This week, InSight Crime delved into criminal dynamics in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, where ongoing battles over local drug markets, particularly the methamphetamine trade, reflect a changing criminal economy that has seen the old criminal guard replaced.

Also this week, new US sanctions against Venezuela’s Cartel of the Suns misrepresent it as a hierarchical, ideologically driven drug trafficking organization instead of a profit-based system of generalized corruption within the military; a recent report found that combating arms trafficking in Latin America and the Caribbean requires neither long periods of time nor significant resources; government responses to the recruitment of children into criminal organizations via social media platforms and online video games continue to fall short; and the case of a Latin American immigrant the US judged to be a gang member for little more than a tattoo highlights how the links between organized crime and immigration began tipping the balance between due process and security long ago.

This and more below.

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In Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, Old Criminal Groups Form New Criminal Guard

The first body was found in the morning. The man had been shot and killed. His hands and feet had been tied. By the evening, at least eight more were dead. By the next afternoon, as many as 12 more bodies had been recovered, and by the end of the day, the toll had reached 22.

The wave of murders over a two-day period in Ciudad Juárez between July 9 and 10 was dubbed “Red Thursday,” and for the authorities InSight Crime asked about the violence, there was a simple answer: The criminal groups were fighting over local drug markets, specifically the methamphetamine trade.

Read the article here >

See more US-Mexico border coverage >

Is Latin America Prepared to Mitigate Digital Recruitment by Crime Groups?

OAS Report Flags Short-Term Strategies to Limit LatAm Arms Trafficking

US Sanctions Mischaracterize Venezuela’s Cartel of the Suns

InSight Crime investigator and project manager Victoria Dittmar provided expert analysis to the Texas Observer for an article that examined how US-Mexico border strategies often fall short in tackling the synthetic drug trade. Drawing on InSight Crime’s research, the article underscores how current efforts overlook the decentralized nature of fentanyl trafficking networks — structures that defy traditional notions of rigid cartel hierarchies.

Read our Precursor Chemicals Investigation >

This Week's Criminal Profile: Second Marquetalia

The Second Marquetalia emerged after the peace accords signed between the Colombian government and the now demobilized Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC). A handful of its members, led by one of the FARC’s most influential commanders, Luciano Marín, alias “Iván Márquez,” returned to arms after an unsuccessful attempt to reintegrate into civilian life through the peace process. Since its formation, the group’s leaders have taken refuge in the mountains along the Colombia–Venezuela border with the tacit approval of the Venezuelan government, according to InSight Crime’s investigations.

This week, the group made headlines after the alleged death of one of its leaders, José Sierra Sabogal, alias “Zarco Aldinever,” along with other members of the group in an attack attributed to the National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional – ELN).

Trending: US Won't Seek Death Penalty for Three of Mexico's Top Former Crime Bosses

US prosecutors declined to seek the death penalty against three of Mexico’s most notorious criminal leaders currently jailed in the United States: former Guadalajara Cartel leader Rafael Caro Quintero; Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Ismael Zambada García, alias “El Mayo,”; and the one-time Juárez Cartel boss Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, alias “El Viceroy.”

Read our ‘El Mayo’ profile >

Read our ‘El Viceroy’ profile >

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