drug cartel

1. 1.

   an illicit cartel formed to control the production and distribution of narcotic drugs

   “drug cartels sometimes finance terrorist organizations”

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Questions about drug cartel

What does drug cartel mean?

drug cartel means "an illicit cartel formed to control the production and distribution of narcotic drugs".

Is drug cartel a common word?

drug cartel is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.