Tracking black money and illegal organized crime activities in Latin America

This article is part of the Global Investigative Journalism Network’s “LATAM Focus” series, which tells the stories of reporters from across Latin America, describing their investigations and innovative reporting projects, as well as the challenges specific to the region. It is republished with permission; the original is available on GIJN’s website. By Santiago Villa.

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Illicit drug money is just a fraction of what Latin America’s multibillion-dollar conglomerates pour into tax havens around the world. Illegal gold mining, illicit logging in the Amazon, human trafficking, government corruption and extortion create lucrative revenues for organizations whose financial interests, clients and accomplices span the globe.

A panel of expert journalists in tracking the finances and activities of organized crime, including Bianca Padró Ocasio who works with Ojo Público, the Peru-based Latin American investigative journalism platform; Joseph Poliszuk of Armando.info, one of the few media outlets specialized in investigative journalism on Venezuela; Lilia Saúl of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP); and Luiz Fernando Toledoco-founder of Data Fixers, shared methods, tools and security protocols to investigate organized crime during GIJN’s webinar, Investigating Latin America’s Global Reach of Illicit Activities, led by Connectas founder and director Carlos Eduardo Huertas.

Best approach to organised crime: cooperation

Ambitious, transnational organized crime reporting projects are typically collaborative, involving multiple newsrooms from different countries. But how do these projects begin? How can you decide who to work with and take the first steps toward trust-building?

“The best partners are the ones who are genuinely interested in working with you,” Toledo said. He suggested vetting potential collaborators to make sure you have something to offer that interests them and that they have something you need, such as skills, contacts, resources or being located in a geographic location of interest. “Collaborative journalism is all about trust, radical sharing and availability. If any of these things aren’t there, you can’t have a successful collaboration,” he added. Poliszuk also suggested creating a document outlining each partner’s responsibilities and expected resource expenditures from the start.

The journalists also reminded the audience of some best practices for protecting citizens’ privacy, such as being careful about which names to omit when dealing with legal or leaked documents. For example, when working on NarcoFiles, a massive collaborative exposé of organized crime based on more than seven million emails leaked from Colombia’s attorney general’s office, all the media outlets agreed to publish only the names and information of people who had already been convicted or sentenced. “The most important thing we have to remember as investigative journalists is that we are not authorities, police or prosecutors,” Saúl said, explaining that the goal of NarcoFiles was to show the scale and transnational prevalence of organized crime in Latin America.

Dissecting Organized Crime Through Traditional Reporting

Despite advances in large language models, machine learning and geolocation software, investigative journalists still rely on traditional reporting methods, such as turning people with valuable information into whistleblowers. “You have to understand who the potential whistleblower is and how you can get the best information from them,” Poliszuk said. A good place to start, he recommended, is to look at their social media accounts to understand their social circle and connections.

Padró Ocasio said Ojo Público sent dozens of FOIA requests during its investigation into illegal gold mining in the Amazon, mainly to mining authorities in Latin American countries in the Amazon. “Some of the FOIA responses were quite good, especially in Peru and Brazil, where they have strict laws that require a response within 10 days,” she explained. “We asked about investigations into specific companies or local miners, how much equipment had been seized, which companies were involved and where they were based,” she added.

However, FOIA responses may be incomplete or not provide the full picture, so they must be verified by comparing and triangulating them with university studies, surveys, and specific data sources. For example, Padró Ocasio’s team cross-referenced each country’s declared gold exports with data from U.S. and EU customs.

Organized crime and environmental crime are increasingly intertwined. Cartels and armed groups combine drug trafficking with wildlife trafficking, illegal mining, and illegal logging. Parts of the Brazilian Amazon have become crime centers, making it difficult to understand Latin America’s latest globalized structures without looking at this vast rainforest. When investigating environmental crime in Brazil, Toledo suggested using data-rich websites such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification database and the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) environmental fines database. Scraping and cross-referencing these could yield valuable information about the companies, groups, and individuals being tracked.

To manage data and numbers that can be overwhelming in size, Toledo also recommends using ChatGPT to audit your code when your team relies on tools like Python or R.

Staying Safe When Investigating Organized Crime

Organized crime was one of the leading causes of death of journalists outside of conflict in 2023, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. Investigating organized crime can lead to intimidation, hacking and even assassination attempts.

When reporting in areas with organized crime, Padró Ocasio recommends ensuring the team has reliable and trusted contacts to assess the security of the area. “We based many of our reporting decisions on reports from NGOs investigating illegal mining and reached out to local communities and indigenous organizations in the hotspots we visited,” Padró Ocasio said. Saúl described OCCRP’s three-pronged approach to security during the NarcoFiles collaborative reporting, combining digital, editorial, and physical/psychological security. All collaborating journalists were trained in digital security protocols, using virtual private networks (VPN), border gateway protocols (BGP), and the Signal communications platform.

Editorial security was enhanced by establishing protocols for the handling of sensitive information, facilitating legal checks and consultations for all collaborating journalists, and centralizing project coordination with OCCRP’s Latin America editor, Nathan Jaccard.

A physical security committee was also created to respond to potential threats during the investigation. Journalists were urged to report any suspicious activity or direct threats to the committee. They were also advised to pay attention to their emotional well-being, due to possible exposure to graphic and violent videos in the prosecutor’s trove of emails obtained through the NarcoFiles leak. Saúl also stressed the importance of always letting a colleague know where you’ll be and what sources you plan to meet.

Finally, for young journalists looking to prove themselves in the challenging field of organized crime reporting, the veterans offered tips: learn how to read, use and master spreadsheets; know how to access public documents; practice what you learn while working on a project; dig deeper into companies that are active on the Internet and social media; read independent news sources; and attend relevant conferences. “There’s always something new to learn,” Toledo said.