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an international syndicate, combine, or trust formed especially to regulate prices and output in some field of business.
a coalition of political or special-interest groups having a common cause, as to encourage the passage of a certain law.
a written agreement between belligerents, especially for the exchange of prisoners.
a written challenge to a duel.
Contemporary Examples

The Obama administration had pointed to the involvement of U.S. guns in cartel shootings.
Attorney General Eric Holder Faces Heat on Bungled Gun Sting Aram Roston December 7, 2011

How do you feel about Archer and the gang abandoning the cartel and returning to the office?
‘Archer’ Creator Adam Reed Spills Season 6 Secrets, From Surreal Plotlines to Life Post-ISIS Marlow Stern January 7, 2015

I mean, it just happened to be that the Juárez cartel was—that was the case we were working on at the time.
U.S. Visas Helped Fuel the Juárez Drug Wars Jason McGahan June 30, 2014

Eventually, the collusion gets too expensive, and the cartel collapses unless it gets support from the government.
New York City Bus Strike: A Cosy Cartel, Running Out of Gas Megan McArdle January 16, 2013

The cartel men kept the phone numbers of ICE agents on their prepaid cellphones.
U.S. Visas Helped Fuel the Juárez Drug Wars Jason McGahan June 30, 2014

Historical Examples

That his rank of Lieut.-General be acknowledged in accordance with the cartel of exchange of 1798.
The Depot for Prisoners of War at Norman Cross Huntingdonshire Thomas James Walker

When this cartel fell into my hands it lacked but an hour of sunset.
Captain Canot Brantz Mayer

A cartel arived here from New York with 172 American prisoners.
American Prisoners of the Revolution Danske Dandridge

A brig was chartered as a cartel, on board of which the Frenchmen were at once sent.
From Powder Monkey to Admiral W.H.G. Kingston

On the arabesque in which the painting is set is a cartel inscribed with name and date.
Pintoricchio Evelyn March Phillipps

noun
Also called trust. a collusive international association of independent enterprises formed to monopolize production and distribution of a product or service, control prices, etc
(politics) an alliance of parties or interests to further common aims
n.

1550s, “a written challenge,” from Middle French cartel (16c.), from Italian cartello “placard,” diminutive of carta “card” (see card (n.1)). It came to mean “written agreement between challengers” (1690s) and then “a written agreement between challengers” (1889). Sense of “a commercial trust, an association of industrialists” comes 1902, via German Kartell, which is from French. The older U.S. term for that is trust (n.). The usual German name for them was Interessengemeinschaft, abbreviated IG.
cartel [(kahr-tel)]

An association in which producers of a similar or identical product try to obtain a monopoly over the sale of the product.

Note: The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is a cartel.