Cocaine, synthetic drugs, weapons, migrants, gasoline - this range of criminal economies has seen violence escalate in Mexico's northern state of Tamaulipas.
US prosecutors have charged an alleged MS13 leader in Honduras and another man thought to be one of his main drug and weapons providers with international cocaine trafficking charges, raising…
Though the amount of coca in Peru has been the subject of recent debate, reports indicate that coca crops have increased and are spreading.
Two attacks in recent days against gang members in Panama City have raised alarm bells that acts of shocking violence could become a regular occurrence in the country.
Accused paramilitary drug lord Guillermo León Acevedo, alias "Memo Fantasma," will remain in a high-security Colombian prison, where he has been jailed for the past four months. Acevedo's lawyers…
A Nigerian trafficking network is now using "mules" to move drugs from South America to Europe, exemplifying how this growing drug consumer market is drawing mafias from around the world…
New documents in the case against accused paramilitary drug lord Guillermo León Acevedo, alias “Memo Fantasma,” reveal that former top Colombian paramilitary commander Salvatore Mancuso spoke to prosecutors about him,…
Private vessels have become a favored modus operandi to move cocaine between Latin America and lucrative European markets. …
Accused Colombian trafficker Dairo Antonio Úsuga, alias “Otoniel,” has been on the radar of US prosecutors for more than a decade, and indictments are open against him in three US…
The governor of Colombia's central department of Meta has survived two back-to-back assassination attempts, a rare case of a continued targeted assault against a senior public official by Colombian guerrillas.
For some time now, research has highlighted the significant volume of illegal logging in the Brazilian timber market and its relationship to deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.
Accused paramilitary drug lord “Memo Fantasma,” or “Will the Ghost,” has petitioned a judge to be let out of a Colombian prison while he awaits trial. Worth millions of dollars…
About InSight Crime
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…
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…
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