Weekly InSight | The Legacy of the Zetas; Environmental Crime in Colombia

This week, InSight Crime Co-director Steven Dudley writes on how the hyper-violence displayed by Mexico’s many splinter groups to control territory and underworld activities, is a tactic learned from one of the country’s most notorious cartels – the Zetas. We also launched a joint investigation with the Igarapé Institute, which explores how organized crime is a major driver of environmental crime in Colombia’s Amazon region. A product of intense field research, the six-part series, to be published over the coming weeks, maps the many actors – guerrillas, drug trafficking organizations, gold mafias, and shadowy financiers – that coalesce to clear vast areas of forest with impunity.

Other highlights include a look at a pact among Haiti’s gangs in Port-au-Prince to allow the movement of medical supplies and food to earthquake victims; a report on remittances to Mexico possibly being used to launder drug money; and an account of how a bank robbery in Brazil, where hostages were strapped to the roofs of getaway vehicles, is but the latest in a string of spectacular heists by well-trained gunmen.

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

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SEPTEMBER 2, 2021
FOLHA DE S. PAULO

"A new report by the Igarapé Institute, in partnership with InSight Crime, presents a detailed profile of environmental crimes in the Colombian Amazon and showcases how public and private interests in the country - as well as in Brazil - are behind the deforestation."

InSight Crime is readying its newest class of interns – from universities in Europe and the Americas – to begin investigative work on a number of high-impact projects. For the next few months, this group of eight will be integrated into projects that span the Americas. They will be digging into underworld activities on the US-Mexico border; armed actors along the Colombia-Venezuela border, one of the world’s most dangerous; the criminal chaos in Haiti; wildlife trafficking in the Amazon; and issues from gender and organized crime to drug pipelines across the globe.

The Roots of Environmental Crime in the Colombian Amazon

Featured

The Zetas’ Model of Organized Crime is Leaving Mexico in Ruins

NewsAnalysis

The Descent into Madness of Brazil’s Bank Robberies

Truce or No Truce: Gangs in Haiti Control Aid Movement

Criminal Actors

'Barbecue'

Pablo Escobar

Media Mentions

Impact

Gearing Up a New Class of Interns

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