Weekly InSight

This week, InSight Crime published two articles within the #NarcoFiles series, a transnational investigation by 40 media outlets analyzing the contents of leaked emails from the Colombian Attorney General’s Office.

In the first, InSight Crime highlights connections between high-ranking Suriname government officials and the cocaine trade, with the country serving as an important transit point for Colombian cocaine en route to consumer markets in Europe and the United States. In the second, we explore Israeli gangs’ prominence in Colombia and their involvement in drug trafficking, human trafficking, and money laundering.

In other stories, we analyze how recent actions by Colombia’s armed groups highlight weaknesses within President Gustavo Petro’s peace process, and -- employing an interactive network map -- we reveal the inner workings of Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset’s unorthodox transnational network.

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Suriname VP, Ex-President Linked to Drug Trafficking in Colombia AG Emails

US and Colombian investigators connected Suriname’s Vice President Ronnie Brunswijk and ex-President Desi Bouterse to recent involvement in drug trafficking, according to hacked emails that suggest ongoing high-level political links to organized crime in South America’s smallest country.

The emails were among a trove of documents stolen from Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office in 2022 and provided to a consortium of journalists, including InSight Crime.

Read the article here >

Israeli Gangs’ Colombia Operations Detailed in Hacked AG Files

Israeli crime groups in major Colombian cities have been serving a growing market of tourists seeking sex and drugs, at times expanding into transnational trafficking and alarming authorities in both countries, according to hacked records from Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office. 

The hacked files, most of which are from 2018 to 2022, include phone tap records, arrest and seizure reports, and correspondence between Israeli and Colombian officials, who exchanged information and expressed growing concern about Israeli gangs’ operations in Colombia.   

Read the article here >

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InSight Crime’s analysis of the links between the Surinamese government and transnational drug trafficking was picked up by the country’s main media outlets such as Suriname Herald, GFC Nieuws, and Suriname Nieuws.

In response to the allegations made against him in leaked emails from the Colombian Attorney General’s Office and published by InSight Crime, Suriname’s Vice President Ronnie Brunswijk responded in an interview.

“I have nothing to do with drugs,” he said. “Only untruths are being told.”

The wider #NarcoFiles project was also mentioned by Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro in an extensive post on X, where he commented on the diversification of coca cultivation and cocaine production to different regions.

Read the Suriname #NarcoFiles article here >

This Week's Criminal Profile: Sebastián Marset

After barely avoiding capture in Bolivia in July, Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset remains on the run. Authorities have linked Marset to organizing multi-ton shipments of cocaine from Bolivia to Paraguay and to Europe. His network extends to the highest levels of the Paraguayan government, with Uruguayan and Bolivian authorities also suspected of involvement.

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