Authorities have arrested two prominent drug traffickers in Peru’s largest coca-producing region in recent months, but the dentitions alone are unlikely to help remedy the country’s shortcomings in combating coca…
The government’s failure to comply with the coca crops substitution program in Colombia has left the future of almost 100,000 families in limbo and sets up a major setback in…
Colombia’s voluntary crop substitution program has seen almost 35,000 hectares of coca crops destroyed in just eight months, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), showing…
Colombia’s Constitutional Court is debating lifting a judicial ban on the spraying of glyphosate during the controversial aerial fumigation of illicit coca crops, a decision that is unlikely to fix…
A drop in coffee prices is forcing hundreds of Peruvian farmers to seek work in coca plantations-a sign that the country, like its neighbor Colombia, is seeing a boom…
With a well-known route through the Southern Cone decimated and authorities combing the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, drug traffickers are turning to the Pacific Ocean to ship their…
When Colombian President Iván Duque announced his new security plan, he told the media that security “shouldn’t be confused with war.” In his actual plan, however, that distinction seems to…
The former head of Venezuela’s military intelligence service has revealed some key details that confirm longstanding links between several officials in the regime of President Nicolás Maduro with organized crime…
Colombia’s new government plans to deploy an ambitious program to forcefully eradicate illicit crops, stoking fears for the future of a crop substitution program that has been limping along since…
While traditional criminal organizations have widened their portfolios dramatically in recent years, drug trafficking remains the most important earner in the region. And with opioid consumption surging and cocaine production…
Two years after the signing of a peace deal between the Colombian government and the FARC, Colombia’s forests are under siege and experiencing heightened levels of deforestation promoted by various…
Presidential elections in the two countries at the heart of Latin America's drug trade both brought significant change in 2018: Colombians responded to a cocaine boom by voting for a…
About InSight Crime
Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua Becomes Truly Transnational
This week, InSight Crime published a deep dive into the total control that Venezuelan mega-gang, Tren de Aragua, has over the lives of those it smuggles between Venezuela and Chile…
Turkish Traffickers Delivering Latin American Cocaine to Persian Gulf
Last week, InSight Crime published the second half of an investigation piecing together the emerging role of Turkish cocaine traffickers in supplying Russia and the Persian Gulf, which are among…
Turkey as a Lynchpin in European Cocaine Pipeline
InSight Crime is extending its investigation into the cocaine pipeline to Europe, and tracking the growing connections between Latin American drug traffickers and European criminal organizations. This led us to…
Memo Fantasma Coverage Gets Worldwide Attention
Guillermo Acevedo, the former Colombian drug lord and paramilitary commander better known as Memo Fantasma, may soon be allowed to leave prison. Since first revealing the identity of Memo Fantasma…
Who Are Memo Fantasma and Sergio Roberto de Carvalho?
Inside the criminal career of Memo Fantasma In March 2020, InSight Crime revealed the identity and whereabouts of Memo Fantasma, a paramilitary commander and drug trafficker living in…
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