Representatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) declared that, from January to June 2015, the agency has seized 445.125 kg of drugs worth approximately US$14 million at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos. Moreover, the police were able to intercept US$2.5 million from money laundering and arrest 75 alleged drug traffickers, with…
The report of the Global Financial Integrity group ranked Nigeria as one of the 10 largest countries for illicit financial flows in the world. Following this data, representatives of Nigerian Apex Bank allegedly declared that they would heavily sanction money deposit Banks that aid individuals to launder money. The Nigerian National Drug Law Enforcement Agency…
Alhaji Sule Lamido, former Governor of Jigawa State in Nigeria, was arrested in Abuja for alleged money laundering. In November 2014, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested the two sons of the governor, over alleged misappropriation of billions of naira belonging to the Jigawa State Government. South Africa customs officials discovered more than…
Spanish authorities seized more than three tons of cocaine and broke up an international drug trafficking ring in Madrid. According to the Spanish police, the organisation was composed by a group of Serbian ex-soldiers that brough cocaine from Latin America to Europe. Sixty-nine people were arrested. The Austrian police arrested a father and a son…
The increasing cooperation between Peru and Bolivia in the fight against drug trafficking led to the destruction of at least 50 clandestine airstrips in Peru and to the seizure of more than a dozen small planes in the Bolivian Amazon. In a joint operation of the US and the Costa Rican coast guards, police forces…
Two Nigerian men were arrested at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu, Eastern Nigeria, and accused of drug trafficking and unlawful importation of 9.975 kg of heroin. The two drug traffickers were sentenced to 40 and 15 years of prison. The Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Ahmadu Giade, declared that this…
Ross Ulbricht, the mercurial founder of ‘Silk Road’, what was once the biggest internet trading site for illicit drugs was sentenced to life imprisonment last week. The 31 year old Texan physics graduate rose to notoriety on the back of a site on the hidden “dark web” that became a trading mart for drugs and…
Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s parliamentary speaker, has denied involvement in cocaine smuggling, following US reports that he is under investigation for trafficking and money laundering. A plane carrying over a tonne of cocaine crashed into the Caribbean following a pursuit by the Colombian air force. The use of caterpillars which feed on coca plants has been…
Enhancing skills in asset recovery and money laundering investigations was the focus of a specialised five-day training course for law enforcement officers in Latin America that took place from 20 – 24 April in Santiago (Chile). Part of an already established collaboration between the GAFILAT-EU project and the INTERPOL Regional Bureau for South America, the…
Seizing criminal assets and taking the profit out of crime is widely seen as one of the main weapons in the fight against transnational organised criminal organisations. For the Cocaine Route Programme asset freezing and seizing are both long term objectives and key indicators for successful interventions. The programme is therefore supporting regional networks like…
