Drug Trafficking and Political Protection in Paraguay: The Case of ‘Cucho’ Cabaña
In a Paraguay border state, drug traffickers and dirty politicians find common ground, and political fights spill into the underworld.
The party that has governed Honduras since 2010 has become a federation that welcomes politicians and officials involved in criminal businesses ranging from timber to drug trafficking to the misappropriation…
Drug trafficking has been reconfigured in Guatemala. The large clans that traditionally dominated the business have broken up.
The mayor of Moyuta, Guatemala, knows how to do politics and business along the rough and tumble Guatemalan-Salvadoran border.
In a region where 50 percent of the population already makes its living in the informal market, it was perhaps of little surprise that black markets exploded in 2020 amidst…
It was March 2020, not long after fear of the coronavirus began spreading across the Americas, when several major criminal groups started employing their own form of a lockdown.
An agreement between a Brazilian court and Dario Messer, the key operator behind one of South America’s largest money laundering operations, ends proceeding against him in that country, but his…
The PCC has become one of the most complex and important criminal organizations with Latin America, with over 30,000 members in Brazil, an active presence in Paraguay and drug trafficking…
Last year, the arrest of top customs officials in Paraguay revealed a sprawling corruption network that allowed smugglers to operate with near-complete impunity. As their trial is now set to…
Smugglers in Brazil wasted no time in moving an anti-malarial drug touted by President Jair Bolsonaro as a potential treatment for the coronavirus, smuggling more than 3,000 doses into the…
Amid a shortage of cigarettes in Argentina after factory closings due to the coronavirus pandemic, the black market cigarette trade has surged -- an illegal economy with relatively low risk…
Thanks to a combination of great organizational capacity, control of prisons, high levels of loyalty among its members and dominance of key criminal economies, the PCC has become one of…
Two recent events show how one of Brazil's regional gangs, the PGC, is making waves inside Paraguay, likely seeking to emulate the drug trafficking success that its larger rivals have…