>criminal gangs (drugs, extortion, etc) are absurdly overfunded

Not only this, they are "overarmed" with military grade weapons thanks to the USA's insane gun laws. The saying of (former president/dictator) Porfirio Diaz, "Poor Mexico: so far from God and so close to the United States" rings just as true today, if not more so.

>to a large extent it feels like the population at large can’t agree who are the good guys and who are the bad guys

As if this is any different in the US, where film and music have also lionized the "baddies" for well over a hundred years!