Ransomware Built in Venezuela Used to Target Institutions Across Latin America

A doctor operating out of Bolívar City, Venezuela has been charged with designing, operating and selling ransomware tools to a whole host of criminal actors.

Questions Surround Venezuela's Recent Seizure of Rare Drug Sub

Venezuelan authorities have not offered much information about the recent capture of a drug smuggling submarine close to the border with Colombia, leaving it unclear if the use of semi-submersibles…

InSight Crime Event: Venezuela's Cocaine Revolution

InSight Crime has presented its latest report, Venezuela’s Cocaine Revolution, the result of three years of investigation by the Venezuelan Investigative Unit.

Beyond the Cartel of the Suns

In 2020, the US Department of Justice released a bombshell indictment charging sitting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and other senior members of his government with “narco-terrorism” and accusing them of…

Gordito González and Venezuela’s Narco-brokers

In 2016, two adopted nephews of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro were found guilty of a conspiracy to bring 800 kilograms of cocaine into the United States.

The Paraguaná Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Political Power in Venezuela

On April 3, 2021, police in the east Venezuelan state of Anzoátegui acted on a tip-off to intercept a silver Toyota Corolla. They interrogated the driver, a middle-aged woman accompanied…

Maduro Seeks to Regulate the Cocaine Trade

In 2013, Nicolás Maduro became president of one of the world’s most important cocaine hubs, inheriting a unique drug trafficking eco-system where the line between the underworld and the state…

Venezuela’s Move to Cocaine Production: Crops, Chemists and Criminal Evolution

In October 2021, the Venezuelan Ministry of the Interior issued an ordinary looking statement about an antinarcotics operation in the state of Zulia that had extraordinary implications: the military had…

Organ Sales in Venezuela: A New Online Scam?

The arrests of three people in Venezuela for Facebook Marketplace posts in which they allegedly offered kidneys for sale have raised questions about the illegal organ trade in a country…

How Venezuelan Gangs Masquerade as Community Organizers to Secure Territory

Elements of the Venezuelan underworld, whether drug cartels, street gangs or illegal mining groups, have hit upon a unique way of establishing social control:…

A Cultural Occupation: The Guerrillas and the Indigenous in Venezuela's Amazon

It was 2019 when the Colombian guerrillas first arrived to the Cataniapo river basin, known as Ähuiyäru De’iyu Ręję to the region’s Indigenous Huottoja people.

Venezuela May Never Be Able to Rid Itself of Spectre of Landmines

Almost a year after the use of landmines was first reported in Venezuela, their deployment now appears a routine tactic for Colombian guerrilla groups operating in the country, especially in…