13.04.23 – Three charged over online banking scam. Three men have been charged with fraud offences as part of a National Crime Agency investigation into a website which enabled criminals to subvert banking anti-fraud measures. NCA cybercrime investigators began probing the paid for subscription website www.OTP.Agency in June 2020. The site provided a service to criminals by helping them socially engineer bank account holders into disclosing genuine one-time-passcodes, or give other personally identifiable information, allowing multi-factor authentication to be bypassed.
13.04.23 – Underground drug-money bank laundering EUR 180 million liquidated by law enforcement. Europol supported a joint investigation between the Belgian Federal Judicial Police Leuven (Federale Gerechtelijke Politie Leuven) and the Spanish Guardia Civil, leading to the disruption of a large-scale money laundering and underground banking system. At least EUR 180 million in illicit profits generated by cocaine trafficking had been laundered by the criminal network, which consisted of Moroccan, Spanish, and Belgian nationals. The criminal network was active in Belgium and branched out to the Netherlands, Spain, South America and Dubai. Its members had set up a complex and professional system to launder illicit profits generated by importing cocaine via ports and airports into the EU.
14.04.23 – 19 arrests in Spanish-Swedish raid against drug traffickers. Joint actions of the Spanish National Police (Policia National) and the Swedish National Police (Polisen), supported by Europol, have led to the dismantling of a criminal network transporting drugs via trucks between Spain and Sweden. Swedish authorities initiated the investigation into the network in 2019, after establishing a link between a money laundering case and suspected members of this drug trafficking network. Some of the members of this network were located in Alicante, Spain.
14.04.23 – Son gets life in drive-thru hit that killed mob-linked dad. A New York man will spend the rest of his life in prison after hiring a hitman to kill his father, a reputed Mafia associate gunned down at a McDonald’s drive-thru in what prosecutors called a scheme to control a real estate empire built from mob money. Anthony Zottola Sr. blotted away tears at sentencing Friday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. Audible sobs filled the courtroom as his sister and brother addressed him, the culmination of a wrenching family drama that the judge said was difficult to fathom.
15.04.23 – Belfast: Almost £190,000 seized from man arrested in 2020. Almost £190,000 has been seized from a man arrested by police in north Belfast two and a half years ago. A substantial amount of money was recovered when the 41-year-old was arrested in the West Bank Road area on 30 December 2020. Following a proceeds of crime investigation, Laganside Magistrates’ Court granted a forfeiture order of £189,416.72 in favour of the PSNI.
