Weekly InSight
This week, InSight Crime turns its attention to El Salvador for the second installment of its investigative series, MS13 & Co., chronicling the Central American gang’s transformation from a band of exiles searching for a home to a nationwide criminal mafia, with a keen eye for new business ventures.

In other news, InSight Crime unpacks how Bolivia's drug czar ended up wanted by the DEA, how Brazil is again trying to pacify its favelas and whether Chile's lauded street-level antinarcotics policies have really made a difference.

Featured

The Omnipresent Business of the MS13

When strolling through Las Margaritas, a neighborhood of over 15,000 people in the city of Soyapango, El Salvador, crossing paths with the MS13 is all but assured. There, almost all facets of daily life are linked to the gang in one way or another.

If someone wants to buy the most essential of items, such as gasoline, they must go through the MS13, which distributes tanks full of fuel to local shops. If they want bread, the gang also provides, from one of at least three MS13 bakeries in the community. There are other bakeries, of course, but they buy their flour exclusively from the gang.

Read the analysis >

NewsAnalysis

Fugitive Guatemala Minister Surrenders Amid Attacks on Justice System


A fugitive former minister linked to a multi-million dollar cash seizure has turned himself over to Guatemalan... 

More Questions than Clarity Following Former Anti-Drug Chief’s Arrest in Bolivia


Authorities in Bolivia have arrested the Andean nation’s former anti-drug chief as he tried to flee...
Why did Venezuela's Peace Zones Backfire So Badly?
Chile's Microtrafficking Zero Program: Success or Failure?
Russia-Argentina Cocaine Plot Finally Resolved With Lengthy Convictions
Brazil Tries to Reclaim Rio's Favelas - Ad Infinitum

Criminal Actors

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

Browse by country >

MS13

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

El Koki

Carlos Luis Revete, alias "El Koki," is one of Venezuela’s most wanted criminals and leader of the “megabanda" that...

Media Mentions

JANUARY 25, 2021
VICE

"Colombia has arrested a number of narco sub manufacturers in recent years. Authorities seized 31 narco subs in 2021, a jump from 23 in 2019, according to InSight Crime.."

Impact

The World Trade Center of Cocaine

 
A week after InSight Crime revealed how the port of Santos in Brazil had become the “world trade center” for cocaine shipments, Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), one of the world’s largest container transport firms, slashed its operations at the port, due to fears of criminal penetration. MSC and numerous other shipping companies have been the repeated victims of drug cartels sneaking billions of dollars’ worth of cocaine onto their cargo containers. InSight Crime’s report on the port of Santos was picked up by numerous media outlets in Brazil, Russia, China, the Netherlands, Ireland and beyond. In its 2021 investigation, The Cocaine Pipeline to Europe, InSight Crime uncovered how drug traffickers infiltrate ports to access a staggering array of maritime routes and shift record amounts of cocaine to North America, Europe and beyond. 
 

InSight Crime Bolsters Factchecking Defenses

 
InSight Crime recently held a writing and editing workshop for investigators, aimed at sourcing and factchecking discipline. InSight Crime, like many other media outlets, faces constant legal threats from subjects named in our stories, who seek to pressure us into taking copy down or shutting down investigations. No legal complaint presented against us has ever made it to court due to our rigorous sourcing and factchecking protocols. 

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InSight Crime · Medellin · Medellin 0000 · Colombia