This week, InSight Crime examined 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 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 in the country’s digital banking sector.

This and more below.

On the Radar: Crime Crackdowns Sweep LatAm

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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The Story of Mexico’s Multibillion-Dollar Fuel Theft Crisis

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 >

Read more Oil Theft coverage >

Venezuela’s ‘Cartels’ and the US Missile Strike Explained

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 >

This Week's Criminal Profile: Border Command

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.

Trending: Uncertainty as Kenyan-led Mission in Haiti Nears End

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.

Read more Haiti coverage >

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