All About Zetas

ANALYSIS

From Street Gangs to Presidents: InSight Crime’s Decade of Covering the Underworld

COCAINE / 18 NOV 2020

At InSight Crime’s 10th anniversary conference, presenter Robert Muggah described the primary reaction he has received when collaborating with the organization across Brazil, Colombia, Peru and El Salvador. “Wherever we…

Mexico Cartels Hand Out Food Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

COVID AND CRIME / 28 APR 2020

Recent cases of criminal groups distributing supplies in Mexico suggest that the coronavirus pandemic has presented an opportunity to cultivate popular support and consolidate territorial control in areas where people…

The US-Mexico Border’s Eastern End: A Forgotten Criminal Enclave?

COCAINE / 12 SEP 2019

While Mexico’s drug war has left much of its frontier with the United States threatened by cartel violence, a fine-tuned criminal strategy has allowed the border’s eastern extremity to remain…

Los Moreco, Worrying New Type of Criminal Group for Costa Rica

COSTA RICA / 3 MAY 2019

A new criminal group in Costa Rica, Los Moreco, is causing concern as their tactics, reach and admiration for Mexico's Zetas make them a far more powerful gang than the…

Veracruz Massacre Crowns Bloody Start of 2019 in Mexico

GULF CARTEL / 24 APR 2019

An infant was among more than a dozen people killed in a massacre during the heart of Holy Week in Mexico, underscoring the depth of the security challenges…

A Guatemala Drug Trafficking Chapter Ends in the US

ELITES AND CRIME / 22 FEB 2019

A judge lowered the sentence of a convicted Guatemalan drug trafficker in a US court on February 22, just weeks after US federal authorities released another convicted Guatemalan trafficker from…

Fragmentation: The Violent Tailspin of Mexico’s Dominant Cartels

JALISCO CARTEL / 16 JAN 2019

Fragmentation has come to define Mexico’s criminal landscape as the days of monolithic drug cartel structures have ended, leaving behind smaller, more volatile criminal groups that have taken up other…

Migrant Caravan in Mexico Changes Course, but Dangers Still Lurk

KIDNAPPING / 13 NOV 2018

A caravan of Central American migrants traveling to the United States has changed its intended route to avoid the Texas-Mexico border — a move that shows even such a large…

The Mexico Crime Bosses Peña Nieto’s Government Toppled

BELTRAN LEYVA ORG / 24 SEP 2018

When Mexico President Enrique Peña Nieto took office in 2012, he put together a list of 122 alleged criminals whose arrests would be “high-priority” in the country’s fight against organized…

Trump’s Border Policies Strengthen Organized Crime. Here’s How.

BARRIO 18 / 20 JUN 2018

The Trump administration’s stated purpose of “zero tolerance” of illegal immigration on US borders is to lower crime rates, but research shows that the net effect may be the opposite.

Mexico’s Zetas: From Criminal Powerhouse to Fragmented Remnants

MEXICO / 6 APR 2018

The Zetas were once Mexico’s most feared and violent organized crime threat. Now, the group is a fragmented shadow of its former self. InSight Crime looks at what happened, and…

Is Mexico’s CJNG Following in the Footsteps of the Zetas?

JALISCO CARTEL / 19 FEB 2018

The alleged abduction and murder of federal agents in Mexico by the Jalisco Cartel New Generation (Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación – CJNG) resembles the type of operation the Zetas were…

Mexico Trumpets Arrest of ‘Most-Wanted’ Zetas Leader

MEXICO / 9 FEB 2018

Armed forces in Mexico arrested an alleged leader of the Zetas who was on the country’s most-wanted list, but the longstanding policy of targeting top crime bosses could be contributing…

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InSight Crime Events – Border Crime: The Northern Triangle and Tri-Border Area

ARGENTINA / 25 JAN 2021

Through several rounds of extensive field investigations, our researchers have analyzed and mapped out the main illicit economies and criminal groups present in 39 border departments spread across the six countries of study – the Northern Triangle trio of Guatemala, Honduras, and El…

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InSight Crime’s ‘Memo Fantasma’ Investigation Wins Simón Bolívar National Journalism Prize

COLOMBIA / 20 NOV 2020

The staff at InSight Crime was awarded the prestigious Simón Bolívar national journalism prize in Colombia for its two-year investigation into the drug trafficker known as “Memo Fantasma,” which was…

ANALYSIS

InSight Crime – From Uncovering Organized Crime to Finding What Works

COLOMBIA / 12 NOV 2020

This project began 10 years ago as an effort to address a problem: the lack of daily coverage, investigative stories and analysis of organized crime in the Americas. …

ANALYSIS

InSight Crime – Ten Years of Investigating Organized Crime in the Americas

FEATURED / 2 NOV 2020

In early 2009, Steven Dudley was in Medellín, Colombia. His assignment: speak to a jailed paramilitary leader in the Itagui prison, just south of the city. Following his interview inside…

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