The Urabeños, also known as the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces, are one of the most ambitious, ruthless and aggressively expansionist of Colombia's drug trafficking organizations. One of a number of groups made up of former mid-level paramilitary leaders, they have caused homicide rates to skyrocket wherever they have appeared.
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Children serve in a wide range of roles in criminal organizations: errand boy, landmine builder, frontline combatant and assassin. In…
As in the darkest days of Colombia's civil conflict, armed groups across the country continue to enlist and exploit teenage…
A leader of what was once Colombia's largest guerrilla organization has announced the revival of one of its most formidable…
The central Colombian department of Antioquia has been the scene of four massacres over the first two months of 2021,…
On April 30, 1984, the Mercedes taking Colombian Justice Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla home after work was strafed with machine…
A new alliance between two of Colombia's main criminal groups is seeking to contest the ELN's control of lucrative criminal…
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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…
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…
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. …
In early 2009, Steven Dudley was in Medellín, Colombia. His assignment: speak to a jailed paramilitary leader in the Itagui prison, just south of the city. Following his interview inside…
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