How AI Illuminated Tren de Aragua’s Money Laundering Methods

Tren de Aragua is currently one of the most infamous criminal organizations in Latin America and one that InSight Crime has covered extensively. Our reporting has traced the group’s evolution, growth, and criminal economies, from its inception as a prison gang to its designation as a foreign terrorist organization, but had not examined its financial systems as closely.

We wanted to know more about how various Tren de Aragua factions have refined their money laundering methods and, importantly, why their financial apparatus has evolved. 

Tren de Aragua exploited the Venezuelan migrant crisis to expand across Latin America. But its staying power, like many successful organizations, has been dependent on its ability to adapt. While reporting on organized crime, we too are constantly considering how adapting our approach can benefit our work. This might be through different approaches to data collection and analysis, or considering alternative ways of presenting stories. It can also involve adopting new and different tools, and for this we have been experimenting with the potential of the new AI tools being launched.

SEE ALSO: What You Need to Know About the Criminal Groups the US Just Labeled ‘Terrorists’

Given the wealth of reporting on Tren de Aragua, we needed assistance in developing a clear idea of how its money laundering methods have adapted, without running into the problem of hallucinations sending me down the wrong paths. We began experimenting with Nelson, an AI research tool from Southern Pulse that uses a closed list of trusted sources, which helped us to develop a clear throughline for our article without running into false information.

How We Used AI to Cover Money Laundering’s Evolution in Tren de Aragua

We knew that some of Tren de Aragua’s money laundering techniques had changed, but wanted to learn if there had been a systematic evolution.

Nelson AI proposed a multi-stage evolutionary model for Tren de Aragua’s money laundering methods, providing examples from Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, and Peru. We followed this up by seeking more specific examples of money laundering cases to put this model to the test. After this, it suggested other potentially useful questions. Only a fraction of what we research usually makes its way into a finished article. Similarly here, much of the information provided was useful as background knowledge even if it did not necessarily fit into the narrow scope of the article, and it also gave us some potential ideas for future stories.

The transparent sourcing, which included some of InSight Crime’s own reporting, showed exactly where the information provided had come from, and Nelson even gave us some suggestions for further reading.

SEE ALSO: How Tren de Aragua’s Expansion Sparked Financial Evolution

The finished result was an article that went beyond outlining money laundering cases, to show how and why Tren de Aragua has become more advanced in its methods. 

Southern Pulse has been honing Nelson to create an AI capable of providing relevant data and useful angles of analysis, using trustworthy sources to avoid the pitfalls some other AIs encounter.

InSight Crime’s collaboration with Nelson is new and experimental, and an effort to expand our audience as well as serve Nelson users with the best organized crime information out there. If you’re interested in giving Nelson a try, use our discount code INSIGHTCRIME25OFF.