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December 13, 2024

Greetings From Amsterdam,

This week, we’re looking at the turmoil, brutality and resilience in one Mexican state that has been hit by a wave of violence in the last three months.

After Sinaloa Cartel drug lord Joaquín Guzmán Loera, better known as El Chapo, was sentenced to life in prison in the United States in 2019, his decades-long partner in organized crime El Mayo — or Ismael Zambada García — remained free.

But on July 25 of this year, the cartel’s leadership took another hit. El Mayo was arrested in Texas alongside one of El Chapo’s sons ([link removed]) , Joaquín Guzmán López. There are conflicting accounts of how that unfolded, but El Mayo claims that Guzmán López set him up for the ambush that led to their arrest in the U.S. Within weeks of his arrest, Sinaloa was engulfed in some of the fiercest internecine fighting the gang-ridden state has ever seen, as the faction behind El Chapo’s remaining sons, known as Los Chapitos, and the faction backing El Mayo’s son, known as Los Mayitos, apparently sought to annihilate each other.
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The state’s residents have suffered the fallout: Some 500 have been murdered since the feud erupted in September, and at least 600 more are missing. The state is said to have lost close to a billion U.S. dollars since the conflict began. Human rights defenders say the current crisis is the most severe they’ve ever seen, even in a state all-too-familiar with organized crime — especially since it comes on the heels of a lull in violence that reduced state homicide rates to below the national average.

OCCRP’s Mexican partner El Universal traveled to Sinaloa’s capital city, Culiacán, to look at the chokehold this violence has placed on the capital city ([link removed]) :

Culiacán’s once vibrant nightlife has been silenced. Streets empty out by 7 p.m. and residents stay indoors for safety. Major cultural events have been called off. Convoys of armed men patrol streets. Security cameras have been destroyed, and those that remain are often controlled by one faction and resented by the other. Schools have been closed — and one was recently taken over as a military barracks as Mexican government troops try to impose order. A state policeman was among those kidnapped. Bodies have been dumped around the outskirts of the capital, at times with messages like “Welcome to Culiacán.”

Silber Meza, an investigative editor at El Universal and native of Culiacán, went back to his hometown to report on the crisis for us. In planning his trip, he worked closely with OCCRP’s Latin America team, including Mexican investigative journalist Lilia Saúl Rodriguez. (The two previously contributed to the OCCRP NarcoFiles investigations ([link removed]) .)

“The moment we started this collaboration, asking for this coverage in a state where there is a lot of risk for journalists, we began connecting practically day to day, almost minute to minute to know where he was, what he was doing, where he was doing coverage,” said Saúl Rodriguez. Meza also underwent an OCCRP safety training, she said.

Last month, after following the situation from his base in Mexico City, Meza and photographer Diego Prado traveled to Culiacán to talk to residents about their experiences. Meza said his familiarity with Sinaloa gave him confidence, but the team proceeded with caution.

“[T]he more familiar you are [with a place], the more trust you have in the situation,” he said. The duo avoided more dangerous areas altogether. “The moment we’re living in today in Culiacán is very complicated. It’s very difficult. Never in my life have I seen a moment as critical, as complex, as problematic, or as dangerous.”

But Meza’s goal was to capture the image of an entire city, rather than a single anecdote or view from it. And from the ground, he found it wasn’t all despair.

Local business leaders are plotting ways to reinvigorate the economy, adding new street lights and dreaming up new events that might draw people out of hiding. Groups of women have begun to demonstrate in front of the Sinaloa Government Palace, calling for the return of their disappeared loved ones and punishment for their captors. Some have marched for peace. Others have taken to hunger strikes.

“There are always problems, but there is also always hope,” said Meza.

To Saúl Rodriguez, the dispatch from Culiacán is a crucial reflection of the toll organized crime takes on communities throughout Mexico — and the collaborating team served as the “eyes in Latin America.”


** Read the full story ([link removed])
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** Updates On OCCRP Reporting
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** Romanian Court Nixes Presidential Election, Orders New Campaign and Vote
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In last week’s edition of OCCRP Weekly ([link removed]) , we dug into the Russia-backed social media campaign that catapulted the largely unknown far-right candidate Călin Georgescu to the top of Romania’s presidential election results — and how our partner newsrooms were tracking the issue ahead of a planned run-off election last weekend.

Later the same day we came to your inbox, Romania’s Constitutional Court annulled the presidential election and ordered a restart to the entire process — including pre-election campaigning. Read more about the probe into Georgescu and his campaign ([link removed]) .

Despite the annulment, “I’m pretty certain that the Russian interference will just enhance, because they saw that they kind of won this round,” said Attila Biro, a longtime OCCRP collaborator and the co-founder of Context.ro, one of our member centers in Romania. “They interfered successfully with the election, so I think they will invest even more resources and power.”

In the lead-up to the new election, Context will keep investigating what Biro calls the “misinformation infrastructure” used in the previous social media campaign, as well as doing deep dives into all the candidates for the presidency.

Birosaid Context is currently fundraising to ensure they have the resources to meet the task. While it’s unclear how many candidates will run in the new election, there were 14 in the previous round. At the time, Context had the resources to cover just one candidate in depth.

