InSight Crime Podcast

Héctor Flores’ life changed forever when he learned that his son, Dani, had disappeared. Dani was one of over 8,000 people to go missing in his hometown of Guadalajara, and one of 130,000 around Mexico, where that word, “disappeared,” has become part of everyday life. In Guadalajara, most of those cases are blamed on the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which uses disappearances as a tool to exert social control, intimidate the population, punish people, and even recruit new members. But for Héctor, that explanation did not fit his son’s story. As he began gathering clues on his own, he started to suspect that the reality could be more complex and more disturbing: that the very authorities who were supposed to protect his son and search for him may have been behind his disappearance. We visited Héctor at his bunker-like home, where he has installed cameras, locks, and reinforced walls after years of intense harassment linked to his search for his son. From there, we retraced Héctor and Dani’s story and…

La vida de Héctor Flores cambió para siempre cuando su hijo Dani desapareció. El caso de Dani es uno de los 8.000 de desaparición en Guadalajara, su ciudad natal, y uno de los 130.000 en todo México, donde la palabra “desaparecido” se ha vuelto parte de la vida cotidiana. En Guadalajara, el Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación ha instrumentalizado las desapariciones para ejercer control social, intimidar a la población, castigar e incluso reclutar nuevos miembros. Pero para Héctor, esa explicación no cuadraba con la historia de su hijo.A medida que empezó a recoger pistas por su cuenta, comenzó a sospechar que la realidad podría ser más compleja y preocupante: que las mismas autoridades que debían proteger a su hijo y buscarlo a su hijo podrían estar detrás de su desaparición. Visitamos a Héctor en su casa, que hoy funciona como una especie de búnker, protegida con cámaras, cerrojos y muros reforzados, después de años de hostigamiento intenso relacionado con la búsqueda de su hijo. Desde ahí, reconstruimos la…

Jorge Mora Villamar, known to his fans as Gio, was a rapper, music producer, and DJ. His talent lifted him out of poverty and off the streets of Guayaquil. But it also led him into the inner circle of Ecuador’s most notorious crime boss—and gave him a front-row seat to the criminal violence that has reshaped the country. When we met Gio in 2024, he explained the inner workings of the Choneros mafia and how they combined gang warfare on the streets with a “digital war” waged through their own stable of musicians. He also described the mafia maneuvers, alliances, and betrayals that had tipped Ecuador over into a period of relentless and brutal violence, which continues today. What Gio told us helped us analyze the structure of Ecuadorian organized crime and explain how a country once known as one of the most peaceful in South America could become one of the most violent places in the world. Gio also shared his own story, his journey from drug user to rapper to criminal commander. And he told us about his close…

Jorge Mora Villamar, conocido por sus seguidores como Gio, fue rapero, productor musical y DJ. Su talento lo sacó de la pobreza y de las calles de Guayaquil. Pero también lo llevó al círculo íntimo del jefe criminal más notorio de Ecuador y le dio un lugar en primera fila para ver a la violencia criminal transformar su país. Cuando conocimos a Gio en 2024, nos explicó cómo funcionaba la mafia de Los Choneros y cómo combinaban la guerra entre pandillas en las calles con una “guerra digital” librada a través de su propia red de músicos. También describió las maniobras, alianzas y traiciones de la mafia que habían llevado a Ecuador a un periodo de violencia implacable y brutal que continúa hasta hoy. Lo que Gio nos contó nos ayudó a analizar la estructura del crimen organizado ecuatoriano y a explicar cómo un país que alguna vez fue considerado uno de los lugares más pacíficos de América del Sur pudo convertirse en uno de los lugares más violentos del mundo. Pero Gio también nos contó su propia historia: su…

Buenaventura is Colombia’s main Pacific port and one of the continent’s most strategic corridors for cocaine trafficking. For decades, this position has made the city a battleground between guerrilla groups, paramilitaries, and criminal gangs fighting for control of drug routes toward Europe and North America. The result is a city where men and women are killed, children disappear, and families learn to live with uncertainty as a permanent companion. In this episode, we travel to Buenaventura and meet Elena, an Afro-Colombian woman in her sixties who arrived in the city as a child after armed groups killed her parents in her hometown. Buenaventura took her in, and she made it her own. She had seven children and built a life. But the war that brought her there never left. Three of her children have disappeared. Each one, in a different way. The first was Luis, who one day simply vanished. The second was Esteban, whose whereabouts Elena still does not know after years of searching. The third was Josué, her…

Buenaventura es el principal puerto de Colombia sobre el Pacífico y uno de los corredores más estratégicos para el tráfico de cocaína en el continente. Durante décadas, esa condición lo convirtió en escenario de una guerra brutal entre guerrillas, paramilitares y pandillas que compiten por controlar la salida de droga hacia Europa y Norteamérica. El resultado: una ciudad donde hombres y mujeres mueren, niños desaparecen y las familias aprenden a vivir con la incertidumbre como compañera permanente. En este episodio visitamos Buenaventura y conocimos a Elena, una mujer afrocolombiana de unos sesenta años que llegó a la ciudad siendo niña, después de que grupos armados mataran a sus padres en su ciudad natal. Buenaventura la recibió y ella la hizo suya. Tuvo siete hijos. Construyó una vida. Pero la guerra que la trajo hasta aquí nunca se fue. Tres de sus hijos han desaparecido. Cada uno, de una manera distinta. El primero fue Luis, quien un día, sencillamente, se desvaneció. El segundo fue Esteban, cuyo…

