Panama’s northern province of Colón, sitting at the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal, is seeing a truly staggering increase in drug seizures, raising questions about its role in the…
Court cases. Hitmen. Interpol. International drug traffickers sometimes need to get away from it all. Brazil has sought to cater to that elite clientele and their specific requirements: living in…
A Turkish mafia boss has claimed cocaine is being trafficked directly from Venezuela to Turkey in a viral video, pointing to the use of a route relying on the support…
Around two hundred women were trafficked from Brazil to foreign countries by a gang based in São Paulo, which was uncovered due to a cloned credit card being used to…
Business jets are on the radar of European authorities after the dismantling of a ring that used private aircraft to smuggle cocaine from Brazil to Portugal.
The infiltration of an encrypted phone messaging service by Belgian authorities led to a record cocaine haul, showing both how such secretive communications are crucial both to those operating international…
A successful Detroit telecommunications businessman secretly bankrolled the development and construction of an underwater drone, which could have been used to move tons of cocaine to Europe, according to a…
Authorities in Europe -- already overwhelmed by a flood of cocaine arriving in cargo ships -- now must face another smuggling method that has bedeviled law enforcement in the Americas:…
With higher profits and lower risks than the United States, Europe has emerged recently as arguably the most important cocaine market in the world.
While the seizure of 23 tons of cocaine by German, Belgian and Dutch police, the largest-ever haul of the drug in the EU, was noteworthy, it serves as merely the…
Authorities in Madrid have dismantled part of a sophisticated network dedicated to contract killings and transnational money laundering, highlighting the autonomous community’s role as a power base for criminal groups…
The flow of cocaine to Europe may have suffered along with most licit businesses due to the Covid-19 crisis, but few believe the damage to the drug trade will be…
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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