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Criminal Actors
Histories and profiles of organized crime groups, insurgencies, street gangs, vigilantes and the criminal actors that lead them.
Samark López Bello
CARTEL OF THE SUNS
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JUNE 14, 2019
Samark López Bello is a Venezuelan businessman and currently a fugitive from American justice facing charges of laundering drug money.
Jarvis Chimenes Pavão, alias "The Drug Kingpin"
PARAGUAY
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MAY 23, 2019
Brazilian national Jarvis Chimenes Pavão rose to become one of South America’s most prominent drug traffickers and the successor of…
Tareck El Aissami
VENEZUELA PERSONALITIES
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JUNE 17, 2019
Tareck El Aissami is the Minister of Industries and National Production of Venezuela. He has held this position since June…
Seuxis Pausías Hernández, alias 'Jesús Santrich'
COLOMBIA PERSONALITIES
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MAY 18, 2021
Seuxis Pausías Hernández Solarte, alias “Jesús Santrich,” was a senior former FARC commander who participated in that guerrilla group's demobilization…
Hernán Darío Velásquez Saldarriaga, alias 'El Paisa'
COLOMBIA
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DECEMBER 9, 2021
Hernán Darío Velásquez, better known as 'El Paisa,' was a top former leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia…
Walter Patricio Arizala, alias “Guacho”
COLOMBIA
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JANUARY 18, 2019
Walter Patricio Arizala, alias “Guacho,” was one of the most wanted criminals in both Colombia and Ecuador, after military forces…
Jalisco Cartel New Generation (CJNG)
JALISCO CARTEL
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11 DEC 2018
The CJNG is a criminal group that has evolved as a result of killings, captures and rifts in older cartels.
Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho, alias ‘Marcola’
BRAZIL
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MARCH 25, 2020
Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho, known by the aliases “Marcola” and “Playboy,” has been the top leader of Brazil’s biggest and…
Argentina Profile
Despite Argentina's prominent role as a money laundering center and as a drug transit and consumption point, the country does…
Amigos dos Amigos
AMIGOS DOS AMIGOS
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MARCH 30, 2018
Amigos dos Amigos is a criminal group based in Brazil’s second-largest city, Rio de Janeiro. The organization was formed in…
The Colombian Mafia
COLOMBIA
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13 MAR 2018
The mafia in Colombia today is comprised of a maelstrom of localized groups, shadowy power brokers and sub-contracted labor that…
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Pedro Juan Caballero – The Descent into Madness of a Paraguay Border Town
ELITES AND CRIME
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20 MAY 2022
Political assassinations, record drug seizures, gang wars – an avalanche of criminal concerns in Paraguay are coalescing around the city of Pedro Juan Caballero on the border with Brazil.
Uruguay's Microtrafficking Approach Under Question as Homicides Jump
DRUG POLICY
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20 MAY 2022
A spate of gang-related killings has caused panic in a marginalized area of Uruguay’s capital of Montevideo, raising debate about the alleged success of the country’s hardening security strategies.
Why Haiti’s Gang War Keeps On Getting Worse
G9
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20 MAY 2022
Less than a week after a vicious 12-day gang war rocked the northern communes of Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince, a new report has emerged detailing the full extent of the…
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