Peru has long vied with Colombia as the world’s top producer of cocaine, but has only periodically produced high profile drug lords. Gerson Gálvez Calle — alias “Caracol” or Snail — is one of these. Caracol sprung to the nation’s attention late last year after news emerged that he was heading Peru’s largest and most violent…
Category: Central/South America
Border Security Report: Mexican Meth on the Rise
A new report suggests Mexico‘s role in the production and trafficking of methamphetamine to the United States continues to grow, a reflection of how criminal groups throughout Latin America are diversifying their criminal portfolios to respond to market demands. According to a report (pdf) by the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), an independent body tasked…
Cartel Corner #61: El Salvador’s Murder Rate Getting Worse
El Salvador has not experienced such a bloody start to the year since the small Central American country was submerged in a brutal civil war that ended a generation ago. The first two months of 2016 ended with 1,399 murders, more than double the number for the same period in 2015 when homicide rates had already…
Cartel Corner #60: Profile of The ‘Texis’ Cartel of El Salvador
Unlike some Central American gangs that have earned fame for their brutality and their liberal use of violence, the Cartel de Texis has developed a reputation for a more business-like approach to the drug trade. But as the report by Salvadoran news site El Faro about the group illustrates, while the gang isn’t known for leaving…
Cartel Corner #59: El Chapo Hates Mexican Prison So Much He Wants to Be Extradited
Or is it ole’ Sneaky El Chapo just wants the chance for a paid group of serious pipe hitters to break him out during the transfer? Hmmmm, Enquiring Minds want to know.-SF At the same time, the drug lord’s wife has warned the Mexican authorities that they will live to regret her husband’s extradition because of…
Cartel Corner #58: The Next Generation of Narco’s
There was a time, the story goes, when if a local collided with a drug trafficker’s car on the streets of Culiacán — a bastion of the infamous Sinaloa cartel — the narco was likely to hop out to check that everything was ok. “They’d say: ‘If you have any problems call this doctor and…
Cartel Corner #57: 6 Common Misconceptions about the MS-13 Street Gang
In response to a recent article on the MS13 published by Foreign Policy and reprinted at InSight Crime, gang expert Carlos Garcia challenges six commonly held misconceptions about the street gang based in several parts of Central America, Mexico, and the United States. There is an abundance of journalists, communicators and even academics who accuse…
Dose of Truth: Accepting the Possibility of a “Central American Spring”
Central Americans May Be Ready for Their Own Arab Spring The spread of gangs, the U.S. narcotics trade, and rampant corruption are major factors contributing to mass migration and alarmingly high levels of violence. Tens of thousands of Salvadorans, Guatemalans, and Hondurans, many of them unaccompanied minors, have arrived in the United States in recent years,…
Cartel Corner #54: How El Chapo Got his Gun
You’ve probably heard the news that when Mexican authorities raided the hideout of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, the head of the murderous Sinaloa drug cartel, on Jan. 8, they recovered a .50-caliber Barrett rifle that was trafficked through the ATF’s disastrous “Fast and Furious” debacle. What you may not know, but probably suspected, is that…
Border Security Update: Keeping the Pedophiles Out
As if the United States does not have enough problems with fighting the plague of Child Sexual Predators, now we have to worry about Mexico’s predators coming over here? I think Mexico is doing what Castro did in the 80’s: Dumping the dregs of their jails on the United States. Sorry, but the safety of…