If you take some of the Brazilian and other Latin American gangs and transport them to a place where there is even less law and order, such as some of the civil war torn sub-Saharan African countries, these gangs will become de-facto ruling governments, complete with functional leadership structure, enforcement, and even possibly a way to improve the lives of the people they rule over, albeit in a dystopian fashion. In other terms, another military junta.
Hell, even in their present countries, some of these groups are more powerful than local governments, or they are actually THE local government.