In Putumayo, as in much of Colombia, female coca growers face a difficult choice: obey armed groups and continue working in illegal economies, or put themselves at risk by seeking…
A new book by a veteran reporter provides a comprehensive picture of Colombia’s modern-day cocaine trafficking networks and their devastating impact on the society that surrounds them.
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…
A new report sheds light on US authorities' controversial practice of detaining Ecuadorian fishermen acting as drug mules in international waters and holding them captive on off-shore "prison ships," often…
Over the last decade, Honduras has seen a proliferation of laboratories capable of transforming coca leaf into cocaine hydrochloride. This means that Honduras, once only a transit point for drugs,…
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…
Clandestine airstrips found in Venezuela and suspected drug flights leaving the country soared in 2019, with different parts of the country being used as aerial connection points, but the total…
Since Bolivia’s botched elections in October 2019, numerous high-standing politicians and law enforcement officials associated with the Movement to Socialism (Movimiento al Socialismo – MAS) party have fled the…
For the first time, the International Narcotics Control Board has recognized the growing influence of the "Cartel of the Suns," the name for a criminal structure within the ranks of…
Two recent events show how one of Brazil's regional gangs, the PGC, is making waves inside Paraguay, likely seeking to emulate the drug trafficking success that its larger rivals have…
A social media post claiming falsely that cocaine can cure COVID-19, better known as the coronavirus, has been shared thousands of times on Twitter in recent weeks, although the majority…
In recent years, the port of Antwerp in Belgium has been the main entry point for cocaine into Europe, and authorities are actively trying to change that fact. But what…