Italian interior minister Luciana Lamorgese alerted over mafia network transformation and diversification. OCGs in Italy are less high profile in recent years as they spread into new economic sectors, but they remain a threat to Italy’s institutions and economic system. The Ndrangheta mafia is estimated to weight around 54 billion euros, more than Deutsche Bank…
In its 2019 report on cybercrime, Europol highlights that cybercriminals are becoming bolder and more innovative to circumvent law enforcement and maximize profits. One new prominent practice is crypto ransomware, targeting private organisations using phishing emails. Europol identifies crypto ransomware as the top priority threat facing European Law enforcement officials. The British government invests in…
Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez faces street protests calling for his ouster after a US court found his brother guilty of cocaine and weapons trafficking. The US Justice Department also concluded narcotraffickers had bribed the president and his party for his 2014 election campaign. The Financial Action Task Force, the intergovernmental body dedicated to combatting…
Drug trafficking in Central America is damaging the Amazon forest. Traffickers are cutting down trees to build illegal roads and airstrips to transport cocaine. Narco-deforestation now affects large tropical forests in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Protected wetlands and coastal areas are also used to supply maritime routes. Environmental degradation caused by drug trafficking leads to…
The poaching and smuggling of marine life are increasingly treated as organised crime in South Africa. Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing have traditionally been dealt with as fisheries management issues by the government, resulting in low penalties for offenders. But regional initiatives like FishFORCE, training law enforcement officers and prosecutors, have resulted in greater awareness…
Iranian police have seized nine tonnes of illicit drugs destined for Europe in the province of West Azerbaijan, on the border with Turkey. The shipment, which was hidden inside a petrol tanker, comprised of 3.5 tonnes of morphine and 5.3 tonnes of opium. Weapons as well as cocaine and crystal meth were also found. Iran…
In a new report, Human Rights Watch documents the rising violence linked to illegal deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon. Over the past five years, 28 environmental enforcement agents and indigenous people opposed to illegal logging have been killed by organised crime groups who profit from deforestation. More than 300 people have been murdered in the last…
Venezuela’s state prosecutor opened an investigation into Juan Guaido’s pictures with members of a Colombian organised crime group. Analysts say the images have the potential to cause severe harm to the Venezuelan opposition leader’s credibility, especially at the international level, and his quest to force Maduro out of power. Frontex co-led an international operation against…
Bolivian security forces seized a Brazilian-registered helicopter carrying almost 300 kilos of drugs near the border with Peru. Officials say cocaine processing is increasingly being fractionned in different countries. They are at least two air bridges that have been established between Brazil, Peru and Bolivia, and 38 small clandestine planes used for narcotrafficking were seized…
British authorities seized 250 kilos of cocaine and arrested six people aboard yacht off the coast of Wales. The private vessel was heading from Latin America to the UK. The drug had a street value of 20 million euros. Slovenian police dismantled a vast human trafficking network. The group was involved in trafficking some 280…
