All About Timber Trafficking

COCA / 14 JUL 2021

Recently published data has shown that deforestation in Colombia soared last year, as a number of illegal activities drove forest loss.

ECUADOR / 1 JUN 2021

Timber mafias operating along Ecuador’s borders with Peru and Colombia have been profiting from thriving demand for balsa wood.

CHILE / 21 MAY 2021

A spate of arrests targeting truck drivers carrying stolen wood have highlighted how the province of Arauco is at the heart of increases in timber trafficking across Chile.

BRAZIL / 20 MAY 2021

The environment minister under investigation. The head of the environmental protection agency suspended. The Brazilian government is facing its strongest accusations to date…

COLOMBIA / 21 MAR 2021

More than half of Colombia is covered in forests, but rampant illegal logging is decimating the country’s woodlands.

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME / 3 MAR 2021

Latin America’s forests are being cut down at an accelerating rate. Asian markets are driving a trade in wildlife products, while wildcat miners decimate Amazon jungle from Peru to Guyana…

ELITES AND CRIME / 27 JAN 2021

Nicaragua's Indio Maíz Biological Reserve, on the southern border with Costa Rica, is under assault.

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME / 18 SEP 2020

Nearly eight months after the wiretaps were installed, the conversations on the phones suddenly changed. The talk of logging, laundering and shipping illegal wood stopped. Instead the voices talked of…

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME / 18 SEP 2020

Chihuahua is Mexico’s biggest state, and more than a fifth of its 25,000 hectares is forested, mostly with pine trees of the type that are harvested in vast quantities in…

ELITES AND CRIME / 18 SEP 2020

Catacamas is the largest municipality in Central America, home to thousands of square kilometers of pristine forest. Political elites in this remote part of Honduras have maintained a profitable relationship…

COLOMBIA / 18 SEP 2020

In Colombia, timber traders corrupted regulators to traffic untold amounts of timber.

COVID AND CRIME / 17 SEP 2020

Four Indigenous leaders in Peru's Amazon have been murdered since the government declared a state of emergency over COVID-19, revealing how their opposition to illegal logging, mining and drug trafficking…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela Coverage Continues to be Highlighted

3 MAR 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-director Jeremy McDermott was the featured guest on the Americas Quarterly podcast, where he provided an expert overview of the changing dynamics…

THE ORGANIZATION

Venezuela's Organized Crime Top 10 Attracts Attention

24 FEB 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published its ranking of Venezuela’s ten organized crime groups to accompany the launch of the Venezuela Organized Crime Observatory. Read…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime on El País Podcast

10 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime co-founder, Jeremy McDermott, was among experts featured in an El País podcast on the progress of Colombia’s nascent peace process.

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Interviewed by Associated Press

3 FEB 2023

This week, InSight Crime’s Co-director Jeremy McDermott was interviewed by the Associated Press on developments in Haiti as the country continues its prolonged collapse. McDermott’s words were republished around the world,…

THE ORGANIZATION

Escaping Barrio 18

27 JAN 2023

Last week, InSight Crime published an investigation charting the story of Desafío, a 28-year-old Barrio 18 gang member who is desperate to escape gang life. But there’s one problem: he’s…