InSight Crime accompanied Rio's elite military police squad as it occupied one of the city's biggest and most violent favelas, the latest operation in the "pacification" scheme as Vila…
A battle for control of a favela between members of the Terceiro Comando Puro and Comando Vermelho offers a perfect illustration of the nature of criminal control and gang conflict…
A prominent clergyman in Paraguay has called attention to the establishment of permanent bases in the country by Brazilian criminals, with recently announced record drug seizures one indication of what…
A joint operation between Brazilian and Paraguayan police has captured five alleged members of Brazil's feared Red Command (Comando Vermelho), further evidence of the the group's spread across the border.
Brazilian drug gang the Red Command sends a ton of Colombian cocaine each month into Brazil from Paraguay, according to Paraguayan authorities.
The Red Command (Comando Vermelho) is Brazil’s oldest criminal group, created in a Rio de Janeiro prison in the 1970s as a self-protection group for prisoners. It started out with…
São Paulo authorities are now able to mandate the hospitalization of crack addicts, as part of the government's efforts to halt rising demand for the low-cost drug.
Brazil has sent some 1,500 security officials to occupy four of Rios most troubled favelas, but securing the neighborhoods will rely on long-term police presence in the future.
A suspected Brazilian gang leader based in one of Paraguay's key locations for smuggling contraband was gunned down while playing pool, pointing to the country's popularity as a safe haven…
The Brazilian Army has handed control of several neighborhoods in a Rio de Janeiro favela adjoining Complexo do Alemao to military police, in a step towards installing elite commmunity policing…
According to Bolivia's top drug official, there are no drug cartels inside the Andean nation but there are representatives from Colombian and Brazilian criminal groups.
Paraguayan police raided a ranch believed to have been used by a member of Brazilian drug gang the PCC, one of at least five who escaped from a prison close…
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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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