InSight Weekly | García Luna Guilty, Time to Retire the Word ‘Cartel’?

This week, InSight Crime discusses the trial and guilty verdict of Mexico’s former public security chief Genaro García Luna who had been accused of taking millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for protecting the Sinaloa Cartel. His conviction shows both the US authorities’ dedication to tackling corruption among its partners but also the challenges it faces in doing so.

InSight Crime also asks if it’s time to put the catch-all term “cartel” out to pasture. It was uttered 90 times at a recent US Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on fentanyl, but its misuse suggests an oversimplification in the country’s drug trafficking approach.

We look to Venezuela, where the government launched operations against illegal miners in Yapacana National Park following international outcry about environmental damage. But are the government’s efforts genuine? And we explain how smugglers in southern Bolivia managed to co-opt previously legitimate bus companies to carry contraband rather than passengers.

Last week, InSight Crime published its ranking of Venezuela’s ten organized crime groups to accompany the launch of the Venezuela Organized Crime Observatory.

Read the investigation here >

The reporting was widely cited, including by EFE, El Nuevo Siglo in Colombia, El Diario in Venezuela, El Diario de Santiago in Chile, and EVTV in the United States, among others.

InSight Crime co-director Jeremy McDermott spoke about the ranking and findings from the Observatory with César Miguel Rondón, one of Venezuela’s most-recognized journalists, on En Conexión, and also discussed the topic on NTN24.

Visit the Venezuela Organized Crime Observatory >

Elsewhere, the first part of InSight Crime’s Ms13 & Co. investigation has been shortlisted for a True Story Award.

Read the investigation here >