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12 years of research and analysis on organized crime and corruption in Latin America and the Caribbean. Read our latest investigation: https://t.co/ggsjGCs1Dw
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Jan 31 11 tweets 4 min read
As part of the Venezuelan Organized Crime Observatory in Spanish launch on #Jan31, InSight Crime will explore the top 10 criminal challenges that will shape the country's election season in 2024. 🧵 bit.ly/48SDsIF
bit.ly/3UmHqoB A pact between the government and the opposition called for free and fair elections in #Venezuela, but, as in the past, recent actions by Maduro show that political violence and restrictions on opposition candidates will once again play central roles in the presidential race. Image
Sep 12, 2023 5 tweets 2 min read
#BorderTrafficking | There are four main criminal corridors on the US-Mexico border, each of which has its own human trafficking dynamic. In Ciudad Juárez, human trafficking is defined by ever-changing connections between organized crime groups. 🧵 Image Human trafficking here is both prevalent and pervasive, as trafficking networks rely on corruption among local authorities in order to operate. That said, a serious lack of data makes analyzing these networks increasingly difficult. 1. bit.ly/3PkeYAZ
Jul 13, 2023 6 tweets 4 min read
For five years, InSight Crime has investigated how state and criminal interests intersect in Venezuela. Read how President Maduro has empowered allies from armed groups in our latest investigation, Rise of the Criminal Hybrid State in Venezuela:

🧵👇 https://t.co/VKQQgyVexTbit.ly/3OkPcfv
Image President Hugo Chávez put the plan in motion, namely ensuring that criminal armed groups would act in service of the state. Nicolás Maduro perfected the formula, working with Colombian guerrillas, prison gangs, and his own group, to bolster his own power: https://t.co/PR1CwIpmmcbit.ly/3NNtUWe
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May 17, 2023 6 tweets 3 min read
Italian authorities seized 2.7 tons of cocaine in the port of Gioia Tauro. Having arrived from Ecuador, the cocaine’s alleged final destination was Armenia.

In today’s #CriminalThreads, we explore the expansion of cocaine trafficking to ports throughout Europe. 🧵 Image Gioia Tauro is a crucial entry point for cocaine to Europe. Located in Calabria, it has traditionally fallen under the influence of the ’Ndrangheta. For decades, the ’Ndrangheta made millions from the port’s control. bit.ly/3nqL2rD
May 16, 2023 6 tweets 2 min read
In Honduras, authorities have incinerated over 3 million coca bushes, the largest incineration of the crop ever carried out in the country.

In today’s #CriminalThreads, we explore the progress of coca cultivation in Honduras. 🧵 Image Coca crop discoveries have steadily increased in Honduras over the past decade, signaling the country’s potential transformation from a drug trafficking corridor to a coca producer. rb.gy/z1gw2
May 15, 2023 5 tweets 2 min read
Mexican states like Sinaloa, Michoacán, and Baja California are already experiencing the deadly consequences of the methamphetamine and fentanyl boom.

In today’s #CriminalThreads, we outline the situation. 🧵 Image Collectives searching for missing loved ones in Sinaloa say disappearances have increased there as criminal groups have imposed strict and violent rules over the consumption and sale of synthetic drugs. rb.gy/9f00h
Oct 21, 2022 6 tweets 3 min read
This morning, the 15 members of the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution which sanctioned #Haiti’s most powerful gang leader, Jimmy Cherizier, alias “Barbecue.”

In today’s #CriminalThreads we explore Barbecue’s ascension to prominence and power🧵👇 The sanctions come after the former police officer blocked the entrance to Terminal Varreux, the country’s largest oil terminal, for the second time in a year. The blockade has worsened a massive fuel crisis and paralyzed the country’s economy.
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Oct 21, 2022 7 tweets 5 min read
Yesterday, InSightCrime Co-director @jerrymcdermott @jerrymcdermott spoke about the importance of cracking down on #EnvironmentalCrime in the #Amazon at #COP11 #UNTOC. Below is a short recap of what was discussed 🧵👇: @jerrymcdermott @jerrymcdermott stressed the need for the international community to do more than “give lip service, [as] the consequences of #EnvironmentalCrime are potentially far more catastrophic for the world than the abuse of illegal narcotics.”
Oct 10, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
A shadowy timber mafia came to Guatemala in 2018 in search of precious timber when wood reserves in neighboring Mexico began to wane.

How does this logging work? We explain in today's #CriminalThread🧵👇 Step 1️⃣: Loggers enter nature reserves to find and chop down selected trees, bulldozing long stretches of forest in the process.
Oct 10, 2022 6 tweets 3 min read
Colombo-Venezuelan Guerrillas. A Mexican governor about to face an arrest warrant. The migrant smuggling business on the US-Mexico border. Illegal loggers in Guatemala and Mexico. And a passport scandal in Uruguay.

These were the most read this week on insightcrime.org🧵 5️⃣ The head of security for Uruguay's president allegedly used his position to help Russian citizens get fake papers to claim Uruguayan citizenship.

