Ioan Grillo is a British investigative journalist and writer based in Mexico City. He has been covering Latin America since 2001 for news media including Time Magazine, CNN, Reuters, The Houston Chronicle, The Associated Press, GlobalPost, France 24, CBC, The Sunday Telegraph, Letras Libres and many others. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, BBC and Guardian. Ioan is also the author of the books Gangster Warlords: Drug Dollars, Killing Fields and the New Politics of Latin America (released 2016) and El Narco: Inside Mexico’s Criminal Insurgency (released 2011).
As well as following drug trafficking empires, Ioan also covers the other major issues of Latin America such as natural disasters (including the Haiti earthquake), the battle between left and right (including the Honduras coup), and the vast human wave of emigration to El Norte. He was a consultant for the International Crisis Group for its first two reports on Mexico. He also loves music and covers it whenever he gets a chance. He co-directed a series of three short films with John Dickie, which all include a good dose of Latin American hip hop. They are Barrios Beats and Blood, Bajamar Ballad, and The Gangsters’ Granny.
