Mexico is home to some of the hemisphere’s largest, most sophisticated and violent organized criminal groups. These organizations have drawn from Mexico’s long history of smuggling and its close proximity to the United States, the world’s largest economy, to grow into a regional threat.
InSight Crime's 2022 Homicide Round-Up covers more countries than ever before, with a major expansion into nations of the Caribbean.
A new report points out how the success rate in fighting money laundering across Latin America varies widely from country to country.
While thousands of gang members have been arrested in El Salvador, some may have moved their activities to Mexico.
Mexico is home to some of the hemisphere’s largest, most sophisticated and violent organized criminal groups. These organizations have drawn from Mexico’s long history of smuggling and its close proximity to the United States, the world’s largest economy, to grow into a regional threat. Their networks stretch from Argentina to Canada and even into Europe. They traffic in illegal drugs, contraband, arms and humans, and launder their proceeds through regional moneychangers, banks and local economic projects. Their armament, training and tactics have become increasingly sophisticated as the Mexican government has ramped up efforts to combat them.
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Mexico's criminal landscape has morphed in recent years from one dominated by a handful of powerful cartels into a fragmented web of nearly 200 criminal groups defined by fragile and fast-changing alliances. While the Sinaloa Cartel and Jalisco Cartel New Generation (CJNG) still dominate the scene, other upstart, hyperviolent groups have carved out a place for themselves through oil theft and other predatory crimes like extortion and kidnapping.
With cartels like the CJNG muscling in on illegal mining in Michoacán, Mexico, Indigenous community members continue to suffer.
The US trial of Genaro García Luna, the architect of Mexico's war on drugs, will seek to prove whether he was helping the Sinaloa Cartel.
The trial of Mexico’s former top public security official will reveal shortcomings in the fight against organized crime.
Dutch authorities have seized three Mexican drug loads at Schiphol Airport, marking a new trafficking trend for Europe.
Mexico has arrested one of El Chapo's sons, Ovidio, at a bitter cost. But will it make a difference to the Sinaloa Cartel?…
Mexico's Familia Michoacana are back in the headlines again. But is it the same cartel as the one that fell apart years ago?…
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