Brief /
Will Prison Time End Guatemala Powerbrokers’ Political Influence?
A longtime influence peddler in Guatemala will spend just over four years in a US prison after pleading guilty to money laundering, but his tentacles of influence...
Brief /
Human Trafficking Complaints Rise by 500 Percent in Chile
The dismantling of a sophisticated human trafficking network in Chile has drawn attention to the fact that reports of human trafficking have increased five-fold in...
Analysis /
How Mexico’s ‘Small Armies’ Came to Commit a Massacre
Two lesser-known criminal groups have grabbed headlines in recent weeks for their role in the brazen ambush and murder of women and children in northern Mexico, but...
Brief /
Mexico’s Oil Thieves Have Moved Into Extortion in Guanajuato
While the Santa Rosa de Lima Cartel has faced the brunt of the Mexican government’s war against oil theft, it has used its clout in the state of Guanajuato to...
Analysis /
Microtrafficking Getting Worse in Outskirts of Bogotá, Colombia
Three years ago, a massive police operation swept through the Bronx, a small neighborhood at the center of much of the drug trafficking, prostitution and gambling...
Brief /
Argentina’s Piñero Prison Becoming Increasing Organized Crime Hotspot
Authorities in Argentina dismantled a drug trafficking organization whose leader operated from inside a prison in one of the country’s crime hotspots, unveiling...
Analysis /
Overcrowded, Too Few Guards and Easy Access to Drugs in Paraguay’s Most Crowded Prison
The June 2019 massacre of 13 Rotela Clan members by PCC inmates at the San Pedro prison in Paraguay shed light on the critical situation in which the South American...
Brief /
Smuggled Ecuador Gas Fuels Colombia Cocaine Production
A massive flow of smuggled fuel from Ecuador into Colombia is benefiting drug traffickers who use it to produce cocaine and to gas up boats moving...
Brief /
Human Smuggling from Asia to Latin America On Rise
Authorities dismantled a transnational human smuggling ring that brought migrants from South Asia to Brazil and then transported them all the way to the US-Mexico...
Brief /
Women in Brazil PCC Cell Take Part in Planning Killings
Female members of a cell of Brazil’s violent PCC prison gang ordered and carried out the killing of another woman, challenging the assumption that women only...
Brief /
Illegal Fishing Threatens Food Security in Bolívar, Colombia
Destruction of wildlife spurred by illegal fishing in the Ciénaga de Simití swampland in the northern Colombia department of Bolívar has sparked a full-blown...
Analysis /
Sucumbíos: Lawless Ecuador Border Province Is Sanctuary for Traffickers
In January 2019, heavily armed gunmen traveling in a truck and on a motorbike ambushed a small group of anti-narcotics agents in Sucumbíos, the Ecuadorean province...