Read more about the probe into Georgescu and his campaign ([link removed]) . Plus, read some of Biro’s recommended readings on Georgescu and his campaign from another Romanian member center, RISE: One on his unflattering affiliations ([link removed]) and another on the real estate dealings that helped make his name ([link removed]) .


** Georgia’s Security Service Alleges Foreign Plot Amid Anti-Government Protests
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Amid violent protests sparked by the Georgian government’s decision to halt accession talks with the European Union, the country’s State Security Service claims local “criminal actors” ([link removed]) acting for foreign powers plan to disrupt the presidential election planned for Saturday. Their aim, the State Security Service claimed in an informal statement posted to Facebook, is to spark a “color revolution” — a term some have used to describe pro-democracy uprisings. Critics say the allegations aim to discredit protests and instill fear, and that they echo past claims made by Russian security services.

Tomorrow’s election marks the first time the president will be elected by an electoral college controlled by the ruling Georgian Dream party. The party’s candidate, former footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili, is expected to win due to the Georgian Dream’s parliamentary majority.


** Read the full story ([link removed])
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** Azerbaijan Detains Journalists in Escalating Media Crackdown
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A crackdown on independent media in Azerbaijan mounted last week as six reporters from OCCRP member center Meydan TV were detained ([link removed]) on unfounded charges of currency smuggling, with some of their homes searched and equipment seized.

The arrests included five staff journalists and editors, one independent reporter collaborating with Meydan, and the deputy director of Baku Journalism School. A local district court over the weekend ordered four months of pre-trial detention ([link removed]) for the seven media professionals; they could face up to eight years in prison if convicted.

The journalists denied the charges and say the detentions are a form of retaliation for their reporting. Human rights organizations condemned the arrests and called for their release. They say the arrests are part of a broader campaign against dissent — and highlights the authoritarianism that made the choice of Azerbaijan’s capital Baku for this year’s U.N. climate conference so controversial. Meydan is one of the country’s few remaining independent outlets, and the latest to be impacted by a wave of arrests of journalists that began in November 2023 when similar charges were brought against independent journalists.

Read the full story ([link removed]) , plus explore OCCRP’s extensive coverage of how Azerbaijan’s ruling family used the global climate summit for the benefit of its inner circle ([link removed]) .


** Key Figure in $700-Million Kyrgyz Corruption Case Fined for Border Violation
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Kyrgyzstan’s former deputy head of customs pled guilty to charges of “hooliganism” and illegally crossing a border, settling the charges by paying a fine of just $1,150 ([link removed]) . The court verdict knocks out two of a slew of allegations against Rayimbek Matraimov since a 2019 OCCRP investigation ([link removed]) revealed how he used his position to move $700 million abroad. Matraimov has been detained twice since in related investigations, but has each time paid to get out of jail: $24.5 million to the state budget in 2021 after he was convicted of corruption, and another $200 million last month.


** Scoops and News
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A relatively new ransomware attack group, Fog, is behind a crippling July hack on nine Brazilian ministries, as well as its mint and anti-money laundering agency. But the $1.2 million ransom to decrypt the hacked files was just one in a series of recent attacks by the group ([link removed]) , documents obtained by OCCRP revealed: In its short life, Fog has hacked some 59 entities across 13 countries. Three in every 10 have been aimed at institutions outside of the U.S.

Reporters used documents related to the investigation into the hack to trace Fog’s work in the dark web. They were unable to access the contents of the 1,087 Brazilian files Fog said were hacked. But file names reference key government systems, raising concerns about the security of agreements and federal transfers, government social security data and public employee information..

As Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko prepares for a 2025 re-election bid, our Belarusian member center Buro Media, in cooperation with Cyberpartisans and the Belarusian Investigative Alliance, took a look at his inner circle ([link removed]) , including the chefs, hairstylists and personal physicians who cater to his every need.


** OCCRP Events
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The second annual Floodlight Summit took place in Cartagena, Colombia on Dec. 6-8. Top investigative journalists — many from OCCRP’s global network — and film and television industry veterans spent quality time together in one-on-one meetings, pitch sessions, panel discussions, and parties. Floodlight’s ultimate goal is to produce fictional films and television series that reflect the truth about crime and corruption, and spark change. Interested in having your investigation considered for next year’s summit? The proposal portal opens next month and you can submit your investigation on the website ([link removed]) .

The OCCRP series Dubai Unlocked was recognized this week as one of the eight best investigative stories from the Middle East in the Global Investigative Journalism Network Editor’s Pick of 2024 ([link removed]) . “Through a vast trove of leaked data, the investigation uncovered how numerous powerful figures leverage Dubai’s relaxed financial oversight regulations to buy property in a place with a reputation as a ‘playground for the world’s rich and famous,’” the editors wrote. Published in collaboration with over 70 media outlets, the project also includes a database of notable people identified in the leaked data. Explore the project archive here ([link removed]) .

Until next week.

P.S. Thanks for reading the OCCRP newsletter. Feel free to reply to this email with feedback, thoughts, or questions.

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