14 years of research and analysis on organized crime and corruption in Latin America and the Caribbean.
🇭🇳 | First, local mayors play an outsized role in facilitating extractive projects that destroy the environment and threaten land defenders due to their significant economic, political, and social influence. 
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
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
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
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
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
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.
@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.”
Step 1️⃣: Loggers enter nature reserves to find and chop down selected trees, bulldozing long stretches of forest in the process. 
5️⃣ The head of security for Uruguay's president allegedly used his position to help Russian citizens get fake papers to claim Uruguayan citizenship.
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. 
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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. 
Giuseppe Morabito – Rocco's father who was known as U’Tiradrittu, or “the straight shooter” –
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…
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.