NarcoFiles: The New Criminal Order
Drug trafficking is a globe-spanning business. Cocaine might start life at a plantation in Colombia before being repackaged in Mexico, processed in the Netherlands, and sold on to users as far away as Bulgaria. Markets are booming in Asia, Africa, and Australia, generating billions in illicit revenues that flow back across the world through bank wires, cash transfers, and other transactions.
But the harms are not felt equally. It is developing nations that are most often strangled by the drug trade’s tentacles of violence, corruption, environmental destruction, and economic instability. The borderless nature of these crimes — and the gangs and cartels behind them — requires cross-border cooperation by journalists trying to expose them.
NarcoFiles: The New Criminal Order, the largest investigative project of its kind to originate in Latin America, was launched with this in mind.
The project was sparked by an unprecedented leak of emails from Colombia’s prosecutor’s office. OCCRP, the Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística (CLIP), Vorágine, and Cerosetenta / 070 gained early access to the data, which they then shared with more than 40 other media outlets. Journalists from over 23 countries worked on the investigation, chiefly in Latin America but also in Europe and the United States.
Using leads found in the leaked data, reporters produced dozens of stories revealing the myriad ways in which organized crime groups are evolving, expanding, and experimenting in the modern world — while leaving new victims along the way.
Read on to discover what OCCRP and its partners have uncovered.
Journalists: Allan de Abreu (piauí), Samuel Aguilar (El Universal), Iván Alamillo (Mexicanos Contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad), Johanna Álvarez (Unidad Investigativa de Noticias Caracol), Tatiana Antolínez (Cuestión Pública), Carmen Aristegui (Aristegui Noticias), Ernesto Aroche (El Universal), Mayra Báez (CLIP), Valeria Báez (Cuestión Pública), Antonio Baquero (OCCRP), Aldo Benitez (La Volanta), Scott Bronstein (La Prensa), Edier Buitrago (Cuestión Pública), Àngela Cantador (CLIP), Abel Cárdenas (Ojo Público), Rigoberto Carvajal (CLIP), Brecht Castel (Knack), Aramis Castro (OjoPúblico), Daniela Castro (OCCRP), Jacqueline Charles (Miami Herald), Rosa Chávez Yacila (OjoPúblico), Alejandra Crail (El Universal), Juliana Dal Piva (CLIP), Antonio Delgado (Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald), Claudia Julieta Duque (Cuestión Pública), David Espino (El Universal), Juan Omar Fierro (Aristegui Noticias), Casey Frank (Miami Herald), Marina Gama Cubas (CLIP), Enrique García (Ojoconmipisto), Jody García (Plaza Pública), David González (OCCRP), Eduardo Goulart (OCCRP), , Daniela Guazo (El Universal), Kevin G. Hall (OCCRP), Pavla Holcova (investigace.cz/OCCRP), Gianfranco Huamán (OjoPúblico), InSight Crime, Nathan Jaccard (OCCRP), Sol Lauría (La Prensa), Luisa Fernanda López (CLIP), Nelly Luna Amancio (OjoPúblico), Vinicius Madureira (OCCRP), José Miguel Marulanda (Cuestión Pública), Paul May (Investigace.cz), Angélica Medinilla (Agencia Ocote), Stefan Melichar (Profil), Víctor Méndez (Narcodiario), Silber Meza (El Universal), Susana Morán (Plan V), Anastasiia Morozova (Frontstory.pl), Michael Nikbakhsh (Die Dunkelkammer), Raúl Olmos (Mexicanos Contra la Corrupción y la Impunidad), Bianca Padró Ocasio (OjoPúblico), Angus Peacock (OCCRP), José Luis Peñarredonda (CLIP), Paul Radu (OCCRP), Begoña P. Ramírez (InfoLibre), Miriam Ramírez (El Universal), Gerardo Reyes (Univisión), Andrea Rincón (Cuestión Pública), María Teresa Ronderos (CLIP), Ketty Roqueme (Cuestión Pública), Iván Ruiz (CLIP), Violeta Santiago (Quinto Elemento Lab), Lilia Saúl (OCCRP), Mariusz Sepioło (Frontstory.pl), Khadija Sharife (OCCRP), Konrad Szczygieł (Frontstory.pl), Armando Talamantes (Quinto Elemento Lab), Ignacia Velasco (OCCRP), Juanita Vélez, Jonny Wrate (OCCRP)
Editing: Sally Mairs (OCCRP), Alexander Dziadosz (OCCRP), Jared Ferrie (OCCRP), Miranda Patrucic (OCCRP)
Research, Data and Tech: Ignacia Velasco (OCCRP), Jan Strozyk (OCCRP), Eric Barrett (OCCRP), Angus Peacock (OCCRP), Sharad Vyas (OCCRP), Benjamin Spahovic (OCCRP), Nedim Cengic (OCCRP)
Fact-Checking: Birgit Brauer (OCCRP), Ivana Jeremić (OCCRP), Olena LaFoy (OCCRP), Bojana Pavlović (OCCRP), Maura Quatorze (OCCRP)
Promotion: Sergiu Brega (OCCRP), Kathlyn Clore (OCCRP), Lauren Jackman (OCCRP)
Design and Graphics: James O’Brien (OCCRP), Edin Pašović (OCCRP)
Web and Interactive: Alex de Santa (OCCRP)
Project Coordination: OCCRP
Main partner: CLIP
Media Partners: Agencia Ocote (Guatemala), Aristegui Noticias (Mexico), Armando.Info (Venezuela), Berlingske (Denmark), BIRD (Bulgaria), Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística (CLIP), Cerosetenta / 070’’ (Colombia), CNN en Español (United States), Con Criterio (Guatemala), ContracorrienteHN (Honduras), Cuestión Pública (Colombia), De Tijd (Bélgica), Der Standard (Austria), Die Dunkelkammer (Austria), El Universal (México), Expresso (Portugal), Frontstory.pl (Poland), Het Parool (Nederlands), Infolibre (España), InSight Crime (Latin America), Investigace.cz (Czech Republic), IrpiMedia (Italy), Knack (Belgium), La Prensa (Panamá), Mexicanos contra la Corrupción (México), Miami Herald (US), Mongabay Latam (Latin America), Narcodiario (España), No Ficción (Guatemala), Ojoconmipisto (Guatemala), OjoPúblico (Perú), Paper Trail Media (Germany), piauí (Brazil), Plan V (Ecuador), Plaza Pública (Guatemala), Profil (Austria), Quinto Elemento Lab (Mexico), Siena (Lithuania), SVT (Sweden), Univision (United States), UOL (Brazil), Verdad Abierta (Colombia), Vorágine (Colombia) and ZDF (Germany).