25/01 Illicit gold mining in Ecuador – challenges and considerations. Although exploration of the country’s mineral resources is not complete, the government estimates that the mining of gold and copper will generate around USD $4 billion in tax revenue and about USD $40 billion in exports over the next decade. There are, however, challenges with…
17/01 NDLEA intercepts cocaine, cannabis, 1.5m tramadol tablets, others in nationwide raids. The NDLEA spokesman also said the same day, 425,000 Diazepam tablets were recovered at Segemu, Kano. He said in the past week, N1,413,344 was seized along with arms and ammunition from a suspected bandit and a drug kingpin in Plateau State while over…
10/01 Virtual currencies are being used increasingly in human and drug trafficking, the Government Accountability Office says in a new report. 10/01 Cocaine with a street value of over 5 billion euros was intercepted in the port of Rotterdam last year. A collaboration of customs, FIOD, Seaport Police, and Public Prosecution Service in Rotterdam found…
03/01 Niger police seize more than 200 kg of cocaine from mayor’s truck. The mayor and his driver, who were in the vehicle at the time, were arrested with 199 bricks of cocaine at a checkpoint on the road heading north out of the desert trading hub of Agadez, the sources said. 03/01 Nigerian police:…
27/12 The National Drug Control Directorate (DNCD) indicated that more than 25,300 kilos of different drugs had been seized during the operations carried out throughout this year in the Dominican Republic. 27/12 English authorities seize 1.2 tons of cocaine from Costa Rica. The value of the seizure was estimated to be 120 million U.S. dollars.…
20/12 Interpol: illicit fishing trade fuels transnational organized crime. A global investigation showed that the illicit fishing trade fuels transnational organized crime activities such as the trafficking of humans, drugs, and explosives, Interpol reported. 21/12 Mexican cartels are turning to meth and fentanyl production. Mexican drug cartels are turning to bigger, more productive labs to…
13/12 Ukraine arms-trafficking into Poland on rise. Attempts to smuggle illegal firearms into Poland from the Ukraine are on the rise, according to an internal EU document. “Although large-scale trafficking of firearms has not yet become apparent, an increasing number of attempts to smuggle firearms from Ukraine to Poland has already been observed,” notes the…
06/12 Cocaine Comrades: The Balkan ties of a fallen Colombian drug trafficker. From Marcos and Soldado to Tito and Chiquito, the drug trafficking ties between Colombia and the Balkans run deep. 08/12 Europol Pandora Papers report warns of ‘parallel underground system’ exploited by criminal networks. In an interview with ICIJ member Kristof Clerix, Europol director…
29/11 Global coalition seizes 145.3 tonnes of cocaine – Colombia’s navy. Military and police authorities from more than 40 countries across Europe and the Americas confiscated 145.3 tonnes of cocaine in the eighth phase of Operation Orion, a multinational naval operation against drug trafficking, Colombia’s navy said on Monday. 29/11 12 online fraudsters arrested in…
22/11 GI-TOC uncovers the scope of contract killings linked to organized crime. At least 2,700 contract killings took place in 2019 and 2020 in more than 80 countries, enabling criminals to silence those who oppose them and dissuade efforts into investigating their activities, according to a Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) report. 23/11…
