narco-state

thumb|upright|Panamanian leader [[Manuel Noriega, following his arrest by U.S. authorities]]

Narco-state, also called narco-capitalism or narco-economy, is a political and economic term applied to countries where all legitimate institutions become penetrated by the power and wealth of the illegal drug trade. The term was first used to describe Bolivia following the 1980 coup of Luis García Meza which was seen to be primarily financed with the help of narcotics traffickers.