Thesaurus results for CARTELS

cartels

noun

plural of cartel

as in syndicates

a number of businesses or enterprises united for commercial advantage a cartel of oil-producing nations that controls production and influences prices

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of cartels Forcibly disappearing people has long been a tactic by cartels to consolidate control through terror while also concealing homicide numbers. —

ABC News, 27 Mar. 2026 The closure forced Kenyan khat traders to route exports to Somalia through costly air shipments, which drove up prices and left farmers at the mercy of cartels who levied unofficial commissions. —

Joseph Maina, semafor.com, 27 Mar. 2026 If, on the other hand, the main problem Sanders wants to address is teams relocating, Propheter said federal lawmakers should change laws that allow the NFL and other major professional sports leagues to act as cartels, which work together to limit competition and fix prices. —

Daniel C. Vock, Chicago Tribune, 26 Mar. 2026 The country has seen the rise of powerful criminal organizations in its borders, along with international drug cartels from Mexico, Italy and Albania also operating in Ecuador. —

Eduardo Cuevas, USA Today, 25 Mar. 2026 Veracruz is one of a number of states that masses of migrants have historically crossed to reach the United States, and are preyed upon by cartels and other criminal groups. —

CBS News, 24 Mar. 2026 The now defunct urban guerrilla group Petro belonged to, the 19th of April Movement, has long been suspected of taking money from Escobar's Medellin cartels as part of its deadly siege of the Supreme Court in 1985. —

Arkansas Online, 21 Mar. 2026 Among those named are Colombia’s FARC and ELN guerrillas, Mexico’s Sinaloa and Los Zetas cartels, and Venezuela’s own Tren de Aragua criminal gang. —

Antonio María Delgado, Miami Herald, 20 Mar. 2026 The vigilantes in Guajes de Ayala join a volatile landscape of warring armed groups — from cartels with tentacles across Latin America to local mafias — in regions like Guerrero ravaged by splintering cartels for decades. —

Megan Janetsky, Los Angeles Times, 20 Mar. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for cartels

Noun

Caleb Davies, another Kalshi trader who has earned $389,000 in culture markets over the past two years, says that the absence of financial organizations or syndicates of traders with big money allows knowledgeable traders to profit off of people who simply bet on their faves.

— David Hill, Rolling Stone, 25 Mar. 2026
The four-hour epic by by Aditya Dahr is the sequel to Dhurandhar ($20 million in North American) and stars Ranveer Singh as an undercover Indian intelligence agent working to infiltrate Pakistani politics and Karachi’s criminal syndicates.

— Jill Goldsmith, Deadline, 22 Mar. 2026