Note this will be heavy inspired by Ghost Recon Wildlands as it broke down the Cartel's branches pretty well but also take cues from the real world operation of the CJNG

So allow us for Sicarios, to hire a PMC or Private Military Contractor, Instructor to train our Sicarios, which in turn they gain experience, their stats increase and get better, which in turn raises their success, it also puts in fear to the locals and goverment

Taking tips from Wildlands of how each branch of the Cartel works, improving our game and immersion.

Security: Head of Security, operates similar to a defence team, it protects our Productions, meaning less chance of it raided and if its raided, the government has a chance to fail.

Production: Head of Production, means you have the ability to gain extra product and raise its quality, meaning a higher selling cost

Smuggling: Head of Smuggling is simple, it raises your income & hides it if you're raided by Government forces, less chance of them taking everything

Influence: Head of Influence improves the quality of available Sicarios, Improves your public image which lowers government interest & raises your product quality, which means more money & also means it allows your Sicarious have a high success rate with drug deals.

You can also build training camps that goes with point A, training your sicarious by hiring an instructor, various instructors depends on each skill. 
Instructors:

PMC-Combat

Intelligence Spook- Caution

Special Forces- Speed

Priest- Morale

 

This doesn't replace current items, this is gaining xp for each stat, boosting it with the items, raising success of team. The camp also works with improving Team Cohesion, making them more effective.

 

Government Interest will mean they will raid your camps, try to capture your heads of your different branches & effect your product quality. Just giving a interest take into your cartel, making the player more engaging in the game compared to torn where your only biggest opponent was annoying players 

This could be a really cool idea to expand on expeditions further.  Like there could maybe be special expeditions that are more rare with better rewards that require PMCs like you laid out above.  Have them all have different special abilities that help to clear more rare expeditions maybe? 

 

Cool idea to expand on expeditions some.  Upvoted