Transnational Threats

The Rio de Janeiro Civil Police’s arrest of five Colombians this summer for loan sharking — illegal loans at exorbitant interest rates — using narcotrafficking money drew the attention of Brazil’s security sector, because reports of this practice by narcotraffickers were so far unheard of, Police said. “This type of [ … ]

“Illegal, unreported, and unregulated [IUU] fishing poses a potentially enduring threat to the security and well-being of the United States and its neighbors in Latin America and the Caribbean,” the August report IUU Fishing Crimes in Latin America and the Caribbean of the Center for Latin American & Latino Studies [ … ]

In late July 2022, the Secretariat for Citizen Security of Mexico City (SSC), in coordination with the Attorney General’s Office, carried out what it described as the largest cocaine seizure in Mexico City with the interdiction of two trailers containing 1.68 tons of cocaine from Colombia bound for the United [ … ]

The widespread destruction of habitat and loss of biodiversity in the Americas are rampant, InSight Crime, an organization that studies organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean, says. In Colombia, “the Clan del Golfo not only engages in narcotrafficking, but also charges commissions to other criminal groups that seek [ … ]

The Colombian Military Forces, in a Navy-led operation, dismantled a transnational narcotrafficking organization that sent large drug shipments to Central America and Mexico from the Colombian Pacific coast, the naval institution said in late August. “We were able to capture and prosecute 12 alleged members of the criminal group, who [ … ]

The Trident Naval Task Force (FTNT) of the Salvadoran Naval Force (FNES) ventures far off El Salvador’s Pacific coast to interdict transnational criminal groups that attempt to move cocaine from South America to the United States, oftentimes relying on the support and intelligence of partner nations.  “At the moment we [ … ]

Costa Rica continues to deal blows to Caribbean narcotrafficking groups that have shifted their transit routes to the Pacific Ocean. According to the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) of Costa Rica’s Supreme Court of Justice, authorities are increasingly detecting their activities in that region. “This can be attributed to different circumstances: The [ … ]

Colombian criminal Juan José Valencia, alias Falcón, has been extradited to the United States. “Falcón, identified by [Colombian] authorities as the most senior narcotrafficker in the Clan del Golfo,” CNN reported, is wanted by the U.S. Southern District Court for the Southern District of Florida on charges of drug trafficking and [ … ]

Colombian crime leveraged the COVID-19 pandemic to consolidate its control on the Venezuelan border in cahoots withVenezuelan security forces. The National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group, together with other smaller criminal groups, has been taking advantage of the humanitarian emergency in Venezuela to engage in human trafficking and exploitation of [ … ]

Ecuadorian authorities remain steadfast in their fight against narcotrafficking and organized crime. The ongoing and coordinated work of the Attorney General’s Office and the National Police has led to record levels of drug seizures. In 2021, authorities seized 210 tons of cocaine, while between January and August 1, 2022, authorities [ … ]

U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay Marc Ostfield ratified U.S. support for the Paraguayan National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD) in a meeting with its Minister Zully Rolón at the institution’s headquarters in early July. The reunion reaffirmed the commitment of both countries in the fight against transnational organized crime, SENAD said via Twitter. [ … ]