Over 75 percent of all environmentalists killed in 2014 were from either Central or South America, according to a new report, illustrating the high level of danger facing land activists…
The Brazilian government has launched a new anti-logging security force unit in an attempt to tackle a lucrative criminal trade that has turned Brazil into one of the most dangerous…
Authorities in Hong Kong have seized rosewood from Honduras in what is reportedly the largest seizure of protected wood in the last ten years, highlighting how the demand for wood…
As the United Nations climate change conference wraps up in Lima, one newspaper in Peru has given a breakdown of how faulty controls facilitate the country's illegal timber trade --…
With indigenous communities in Panama and Peru reportedly planning to use drones to monitor rainforest destruction, this raises all kinds of possibilities for how drones could be used in the…
The murder of a prominent land rights activist and three other indigenous men in Peru's Amazon region has been attributed to illegal loggers, in a case highlighting the threat the…
Authorities in Brazil have dismantled a criminal network they claim is the principal organization profiting from the deforestation of the Brazilian Amazon, in a rare victory against the widespread impunity enjoyed…
To learn about the illegal wood trade and its impact on local communities, photographer Fellipe Abreu spent 75 days in the Brazil-Peru border region, where the Javari River forms a…
The profits on offer for eco-trafficking rival those of drugs, arms and people trafficking, while the transnational networks behind it corrupt institutions, destroy eco-systems and ruin livelihoods. So why does…
Eco-trafficking is no longer the preserve of a handful of poachers, loggers and specialized smugglers, but has become a billion-dollar trade run by transnational organized crime networks that spread corruption,…
A new Greenpeace report exposes the web of corruption behind illegal deforestation in Brazil, unraveling some of the details behind an illicit trade that threatens environmental catastrophe as it decimates…
The high price of an exotic wood has spurred a rash of timber theft in the forests of Panama, threatening the region's tropical jungles as traffickers seek to satisfy demand…
About InSight Crime
Who Are Memo Fantasma and Sergio Roberto de Carvalho?
Inside the criminal career of Memo Fantasma In March 2020, InSight Crime revealed the identity and whereabouts of Memo Fantasma, a paramilitary commander and drug trafficker living in…
Environmental and Academic Praise
InSight Crime’s six-part series on the plunder of the Peruvian Amazon continues to inform the debate on environmental security in the region. Our Environmental Crimes Project Manager, María Fernanda Ramírez,…
Series on Plunder of Peru’s Amazon Makes Headlines
Since launching on June 2, InSight Crime’s six-part series on environmental crime in Peru’s Amazon has been well-received. Detailing the shocking impunity enjoyed by those plundering the rainforest, the investigation…
Duarte’s Death Makes Waves
The announcement of the death of Gentil Duarte, one of the top dissident commanders of the defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), continues to reverberate in Venezuela and Colombia.
Cattle Trafficking Acclaim, Investigation into Peru’s Amazon
On May 18, InSight Crime launched its most recent investigation into cattle trafficking between Central America and Mexico. It showed precisely how beef, illicitly produced in Honduras, Guatemala…
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