Bulletin of Latin American Research, Vol. 39, No. S1, pp. 12–15, 2020 Organised Crime Governance in Times of Pandemic: The Impact of COVID-19 on Gangs and Drug Cartels in Colombia and Mexico CAMILO TAMAYO GOMEZ Birmingham City University, UK The COVID-19 crisis provides a window of opportunity for organised crime organisations in Colombia and Mexico to exert social control in local communities through actions of solidarity and care rather than tra- ditional violent coercion. This new dynamic is increasing the legitimacy, power and social capital of gangs and drug cartels, helping them to co-opt civil society and the state to support their criminal operations. The pan- demic also shows how poverty and inequality remain fundamental in shaping the building of the nation-state in both countries, where crim- inals act as a de facto state even without the virus and, in many areas, effectively replace the state. The coronavirus is making visible the ways in which organised crime groups cultivate civil society’s support in deliv- ering the provision of governance, order and public health in a time of lockdown and quarantine, making local ‘narco-gang’ governance prof- itable economically and politically. Keywords: COVID-19, drug cartels, gangs, governance, organised crime, state. La Loma is a sprawling area on the outskirts of Medellín, Colombia. Part rural, part urban, it is divided into small neighbourhoods controlled by gangs known as combos (local gangs). Depending on the geographical area of the neighbourhood, each combo is loyal to one or other of the country’s organised crime groups (Doyle, 2016). La Loma is also a geographically strategic corridor for drug traffcking businesses in Medellín. Illegal groups have used this territory as a main route in transporting drug supplies and weapons to different parts of the country, creating a phenomenon called ‘invisible borders’ that has divided the neighbourhood into criminal territories (Suárez, Ramirez and Nieto, 2018). On 24 March 2020, when Colombia went into lockdown, all combos in La Loma immediately implemented curfews and ordered ceasefres. As an extra precaution, the south and north combos set up checkpoints in key places, demanding that local com- munities follow government restrictions and ordering people not to leave their homes outside of allocated times. On 27 March, after local people had received little help from the city council, these gangs began to go door to door to distribute hand sanitiser, 12 © 2020 Society for Latin American Studies