Investigations
Analysis /
Sadism, Death and Abuse: Women and War in Buenaventura
The criminal butchers who have earned the port of Buenaventura a macabre reputation as the torture house of Colombia's drug war seem to reserve a special cruelty...
Analysis /
The Flow of Drugs and Blood in the Amazon Tri-border Region
Deep in the Amazon, where Colombia, Brazil and Peru meet, the once crime saturated Colombian city of Leticia enjoys relative tranquility, while Brazilian neighbor...
Analysis /
Gangs Reassert Themselves in Rio’s ‘Pacified’ Favelas
InSight Crime accompanied Rio's elite military police squad as it occupied one of the city's biggest and most violent favelas, the latest operation in the...
The Fixer and El Salvador’s Missed Opportunity
In the photograph, they are both smiling. In the foreground, on the left hand side, a man in a short-sleeved buttoned white shirt, jeans and a metal watch, holds a...
How an El Salvador Drug Trafficker Smuggled Cocaine Into the US
The woman phoned the office of the antinarcotics division (DAN) in Bolivar, in El Salvador's La Union province, on August 13, 2008, at 1:30 PM. Investigators later...
Operation Chameleon in El Salvador: Anatomy of a Failure
The experience with Jose Natividad "Chepe" Luna -- the drug trafficker who had eluded a giant dragnet in 2004 -- had demonstrated that the leaks from the National...
‘Chepe Luna,’ the Police and the Art of Escape
The United States -- which through its antinarcotics, judicial and police attaches was very familiar with the routes used for smuggling, and especially those used...
The Infiltrators: Corruption in El Salvador’s Police
Ricardo Mauricio Menesses Orellana liked horses, and the Pasaquina rodeo was a great opportunity to enjoy a party. He was joined at the event -- which was...
Analysis /
War for Cocaine Corridors Consumes Colombia’s Busiest Port
Residents of Buenaventura have become prisoners of war in the battle for Colombia's primary cocaine port. They are confined within invisible borders, silenced by...
Analysis /
Organized Crime in the Americas: What to Expect in 2014
We can already identify some of the trends that are likely to mark the evolution of organized crime in 2014. One is the issue of criminal migration, as organized...
Analysis /
InSight Crime’s Game Changers: 2013
Welcome to InSight Crime's 2013 Game Changers, where we have sought to highlight some of the year's most important and illustrative trends in the development of...
Analysis /
InSight Crime’s Game Changers: 2012
InSight Crime presents "Game Changers 2012," an overview of the developments in organized crime in Americas during the year. So much has happened as organized crime...