The term ''narco-state'' usually brings to mind countries in Latin America where the influence of drug cartels is so vast that they are at least as powerful as the state itself, if not more. In some cases, this is despite the best efforts of a government. But in others, it may be with the direct connivance of top leaders themselves. Prime examples of both phenomena include Panama in 1980s under the dictatorship of Manuel Noriega, Colombia in 1980s and 1990s as cartels violently battled for supremacy, and Mexico in the early 2000s when cartels' influence became so great that the military began a major (and many would say largely failed) crackdown. But in reality, narco-states exist along a spectrum of severity and are far more geographically dispersed....
