Chile warns of new criminal routes through Strait of Magellan

SANTIAGO, Chile -- Chilean prosecutors warned that organized crime groups are opening new maritime routes through the Strait of Magellan at the southern tip of Chile, using the passage as an alternative to the Panama Canal for trafficking weapons, goods and drugs.

Cristian Crisosto, regional prosecutor for the Magallanes region, said criminal organizations are developing new routes to move illicit products and facilitate activities that include human trafficking into South America, as well as transporting contraband from Central America to Europe and Asia.

Crisosto said criminal groups have altered their traditional routes to evade intensified international enforcement efforts by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in the Caribbean and restrictions that affect transit through the Panama Canal, leading them to focus on the Strait of Magellan, which connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

“President Trump has created significant pressure in the Caribbean, so these groups are seeking new routes to avoid international controls,” Crisosto told Radio Pauta on Friday.

As a result, criminal networks are taking advantage of the international free-navigation regime governing the Strait of Magellan to move goods without drawing attention from Chilean authorities.

“The Strait of Magellan is under Chilean sovereignty, but Chile has committed to allowing free passage for any vessel. Unless there is a specific complaint, ships are allowed to pass,” he said.

Crisosto added that judicial investigations are underway involving cocaine and ecstasy trafficking, money laundering and weapons smuggling. Prosecutors have found that dismantled criminal groups were composed primarily of foreign nationals, including Venezuelans, Colombians, Paraguayans, Ecuadorians and Argentines.

“These are not isolated incidents. They are part of a regional reconfiguration of criminal logistics chains, retired Carabineros Gen. Patricio Santos, technical deputy director of the Comprehensive Security Center at Finis Terrae University, told UPI.

“Organizations assess the actual capabilities of the state, identify operational gaps and then redefine routes, storage hubs, transportation methods and forms of institutional infiltration,” he said.

Santos said the emergence of new routes and transportation methods demonstrates that criminal organizations are evolving faster than the institutional frameworks designed to contain them across the region.

A 2025 report by InSight Crime, a research organization focused on organized crime and public security in Latin America and the Caribbean, found that traffickers are developing new methods to conceal and transport cocaine, while building increasingly sophisticated networks to reach new markets.

“Half of the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean increased their cocaine seizures. The other half recorded declines as trafficking routes adjusted in response to new international interdiction strategies, including the use of liquid cocaine to evade modern scanners and alternative transportation methods such as sailboats,” the report said.

Santos said contemporary criminal organizations operate according to a business model.

“They evaluate risks, costs, timelines and enforcement capabilities. If a traditional route becomes more heavily monitored, the activity does not disappear. It simply migrates, fragments or transforms,” he said.

He said the trend reflects the continued evolution of organized crime in Latin America, in which criminal groups remain highly adaptable and face few barriers to extending their logistics networks into areas historically considered peripheral or at low risk for criminal activity.

“Latin American criminal organizations have learned to operate through networks, diversify illicit markets, distribute risks and expand across borders. They no longer depend exclusively on rigid hierarchies,” Santos said.

“They often function through franchises, flexible alliances and hybrid structures that combine violence, illicit economies and territorial social control.”

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