Since the end of El Salvador’s civil war, the country’s police has become a key player in the underworld. This series of five articles explore the dark ties between criminal organizations and the government’s key crime-fighting arm.
Corruption in El Salvador: Politicians, Police and Transportistas
EL SALVADOR
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6 MAR 2014
Chapter 1
The Infiltrators: Corruption in El Salvador’s Police
CHEPE LUNA
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21 FEB 2014
Ricardo Mauricio Menesses Orellana liked horses, and the Pasaquina rodeo was a great opportunity to enjoy a party. He was joined at the event -- which was taking place in the…
Chapter 2
‘Chepe Luna,’ the Police and the Art of Escape
CHEPE LUNA
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21 FEB 2014
The United States -- which through its antinarcotics, judicial and police attaches was very familiar with the routes used for smuggling, and especially those used for people trafficking and understood…
Chapter 3
Operation Chameleon in El Salvador: Anatomy of a Failure
EL SALVADOR
/
5 MAR 2014
The experience with Jose Natividad "Chepe" Luna -- the drug trafficker who had eluded a giant dragnet in 2004 -- had demonstrated that the leaks from the National Police of…
Chapter 4
How an El Salvador Drug Trafficker Smuggled Cocaine Into the US
EL SALVADOR
/
6 MAR 2014
The woman phoned the office of the antinarcotics division (DAN) in Bolivar, in El Salvador's La Union province, on August 13, 2008, at 1:30 PM. Investigators later established that what…
Chapter 5
The Fixer and El Salvador’s Missed Opportunity
EL SALVADOR
/
6 MAR 2014
In the photograph, they are both smiling. In the foreground, on the left hand side, a man in a short-sleeved buttoned white shirt, jeans and a metal watch, holds a…
Related Content
EL SALVADOR
/
19 MAR 2018
Recent accusations against a former mayor in El Salvador of exchanging real estate with a drug trafficker are yet further…
EL SALVADOR
/
15 AUG 2017
El Salvador has taken down a network of colluding officials from within its judiciary, a sign that the momentum against…
BARRIO 18
/
8 NOV 2016
El Salvador's three main gangs have reportedly joined forces to carry out strategic assassinations against public officials, which if true…
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InSight Crime Events – Border Crime: The Northern Triangle and Tri-Border Area
ARGENTINA
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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
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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
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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. …
ANALYSIS
InSight Crime – Ten Years of Investigating Organized Crime in the Americas
FEATURED
/
2 NOV 2020
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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