Narcotráfico is the Spanish term for "drug traffic", although it carries a several nuances of meaning that are not always found in the English equivalent. This is due to the status that drug dealers and drug cartel chiefs enjoy in some Spanish-speaking countries, where an entire culture has been developed around the business.

Narcotraficantes often enjoy a high status in several Latin American countries, where they are sometimes seen as powerful and influential people who have exotic lifestyles and lead exciting lives, defying authorities while smuggling drugs to the United States. Narcotraficantes are seen as pseudo heroes and as criminals at the same time, glorified by some people and persecuted by the government. As a result of this prestige, narcotráfico has developed a rich and complex culture, with songs and quasi-religious imagery and rituals. In the past months Roberto Carrillo compose the song of "Pancho Narco", a famous song in the Republic of Mexico.

This is not something peculiar to Latin America but common with many impoverished areas of the world, including poor US cities. It resembles, as well, the status given to moonshine

Moonshine

Moonshine is an illegally produced distilled beverage...

rs during Prohibition

Prohibition

Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...

. The movie Traffic

Traffic (2000 film)

Traffic is a 2000 American crime drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Stephen Gaghan. It explores the illegal drug trade from a number of perspectives: a user, an enforcer, a politician and a trafficker. Their stories are edited together throughout the film, although some of the...

explores both sides of this. The drug dealers, on the US as well as the Mexican side of the border, are both vilified and admired.

In Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

, narcocorridos are popular songs along the border with the US and celebrate the illegal activities of smugglers and dealers. In Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

, two movies detail the world of narcotráfico: Maria Full of Grace

Maria Full of Grace

Maria Full of Grace is a 2004 joint Colombian-American film, written and directed by Joshua Marston, who won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay. Although the movie depicts rural life in Colombia, it was actually filmed in Ecuador...

and La virgen de los sicarios

La virgen de los sicarios

Our Lady of the Assassins may refer to any of the following articles:* Our Lady of the Assassins of the Colombian writer Fernando Vallejo, published by Alfaguara, Bogotá, 1993 in Spanish....

(international title: Our Lady of the Assassins).