Amambay is at the heart of Paraguay’s most worrying organized crime trends: cocaine trafficking, marijuana production, and the rise of violent criminal groups.
Misiones does not play an important role in regional criminal dynamics, despite some marijuana trafficking in the department.
Paraguay’s capital is a transit point for Bolivian cocaine shipped through the Tri-Border area, bound for Brazil. The Paraguay River, which passes through Asunción, also serves as a smuggling route…
Cortés is a major organized crime hub. Vast quantities of drugs, arms, and contraband pass through the department’s busy Atlantic port – Puerto Cortés – on a daily basis.
In Copán – a major transit point for cocaine – drug trafficking groups collaborate with local authorities to smuggle narcotics over the department’s porous western border with Guatemala.
Intibucá is not a major organized crime hub, though there is a notable gang presence along the department’s porous southern border with El Salvador and some signs of drug trafficking.
Valle is an important transit point for cocaine being shipped from South America to Honduras, bound for other Central American countries and the United States.
Corruptible customs officials and porous borders facilitate the smuggling of migrants and drugs from Ocotepeque into Guatemala, along with flows of arms and contraband to and from adjacent departments in both Guatemala and…
The department of La Paz does not house any major transnational criminal economies or established criminal actors.
Santa Bárbara sees its fair share of narcotics seizures and has played host to major drug trafficking groups such as the Valle Clan.
Lempira is not a major hub for organized criminal activity but is nonetheless an important transit point for illicit narcotics and a political power center for National Party politicians involved…
Chiquimula is a transit point and hub for drug trafficking. It also has marijuana production and a vibrant contraband and illegal mining market.
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