Weekly InSight

This week, we investigated the organization behind the largest wildlife trafficking case in Argentina’s history. Under the guise of tourism, private companies have been able to facilitate illegal hunting and traffic thousands of animal byproducts in and out of the country. 


In Mexico, we analyzed the intensification of violence in the southern border state of Chiapas, which is pushing the number of displaced and missing people to unprecedented levels with civilians increasingly targeted by criminal groups. 


We also covered the mysterious assassination of one of Colombia’s top emerald dealers, we outlined four ways that artificial intelligence in shaping organized crime in Latin America; and we explored abuse of women in Guatemala’s prisons. 


This and more below.

Featured

On the outskirts of Dolores, a small town in the northeast of Buenos Aires province, Argentina, on a recent night in August, a bunch of police teams gathered at a gas station to go over the final details of the largest anti-wildlife trafficking operation in Argentina’s history. 


“We had an operational meeting the night before, to avoid the police and brigade vehicles arousing any suspicion,” Emiliano Villegas, head of the wildlife branch of the Environmental Control Brigade (Brigada de Control Ambiental – BCA), a body of specialized agents from the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible – MAyDS), told InSight Crime. 


Read the article here > 

Explore our environmental crime coverage >

InSight Crime’s work on the collaborative journalism project, NarcoFiles: The New Criminal Order, helped it win an annual in-depth journalism award from the Inter-American Press Association (Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa - SIP), announced on August 28. The NarcoFiles project, led by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in partnership with Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística (CLIP), began with a leak of emails from the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office that was shared with InSight Crime and more than 40 media outlets around the world. 


We and our partners examined and corroborated the materials along with hundreds of other documents, databases, and interviews. And we published a series of stories shedding new light on organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean. 


Read our contributions to the project >

Media Mentions

This Week's Criminal Profile: Tren de Aragua

Tren de Aragua, Venezuela’s first criminal group to project its influence abroad, has been in the spotlight in recent weeks for its expansion and supposed threat to regional security. But how accurate are notions around the group’s runaway growth and potential ‘invasion’ of the United States.


The group’s expansion from prison-gang to transnational organization came on the backs of Venezuelan migrants across the region and spread most prominently to Colombia, Peru, and Chile. However, its geographic expansion has not necessarily been matched by coherent strategic growth. InSight Crime research indicates that many alleged Tren de Aragua cells may only have tenuous links to the group – or even be using the name to cause intimidation.

Trending Topic: Violence and Displacement in Chiapas, Mexico

Chiapas has long been a battleground for warring criminal groups due to its strategic position for trafficking routes from neighboring Guatemala, causing mass displacement and disappearances in the state. 


Conflict in the state has intensified in recent months, including attacks on civilians and state forces. This escalation has driven displacement to new highs in Chiapas, with 12,771 victims of displacement during the first seven months of 2024 alone – a spike from 4,562 in the whole of 2023. 


To understand how organized crime drives violence and displacement in Chiapas, read our analysis below.

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