The international success of Venezuela’s most infamous criminal export, Tren de Aragua, was built on a model of exploiting the vulnerable. In Peru, they arrived on the backs of migrants. Then, they built their business on the backs of sex workers. The gang’s takeover of the city’s sex trade has left a trail of dead women as they have killed women who refuse to pay their extortion fees, then used their murders to send a chilling message to those that remain. But amid the atmosphere of fear, there remain those willing to raise their voices in resistance against the terror—and in remembrance of those lost to it. In 2024, InSight Crime reporters met with Leida Portal and Ángela Villón, two activists who had spent decades defending Lima’s sex workers from a state that neglected them, police that abused and extorted them, and a society that didn’t care. Today, their struggle is not just for the rights of sex workers to a dignified life. It is for survival. This episode is also available in Spanish. Visit…

El éxito internacional del Tren de Aragua, la exportación criminal más infame de Venezuela, se construyó sobre un modelo basado en explotar a las personas más vulnerables. A Perú llegaron siguiendo la ruta de las personas migrantes y después, apalancaron su negocio a costa de las trabajadoras sexuales. El control del Tren de Aragua sobre el trabajo sexual en Lima ha dejado un rastro de asesinatos de las trabajadoras sexuales que se niegan a pagar las extorsiones y utiliza esos crímenes para enviar un mensaje de terror a las demás. Pero, incluso en medio del miedo, hay quienes siguen alzando la voz para resistir y para mantener viva la memoria de las que ya no están. En 2024, periodistas de InSight Crime conocieron a Leida Portal y Ángela Villón, dos activistas que durante décadas han defendido a las trabajadoras sexuales de Lima frente a un Estado que las abandona, una policía que las abusa y extorsiona, y una sociedad que les da la espalda. Hoy, su lucha ya no es solo por el derecho de las trabajadoras…

For Andrés and Juliana, Durán was home. That is, until extortionists from one of Ecuador's most powerful gangs, the Chone Killers, attacked. Visit insightcrime.org for more

Para Andrés y Juliana, Durán era su hogar. Al menos, hasta que los extorsionadores de una de las bandas más poderosas de Ecuador, los «Chone Killers», los marcaron. Para más, visite insightcrime.org

Esas son las historias de la segunda temporada de InSight Crime Podcast. Historias que muestran el impacto real del crimen organizado en quienes lo enfrentan cada día.El primer episodio llega este 23 de julio. Después tendremos una entrega cada semana.Conozca más sobre el podcast y escuche todos los episodios en la página del podcast de InSight Crime.Para recibir cada nuevo episodio y contenido exclusivo directamente en su correo, suscríbase al boletín From the Ground Up.

Esas son las historias de la segunda temporada de InSight Crime Podcast. Historias que muestran el impacto real del crimen organizado en quienes lo enfrentan cada día. El primer episodio llega este 23 de julio. Después tendremos una entrega cada semana. Conozca más sobre el podcast y escuche todos los episodios en la página del ⁠podcast de InSight Crime⁠. Para recibir cada nuevo episodio y contenido exclusivo directamente en su correo, suscríbase al boletín⁠ From the Ground Up⁠.

In our last episode of this season we explore the incredible life of Raúl Mijango, the rebel turned congressman turned gang mediator turned inmate who personified what has since become a lost cause in El Salvador: negotiating with street gangs. And, ironically, may have been one of the first victims of a controversial, hard line strategy that has since led to the incarceration of tens of thousands of Salvadorans.

Judge Ivana David has been working in the Brazil's prison system for 30 years, which gave her a front row seat to the emergence of the PCC.Its rise startled Brazil and beyond, but it is was not anomaly. In fact, it is part of a region-wide trend where prison-based criminal groups dominate the underworld in the Americas.

Abraham Barberi is a walking paradox. He is from Mexico but lives in the United States. He does missionary work but plays guitar in a death metal band. He is a Baptist pastor but advocates for migrants and asylum seekers. This is the story of how he navigates these contradictions in Matamoros, the birthplace of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel and one of the country’s most dangerous cities.

On June 20, 2023, at least 46 inmates were killed by members of the Barrio 18 gang at Honduras’ National Female Penitentiary for Social Adaptation, in what was one of the deadliest massacres ever recorded in a women’s prison in Latin America. But it wasn’t the first massacre in this prison. Three years earlier, six women, allegedly linked to the MS13, also lost their lives at the hands of the Barrio 18 gang there. InSight Crime tells the stories of two rival gang members inside this prison, who, despite coming from very similar contexts, are ready to engage in a war with each other.

In Colombia, farming coca for cocaine production provides an alternative livelihood in the midst of poverty and state abandonment. At the same time, coca cultivation brings a curse. Behind the coca trade are armed groups, massacres, murders, and displacements. This dichostomy can only be truly understood by those who have experienced it firsthand, as Ana has done. Through her story, InSight Crime explores the evolution of organized crime in Putumayo, Colombia — and how, despite promises of peace, coca continues to affect the fate of an entire department.

In 2019, a series of wildfires—largely set to clear land for agribusiness and make way for new residents — devastated Santa Cruz, the Bolivian state on the edge of the Amazon. Behind the fires was a pernicious force: organized crime. Illegal land grabs and timber traffickers spurred the wildfires, which continue today. In this podcast, through the stories of two volunteer firefighters, InSight Crime will tell the story of these fires and the criminals behind them, some of whom come from the government itself.