Editing Blattman Lessing Tobon Duncan 2022 (section)

=== ''''Combo Organization and Governance''''===

*'''''Combo Organization''''':The combo of organization and governance basically exist in every low and middle-class neighborhood as a local combo. The 2019 combo census identified 380 active local combos: 354 in Medellín and 380 in the greater metropolitan area (Blattman, Duncan, Lessing, and Tobon, 2021a. The borders for each combo aren't directly specified, but there is detailed data provided on 12 local combos. Most of the combos have a core in range of 12 to 40 permanent salaried members. The observed combo territories are no more than a few square blocks, but the borders are well-defined and long-standing, and known to the locals in the area. Many of the combos have been present for decades and have been re-created by the younger generations that have taken over the organization from the older combos that existed.
*'''''Combo Revenues''''':Combo revenues come from four main sources. Nearly every combo has a local monopoly on retail drug sales in their neighborhood,  of which occur at defined locales known as plazas de vicio. This is typically their most profitable activity and a large number charge a security fee to at least some of the residents and businesses, typically in return for protection services. About a third also engage in a local loan-sharking practice known as gota a gota (“drop by drop”), according to a survey (Boatman, Lessing, Tobon, and Duncan). Also, many of the combo governances collect debts for a fee, in addition manage, regulate, or participate in local consumer goods markets, such as cooking gas, arepas, and eggs.
*'''''Combo Members''''':Members of the combos are usually poor, uneducated young men between the age of 15–35. Most members are born, raised, and currently living in the neighborhood that they control. Even low-ranking combo members are paid well and earn a salary equivalent to the median salary in the city. Most of the combos are small, autonomous, and headed by a leader called a coordi- nador. Horizontal integration amongst neighborhoods are rare, of which causes most combos to have less than 40 members and small territories. Medellín’s combos are the base of the criminal organization's pyramid. Above the combos are about 17 mafia-like groups, often called "razones".