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Dear Reader,
Today we publish the seventh and final chapter of our annual Criminal GameChangers series. Over the past few weeks, our investigators have documented how organized crime has transformed, affecting entire communities and challenging governments across the region.
We close the series with a comprehensive look at the most relevant dynamics of 2024 and the challenges ahead in 2025. Don't forget that next Monday, January 10, we will have an exclusive event for donors, in which we will delve into the entire series. |
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CHAPTER 7
Global Cocaine Networks and Trump 2 |
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In 2024, a massive surge in cocaine production generated an extra $25 billion for transnational organized crime, fueling unprecedented criminal expansion across Latin America and beyond. In the final article of the GameChangers 2024 series, we explore how this boom is reshaping global cocaine markets, increasing criminal sophistication, and destabilizing entire regions. As political shifts, including a second Trump administration, loom on the horizon, the fight against organized crime faces even greater challenges. Read the full analysis and the rest of the series to understand organized crimeās profound impact on security and governance in 2025. |
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Explore the full series, where we break down the most important findings from our fieldwork across Latin America and the Caribbean: |
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| | In 2024, government resistance to organized crime weakened. In our year in review, co-directors Steven Dudley and Jeremy McDermott look at where and how that has happened in the Americas. |
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| | InSight Crime investigators traveled to the US-Mexico border, the Darien Gap separating Colombia and Panama, and South America in 2024. One thing became clear: organized crime has taken control of the migrant economy.Ā |
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| | Ecuador has been transformed from a poster child of a peaceful nation to the regionās most violent, serving as an example of how quickly countries can fall victim to the encroachment of organized crime. |
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| | Organized crime is the biggest threat to democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2024, with more than a half-dozen elections across the region, we saw the true scale of the problem. |
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| | In 2024, cocaine trafficking has reached unprecedented levels, with criminal organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean shifting from traditional hierarchies to resilient, modular networks that are harder to dismantle.Ā |
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| | In 2024, several cases highlighted how drug money can influence the highest levels of regional politics. |
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| | In 2024, a massive surge in cocaine production generated an extra $25 billion for transnational organized crime, fueling unprecedented criminal expansion across Latin America and beyond. |
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To conclude the publication of the series, and as part of our annual fundraising campaign, we invite you to attend a virtual panel in English, where we will talk with some of our most experienced researchers in the field about their most important findings, and theirĀ challenges and predictions about security and crime in 2025. |
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| šļø Join us in our donor- exclusive virtual panel about the GameChangers 2024 |
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Ā Date: January 10, 2025 š Ā 1:00 p.m. (UTC-5) Ā šµ Ā Make a donation starting at US$10. |
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Thank you for following us and valuing our work. Your support allows us to continue investigating organized crime dynamics and their impact on the Americas from the ground up.Ā Ā
Sincerely, The InSight Crime Team |
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