Criminal organisation represented in cartoons about South America (4,6)
I believe the answer is:
cosa nostra
'criminal organisation' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how they can define each other.
'represented in cartoons about south america' is the wordplay.
'represented in' indicates anagramming the letters.
'about' indicates putting letters inside.
'south america' becomes 'SA' (abbreviation).
'cartoons' is an anagram of 'conostra'.
'conostra' enclosing 'sa' is 'COSA NOSTRA'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cosa nostra that I've seen before include "The Mob" , "Criminals" , "Criminal element" , "criminal US group" , "US crime syndicate with links to the Mafia" .)