Latin America as well as in cities across the U.S. The United States Intelligence Community generally considers the Sinaloa Cartel to be the largest and most powerful drug trafficking organization in the world, making it perhaps even more influential and capable than Pablo Escobar's infamous Medellín Cartel of Colombia was during its prime. According to the National Drug Intelligence Center and other sources within the U.S. the Sinaloa Cartel is primarily involved in the distribution of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, fentanyl, cannabis and MDMA.
A drug lord, drug baron, kingpin, or narcotrafficker is a type of crime boss, who is in charge of a drug-trafficking network, organization, or enterprise.
The Continuing Criminal Enterprise Statute is a United States federal law that targets large-scale drug traffickers who are responsible for long-term and elaborate drug conspiracies. Unlike the RICO Act, which covers a wide range of organized crime enterprises, the CCE statute covers only major narcotics organizations. CCE is codified as Chapter 13 of Title 21 of the United States Code, 21 U.S.C. § 848. The statute makes it a federal crime to commit or conspire to commit a continuing series of felony violations of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 when such acts are taken in concert with five or more other persons. For conviction under the statute, the offender must have been an organizer, manager, or supervisor of the continuing operation and have obtained substantial income or resources from the drug violations.
Illegal drug trade in Venezuela is the practice of illegal drug trading in Venezuela. Venezuela has been a path to the United States for cocaine originating in Colombia, through Central America and Mexico and Caribbean countries such as Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. In the 2010s, Venezuela also gradually became a major producer of cocaine.
The illegal drug trade in Latin America concerns primarily the production and sale of cocaine and cannabis, including the export of these banned substances to the United States and Europe. The coca cultivation is concentrated in the Andes of South America, particularly in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia; this is the world's only source region for coca.
Carlos Alberto Arellano Félix is a Mexican medical doctor who is known for his illegal involvement in money laundering for the Tijuana Cartel. Carlos was born on the 20th of August in the year 1955 in the city of Culiacán, Sinaloa. Historian Paul Eiss states that Culiacán is the origin of modern drug trafficking and the home of Mexico's most powerful drug cartel. Carlos is currently working as a licensed surgeon. He finished his surgical training at the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara The Tijuana Cartel is an organisation that is notorious for being one of the most well-known drug trafficking groups in Mexico to smuggle goods into the United States. Carlos’ family is made up of seven brothers and four sisters who inherited the Arellano Felix Organisation from their godfather, Miguel Ángel Félix. Despite Carlos’ involvement in money laundering for the Tijuana Cartel, he is one of two brothers who remains free and is not wanted by the United States law enforcement.
Roberto Pannunzi, also known as Bebè (Baby), is an Italian criminal from Rome linked to the 'Ndrangheta, a Mafia-type organisation in Calabria. He is one of the top cocaine brokers for the Sicilian Mafia and the 'Ndrangheta with the Colombian cocaine cartels. He has been described as "Europe's most wanted drugs trafficker", and the "biggest cocaine trafficker in the world", the equivalent of Pablo Escobar, the head of the Colombian Medellín Cartel. According to the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the drug trafficking activities of Pannunzi have been documented for over 30 years.
Akbar Pray is an American writer, columnist and convicted drug kingpin from Newark, New Jersey who is serving a life sentence in prison.
Jimmy Cournoyer, sometimes called the Pot Playboy or the King of Pot, is a convicted Canadian drug trafficker and prior to being arrested, the biggest supplier of marijuana to New York and the U.S. East Coast. He was known for his lavish lifestyle, which included dating lingerie models and partying with Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
Ediel López Falcón, also known as La Muela or Metro 5, is a Mexican convicted drug lord and former high-ranking member of the Gulf Cartel, a criminal group based in Tamaulipas, Mexico. He was the regional boss of Miguel Alemán and helped coordinate international drug trafficking shipments from South and Central America to Mexico and the U.S. His roles in the cartel were also to coordinate oil theft operations. In 2012, he was indicted by the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for drug trafficking activities. After fleeing Mexico to avoid gang-related violence, López Falcón was arrested in Texas during a sting operation in 2013. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2015. He is currently imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Institution, Fort Dix in New Jersey. His expected release date is in 2029.
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