The Cocaine Pipeline to Europe

INVESTIGATIONS / 9 FEB 2021

When Mexico’s drug cartels forced Colombian traffickers out of the US cocaine market, they seized control of the most coveted prize in the global drug trade. But the smartest traffickers…

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THE ORGANIZATION / 4 FEB 2021

Welcome to our new home page. We have revamped the site to create a better display and reader experience.

NEWS

The United States, a Special Operations Unit and a Massacre in Mexico

US authorities at both the federal and state level provided training to members of a Mexican special operations unit with a history of alleged human rights abuses that was recently…

NEWS

Venezuela’s Other Plight: Sex Trafficking in Trinidad and Tobago

GENDER AND CRIME / 11 FEB 2021

Ongoing interceptions targeting sex trafficking rings operating between Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago have revealed the extent to which Venezuelan women and minors are being continually smuggled to the island…

NEWS

Top Mexico Tax Official Fired for Permitting Money Laundering

Mexico's tax authority has dismissed Ramón García Gibson, one of its highest-ranking officials, for “evident conflicts of interest” and his participation in a scheme that enabled the Sinaloa and Norte…

NEWS

Mexico’s Tourist Corridor: Dream Destination for Drug Traffickers

COCAINE / 10 FEB 2021

A recent string of high-profile drug plane interceptions suggests the once tranquil Mexican state of Quintana Roo is being increasingly relied upon as a drug trafficking hub.

NEWS

Honduras President Targeted Again in US Criminal Investigation

Federal prosecutors have specified in a recently filed court document that Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández has been under investigation for connections to drug trafficking, though US authorities have targeted…

NEWS

Human Trafficking Accompanies Illegal Mining in Venezuela’s Orinoco

HUMAN TRAFFICKING / 9 FEB 2021

A new report on human trafficking in Venezuela's Bolívar state shows that forced labor camps and sex trafficking rings are rampant in the region's illegal mines.

NEWS

Oxygen Shortage in Mexico Spurs Profiteering

COVID AND CRIME / 8 FEB 2021

With oxygen in short supply in Mexico amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a black market is expanding -- in another example of medical shortages spurring fraud and profiteering.

NEWS

The Little-Known Bolivia-Asia Drug Route

BOLIVIA / 5 FEB 2021

The seizure of a cocaine-laced package, bound for Thailand, at an airport in Bolivia, shines light on the little-known drug trafficking route to south and southeastern Asia that relies on…

NEWS

InSight Crime Presents Guatemala Cross-Border Crime and Corruption Investigation

COCAINE / 4 FEB 2021

Drug trafficking has been reconfigured in Guatemala. The large clans that traditionally dominated the business have broken up.

NEWS

US-Trained Police Implicated in Mexico Migrant Massacre

ELITES AND CRIME / 3 FEB 2021

A dozen police officers have been implicated in the massacre of 19 people along the US-Mexico border at the end of January, underscoring the systematic violence directed at those most…

Featured Reporting and Analysis

The flow of cocaine to Europe may have suffered along with most licit businesses due to the Covid-19 crisis, but few believe the damage to the drug trade will be…

COCAINE / 9 FEB 2021

It was around 5 a.m. when the MSC Gayane cargo freighter docked in the port of Philadelphia on June 17, 2019. Instead of continuing on to its scheduled destination –…

BRAZIL / 9 FEB 2021

In July 2020, British drug trafficker Robert Dawes was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in one of the most emblematic European drug trafficking cases of the…

COCAINE / 9 FEB 2021

Cocaine is a criminal steroid. Those that gain access to its riches enjoy accelerated growth and power – quickly – usually leaving a trail of violence and corruption in their…

COCAINE / 9 FEB 2021

Operation ‘Tiburón Galloway’ began as a local investigation by prosecutors in the Italian region of Calabria in 2001, but quickly snowballed into a multinational, multiagency investigation.

AUC / 9 FEB 2021

On April 30, 1984, the Mercedes taking Colombian Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla home after work was strafed with machine gun fire.

COCAINE / 9 FEB 2021

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NewsMakers

Izabal, Guatemala

GUATEMALA / 22 JAN 2021

Izabal is one of the most important transit hubs for cocaine being smuggled from Honduras into Guatemala by land, as well as for cocaine arriving by plane or sea from…

Zacapa, Guatemala

GUATEMALA / 22 JAN 2021

In the department of Zacapa, long a transit point for cocaine and marijuana bound for Mexico and the US, drug traffickers exert much influence.

Gulf Cartel

MEXICO / 2 AUG 2013

The Gulf Cartel is one of the oldest and most powerful of Mexico’s criminal groups but has lost territory and influence in recent years to its rivals, including its former…

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A country-by-country breakdown of the news as well as key criminal groups and players across Latin America and the Caribbean.

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Institutional Content

THE ORGANIZATION

Strategic Communications Manager Job Description

12 FEB 2021

InSight Crime is looking for a full-time strategic communications manager. This person needs to be able to work in a fast-paced world of daily news, high-profile investigations, national and international…

THE ORGANIZATION

We Have Updated Our Website

4 FEB 2021

Welcome to our new home page. We have revamped the site to create a better display and reader experience.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Events – Border Crime: The Northern Triangle and Tri-Border Area

ARGENTINA / 25 JAN 2021

Through several rounds of extensive field investigations, our researchers have analyzed and mapped out the main illicit economies and criminal groups present in 39 border departments spread across the six countries of study – the Northern Triangle trio of Guatemala, Honduras, and El…

BRIEF

InSight Crime’s ‘Memo Fantasma’ Investigation Wins Simón Bolívar National Journalism Prize

COLOMBIA / 20 NOV 2020

The staff at InSight Crime was awarded the prestigious Simón Bolívar national journalism prize in Colombia for its two-year investigation into the drug trafficker known as “Memo Fantasma,” which was…

ANALYSIS

InSight Crime – From Uncovering Organized Crime to Finding What Works

COLOMBIA / 12 NOV 2020

This project began 10 years ago as an effort to address a problem: the lack of daily coverage, investigative stories and analysis of organized crime in the Americas. …