InSight Crime tells the story of Dritan Gjika, an Albanian drug trafficker.
** Weekly InSight
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July 5, 2024
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This week, InSight Crime tells the story of Dritan Gjika, an Albanian drug trafficker who allegedly rose to the top of Ecuador’s cocaine export industry before his network was exposed and he disappeared.
We also analyze ([link removed]) how Latin America is being affected by global trends outlined in the United Nations’ newest World Drug Report; we evaluate ([link removed]) what a decade's worth of data reveals about Brazil’s criminal landscape; we break down ([link removed]) how the capture of a top Tren de Aragua leader will impact the group’s stability; and we explain ([link removed]) a spike in cyber crimes in Brazil.
This and more below.
** Latest Investigation
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** The Pioneering Albanian Trafficker Who Took Ecuador’s Drug Trade By Storm ([link removed])
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Around midnight on February 6, 2024, Ecuador’s National Police stormed a beige, two-story villa in a luxurious gated community on the outskirts of Guayaquil, the country’s biggest port city.
Inside, they found a mother with her young daughter, along with multiple firearms and ammunition. The husband, Albanian businessman Dritan Gjika, was nowhere to be found.
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** News Analysis
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** Cocaine Surge Fuels Violence as Opium Falls: UN Drug Report 2024 ([link removed])
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The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released its annual drug report, highlighting the manifold destruction caused by a surging cocaine industry … ([link removed])
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** What a Decade of Data Tells Us About Organized Crime in Brazil ([link removed])
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Violence increased in parts of northern Brazil over the past decade as criminal factions, bolstered by mass incarceration, fought over emerging cocaine trafficking … ([link removed])
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** Tren de Aragua Just Sustained Its Biggest Leadership Blow ([link removed])
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The arrest in Colombia of one of the co-founders and principal leaders of Tren de Aragua represents the most significant blow to the transnational group’s leadership so far, and … ([link removed])
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** Kidnapping Data for Ransom Is a Booming Business in Brazil ([link removed])
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Brazilian cyber gangs are increasingly stealing data and holding it for ransom, and getting ahead of law enforcement, which is struggling to keep up with an … ([link removed])
** Impact
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On July 2, InSight Crime investigator Victoria Dittmar moderated a roundtable on electoral violence in Mexico hosted by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED).
The conference, which took place in Mexico City in collaboration with various non-governmental organizations, analyzed the historic wave of political violence that marked Mexico’s presidential election last month and evaluated its significance for the future of democracy in the country.
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Watch the conference > ([link removed])
** This Week's Criminal Profile: Tren de Aragua
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One of the co-founders of Tren de Aragua, Larry Álvarez Nuñez, alias “Larry Changa,” was arrested on July 1 in Colombia. Álvarez is one of three main leaders of the powerful Venezuelan gang and was in charge of the group’s expansion in Colombia according to Colombia’s Defense Ministry.
Born in Venezuela’s Tocorón prison in the late-2010s, Tren de Aragua swiftly rose to become the country’s most powerful gang and the first to expand its reach transnationally, exploiting the diaspora of Venezuelan migrants in the region. However, the Venezuelan government’s recent efforts to retake control of gang-dominated prisons, combined with Álvarez’s recent capture, have dealt the group a serious blow and created an unprecedented power vacuum that could fragment the group.
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Read our Tren de Aragua profile > ([link removed])
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Read our Venezuela coverage > ([link removed])
** Multimedia
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June 26, 2024
#JOH
"To have a president sentenced to 45 years for drug trafficking is unprecedented. It’s not every day that a president is tried in the United States. Juan Orlando Hernández is only the third president to be convicted of drug trafficking in the US judicial system."
Listen to the X Space > ([link removed])
** Trending Topics
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PANAMA ([link removed])
TREN DE ARAGUA ([link removed])
BRAZIL ([link removed])
DON BERNA ([link removed])
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