This week, InSight Crime publishes an in-depth series on methamphetamine and fentanyl use in Mexico and the United States.

Weekly InSight
April 30, 2021 ([link removed])

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This week, InSight Crime publishes an in-depth series on methamphetamine and fentanyl use in Mexico and the United States. Other highlights include a look at how a veteran trafficker, once known as the "king" of the Paraguay-Brazil border, surrendered after threats from Brazil’s most powerful crime group, the First Capital Command, or PCC. We also report on how an Argentine aviation tycoon sourced hundreds of drug planes through US registration loopholes; how massive seizures of cocaine in Puerto Rico point to the reactivation of drug flows after lockdowns; and how the landlocked country of Paraguay fits the bill for traffickers searching for new maritime cocaine shipping routes to Europe, which InSight Crime warned about in a recent investigation.
[link removed] Read “The Cocaine Pipeline to Europe” ([link removed])


** Featured
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** Meth Boom in Mexico and US; Fentanyl Stokes Opioid Crisis ([link removed])
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In the first of this three-part series, InSight Crime investigates an alarming trend in the US drug market: a surge in methamphetamine use in regions where it hadn’t been seen before. The second installment reveals that fentanyl is displacing heroin as the driver of the US opioid epidemic. The final report examines how methamphetamine – once made in home labs in the US using cold medicine – has come to be mass-manufactured by Mexico’s cartels, feeding not only new demand in the United States, but in Mexico too.

Read the three-part series:

The United States is Now Meth Country ([link removed])
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How Fentanyl, More than Heroin, Drives US Opioid Market ([link removed])
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Methamphetamine Taking Over Mexico’s Domestic Drug Market ([link removed])


** NewsAnalysis
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All News ([link removed]) >
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** How Paraguay Emerged as Major Cocaine Exporter to Europe ([link removed])
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Shipping containers at European ports that concealed record amounts of cocaine have come from an unlikely source: the landlocked...

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** Brazil’s PCC Scared Rival Kingpin into Surrendering to Police ([link removed])
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Fahd Jamil Georges, a veteran drug trafficker along the Paraguay-Brazil border, said he surrendered to authorities after being threatened...

End of Lockdown Brings Wave of Cocaine to Puerto Rico ([link removed])
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Aviation Tycoon in Argentina Organized Drug Flights Across Americas ([link removed])
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Can DEA Dismantle Panama’s Top Gang? ([link removed])
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‘Unforgivable’ Director: ‘If the Gang Knows You’re Gay, They Kill You’ ([link removed])
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Land Trafficking Fuels Constant Corruption in Bolivia ([link removed])
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Washington Cracks Down on Guatemala Corruption ([link removed])
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Brazil’s Cheaper Exotic Fish Still Targeted by Traffickers ([link removed])


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

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** Bagdad ([link removed])
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Bagdad, along with its rival Calor Calor, is one of Panama’s two main gang federations, consisting of 30-40 smaller gangs that...
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** PCC ([link removed])
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The First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital – PCC) was inspired by the Red Command (Comando Vermelho...


** Media Mentions
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About Us ([link removed])
APRIL 28, 2021
THE FINANCIAL TIMES ([link removed])

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"Cocaine is still very lucrative, says Steven Dudley, co-director of Insight Crime, which tracks and analyzes the narcotics trade in the Americas. But marijuana is yesterday’s news. Fentanyl is today’s news."
Read in-depth coverage of fentanyl > ([link removed])


** Impact
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What We do ([link removed])


** InSight Crime Confronts Criminal Libel Case
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Press freedom groups have lambasted ([link removed]) a criminal libel case filed in Colombia by drug trafficker Guillermo León Acevedo Giraldo, alias “Memo Fantasma,” against InSight Crime Co-director Jeremy McDermott. InSight Crime refuses to be intimidated by such lawsuits, which are being increasingly used to silence investigative journalism. We are not only standing by our reporting but are preparing a follow-up investigation that uncovers further details about Memo’s criminal career. That investigation is based on sources that have come forward since the publication of our award-winning series into the elusive trafficker and paramilitary leader.

Read the Memo Fantasma investigation > ([link removed])
Read our response to the suit > ([link removed])


** Our Trending Topics
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Browse by Country ([link removed])
SYNTHETIC DRUGS ([link removed])
US/MEXICO BORDER ([link removed])
METHAMPHETAMINE ([link removed])
FENTANYL ([link removed])

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