Support of USG inter-agency partners in mapping corruption structures tied to transnational organized crime in the Northern Triangle as part of the Biden Administration’s Central America anti-corruption policy.
IBI field research uncovered illicit gold flows from the Maduro regime and other criminal actors from northern South America to the Arabian Peninsula, leading to USG enforcement action shutting down a fictitious gold export business moving tons of gold per year.
IBI identified Banco Corporativo and associated entities in Nicaragua as a primary money laundering hub for the Ortega and the Maduro regimes and mapped its transnational operations. The investigation was crucial to the Treasury Department and the State Department initiating investigations that led to formally sanctioning the bank and the bank closing.
IBI has provided multiple training modules to the Colombian National Police, the Chilean Carabineros, U.S. military and government agencies, and private sector associations, on investigation techniques for complex transnational criminal networks with additional instruction on the changing nature of transnational organized crime and extra-regional actors such as Russia, China and Iran.
IBI discovered the increased participation of the Honduras branch of the MS-13 transnational gang in Mexican drug trafficking organizations and its incursion into the synthetic drug trade. It has also mapped its political, military and territorial expansion and trajectory including outlining its use of new sea routes through Belize and Mexico.
IBI’s research provided a map of the organizational structure and key members to authorities, leading to formal Department of Justice investigations into the operation. In May 2019, the Salvadoran attorney general, with the support of the U.S. embassy, raided 27 corporate offices in three cities to collapse a structure believed to have laundered some $3.4 billion in criminal proceeds over a decade.