A new law in Costa Rica, that looks to destroy illegal landingstrips, could provide an opportunity to control flights and close the country’s airways for drug traffickers. Nevertheless, reducing the…
By providing satellite data on its fleets, Costa Rica is the latest country in Latin America to take on illegal fishing, which costs billions of dollars and taxes already over-exploited…
Raids across Costa Rica have exposed a web of front companies filtering illegally mined gold to the United States, in the kind of multimillion-dollar laundering scheme not typically associated with…
Costa Rica has enhanced border security during the coronavirus pandemic to crack down on human smuggling from Nicaragua, but its measures are undermined by a lack of communication between the…
At daybreak on January 1, 2020, five men were shot from a car with a machine gun mounted on it outside a church in Cieneguita, a small town located on…
Online scams, ransomware attacks and phishing email schemes have proliferated in Latin America amid the coronavirus pandemic, exposing the dangers hackers pose to people, banks and governments. If the past…
Costa Rica has had a tumultuous start to 2020. The country seized the largest ever haul of cocaine within its borders and homicides were up in the first two months…
The relative tranquility enjoyed by Costa Rica, in comparison with other countries in Central America, has been offset in recent years by a wave of homicides that hit the country…
The container of ornamental plants had passed through customs at Costa Rica's port of Limón and was awaiting transfer to a ship headed to the Netherlands. But something about the…
In a year marked by political and criminal turmoil, Latin American capitals did not escape the effects of the violence, organized crime and state repression experienced throughout the region.
Since 2020 began, major operations along Costa Rica’s western coast have brought in nearly 1,000 kilograms of cocaine showing the country’s increasing efforts to tackle drug smuggling in the…
While eco-trafficking in Costa Rica has largely been associated with turtles, recent raids have shown how its butterflies, beetles, wasps and spiders can also fetch startling prices on the international…
About InSight Crime
Environmental and Academic Praise
InSight Crime’s six-part series on the plunder of the Peruvian Amazon continues to inform the debate on environmental security in the region. Our Environmental Crimes Project Manager, María Fernanda Ramírez,…
Series on Plunder of Peru’s Amazon Makes Headlines
Since launching on June 2, InSight Crime’s six-part series on environmental crime in Peru’s Amazon has been well-received. Detailing the shocking impunity enjoyed by those plundering the rainforest, the investigation…
Duarte’s Death Makes Waves
The announcement of the death of Gentil Duarte, one of the top dissident commanders of the defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), continues to reverberate in Venezuela and Colombia.
Cattle Trafficking Acclaim, Investigation into Peru’s Amazon
On May 18, InSight Crime launched its most recent investigation into cattle trafficking between Central America and Mexico. It showed precisely how beef, illicitly produced in Honduras, Guatemala…
Coverage of Fallen Paraguay Prosecutor Makes Headlines
The murder of leading anti-crime prosecutor, Marcelo Pecci, while on honeymoon in Colombia, has drawn attention to the evolution of organized crime in Paraguay. While 17 people have been arrested…
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