As far as on a nationwide level , I'd say the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartels . After all they operate in various parts of the country as opposed to select areas , control a very large chunk of the drug market , and have great influence over the actions of other criminal organizations .
What influence do they have over other crime groups in the US?
I might be wrong here , but I imagine there are a few American criminal organizations that source their drugs directly from the Sinaloa and JNGC cartels , which obviously results in them having a lot of power in terms of being said organizations suppliers .
There must even be more American criminal organizations who buy their drugs from suppliers who buy from said cartels , which results in said suppliers ( whether they be independent dealers or gangsters ) wielding a lot of power .
In short a lot of American criminal organizations depend ( either directly or indirectly ) on the cartels for their supply of drugs and very few ( if any ) of said organizations mess with the cartels or their close associates , since doing so would be tantamount to killing the golden goose .
I don't think this has ever occurred , but to use a salient example , the Sinaloa cartel could end a conflict between US gangs by threatening to cut off their supply of drugs . Few ( if any ) other criminal organizations that operate in the US have that kind of behind the scenes power .
