Drug trafficking remains the single most important activity for organized criminal groups in the Americas. This includes trafficking of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and other synthetic drugs. Illegal drugs are produced, processed, stored and shipped from Latin America, and are also increasingly consumed there. The trafficking and consumption destabilizes nearly every country that forms part of the production and distribution chain. Some of these countries are facing challenges that are, in some ways, bigger those of their prolonged civil wars. Without the resources or knowledge, the governments of these nations are succumbing to powerful mega-structures that are able to subordinate poorly paid civil servants and buy off large portions of the state’s security apparatus.