Newsbrief – week of 28 November

Belgium, Bolivia, EU, EUROJUST, EUROPOL, News, Newsbriefings, Peru, The Netherlands

https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/international-operation-shuts-down-websites-offering-counterfeit-goods-and-pirated-content – International operation shuts down websites offering counterfeit goods and pirated content https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/heat-rising-european-super-cartel-taken-down-in-six-countries – Heat is rising as European super cartel is taken down in six countries https://insightcrime.org/news/lake-titicaca-smugglers-paradise-bolivia-peru/ Lake Titicaca: A Smuggler’s Paradise in Bolivia and Peru https://insightcrime.org/news/super-cartel-controlling-europe-drug-trade/ Was a Super Cartel Really Controlling Europe’s Drug Trade? https://www.eurojust.europa.eu/news/serbian-led-drug-smuggling-network-halted-belgium-luxembourg-and-netherlands Serbian-led drug smuggling network halted in…

News briefings week of 20 June

Belgium, Brazil, EUROJUST, EUROPOL, Human trafficking, Money laundering, Newsbriefings, Paraguay, The Netherlands, Wildlife trafficking

21/06 Phishing gang behind several million euros worth of losses busted in Belgium and the Netherlands. The suspects sent emails and text messages with phishing links to bogus banking websites. A cross-border operation, supported by Europol and involving the Belgian Police and the Dutch Police, resulted in the dismantling of this organised crime group involved…

News briefing – Week of 18 of April

Belgium, Caribbean, Cocaine, Cooperation, EU, EUROPOL, Newsbriefings, Nigeria, The Netherlands

18/04 The global environmental impacts of cocaine. The environmental impacts of cocaine have long been known. Studies raised alarm bells in the 1990s over narco-driven deforestation, soil degradation and pollution in Latin America. Today, the impacts all along the illegal drug supply chain are even better understood and documented but remain underrecognized and underreported. 21/04…

News Briefing – Week of 1 June

Belgium, Cannabis, Cocaine, Ecuador, Heroin, Illegal pesticides, Newsbriefings, Publication, Seizure, The Netherlands

  1/06/2020 – As law enforcement focuses of the Coronavirus lockdown measures, a substantial increase in cannabis cultivation in Albania is anticipated. Recent seizures indicate that the Balkan route remains a favoured trafficking route for Europe destined cannabis. Albania is also about to conclude a draft law which allows for the cultivation of medical cannabis in…

News Briefing – Week of 18 May

Belgium, Bolivia, Cannabis, Cocaine, Colombia, Illegal logging, Methamphetamines, Morocco, Newsbriefings, Peru, Publication, Seizure, South Africa, Wildlife trafficking

The lock-down measures adopted in Morocco have disrupted the usual routes used to traffic cannabis towards Europe. Indeed, traffickers were previously relying on the commercial shipping vessels or high-speed boats crossing the Mediterranean. So as to avoid detection, they are favouring longer and more expansive routes however such methodology requires drug hand-overs at high sea.  Burmese authorities…

Newsbriefing – Week of 3 June

Belgium, Cocaine, EU, Newsbriefings

Spanish Police arrested eleven suspects after custom officers seized one tonne of cocaine concealed inside fake stones. The organised crime group was working with the stone industry to smuggle large quantities of drugs from Colombia into the port of Barcelona, to be later distributed throughout Europe. Belgian authorities dismantled a major illegal cigarette factory and…