September 12, 2025 | View in your browser ([link removed])
This week, InSight Crime examined ([link removed]) a series of recent seizures and arrests showing how Mexico’s powerful criminal groups are expanding into fuel theft, one of the country’s fastest-growing and most profitable criminal economies, while pulling in even the state’s most trusted security branches.
Also this week, our Co-director Jeremy McDermott and Managing Editor Deborah Bonello got into the weeds around some of the criminal dynamics surrounding the targeting of a go-fast boat off Venezuela’s coast on September 2, which marked a shift ([link removed]) in the US drug war in South America; and a Brazilian investigation into a multibillion-dollar First Capital Command money laundering scheme tied to chemical imports, fuel distribution, and investment funds prompted reforms ([link removed]) in the country’s digital banking sector.
This and more below.
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** On the Radar: Crime Crackdowns Sweep LatAm ([link removed])
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This week we question the nature of Venezuela’s Cartel of the Suns, Tren de Aragua, and US military ops in the Caribbean; ask whether a crackdown on the Border Command on Ecuador’s border will slow money-laundering; and ponder the future of Haiti’s anti-gang mission.
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** 📅 Don’t Miss Our Upcoming Event | How War-on-Terror Tactics Could Change the Fight Against Organized Crime ([link removed])
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Drone strikes on crime groups? Mass deportations? Blocking financial flows? These are some of the possibilities we’ll explore on September 26 in our donor-exclusive event. Donate today ([link removed]) to join this conversation with our experts.
** Featured
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** All News > ([link removed])
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** The Story of Mexico’s Multibillion-Dollar Fuel Theft Crisis ([link removed])
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A series of recent seizures and arrests underscore how powerful criminal groups in Mexico are expanding their involvement in fuel theft, one of the country’s fastest-growing and most profitable criminal economies whose pull is also corrupting the state’s most trusted security branches.
Mexican security forces detained 14 people, including a high-level navy officer, on September 6 following the discovery of 10 million liters of illicit diesel in March, one of the largest seizures in the country’s history.
Read our analysis here > ([link removed])
Read more Oil Theft coverage > ([link removed])
** Venezuela’s ‘Cartels’ and the US Missile Strike Explained ([link removed])
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"The US, in using the term cartel of the Suns, and there's an indictment which which uses the cartel of the Suns, which targets Nicolas Maduro, the president, and Diosdado Cabello, the kind of regime number two - it suggests that the Cartel of the Suns is a traditional, vertically integrated drug trafficking organization. We don't think it is."
Watch the full video > ([link removed])
** Impact
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** What We Do > ([link removed])
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InSight Crime’s expertise on organized crime and public security was featured this week when co-director Steven Dudley participated in the Jornadas Internacionales de Seguridad en Ecuador: Retos y Soluciones in Guayaquil on September 11–12. He joined a roundtable on citizen security and police reform with experts from Ecuadorian universities and public institutions. The event brought together academics, policymakers, and practitioners to discuss key security challenges and solutions in Ecuador.
Read our Security Policy coverage > ([link removed])
** This Week's Criminal Profile: Border Command
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The Border Command is one of southern Colombia’s most powerful drug trafficking organizations, with both guerrilla and paramilitary roots, that maintains a significant presence in Ecuador. This week, the group came under the spotlight when Ecuadorian authorities launched 63 simultaneous raids targeting money laundering structures in nine provinces on September 9, in what officials are calling the biggest law enforcement operation in the country’s history, resulting in an estimated $300 million in losses for the group.
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Read our Border Command profile > ([link removed])
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Read our Ecuador coverage > ([link removed])
** Media Mentions
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** About us > ([link removed])
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September 3, 2025
International Crisis Group ([link removed])
"'InSight Crime, a media company specialising in the study of Latin American crime, says [Cartel of the Suns] is not a 'hierarchical, ideologically driven drug trafficking organisation' but rather a 'profit-based system of generalised corruption involving high-ranking military figures'."
Read our Cartel of the Suns profile > ([link removed])
** Trending: Uncertainty as Kenyan-led Mission in Haiti Nears End
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Kenyan President William Ruto called for the UN to secure “sustainable support” for security in Haiti. Kenyan troops have led the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission there since June 2024 and have seen limited success in tackling increasingly entrenched gangs. Now, with the MSS mandate set to expire in October, the future of a multinational anti-gang force in the country is uncertain.
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** Latin America’s Risky Bet on Hired Guns to Fight Crime ([link removed])
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** US Asks Partners to Give More to Haiti’s Struggling Anti-Gang Mission ([link removed])
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Read more Haiti coverage > ([link removed])
** Support our work ([link removed])
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We go into the field to interview, report and investigate. We then verify, write and edit, providing the tools to generate real impact in fighting organized crime.
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InSight Crime is sponsored by:
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