1. First Part: Original response

Is it possible that the violent members of the drug cartels can behave like cartels in legitimate markets?

2. Second Part: Read a selection of your colleagues’ initial postings.  Respond to at least two (2) of your colleagues’ initial postings in any of the following ways:  Support a perspective presented by your colleague.Explain why and how you have a different perspective.Share an insight based upon your colleague’s posting.Validate an idea with your own experience.Expand upon your colleague’s posting.Ask for evidence that supports the posting.

First classmate post:  Darwin Perez Drug cartels are a group of individuals that illegally operate and sell a controlled substance. Their end goal is to make as much profit as possible and control the market they are in. Historically, these individuals have used great violence to

assert dominance over their competition or any other entity that wants to shut down their operation. They have used

grotesque violence against their competition, authority figures, and innocent members of the community that go against them.

Although some cartels operate very well organized, I don’t think they would be able to behave as their legal cartel counterparts. These are groups of people that want to dominate the market within a region, just like gangs in the United States want to dominate certain parts of a city. This leads to fights between cartels and more violence.

Putting aside the violence drug cartels inflict on innocent people, other cartels are illegal in over 150 countries. In the

United States, for example, there are antitrust laws that prohibit cartels. This is because cartels can result in increased

prices for a specific product because of the lack of competition in the market.

Drug cartels may form agreements between them just like any other legal company, but the greedy nature of the

business drives these individuals to betrayal if they start losing on profits. The goal of a drug cartel is to make as much money as possible no matter the illegality of it.  They can do this with drugs, extortion, human trafficking, etc.

Second classmate post: Orane Palmer

A cartel is an organization created from a formal agreement between a group of producers of a good or service to

regulate supply to regulate or manipulate prices. In other words, a cartel is a collection of otherwise independent

businesses or countries that act together as if they were a single producer and thus can fix prices for the goods they

produce and the services they render, without competition.  The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)

is the world’s largest cartel. It is a group of 13 oil-producing countries whose mission is to coordinate and unify the

petroleum policies of its member countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets. OPEC’s activities are legal

because U.S. foreign trade laws protect it.

Drug cartels are large, highly sophisticated organizations composed of multiple DTOs and cells with specific assignments such as drug transportation, security/enforcement, or money laundering. Drug cartel command-and-control structures are based outside the United States; however, they produce, transport, and distribute illicit drugs domestically with the assistance of DTOs that are either a part of or in an alliance with the cartel.  The best-known example of this is the

Medellin Cartel, which was headed by Pablo Escobar in the 1980s until he died in 1993. The cartel famously trafficked

large amounts of cocaine into the United States and was known for its violent methods.

The likelihood of violent members of a drug cartel behaving like cartels in legitimate markets is low, the keyword is these are violent members meaning they resort to violence when things don’t go their way.  There is a possibility that these

violent members could be rehabilitated and work in a legitimate business, but they will likely revert to their old ways and resolve conflict with violence.  Theoretically, they know how to operate in the structure of a cartel so they could work in a legitimate cartel it is just a matter of if they are willing to follow the rules.