In 2015 Costa Rica was the site of major drug busts, a first-of-its-kind sex tourism case and the rise of a serial killer. Here are the year's five biggest crime stories.
Alleged Mexican drug lord Tirso Martínez Sánchez pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges Friday, one day after he was extradited to face the charges in a U.S. court.
Two nephews of Venezuela's first lady, Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas, appeared in a Manhattan court Thursday and denied charges of conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United States. Campo Flores was crying as he walked into the courtroom.
Néstor Reverol, a former interior minister and counter-drug chief under the late Hugo Chávez, is alleged to have tipped off drug traffickers to raids and "stopped or hindered" drug investigations, a person familiar with the federal case told The New York Times.
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – A court in Honduras Wednesday ordered house arrest for one of the country's biggest tycoons over suspected tax evasion, adding to his legal woes after being targeted by the U.S. for laundering drug traffickers' money.
Walter Espinoza, a 47-year-old prosecutor, steps into the position as OIJ chief at a time when Costa Rica struggles with killings tied to organized crime.
Colombia's Norte de Santander is where the "Bolivarian dream" was born. But with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's recent move to close the border and send Colombians back, its capital, Cúcuta, is beginning to feel the pain. The Tico Times takes a closer look.
A U.S. federal judge has postponed until next month a hearing in the drug smuggling case of two nephews of Venezuela's first lady. The hearing will now take place just days before Venezuelans go to the polls.
U.S. agents have arrested two relatives of Venezuela's first lady for allegedly conspiring to smuggle 800 kilos (1,800 pounds) of cocaine into the United States, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Illegal coca cultivation is surging in Colombia, erasing one of the showcase achievements of U.S. counternarcotics policy and threatening to send a burst of cheap cocaine through the smuggling pipeline to the United States.
