All About Cocaine

COCAINE / 26 MAY 2020

As a wave of coronavirus infections hit Italy in late March, Rocco Molè, a member of the country’s ’Ndrangheta organized crime group, was faced with a dilemma.As a wave of…

BOLIVIA / 8 MAY 2020

Officials from Bolivia's interim government have stepped up drug trafficking operations over the last six months, but a focus on coca-producing communities in Cochabamba is creating tension with law enforcement…

COCAINE / 4 MAY 2020

Criminal groups across Latin America have been forced to dig deep by the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown. Moving drugs and contraband, shaking down extortion victims and getting migrants across…

CARIBBEAN / 27 APR 2020

Though described as a strategy to keep traffickers from exploiting the coronavirus pandemic, the US Navy’s recent deployment of warships to the Caribbean was a long time in the making…

BOLIVIA / 21 APR 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has halted trafficking in Peru and sent cocaine prices plummeting, but drug seizures continue in the border department of Ucayali, a jungle region that has become a major smuggling corridor…

COCAINE / 15 APR 2020

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…

ARGENTINA / 14 APR 2020

To slow the spread of the coronavirus, Argentina -- a transhipment point and growing consumer market for illegal drugs -- has shut down its borders, instituted a mandatory quarantine, and…

COCAINE / 10 APR 2020

Over the past year, repeated allegations of weak security and customs checks at Uruguay's main international airport in Montevideo have showcased its important role in the trafficking of drugs to…

COCAINE / 9 APR 2020

In the investigation, "The Invisible Drug Lord: Hunting ‘The Ghost,’" InSight Crime reported that Colombia’s Vice President Marta Lucía Ramírez and her husband, Álvaro Rincón, were shareholders of Hitos Urbanos…

COCAINE / 2 APR 2020

Crude oil siphoned from Colombia's pipelines is increasingly being processed by clandestine refineries that manufacture a low-quality fuel, known as "pategrillo," used to make cocaine.

CARTEL OF THE SUNS / 26 MAR 2020

US prosecutors have charged Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his closest allies with drug trafficking and corruption, cementing the embattled nation's reputation as a mafia state.

COCAINE / 26 MAR 2020

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…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…