After three years of field work across Venezuela, InSight Crime proudly presents its latest investigation, Venezuela’s Cocaine Revolution. 

Weekly InSight
May 6, 2022 ([link removed])

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** [link removed] Read the latest InSight Crime Investigation ([link removed])
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After three years of field work across Venezuela, InSight Crime proudly presents its latest investigation, Venezuela’s Cocaine Revolution. Divided into five chapters, it looks at the country’s transition to a cocaine producer, how the Maduro government keeps the drugs flowing, and provides concrete examples of the inner workings of key criminal actors.

InSight Crime also looks at the potential impact of the extradition of Otoniel, formerly Colombia’s most-wanted, at the man who has taken over the most-wanted spot, at a wave of Russian cybercrime attacks on Latin American institutions, and at how Facebook is handling alleged sales of organs from Venezuela.


** Featured
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** Venezuela's Cocaine Revolution ([link removed])
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In 2013, Nicolás Maduro became president of Venezuela following the death of his charismatic predecessor Hugo Chávez. Since then, the country’s cocaine trade has undergone revolutionary changes. Today, Venezuela is at risk of becoming the world’s fourth cocaine-producing country. And the Maduro regime has positioned itself as the gatekeeper to the country’s drug trade, controlling access to cocaine’s riches not only for drug traffickers but also for corrupt politicians and the military-embedded trafficking network known as the “Cartel of the Suns.”

The product of more than three years of investigations, hundreds of interviews and field work in all of Venezuela’s key drug trafficking territories, this InSight Crime investigation looks at one of the world’s most important cocaine trafficking hubs – and the authoritarian regime that keeps the drugs flowing.


** Read the entire investigation ([link removed]) :

Chapter 1: Venezuela’s Move to Cocaine Production: Crops, Chemists and Criminal Evolution ([link removed])
Chapter 2: Maduro Seeks to Regulate the Cocaine Trade ([link removed])
Chapter 3: Beyond the Cartel of the Suns ([link removed])
Chapter 4: The Paraguaná Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Political Power in Venezuela ([link removed])
Chapter 5: Gordito González and Venezuela’s Narco-brokers ([link removed])
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** NewsAnalysis
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All News ([link removed]) >
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** Otoniel's Extradition Heralds End for a Generation of Colombian Traffickers ([link removed])
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The extradition of accused Colombia drug lord Dairo Antonio Úsuga, alias "Otoniel," to the United States...

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** Colombia's Most Wanted: Gentil Duarte ([link removed])
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Colombia's government and military have shown renewed urgency in attacking FARC commander Gentil Duarte, ramping up operations against his forces and killing his allies, while adding new charges...

Le Havre Cocaine Bust Marks French Port’s Prominence in Pipeline to Europe ([link removed])
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Major Ransomware Attacks in Peru and Costa Rica Spell More Trouble for Region ([link removed])
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Dirty Business: What European Wastewater Shows About Drug Trends ([link removed])
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Premier of British Virgin Islands in Miami Court on Cocaine Trafficking Charges ([link removed])
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Organ Sales in Venezuela: A New Online Scam? ([link removed])
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Balkan Traffickers Becoming Ever More Important to Trans-Atlantic Cocaine Trade ([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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** Cartel of the Suns ([link removed])
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The “Cartel of the Suns” (Cartel de los Soles) is the term used to describe the shadowy groups...
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** Alias 'Otoniel' ([link removed])
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Dairo Antonio Úsuga, alias “Otoniel,” was the head of Colombia’s most powerful criminal group, the Urabeños...


** Media Mentions
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About Us ([link removed])
MAY 4, 2022
DIÁLOGO AMÉRICAS ([link removed])

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"Large-scale marijuana cultivation in Chile indicates that domestic production is becoming an alternative to importing cannabis to supply the country’s lucrative local market,” reported InSight Crime."
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** Impact
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What We do ([link removed])


** Venezuela’s Cocaine Revolution Met With Uproar
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On May 4, InSight Crime launched its latest investigation, Venezuela’s Cocaine Revolution¸ accompanied by a virtual panel on its findings. The takeaways from this three-year effort, including the fact that Venezuela has evolved from a transit country to a cocaine producer, immediately became a major topic of discussion among Venezuelan and Colombian media.

InSight Crime Co-director Jeremy McDermott was interviewed by Blu Radio ([link removed]) and NTN24 ([link removed]) in Colombia, while numerous ([link removed] May 4, InSight Crime launched its latest investigation, Venezuela’s Cocaine Revolution¸ accompanied by a virtual panel on its findings. The takeaways from this three-year effort, including the fact that Venezuela has evolved from a transit country to a full-blown cocaine producer, immediately became a major topic of discussion among Venezuelan and Colombian media. InSight Crime Co-director Jeremy McDermott was interviewed by Blu Radio and NTN24 in Colombia, while numerous other leading publications analyzed the findings of the report. The panel discussing the investigation featured contributions by Sebastiana Barráez, a
leading Venezuelan investigative journalist, Angélica Durán-Martínez, a professor of political science and Latin American expert at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell and Javier Mayorca, a Venezuelan crime investigator. A summary of the panel is available here. View the event on YouTube here. A version with full English subtitles will be uploaded shortly.) other leading publications analyzed ([link removed]) the findings of the report.

The panel discussing the investigation featured contributions by Sebastiana Barráez, a leading Venezuelan investigative journalist, Angélica Durán-Martínez, a professor of political science and Latin American expert at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell and Javier Mayorca, a Venezuelan crime investigator. A summary of the panel is available here ([link removed]) .

View the event on YouTube > ([link removed])

A version with full English subtitles will be uploaded shortly.


** Our Trending Topics
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CARTEL OF THE SUNS ([link removed])
VENEZUELA ([link removed])
OTONIEL ([link removed])
CHILE ([link removed])

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