The gunmen caught up with the police chief of the small town of Puruandiro as he drove before dawn near the beautiful lake that dominates the area. Attacking with assault…
In their fight against Mexico's government and their rivals, the Knights Templar employs a multifaceted strategy that targets all levels of society, offering the clearest illustration of what some analysts…
A series of "narcomantas" likely linked to the Knights Templar cartel have appeared in Michoacan threatening to form a guerrilla army to combat self-defense militias, as the west Mexico state's long running…
It is tempting to separate Mexico's drug cartels into six hierarchical groups, each competing for trafficking turf. The reality, however, is that the Sinaloa Federation, the Gulf Cartel, the Tijuana…
Attempts by the Knights Templar to extort a company building a federal prison in Mexico's Michoacan state have resulted in workers abandoning the site over threats, highlighting the extent of…
From its origins as a breakaway faction of the battered La Familia Michoacana, the quirky Knights Templar of the Pacific coast state of Michoacan have emerged as the third most…
The attacks on Mexican security forces by armed men across the Pacific Coast state of Michoacan in the past week have killed dozens of people and mocked the federal government's…
In the latest convulsion of violence in the embattled Michoacan state, two Mexican national police, and 20 civilians have been killed in ambushes targeting police, adding an apparently planned and…
Five people were killed and various others injured after an unidentified group shot at protesters in southwest Mexico's Michoacan state, in one of several recent incidents marking escalating violence in…
Public servants of every stripe across Mexico's gang plagued regions face an existential choice.
The Knights Templar (Cabelleros Templarios) emerged in March 2011 as a splinter group of the once-mighty Familia Michoacana. Like their predecessors, the Knights Templar cast themselves as a "self-defense" movement engaged in a struggle with …
Gangsters certainly crowd the ranks of the more than 26,000 people said to have disappeared amid Mexico's criminal wars. And at the front of the line stands Nazario Moreno, spiritual…
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InSight Crime Events – Border Crime: The Northern Triangle and Tri-Border Area
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…
InSight Crime’s ‘Memo Fantasma’ Investigation Wins Simón Bolívar National Journalism Prize
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…
InSight Crime – From Uncovering Organized Crime to Finding What Works
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. …
InSight Crime – Ten Years of Investigating Organized Crime in the Americas
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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