All About Drug Policy

NEWS

4 Security Challenges Awaiting Ecuador’s Next President

DRUG POLICY / 20 APR 2021

Ecuador’s next president will face an unprecedented set of security challenges, as prison violence has soared to record levels, the country’s corruption is receiving international attention and the criminal situation…

Ecuador’s Self-Defeating Anti-Trafficking Law

COCAINE / 12 APR 2021

While authorities in Ecuador tally record cocaine seizures, a change to the criminal code in the Andean country has possibly made it more difficult to prosecute large-scale traffickers.

DEA Report: Drug Traffickers Adapt to COVID-19 Crisis

COVID AND CRIME / 23 MAR 2021

Though crime syndicates struggled to move drugs in the initial months of the pandemic when global shipping shut down and transit came to a halt, they soon learned to adapt.

US Sends Mixed Messages on Aerial Spraying in Colombia

COCA / 17 MAR 2021

The US State Department’s annual drug control strategy report calls for Colombia to restart the aerial eradication of coca crops, a position on which the administration of Joe Biden has…

Key Report Urges Ambitious Revision of US Anti-Drug Policy

COLOMBIA / 10 DEC 2020

Congress has released a sweeping report on drug policy in the Americas, laying out a long list of recommendations for curbing drug trafficking and addressing the public health issues created…

Bolivia’s New President Faces Complex Drug Scenario

BOLIVIA / 11 NOV 2020

The newly sworn-in president of Bolivia, Luis Arce, will face a number of pressing security challenges as he works to bring stability back to the country -- but none is…

How President Donald Trump Has Impacted Organized Crime in Latin America

COLOMBIA / 4 NOV 2020

When it comes to combating organized crime and drug trafficking, US President Donald Trump has chosen to strongarm his Latin American counterparts rather than engage in diplomacy, threatening them and…

Mexico’s Poppy Farmers in Increasingly Dire Straits

DRUG POLICY / 2 NOV 2020

Facing increased economic hardship, poppy-growing communities in southwest Mexico want to join a state program offering alternative projects, but this would only be a first step that cannot tackle all…

US Border Officials See Methamphetamine Resurgence

COVID AND CRIME / 18 AUG 2020

The recent seizure of $16 million worth of methamphetamines by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has highlighted rising meth seizure and overdose trends in the United States — a…

Mexico Opium Network Shines Light on Marginalized Poppy-Growing Communities

DRUG POLICY / 31 JUL 2020

The fall in heroin prices in the United States and the devastating economic effect this has had on poppy-growing communities in Mexico has been widely discussed and often attributed to…

The DEA Academy: The Double Agent Factory

DRUG POLICY / 17 APR 2020

It must have felt like a real kick in the gut for those at the DEA when they found out that Commander Iván Reyes Arzate, who had been an agency…

Costa Rica’s Security Minister Talks Cocaine, Killings, and Organized Crime

COCAINE / 23 MAR 2020

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…

For Ecuador’s Fishermen, ‘Vueltas’ Rarely End in a Return

COCAINE / 20 MAR 2020

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…

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4 FEB 2021

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InSight Crime Events – Border Crime: The Northern Triangle and Tri-Border Area

ARGENTINA / 25 JAN 2021

Through several rounds of extensive field investigations, our researchers have analyzed and mapped out the main illicit economies and criminal groups present in 39 border departments spread across the six countries of study – the Northern Triangle trio of Guatemala, Honduras, and El…

BRIEF

InSight Crime’s ‘Memo Fantasma’ Investigation Wins Simón Bolívar National Journalism Prize

COLOMBIA / 20 NOV 2020

The staff at InSight Crime was awarded the prestigious Simón Bolívar national journalism prize in Colombia for its two-year investigation into the drug trafficker known as “Memo Fantasma,” which was…

ANALYSIS

InSight Crime – From Uncovering Organized Crime to Finding What Works

COLOMBIA / 12 NOV 2020

This project began 10 years ago as an effort to address a problem: the lack of daily coverage, investigative stories and analysis of organized crime in the Americas. …

ANALYSIS

InSight Crime – Ten Years of Investigating Organized Crime in the Americas

FEATURED / 2 NOV 2020

In early 2009, Steven Dudley was in Medellín, Colombia. His assignment: speak to a jailed paramilitary leader in the Itagui prison, just south of the city. Following his interview inside…

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