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…
The former head of Venezuela’s military intelligence service has revealed some key details that confirm longstanding links between several officials in the regime of President Nicolás Maduro with organized crime…
Notorious Venezuela drug trafficker Walid Makled has been sentenced to 14 years in prison but absolved of several crimes in what is a surprisingly lenient verdict considering both the charges…
Venezuela's Interior and Justice Minister Nestor Reverol said that with the latest capture of a Colombian drug trafficker in Venezuelan territory, the country has arrested 94 crime bosses…
Walid Makled, otherwise known as “El Turco” or “El Arabe," was once the most powerful civilian drug trafficker in Venezuela.
Venezuelan drug lord Walid Makled claims to have damning evidence of the military and government elite's ties to the drug trade. Three months in, his trial has offered few explosive…
The trial of Walid Makled, a drug kingpin who claims that he worked with Venezuela's political and military elite, has started in a closed courtroom in Caracas, fuelling concerns he…
Colombia has extradited drug kingpin Walid Makled to face trial in his native country Venezuela.
Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin announced that Walid Makled's extradition to Venezuela would be completed by May 9, El Nacional reports. Makled's extradition was approved by…
In the coming days, President Santos is expected to extradite alleged drug trafficker Walid Makled to Venezuela, instead of the U.S. With him not only goes Colombias traditional foreign policy…
As it becomes more and more likely that Colombia will extradite drug kingpin Walid Makled to Venezuela instead of the U.S., Makled has stepped up his accusations of corruption within…
InSight Crime translates an excerpt from Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's weekly column, "Las Lineas de Chávez," in which Chavez speaks of Colombia's decision to extradite alleged Venezuelan drug trafficker Walid…
The curious case of Walid Makled Garcia, a Syrian-born Venezuelan citizen who is in a Colombian jail for drug trafficking, has many trails. InSight Crime gives you one here: the…
InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…
Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…
Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…
This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…
Non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch relied on InSight Crime's coverage this week, citing six articles and one of our criminal profiles in its latest report on the humanitarian…
Get fresh updates on organized crime from across the region delivered to your inbox.
SUBSCRIBE