The US is Colombia's top gold customer — and cartels know it

Tech Insider : Economy, Business, Style
A gloved hand pikcing up gold bars.
The value of gold reached record highs at the start of 2026.

Ty Snaden for Business Insider

A former FBI Special Agent who infiltrated the Italian Mafia, Mexican cartels, and Russian and Asian organized crime groups says he fears 1 group above the rest

Tech Insider : Business, Style
Headshot of Joaquin Garcia
Joaquin Garcia received the FBI Agents Association Distinguished Service Award in 2024.

Courtesy of Joaquin Garcia

How infiltrating the mafia actually works, according to a former FBI agent

Tech Insider : Business, Style

Joaquin "Jack" Garcia is a retired FBI agent who worked 24 of his 26 years in the bureau undercover. He spent three years infiltrating the Gambino crime family under the alias "Jack Falcone."

Tourists describe hunkering down as cartel violence erupts in Mexico

Tech Insider : Travel, Travel, Business
Tourists in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, during cartel violence
American tourists were told to shelter in place as cartel violence erupted in Puerto Vallarta and other parts of Mexico.

REUTERS

I've spent the last 10 winters in Puerto Vallarta. I've always felt safer in Mexico than I do in the US.

Tech Insider : Travel, Travel, Business
Puerto Vallarta with smoke
Branden James and his husband have spent the last 10 winters in Puerto Vallarta

Courtesy of Branden James

Satellite images show fires, roadblocks, and cars burning in a Costco parking lot after cartel violence in Mexico

Tech Insider : Business
Cars on fire along a coastal road in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on February 22.
Cars on fire along a coastal road in Puerto Vallarta on Sunday.

Satellite image ©2026 Vantor.

If you're flying this week, be warned: it's an exceptionally messy time for air travel

Tech Insider : Travel, Business
People walk through Terminal B at LaGuardia Airport in New York on February 22, 2026.
Travelers at New York City's LaGuardia Airport on Sunday.

CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images

MAPPED: Mexico cartel violence forced dozens of flights to divert, including a pair of private jets

Tech Insider : Business, Style, Travel
Smoke billows from burning vehicles amid a wave of violence, with torched vehicles and gunmen blocking highways in more than half a dozen states, following a military operation in which a government source said Mexican drug lord Nemesio Oseguera, known as
Smoke billows from burning vehicles in Puerto Vallarta on Sunday.

@morelifediares via Instagram/Youtube/@morelifediares via REUTERS

Mexican cartel drones were behind the brief El Paso airspace chaos, says Trump administration official. The US military took them out.

Tech Insider : Business, Technology, Travel
A Fort Bliss Law Enforcement Activity Military Police Company Soldier engages a simulated enemy drone with a handheld counter-unmanned aircraft system during an integrated protection exercise at Fort Bliss, Texas, August 20, 2025.
A US soldier engages a simulated drone during training at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas.

David Poe/Fort Bliss Public Affairs Office

How illegal sports betting actually works

Tech Insider : Sports, Business, Style

Owen Hanson is a former college athlete who ran an illegal sports betting company and later expanded into international cartel-backed money laundering and drug trafficking.

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