Investigating organized crime is an expensive and often risky enterprise. Reaching primary sources and getting the real story involve extensive fieldwork. Please donate. Every dollar supports our mission.
DONATE NOW
Criminal Actors
Histories and profiles of organized crime groups, insurgencies, street gangs, vigilantes and the criminal actors that lead them.
Copán, Honduras
COCAINE
/
16 FEB 2021
In Copán – a major transit point for cocaine – drug trafficking groups collaborate with local authorities to smuggle narcotics over the department’s porous western border with Guatemala.
Intibucá, Honduras
GEOGRAPHIC PROFILES
/
16 FEB 2021
Intibucá is not a major organized crime hub, though there is a notable gang presence along the department’s porous southern…
Valle, Honduras
COCAINE
/
16 FEB 2021
Valle is an important transit point for cocaine being shipped from South America to Honduras, bound for other Central American…
Ocotepeque, Honduras
COCAINE
/
16 FEB 2021
Corruptible customs officials and porous borders facilitate the smuggling of migrants and drugs from Ocotepeque into Guatemala, along with flows of…
La Paz, Honduras
ELITES AND CRIME
/
16 FEB 2021
The department of La Paz does not house any major transnational criminal economies or established criminal actors.
Santa Bárbara, Honduras
COCAINE
/
16 FEB 2021
Santa Bárbara sees its fair share of narcotics seizures and has played host to major drug trafficking groups such as…
Lempira, Honduras
ELITES AND CRIME
/
16 FEB 2021
Lempira is not a major hub for organized criminal activity but is nonetheless an important transit point for illicit narcotics…
Honduras Profile
HONDURAS
/
FEBRUARY 15, 2021
Honduras, long one of the poorest countries in Latin America, is now also among the most violent and crime-ridden. The…
Escritório do Crime
BRAZIL GROUPS
/
15 FEB 2021
Escritório do Crime (Office of Crime) is one of the largest and most powerful militia groups in Brazil’s second-largest city,…
Chiquimula, Guatemala
COCAINE
/
22 JAN 2021
Chiquimula is a transit point and hub for drug trafficking. It also has marijuana production and a vibrant contraband and…
Izabal, Guatemala
GEOGRAPHIC PROFILES
/
22 JAN 2021
Izabal is one of the most important transit hubs for cocaine being smuggled from Honduras into Guatemala by land, as…
Zacapa, Guatemala
GEOGRAPHIC PROFILES
/
22 JAN 2021
In the department of Zacapa, long a transit point for cocaine and marijuana bound for Mexico and the US, drug…
Latest News
Happy Mother’s Day from Your Friendly Neighborhood Cartel Boss
EL MENCHO
/
14 MAY 2021
In some regions of Mexico, family members who came up empty-handed this Mother's Day were bailed out by the Jalisco Cartel.
Bolivia Family Clans Key Cocaine Suppliers to Brazil, Colombia
BOLIVIA
/
14 MAY 2021
The extradition of a prominent Bolivian drug trafficker to Brazil has shed rare light on how family clans in the Andean nation serve as important cocaine suppliers to powerful organized…
Dirty Business – The Smuggling Pipeline Carrying Mercury Across the Amazon
BOLIVIA
/
13 MAY 2021
Smuggling networks are feeding illegal mining operations across the Amazon Basin with mercury, despite global efforts to clamp down on the use of the substance.
Investigations
Chapters
#SupportFreePress
Support Our Work
Stay Informed with InSight Weekly
Get fresh updates on organized crime from across the region delivered to your inbox.
SUBSCRIBE