May 9, 2025
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This week, InSight Crime published the 2024 Cocaine Seizure Round-Up ([link removed]) . Authorities seized record amounts of cocaine in production and transit countries last year, as cocaine demand continues to boom. The seizure data suggests that drug traffickers are switching their main routes to reach established consumer countries and have doubled down on efforts to conquer growing drug markets in Asia and Australia.
Also this week, Mexican criminal groups cash in ([link removed]) on a scarcity of water in Michoacán; Tusi makes a splash ([link removed]) in the United States; Brazil’s two largest gangs, the Red Command and the First Capital Command, end ([link removed]) their short-lived truce; and a cybercrime expert explains ([link removed]) how criminal groups are embracing new technologies to increase the resilience of their operations.
This and more below.
** Featured
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** InSight Crime’s 2024 Cocaine Seizure Round-Up ([link removed])
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Despite record cocaine seizures in production and transit countries, huge quantities of the drug arrived in consumer markets in 2024.
Across the board, cocaine production soared and traffickers explored new markets to profit from their never-before-seen levels of supply. Record-breaking seizures became the norm across the world, yet these multi-ton interdictions likely made only a small dent in what has become one of the most lucrative and violent industries for Latin American organized crime.
Read the 2024 Cocaine Seizure Round-Up > ([link removed])
See more cocaine coverage > ([link removed])
** News Analysis
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All News > ([link removed])
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** Water Scarcity Is a Boom For Mexican Organized Crime ([link removed])
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Authorities in the Mexican state of Michoacán are employing satellite technology to counter water theft, spotlighting the growing threat posed by criminal groups … ([link removed])
** The US Is Panicking About Tusi. But Should it Be? ([link removed])
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** Top-Down Peace, Bottom-Up War: The Collapse of Brazil’s Gang Alliance ([link removed])
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** How Criminal Groups Have Adapted to the Digital Age ([link removed])
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** Impact
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What We Do > ([link removed])
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The Global Investigative Journalism Network noted ([link removed]) InSight Crime’s use and coverage of artificial intelligence (AI) this week in an article for World Press Freedom Day. InSight Crime increasingly employs AI tools, from interview transcription to intelligent data analysis software, to empower our network of investigative journalists to dive deeper into the region’s organized crime trends. We also regularly report on how AI technology is reshaping the underworld in the Americas.
Read how AI is shaping organized crime > ([link removed])
** This Week's Criminal Profile: The Medellín Cartel
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The Medellín Cartel was a federation of criminal clans that became one of the world’s most powerful and violent criminal organizations under the leadership of infamous drug trafficker Pablo Escobar. The group pioneered the large-scale production and trafficking of cocaine and spawned drug logistics networks throughout Latin America. The group fragmented in 1993, though the current boom in cocaine production and consumption is part of their criminal legacy.
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Read our Medellín Cartel profile > ([link removed])
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Read our Colombia coverage > ([link removed])
** Multimedia
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May 7, 2025
#haiti #securitypolicy
The US State Department has designated two Haitian criminal groups, Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif, as terrorist organizations. This is likely to have little impact in Haiti, but it could be used by the Trump administration as a mechanism to deport Haitian migrants.
Watch full video > ([link removed])
** Media Mentions
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About us > ([link removed])
May 5, 2025
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"With the flow of migrants, the Colombian criminal group known as the Gulf Clan pushed into the region, seizing control of the migration route, said Henry Shuldiner, a researcher with InSight Crime."
Read about migration in the Darien > ([link removed])
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