Depends on what you mean by difference? In terms of what? The cartels are like semi-street insurgents and operate like a urban milita/insurgents but at the same time they are really organized and low key in some aspects. They operate openly yet at the same time secretly. They have commandos made of sicarios that are grouped and coordinated by retired or ex-police or military to move around and cause an "operation" on enemy turf to kidnap and extract info of rival cartels especially about the distributions of drugs and weapons, stash houses, and rival captains and street and or local bosses. They are in the open, when the military is not on the streets but they also remain behind the scenes or out of sight when the military is in. They have kids on the payroll to look out for them from the military and many know the military convoy/routines etc. I really don't know much about the cartels but I can picture it by info over the past years and some knowledge about them about songs and other things.