Is Uruguay’s reputation as the « Switzerland of Latin America » at risk? bit.ly/3MeCbBb
Sep 17, 2022 8 tweets 3 min read
The Dominican Republic prides itself on drawing tourism and business. But criminals may feel welcome as well.

In today's #CriminalThreads we tell you more about the networks facilitating organized crime in the country. 🧵👇 The Port of Caucedo is one of the largest and best-connected ports in the Caribbean. This has not gone unnoticed by drug traffickers, who send cocaine to the country on its way to Europe and the United States.
Sep 16, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
Juan Francisco Sillas-Rocha, a lieutenant in the Tijuana Cartel who once boasted of killing 30 people a month, has been extradited to the United States eleven years after his arrest in Mexico.

In today’s #CriminalThreads, we take a look at the once-mighty Tijuana Cartel🧵👇 Image The Tijuana Cartel, also known as the Arellano Félix Organization, controlled the vital drug trafficking border city of Tijuana in the 1990s and early 2000s. Its power has since waned. Read its history here: bit.ly/3RRs0o7
Apr 12, 2022 6 tweets 2 min read
In the Venezuelan mining region of Bolívar, the Tren de Guyana and the Perú Syndicate appear to be on the brink of another clash over the control of key gold mining areas in El Callao. We explain this dynamic in today’s #CriminalThreads: Since 2018, but especially since 2020, the Perú Syndicate – a gang that extorts illegal miners and operates crude gold processing plants in southern Bolívar state -- has been weakened by repeated attacks by security forces.
Apr 11, 2022 6 tweets 3 min read
The MS13 leaders with extradition requests out for them released by El Salvador. TikTok videos showing communities linked to drug trafficking. And the family clan that is challenging the CJNG in Michoacán. These were the most read articles this week on insightcrime.org Image 5️⃣ The presence of Colombian guerrillas in Venezuela threatens the survival of ancient indigenous cultures, the same ones that are protecting the Amazon rainforest. bit.ly/3DLO79j
Aug 12, 2021 9 tweets 2 min read
In Mexico, the fragmentation of large criminal organizations – due to internal conflicts, disputes and the arrests of key leaders – has resulted in a complex criminal panorama. In this #CriminalThread, we profile the new generation of criminal actors
👉bit.ly/3lY0d8E La Línea emerged as the armed wing of the Juárez Cartel. Ever since its creation, however, the cell has acted as a semi-independent group involved in drug and timber trafficking and car theft in Chihuahua.
Aug 11, 2021 8 tweets 2 min read
Venezuelan gang boss El Koki has long ruled in Caracas’ sprawling urban district of Cota 905, throwing massive concerts while being one of the country’s most wanted criminals. In this #CriminalThread, we look at how he suddenly finds himself on the run. 🧶👇 Image Three years ago, a short cell phone video showed Carlos Luis Revette, better known as El Koki, relaxed, partying in Cota 905. Though accused of a number of crimes, including homicide and drug trafficking, he had evaded an arrest warrant first issued in 2013.
Jun 2, 2021 4 tweets 2 min read
Last week the Swiss Bank Julius Baer admitted to laundering more than $36 million in bribes paid by sports marketing companies to soccer officials in exchange for broadcasting rights to soccer matches.

In this #CriminalThread, we look back on the FIFA corruption scandal.🧵👇⚽️ In 2015, US authorities unveiled a sweeping, years-long probe into corruption within the international soccer organization known as FIFA. Millions of dollars in bribes were paid in exchange for marketing and broadcast rights.
bit.ly/3pamVde
Jun 1, 2021 9 tweets 3 min read
InSight Crime published a list of seven “narco-fugitives” that were enjoying their illegal fortunes in Brazil. One of them, Rocco Morabito, has a life story fit for a gangster movie. 🧵👇
#CriminalThreads Giuseppe Morabito – Rocco's father who was known as U’Tiradrittu, or “the straight shooter” –
was a premier figure within the 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate. Rocco later replaced his father within the organization.
May 30, 2021 7 tweets 3 min read
Organized crime has no borders, this is what the 5 most read articles this week on insightcrime.org indicate ⬇️ Image 5⃣The day after a gang member left the hospital, four hitmen entered the bedroom where he had been staying and shot dead an innocent woman 16 times. This was just the latest in a series of daring executions in Ecuador. insightcrime.org//news/brazen-a…
May 10, 2021 10 tweets 3 min read
Cocaine and heroin no longer rule the illicit drug market in the United States. Other substances have arrived to replace them.
How did this happen and why is it so concerning? 🧵⬇️ Image We are talking about methamphetamine and fentanyl. The first, known on the streets as “meth,” is a powerful psychostimulant that releases dopamine by flooding the parts of the brain that regulate the sensation of pleasure.
Feb 12, 2021 9 tweets 4 min read
The last few years have been challenging for democracy and security in Honduras: from the undermining of an anti-corruption commission to the increasingly-evident link between organized crime and politics. InSight Crime has covered all of these dynamics 🧵👇(1/9) #bordercrime Towards the end of 2019, we reported on the drug trafficking ring linked to Tony Hernández, the brother of Honduras’ sitting president, and analyzed the implications of this case on the nexus between politics and organized crime in the country. (2/9)
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