Organized crime groups across Latin America are weaponizing commercial drones, pairing them with IEDs to attack rivals, security forces, and civilians. From CJNG's drone unit in Mexico to gang warfare in Rio's favelas and ELN surveillance drones in Colombia, InSight Crime co-director Jeremy McDermott joins Deborah Bonello to ask whether governments can actually keep pace with the threat.

Colombia just became the 19th member of the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition — better known as Shield of the Americas — days after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth flew to Panama to declare its new motto: "We do bad things to bad people." On this week's InSight Take, Managing Editor Deborah Bonello and co-director Jeremy McDermott unpack what this fast-growing coalition actually commits its members to, five months after its founding and still without an approved operational plan. With lethal strikes on Caribbean and Pacific boats having killed over 200 people — and no evidence the US drug flow has slowed — they ask whether Shield of the Americas can actually disrupt organized crime.

Colombia's new president faces one of the most complicated criminal landscapes in the world. In thisweek's InSight Take, Co-Director Jeremy McDermott and Senior Colombia Analyst Sara Garcia unpack what Abelardo de la Espriella inherits: powerful armed groups like the Gaitanistas and the ELN, record cocaine production, and booming illegal gold mining. They weigh Washington's likely support, whether de la Espriella can match the Uribe-era security gains, and the human rights risks of a harder military push.

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The capture of Ecuadorian crime boss Wilmer Chavarría, alias “Pipo,” was a major victory for President Daniel Noboa’s strategy of targeting high-value criminal leaders. But it also raises a larger question: Do arrests of top criminal leaders weaken organized crime, or simply make it more fragmented and violent? In this week's InSight Take, InSight Crime Co-director Steven Dudley and Investigator James Bargent examine what Pipo’s case reveals about Ecuador’s kingpin strategy.

From the halls of presidential power to a 45-year prison sentence—and then a shocking return to freedom—this week, we take a look at the story of the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH). InSight Crime’s Managing Editor Deborah Bonello speaks to Co-director Steven Dudley about JOH’s twisting tale, from indictment to pardon.

Ismael Zambada Garcia alias El Mayo just got sentened to life without parole, marking the end of a four-decade run as one of Mexico's most powerful traffickers. InSight Crime's Deborah Bonello and Victoria Dittmar break down how his sentencing won't end the war in Sinaloa but signals a new chapter in Mexican organized crime in this week's Insight Take.

Following the death of CJNG leader "El Mencho" in a February 2026 military operation, US authorities have named his stepson, Juan Carlos Valencia González, alias "El 03," as the group's new leader. But El 03 is one of several senior CJNG figures with a claim to power, and the group may avoid naming a single visible boss at all. InSight Crime's Managing Editor Deborah Bonello speaks to Co-director Steven Dudley and Mexico investigators Victoria Dittmar and Parker Asmann about the CJNG's messy succession.

The United States has designated Ecuador's Chone Killers a terrorist organization, but the group has splintered and has no single command structure. InSight Crime's Gavin Voss, Steve Dudley and Deborah Bonello discuss how the label may not map cleanly onto a fragmented reality, echoing a broader pattern where decapitating gang leadership tends to atomize groups rather than dismantle them.

El Salvador’s mass trials of alleged gang members are the latest phase in President Nayib Bukele’s hardline security model, aimed at locking in the dismantling of MS13 and Barrio 18 while processing a massive backlog of cases. InSight Crime's Managing Editor Deborah Bonello and Central America Investigator Alex Papadovassilakis discuss how the trials, which group hundreds of defendants and thousands of crimes into single proceedings, raise troubling questions about whether collective punishment is replacing individual justice.

The winner of Colombia's presidential elections Abelardo de la Espriella promised to stop negotiating with guerrilla armies and unleash the country's experienced security forces against criminal groups there. But will the Trump-aligned president-elect keep his promises when he takes office in August? And will his plan help, or hinder, the country's organized crime panorama?