Weekly InSight | Organized Crime From Many Angles

Weekly InSight

August 28, 2020

This week, InSight Crime goes beyond the headlines and scours court records to discover the true presence of the MS13 street gang in the United States. On the drug trafficking front, we look at the presence of Colombians in the Netherlands, running a laboratory to extract cocaine impregnated in charcoal, and the smuggling of huge amounts of fentanyl via air cargo to Mexico City. And our in-depth coverage of organized crime and COVID-19 continues with mounting allegations that the administration of El Salvador President Nayib Bukele is profiting from emergency medical supply contracts.

Featured

MS13 East Coast Violence Fails to Consolidate Gang’s US Presence

The recent arrests of MS13 gang members in El Salvador accused of committing brutal murders in US East Coast states have, once again, raised alarms that the street gang’s leadership has managed to penetrate the United States in a meaningful way.

Authorities in El Salvador captured José Jonathan Guevara Castro, alias “Sospechoso,” on August 13 in Acajutla, a city on the country’s Pacific coast. US prosecutors say he led the Hollywood Locos Salvatrucha clique in Long Island, New York.

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NewsAnalysis

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Arrests, Seizures Show Colombians Processing Cocaine in Europe

Authorities in the Netherlands are discovering more cocaine processing facilities...

Corruption Cries Mount Over Pandemic Spending in El Salvador

On August 9, the website on which the El Salvador government publishes...

Mexico City Fentanyl Seizures May Point to Shifting Trafficking Trends

Corruption Charges at Venezuela’s US Oil Subsidiary Fuel Tensions

More Than Drug Trafficking Drives Violence in Colombia’s Nariño

Fugitive’s Return Promises New Graft Revelations in Guatemala

Criminal Actors

Profiles of some of the notable criminal personalities and groups that have marked this week.

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ELN

The National Liberation Army (Ejército de Liberación Nacional – ELN) is one of the two main guerrilla armies...

MS13

The Mara Salvatrucha, or MS13, is perhaps the most notorious street gang in the Western Hemisphere. While it has its...

Media Mentions

About Us

AUGUST 24, 2020
OCCRP

"A jungle region on Honduras’ east coast, La Mosquitia, represents a crucial hub for criminal syndicates smuggling cocaine into the United States from the south, but has in recent years also seen an increase in local production of the drug, according to InSight Crime."

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Impact: Coming in September

What We do

InSight Crime is set to launch two investigations next month that you won’t want to miss.

Following up our widely read series about "invisible" Colombian drug lord turned real estate investor "Memo Fantasma," we reveal the details that underworld contacts have provided us on his career, and on how he was an even more important drug trafficker than we initially thought. Our follow-up investigation in September highlights Memo’s drug running to the United States, Spain and Australia, his relationship to US law enforcement, and his uncanny ability to stay off the radar for 30 years.

Read the six-part investigation >

Our extensive investigation into the environmental crime of timber trafficking, which has decimated forests across the region, is also set for publication next month. Highlights include the unraveling of a network behind illegal logging in Peru’s Amazon, the political mafias that have cut down forest reserves in northeast Honduras, and the convergence of timber and drug trafficking in Chihuahua, Mexico.

R ead our in-depth coverage of Environmental Crime >