As Brazil’s PCC Gentrifies, Favela Residents Must Fend for Themselves
When the First Capital Command (Primeiro Comando da Capital – PCC) took over the brightly-colored hillside favelas in São Paulo,…
Organized Crime and AI: 5 Topics We Are Monitoring in 2026
As advances in artificial intelligence (AI) bring it to nearly all corners of life, both criminal organizations and law enforcement…
GameChangers 2025: Cryptocurrency Is Now in the Criminal Mainstream
A decade ago, Latin America’s criminal groups were starting to experiment with cryptocurrency, but in 2025, they went all in.…
GameChangers 2025: The Unstoppable Rise of Environmental Crime
In 2025, environmental crimes spread into corners of the Amazon Basin that had so far largely escaped the rampant plunder…
GameChangers 2025: The 10-Year Evolution of Latin America’s Booming Marijuana Market
In a year where cocaine and fentanyl garnered international attention, marijuana continued to play a key role within the regional…
GameChangers 2025: Top Criminal Newsmakers This Year
In a year that saw a dramatic reset to the fight against the drug trade and organized crime in the…
How Organized Crime Threatens the Amazon’s Uncontacted Tribes
Organized crime has become an existential threat to the uncontacted Indigenous peoples of the Amazon as illegal gold miners, drug…
How Industrial-Scale Crypto Laundering Sustains Mexico’s Synthetic Drug Trade
On a hazy afternoon in May 2021, Daniel Gonzalez, alias “Rafael Arocho,” sped through Pasadena in a white Lexus packed…
On the Radar: Was Brazil’s Favela Police Op a Raid or a Massacre?
This week, we hold the line on more military strikes in the Caribbean and the Pacific, mull the conviction of…
Ghost Guns Are Increasingly Empowering Brazil’s Powerful Gangs
A recent and extremely deadly anti-gang raid in Rio de Janeiro underscores both the escalating firepower of Brazil’s gangs and…