All About Rastrojos

COLOMBIA / 21 MAY 2019

A violent criminal gang known as "La Línea" has triggered several deadly shootouts in battles with other armed groups seeking to control remote trails near the main border crossing between…

COLOMBIA / 6 MAY 2019

A recent shootout at the main border crossing between Colombia and Venezuela and the killing of five people in another Venezuelan frontier town shows that clashes between criminal groups over…

COLOMBIA / 8 JAN 2019

Turbulence reigned in 2018, but there was one constant: the flow of Venezuelans fleeing their country. The unceasing migration has left thousands of people homeless, penniless and ripe for exploitation…

ELN / 31 DEC 2018

A new report from a Venezuela non-governmental organization working on migration issues shows that Colombia's criminal groups have been recruiting Venezuelans into their ranks at an accelerated rate.

COLOMBIA / 5 NOV 2018

A recent attack by Colombian criminal group, Los Rastrojos, on a military base in Venezuela confirms that the group is gathering strength in the country and will not hold back…

COLOMBIA / 13 MAR 2018

The Colombian mafia comprises networks of localized and shadowy groups and figures involved in illicit economies.

COLECTIVOS / 29 JAN 2018

Venezuela’s continued spiral into economic, political and social crisis and the demobilization of Colombia’s largest guerrilla group have shifted criminal dynamics on the Colombia-Venezuela border, transforming the region into…

COLOMBIA / 18 JUL 2017

Ongoing political and economic chaos in Venezuela may be aiding the resurgence of the Rastrojos, once one of Colombia's most powerful crime groups -- a worrying trend in light…

COLOMBIA / 28 MAR 2017

Authorities arrested a former leader of a now dissolved Colombian drug trafficking organization, a sign that the group's legacy in the country's underworld lives on. …

COLOMBIA / 15 FEB 2017

A Colombian drug boss whose surrender to US authorities helped decimate what was once among the country's most powerful criminal organizations has negotiated his way into receiving just a nine-year…

COLOMBIA / 28 NOV 2016

A new analysis of 15 years of homicide statistics in Colombia's most violent city, Cali, highlights the direct correlation between underworld evolutions and violence in the country.

COLOMBIA / 26 OCT 2016

The arrest of the alleged leader of Rastrojos faction "los Comba" is a sign that the criminal group was able to grow under the authorities' radar since its near demise…

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…