The discussion notes that narcotics trafficking organizations clearly are businesses and that the structure of the cocaine, heroin, and marijuana industries closely resembles that of agribusiness. The Colombian cocaine industry has a triangular structure. The dominating firms at the top of the pyramid directly employ a relatively small number of people. The numbers increase through several layers of support entities. Colombia has about 10 core organizations active at any one time; together, they handle more than 60 percent of the cocaine that reaches North American and European markets. The industry's basic structure has remained stable, but its operational system remains highly flexible to support operations and to counter disruptions created by governments or competitors. The crucial business functions are to buy cocaine base, process the base, move cocaine within Colombia, move cocaine to market, laundering money, maintaining financial records, disbursing funds, and establishing front and shell companies. Each core organization has a security group to protect leaders and facilities and to undertake disciplinary actions. A core organization now earns an average of at least $300 million per year after expenses. Top leaders can easily become billionaires within 5 years. The organizations operate on a grant international scale by forming strategic agreements with similar enterprises in other countries. The huge demand for cocaine means that these groups are likely to be in business for some time and will have a key role in the expanding global criminal enterprise challenge. The organizations are vulnerable to disruptions, but even dismantling some core groups has not and will not likely reduce the overall flow of cocaine to markets for more than several months. Appended background information, tables, and figures and 3 reference notes