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Weekly InSight

April 11, 2025

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On April 28th, we will discuss our insights and analysis a decade into our #HomicideRoundUp. Join us! Visit the event page to learn more about how to participate.

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This week, InSight Crime reviewed how, five years after the pandemic, Latin America continues to grapple with the long-term impact COVID-era lockdowns and restrictions had on organized crime. From shifting drug trafficking routes and disrupting supply chains to entrenching criminal control over migrant smuggling and intensifying one of the region’s most acute security crises, we explore how these effects are still shaping the landscape today.

We also debunked common misconceptions in the media about the Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, explored what the arrests of several mayors in Venezuela mean for the country’s alleged battle against organized crime, examined the US indictment of an Ecuadorian gang leader, and analyzed how the demobilization of a dissident ELN faction marks a symbolic victory for the Total Peace policy, even as Colombia’s more powerful armed groups continue to operate.

Extra Episode: The Shadow of El Dorado

Listen now on our website or on Apple, Amazon Music, Spotify y YouTube >

He Met a Pilgrim Shadow

Two weeks ago, we launched the final episode of The Shadow of El Dorado, our podcast series exploring the issue of blood gold through the story of the Colombian mining town of Segovia. But while we were publishing the series, a community leader we had followed throughout our investigation, Jaime Gallego, was abducted, tortured, and murdered. This week we are publishing a special extra episode of the podcast telling Jaime’s story.

Featured

5 Years Later, How Has the Pandemic Changed Organized Crime in Latin America and the Caribbean?

Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean has adopted new strategies and strengthened control over territories and illicit economies.

Drug trafficking supply chains have shifted, criminal syndicates have capitalized on the lack of economic opportunities to recruit new members, and insecurity combined with economic crises has sparked a massive wave of migration that criminal groups have exploited to their advantage.

InSight Crime analyzes several ways the pandemic has impacted organized crime since it began five years ago.

Read the article here >

See more coverage of Covid and Crime>

NewsAnalysis

All News >

Debunking 3 Myths About Tren de Aragua

US President Donald Trump has put the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua at the center of his immigration enforcement efforts. But with so much news about the group, it …

Communeros del Sur Disarming Marks Small Win for Colombia’s Total Peace

What’s Behind the Arrests of Mayors in Venezuela?

The US Just Unsealed Drugs and Weapons Charges Against Ecuadorian Gang Boss

Impact

What We Do >

InSight Crime’s podcast “From the Ground Up” was longlisted for One World Media’s Podcast & Radio Award, for an audio feature, podcast, or single episode from a series that covers a story or topic in the global south.

In the nominated episode, “Daughter of Coca,” InSight Crime explores the life of Ana, a resident of Putumayo, Colombia, where farming coca for cocaine production provides an alternative livelihood amid poverty and state abandonment.

But at the same time, coca cultivation brings a curse: behind the coca trade are armed groups, massacres, murders, and displacements. This dichotomy can only be truly understood by those who have experienced it firsthand, as Ana has done. Through her story, we look at the evolution of organized crime in Putumayo, Colombia — and how, despite promises of peace, coca continues to affect the fate of an entire department.

Listen to the nominated episode: “Daughter of Coca” >

Discover the entire podcast series: From the Ground Up >

Criminal Profile of the Week: Choneros

The Choneros are one of Ecuador’s most prominent criminal groups and a leading actor in the violence that has destabilized the country in recent years. The Choneros first emerged in the 1990s as a local gang in Ecuador’s western province of Manabí. However, the arrest of gang leaders in 2011 sparked a decade of evolution.

From behind bars, the Choneros united smaller gangs under their banner to build up a criminal federation that dominated the prison system and expanded around the country. Using the prisons as an operations base, they established themselves as key service providers for transnational drug trafficking organizations, while also running local-level criminal economies in territories under their control.

The leader of the Choneros, José Adolfo Macías Villamar, alias “Fito,” was indicted on April 2 in a US federal court in Brooklyn on drug trafficking and gun charges. If convicted, Fito could get a sentence ranging from ten years to life in prison.

Read our Choneros profile >

Learn more about the indictment of Choneros leader, alias “Fito” >

Multimedia

April 7, 2025

Instagram

" You’ve heard a lot about Tren de Aragua, but how much do you really know about the gang? Do they really use tattoos to identify their members? Are they really controlled by the Venezuelan government? Here we break down some of the biggest myths about the group."

Watch the whole Reel >

Media Mentions

About us >

April 4, 2025

New York Times

" While the research organization InSight Crime, which has tracked the gang for years, has found that it does have a limited presence in the United States, researchers have seen no evidence that it has organized cells in the country that cooperate with one another, much less receive directions from abroad."

Read the cited article >

Trending: Ecuador Brings in Notorious Mercenary as Election Approaches

Ecuador announced it would be working with Erik Prince on a “tactical-operational” level to fight organized crime. Prince, the former US Navy SEAL, founded Blackwater, a mercenary group whose solders were convicted of massacring civilians in Iraq. The privatization of security has already caused issues in Ecuador, with criminals infiltrating firms to prey on civilians and use armored vehicles.

Read our Ecuador coverage >

Read more about Security Policy >

Support our work

We go into the field to interview, report and investigate. We then verify, write and edit, providing the tools to generate real impact in fighting organized crime.

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InSight Crime is sponsored by:
American University
The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency

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