This week, InSight Crime investigates how criminal groups in Colombia are financing themselves through illegal gold mining, a toxic trade that...

Weekly InSight
September 10, 2021 ([link removed])

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This week, InSight Crime investigates how criminal groups in Colombia are financing themselves through illegal gold mining, a toxic trade that leaves Amazon forests razed and rivers polluted with mercury. In Mexico, a loss of profits from marijuana smuggling has prompted cartel operatives in the border state of Chihuahua to push into other enterprises, including controlling alcohol sales and illegal logging. We also speak to Guatemala’s exiled anti-corruption prosecutor, Juan Francisco Sandoval, on the warrant issued for his arrest by his own government.

Other notable reports include a Cabo Verde court approving the extradition of Colombian financier Álex Saab, an accused money launderer and fixer for Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro. Our Venezuela Investigative Unit looks at a little-known gang that recently kidnapped and beat a soldier to warn off the military. And in Honduras, a businessman suffering from complications of COVID-19 is shot dead in an intensive care unit by hitmen dressed as doctors.
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** Exploring Illegal Mining in Colombia’s Amazon ([link removed])
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As gold prices have skyrocketed, criminal groups once solely dedicated to the trafficking of drugs and arms have moved into illegal mining.

The activity has become one of the most lucrative criminal economies in Colombia. While just under 30 grams of gold raked in over $2,000 in August 2020, the same amount of cocaine fetched less than $1,250 in Miami. Gold is not only more valuable than cocaine but easier to launder, with a fraction of the risk involved in trafficking drugs.

Read chapter three of our joint investigation with the Igarapé Institute > ([link removed])

New chapters will be published every Wednesday over the next three weeks.


** Featured
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** As Marijuana Profits Dry Up, Mexico Crime Groups Turn to Alcohol and Logging ([link removed])
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Mexico remains the main international provider of marijuana for the United States, but this has greatly diminished since 2013, forcing certain criminal groups to adapt and look for other funds.

As more US states move towards legalization, “Mexican marijuana has largely been supplanted by domestic-produced marijuana,” according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) 2020 National Drug Threat Assessment.

Read the story > ([link removed])


** NewsAnalysis
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All News ([link removed]) >
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** Guatemala's Former Top Anti-Graft Prosecutor Decries Arrest Warrant ([link removed])
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A Guatemalan court has issued an arrest warrant for exiled anti-corruption prosecutor Juan Francisco Sandoval, ending...

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** Álex Saab, Venezuela’s Keeper of Financial Secrets, Approved For Extradition to US ([link removed])
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A court in Cabo Verde has approved the extradition to the United States of Colombian businessman Álex...

Venezuela's Smaller Gangs Carve Out Local Criminal Fiefdoms ([link removed])
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Well-planned Hospital Hit of Honduran Businessman Raises Questions ([link removed])
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Explosives and Weapons Heading to Ecuador – Colombia Border ([link removed])
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Severed Pig Heads - Widespread Cartel Threats Against Mexican Police ([link removed])
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Modifying Planes to Carry Drugs - Another Criminal Speciality in Colombia ([link removed])
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Panama Unveils Extent of Official Participation in Drug Trafficking ([link removed])


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

Browse by country > ([link removed])
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** Álex Saab ([link removed])
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Álex Nain Saab Morán is a Colombian businessman known for making shady million-dollar deals with the Venezuelan...
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** Sinaloa Cartel ([link removed])
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The Sinaloa Cartel, often described as the largest and most powerful drug trafficking organization in the...


** Media Mentions
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About Us ([link removed])
SEPTEMBER 3, 2021
THE TIMES ([link removed])

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"Deforestation has many different motors and has been cutting deeper and deeper into Colombia’s Amazon, the report by the investigation group InSight Crime said."
See the report > ([link removed])


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


** Exploring Climate Change and Organized Crime
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In July, InSight Crime Co-director Steven Dudley moderated a panel for the Climate Reality Project's ([link removed]) regional series of workshops for young climate activists in the Americas. The week-long event was attended by over 3,000 people. Speakers included former US Vice President Al Gore, who is the founder of the Climate Reality Project. Dudley’s panel featured Bernarda Pesoa, a community leader for the Women’s Indigenous and Farmers Organization (Organización de Mujeres Campesinas e Indígenas - CONAMURI), and Gabriel Muyuy Jacanamejoy, the technical secretary for Fund of the Development of Indigenous People in Latin America and the Caribbean (Fondo para el Desarrollo de los Pueblos Indígenas de América Latina y El Caribe - FILAC). The three discussed the individual and institutional struggles to put climate change on the agenda in Paraguay and Colombia, where the two activists are based and where their work is concentrated. In the last four years, InSight
Crime has done numerous projects related to organized crime and climate change, the latest ([link removed]) of which is a series of reports on how criminal activities are contributing to the destruction of the Amazon basin.


** Our Trending Topics
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