Drug Traffickers Producing More Cocaine in Europe: EU Report Some cocaine production has shifted from Latin America to Europe, as criminal groups explore new trafficking methods and authorities boost transatlantic cooperation, according to the latest EU drug report. Both drug seizures and drug use keep increasing in Europe, according to findings published by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) on June 11.  “While seizures are up, purity remains high, and prices are stable, showing that huge amounts of cocaine are available,” Ylva Johansson, European Commi ..read more

El Salvador Profile El Salvador is the spiritual homeland of Central America’s most notorious street gangs – the Mara Salvatrucha (MS13) and Barrio 18. For years, these gangs terrorized poor urban neighborhoods across the country, but they appear to have been largely dismantled following a brutal and controversial government crackdown that has seen over 1.5% of El Salvador’s population jailed for alleged gang ties since early 2022. The country is also a relatively small player in the drug trafficking business. It serves as a drug receiving and storage point along the Pacific Coast, and a land ..read more

Central General Staff – Ex-FARC Mafia The Central General Staff (Estado Mayor Central – EMC) is a federation of dissident fronts of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia – FARC) that decided not to embrace the peace process signed in 2016 between that guerrilla group and the Colombian government.   The EMC has significant armed power that allows it to maintain control of different criminal rents across the country. Depending on the region and the associated front, revenues vary, but its criminal portfolio is mainly based on drug traf ..read more

Data InSights: Security Boost to Tackle Brazil’s Flood Chaos Led to More Marijuana Seizures Major floods in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul led to record marijuana seizures there as criminal groups seeking to exploit the chaos and up their trafficking activities lost valuable product to an uptick in drug interdictions due to a heightened police and military presence.  In May, floods killed over a hundred people and caused widespread damage to property and infrastructure in Rio Grande do Sul. But authorities nevertheless seized some 31.2 tons of the drug in and heading t ..read more

InSight Crime Expertise Informs Global Conversations on Cocaine Trade InSight Crime’s expertise on the cocaine trade continues to enrich discussions on the industry throughout global media. The Guardian utilized InSight Crime’s investigation, The Cocaine Pipeline to Europe, to depict cocaine trafficking routes to Europe, while the BBC enlisted the expertise of InSight Crime’s Sergio Saffon to outline the volatile relationship between cocaine’s ever-growing global demand and the local dynamics of coca leaf production in Latin America.  Read the investigation> The post InSight Crime Exp ..read more

US Drug Overdose Deaths Are Dropping, and Here’s Why When Dennis Cauchon started to notice a sharp drop in drug overdose deaths in the fall of 2023 in the US state of Ohio, he was convinced there was something wrong with the data. Ohio was one of the first places to be hit hard by the US fentanyl crisis, starting around 2015. Between 2016 and 2023, the state averaged about 4,500 drug overdose deaths each year, driven largely by the synthetic opioid. But during the last quarter of 2023, overdose deaths across the state dropped by 25% and continued to fall through the first three months of 2024 ..read more

Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia – AUC The United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia – AUC) was a coalition of far-right paramilitary armies. According to their main leaders, their objective was to stop the expansion of leftist guerrillas in Colombia. However, they camouflaged a broad portfolio of criminal economies and war crimes including drug trafficking, forced displacement and disappearances, land grabbing, kidnapping, and extortion, among others under the guise of counterinsurgency operations. History The origins of paramilitary groups in Colombia date back ..read more

German Media Seeks InSight Crime Expertise on Suriname Drug Trafficking to Europe In an interview with Atlas, the YouTube channel of German public broadcaster ARD, InSight Crime’s Douwe den Held outlined the strategic importance of Suriname as a launching point for drug trafficking from Latin America to Europe. Den Held highlighted how the country’s geography, along with political corruption, has made Suriname an attractive transit location for organized criminal groups looking to move drugs to Europe.  Watch the video > See more coverage from Suriname > The post Ger ..read more

DataInSights: Chop Shops Make a Comeback in São Paulo Vehicle theft is back on the rise in São Paulo following years of decline, as criminal groups exploit supply chain issues to revive a withering black market. Brazil started to see a nationwide increase in vehicle theft around 2020, but no state has seen a spike as dramatic as São Paulo. Car thefts in the country’s most populous and economically important state rose from a low of 65,724 in 2020 to a total of 94,258 in 2023, according to data from Brazil’s National System of Information on Public Security (Sistema Nacional de Informações de ..read more

Ecuador’s War on Gangs Stumbles in Key Coastal City The Ecuadorian government is brandishing the results of its national gang crackdown as a victory, but continuing violence in the city of Durán demonstrates the policy’s uneven impact. In recent weeks, there have been massacres, gang conflicts, and attacks against public officials in Durán, which sits directly across the Guayas River from Ecuador’s largest city and port hub, Guayaquil, one of the cities worst affected by drug-related violence. In the latest disturbance, a bomb exploded on June 9 outside the offices of a graphic printing busin ..read more