Audio | InSight Crime

Los golpes en la puerta retumbaron en toda la casa. Era una mañana de un domingo de enero de 2021, en Tibú, un municipio del departamento colombiano de Norte de Santander, cerca de la frontera con Venezuela. “Escuchamos los golpes y yo miré a mi esposo”, contó Mar*. “Nosotros no esperábamos a nadie y nos extrañó que tocaran con tanta insistencia y fuerza”. El esposo de Mar, Jaime*, abrió la puerta...

A banging on the door echoed throughout the house. It was a Sunday morning in January 2021, in Tibú, a municipality in the Colombian department of Norte de Santander, near the Venezuelan border. “We heard the knocking, and I looked at my husband,” said Mar*. “We weren’t expecting anyone, and we were surprised at such insistent, forceful knocking.” Mar’s husband, Jaime*, opened the door and found s...

After five years of booming fentanyl trafficking in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, “the bosses,” as he called the Sinaloa Cartel faction of the Chapitos, issued a blunt directive: stop all production in the state. Sinaloa had long been the epicenter in Mexico of illicit fentanyl production, a synthetic opioid linked to hundreds of thousands of overdoses across North America over the past decad...

Tras cinco años de auge del tráfico de fentanilo desde el estado noroccidental de Sinaloa, “los señores”, como él se refiere a la facción de los Chapitos del Cartel de Sinaloa, habían dado una orden tajante: cesar por completo la producción en el estado. Sinaloa había sido el epicentro en México de la producción ilícita de fentanilo, el opioide sintético ligado a cientos de miles de sobredosis en...

En junio de 2024, el Ministerio de Gobernación de Guatemala  presentó una denuncia  ante el Ministerio Público contra 102 guardias penitenciarios señalados de corrupción. Los guardias habían estado a cargo de una infame prisión de pandillas en el departamento de Escuintla, conocida como “El Infiernito”. Días antes de que salieran a la luz las acusaciones, las autoridades  descubrieron  allí todo t...

In June 2024, Guatemala’s Interior Ministry filed a legal complaint with the Attorney General’s Office against 102 prison guards it accused of corruption. The guards had been manning a notorious gang prison in the Escuintla department, known colloquially as “El Infiernito,” or “Little Hell.” There, days before the accusations surfaced, authorities discovered all manner of contraband – including we...

El año 2024 ofreció algunos recordatorios contundentes de que el dinero del narcotráfico puede llegar a los niveles más altos de la política. Desde Honduras hasta México y Colombia, acusaciones de contribuciones provenientes del narcotráfico sacudieron los cimientos del poder y alteraron las relaciones internacionales. Este artículo hace parte de la serie GameChangers 2024 , que repasa las princip...

The year 2024 included some stark reminders that drug trafficking money can reach the highest levels of politics. From Honduras to Mexico to Colombia, allegations of narco-political contributions shook the foundations of power and disrupted international relations. This article, read by the author, chronicles these dramatic cases. It formed part of the 2024 GameChangers series , which recounts the...

In our last episode of this season we explore the incredible life of Raúl Mijango, the rebel turned congressman turned gang mediator turned inmate who personified what has since become a lost cause in El Salvador: negotiating with street gangs. And, ironically, may have been one of the first victims of a controversial, hard line strategy that has since led to the incarceration of tens of thousands...

Judge Ivana David has been working in the Brazil's prison system for 30 years, which gave her a front row seat to the emergence of the PCC . Its rise startled Brazil and beyond, but it is was not anomaly. In fact, it is part of a region-wide trend where prison-based criminal groups dominate the underworld in the Americas. More about the PCC and our coverage on prisons and gangs at ⁠insightcrim...

Abraham Barberi is a walking paradox. He is from Mexico but lives in the United States. He does missionary work but plays guitar in a death metal band. He is a Baptist pastor but advocates for migrants and asylum seekers. This is the story of how he navigates these contradictions in Matamoros, the birthplace of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel and one of the country’s most dangerous cities. Sociedad Demente,...

On June 20, 2023, at least 46 inmates were killed by members of the 18th Street gang at Honduras’ National Female Penitentiary for Social Adaptation, in what was one of the deadliest massacres ever recorded in a women’s prison in Latin America. But it wasn’t the first massacre in this prison. Three years earlier, six women, allegedly linked to the MS13, also lost their lives at the hands of the 18...

In Colombia, farming coca for cocaine production provides an alternative livelihood in the midst of poverty and state abandonment. At the same time, coca cultivation brings a curse. Behind the coca trade are armed groups, massacres, murders, and displacements. This dichostomy can only be truly understood by those who have experienced it firsthand, as Ana has done. Through her story, InSight Crime...

In 2019, a series of wildfires—largely set to clear land for agribusiness and make way for new residents — devastated Santa Cruz, the Bolivian state on the edge of the Amazon. Behind the fires was a pernicious force: organized crime. Illegal land grabs and timber traffickers spurred the wildfires, which continue today. In this podcast, through the stories of two volunteer firefighters, InSight Cri...

For over a decade, InSight Crime has investigated organized crime in the Americas. Across the hemisphere, we’ve interviewed thousands of people, from government insiders to victims caught in the crossfire, from criminal operators to tireless NGO leaders. We’ve also witnessed firsthand the many masks that organized crime wears in places where corruption often takes center stage. Throughout, we’ve d...