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This week, InSight Crime travels to the forgotten border of Juradó, Colombia, to assess the importance of this strategic point in the drug and migrant trafficking routes run by the Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia - AGC). More people are daring to cross the Darién jungle via this Pacific coast route, which the authorities often overlook. Some 1,500 migrants passed through this part of the Darién in 2023, generating between $1.8 million and $2.2 million a year for the criminal group.
We also cover the connection between the First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital - PCC) and Portuguese soccer: the criminal group’s goal is to launder assets in third division clubs. We track the continuing massacres happening in Ecuador, which have been on the rise since 2020 and claimed 645 victims this year; and we unravel the results and methodology of two reports on the impact of crime on the economy. |
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The crisis in Ecuador’s prisons has escaped the confines of the penitentiary system to sow violence, corruption, and chaos around the country. The political assassinations, terrorist-style attacks, corruption scandals, and gruesome displays of brutality that have rocked Ecuador and shocked the region over the last five years can all, in one way or another be traced back to the prisons and the mafias that have evolved within them.
But how did a failing prison system bring an entire country to its knees?
Read the full investigation > |
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After a long flight over a sea of trees, the ocean begins to emerge through the window of the twin-propeller plane. The vast Pacific meets the Darién jungle in the remote Colombian town of Juradó, in the northwestern Chocó department.
A gray sky and sticky humidity greet passengers at an airstrip, more a muddy clearing in dense vegetation than a suitable landing zone. Among the passengers is the town’s mayor, Denio Jimenez.
Read the article > |
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InSight Crime researcher Sara García participated in the preparation of a report that was published by the Brookings Institution, which gives an account of the forms of distribution, consumption, and current trafficking dynamics of fentanyl. At InSight Crime, we have covered extensively what is happening around this deadly substance, which is wreaking havoc in the United States as authorities redouble their efforts to eradicate it.
Read the report > Read our coverage on fentanyl > |
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This Week's Criminal Profile: Diosdado Cabello |
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Diosdado Cabello is a retired Venezuelan military officer who has held important political posts during the administrations of the late Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro. Long considered one of the most powerful politicians of the ruling party in Venezuela, the United States has linked him to drug trafficking through a structure known as the Cartel of the Suns.
He has been Minister of Interior Relations, Justice, and Peace since August 2024. He is also vice-president of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela – PSUV). |
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Ten people were gunned down and dismembered in a mass shooting on December 1 in the province of El Oro, among them nine Colombians and an Ecuadorian national. Just days earlier, on November 28, gunmen killed three people and injured at least three more in Durán at a local soccer pitch. The recent bloodshed in Ecuador is further evidence that access to high-powered weapons, heightened impunity, and an atomized criminal landscape are leading to more mass killings.
Read the article and interact with the graphics > See our coverage on Ecuador > |
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| "Insight Crime has shown that illegal cattle go through a ‘laundering’ process, which consists of putting labels on them and using falsified documents to cross customs without major complications."
Read the investigation > |
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Trending: Are Mexican Criminal Groups Recruiting Chemistry Students to Make Fentanyl? |
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A recent New York Times article sparked controversy in Mexico, and even prompted a response from the president, alleging that the Sinaloa Cartel recruits university chemistry students to work as cooks in fentanyl labs. But InSight Crime's extensive investigation into fentanyl production suggests a slightly different reality, as most of the production appears to be carried out by independent producers and cooks who do not rely on university-trained chemists. |
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