12/09 – Oil theft, an organised crime – PENGASSAN seeks police collaboration to end menace. The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has described oil theft and pipelines vandalism in the country as organised crime. In a letter delivered to the Commission of Police, Lagos State, Abiodun Alabi, through the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Area F Command, John Sango, by the chairman, PENGASSAN, Lagos Zone, Elam Abang, during a rally in Lagos to sensitize the public on oil theft and pipelines vandalism, he stated that statistics by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) showed that the country lost about $3.2 billion (about N1.36 trillion) in crude oil theft between January 2021 and February 2022.
14/09 – US move deepens worries over organised crime in Paraguay. Paraguay has long been a haven for smuggling anything from cigarettes to luxury goods. But US sanctions against two of its top politicians, alongside a surge in assassinations and narcotics-related violence, have sparked concern that organised criminal gangs have penetrated the top levels of power in one of Washington’s main regional allies.
15/09 – One of Europe’s biggest money launderers arrested in Spain. One of Europe’s biggest money launderers was arrested on 12 September in Malaga, Spain, as a result of an international law enforcement operation led by the Spanish Guardia Civil. Two of his associates were also arrested in Spain, with 11 property searches being carried out in Spain and the United Kingdom.
16/09 – Migrant smugglers using private aircraft grounded in Belgium and Italy. Supported by Eurojust and Europol, judicial and law enforcement authorities in Austria, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy and the United States dismantled a criminal network involved in migrant smuggling, document fraud and money laundering.
17/09 – Beware Italy’s ‘Mafia Entrepreneurs’. The economic and social crisis that’s driving support for Italy’s hard right ahead of the Sept. 25 elections is making the euro zone’s third-largest economy vulnerable to even deeper infiltration by organized crime. In a speech in May, one of his last before the collapse of his government, now-caretaker Prime Minister Mario Draghi warned that organized crime had “assumed new but equally fearful forms.” Beyond violence — and the threat of violence — “organized crime has insinuated itself into the boards of companies,” he said.
