The Santa Cruz Cartel ( es, Cártel de Santa Cruz) is a Bolivian

drug cartel A drug cartel is any criminal organization with the intention of supplying drug trafficking operations. They range from loosely managed agreements among various drug traffickers to formalized commercial enterprises. The term was applied when th ...

and criminal organization, said to be one of the largest in the country, headquartered in

Santa Cruz de la Sierra Santa Cruz de la Sierra (; "Holy Cross of the Mountain Range"), commonly known as Santa Cruz, is the largest city in Bolivia and the capital of the Santa Cruz department. Situated on the Pirai River in the eastern Tropical Lowlands of Bolivia ...

. The cartel was responsible for multiple narco-terrorist incidents in the 1980s, including assassination attempts on

Drug Enforcement Administration The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within th ...

agents and bombing attempts on politicians. The Santa Cruz Cartel is strongly allied with drug trafficking organizations in Colombia, Brazil and Mexico, though is involved in various turf wars against smaller drug gangs. Local intelligence states that members of the

Comando Vermelho Comando Vermelho (, ''Red Command'' or ''Red Commando''), also known as C.V. is a Brazilian criminal organization engaged primarily in drug trafficking, arms trafficking, protection racketeering, kidnappings-for-ransom, armored truck hijackings, ...

(Red Command) drug gang have fled the favelas of Brazil to Santa Cruz in order to escape the

Federal Police A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws. Jurisdiction LEAs which have their ability to apply their powers restricted in some way are said to operate within a jurisdiction. LEAs ...

References

{{Organized crime groups in the Americas Organizations established in the 1980s 1980s establishments in Bolivia Drug cartels in Bolivia Transnational organized crime Santa Cruz Department (Bolivia)