Currently if a cartel were to change hands it would rely on pure trust, and in a text based crime game... very little of that exists.

Solution:

Ability to trade cartel leadership like a dog or property

R+ when I was a young cartel leader I sold mine to this Mendoza girl but she scammed me so now im broke again

This is ridiculous.... first... Cartels are more like a coletive thing than personal property, and leting someone safely sell that is boring. They still can sell but it's more interesting when there is risk in that. And not first, buying a criminal enterprise IRL is purely trust based, so it would be very out of the game theme to add this.