One could argue that Pablo Escobar, kingpin of the Medellin Cartel in Colombia held more sway than Colombia's own government back in the 80s. He was able to buy out nearly any judge or politician, and those he couldn't buy out he would have killed in spectacular fashion to serve as an example to others. Colombia eventually took him down (literally; they killed him in a brazen shoot out) with some help from the US (the US was eager to get rid of Escobar since it was the heyday of the War on Drugs), but it was so bad that even when caught for the first time, Escobar was able to name his own luxurious prison terms and made it even more difficult to prosecute him in the future.

There are other more localized examples, such as the 'Ndrangheta in Italy's Calabria region (the region's entire government at one point was found to be under sway of the criminal group and was sacked by the Italian Feds), or Cosa Nostra in Sicily from the late '70s to the early '90s.

Tuan Shi-wen was a commander in the Kuomintang government's National Revolutionary Army in the Chinese Civil War. His troops were some of the last defenders of Yunnan province before it was overrun by the Communists near the end of the war. These troops were forced out of Yunnan into Burma and Thailand. While they were able to make contact with the Kuomintang government in exile in Taiwan, their orders were to continue resisting the Communists through guerilla warfare.

To that end, both Taiwan and the United States sent supplies to this "lost division," consisting of modern firearms and heavy weaponry. With these weapons, they were able to gain hegemony over a portion of Burma and Thailand in the area known as the Golden Triangle-a nexus of heroin production and trafficking.

The Burmese (quite rightly) saw this armed foreign force as a major threat to their national sovereignty. In a series of battles, the KMT forces were on the verge of conquering the entire Burmese Shan State before being repulsed to the eastern side of Shan. However, the resulting chaos caused many of the different ethnic groups in Shan to start their own militias, turning the State into a hotbed of internal conflict between various ethnic groups, KMT holdouts, and drug lords. Often times they would ally with one group or another for dominance.

Eventually, after growing political pressure, the remaining KMT troops were evacuated to Taiwan. However, some KMT troops remained in the region to join several of the resistance groups. Some of these troops, as well as other emigres from Yunnan, eventually became involved with the Wa minority, an ethnic group spread through Burma and China. Wa soldiers eventually formed the United Wa State Army, defeating several of the other insurgent groups, and formed a ceasefire with the Burmese government. In exchange for local autonomy (and control of the drug trade) the UWSA allied with the Burmese government, acknowledged their sovereignty over Wa, and helped the Burmese in combating Shan nationalists. They rule over the region to this day.