A cartel is an organization made up of businesses that band together to eliminate competition, collude to fix prices, and control supply and production of a product or service. In South America, the word refers to the drug cartels of Colombia, most notably the Medellin and Cali cartels, both which were crushed by the Colombian government. Later, government members and lieutenants of former cartel operatives stepped in and created their own cartels. Today, they are still manufacturing and distributing cocaine and its derivatives into the United States, which is the biggest consumer of cocaine in the world.