15.05.23 – 31 migrant smugglers arrested in Austria. Arrests: 6 suspects (5 French, 1 Moroccan) on the action day in France; 25 French nationals arrested in Austria between August and September 2022 Modus operandi: The suspects drove all the way from France to the Serbia-Hungary border, from where they smuggled at least 255 migrants to Austria using vehicles with French license plates. Forerunners were used to detect and avoid police checks and checkpoints. After arriving in Austria, the illegal migrants were further transported by other drivers.
15.05.23 – Cocaine cartel uncovered on SKY ECC busted in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Modus operandi: Cocaine is sent from South America to Europe by ships and private planes, usually hidden in coal or cans of tuna. The action day also targeted a political figure suspected of corruption, who was holding a position at the top of one of the municipalities in Canton Sarajevo.
16.05.23 – Reggio Calabria * « record seizure of over 2,700 kg of cocaine conceived in containers in transit in the port of Gioia Tauro. » The Financiers of the Provincial Command of Reggio Calabria and the Officials of the Customs Office of Gioia Tauro, under the coordination and direction of the Public Prosecutor of Reggio Calabria – DDA, concluded a complex operation aimed at combating international drug trafficking , subjecting to seizure 2,734 kg of pure cocaine.
18.05.23 – EU countries increasingly seek to reclaim land from the mafia. Here’s what can be done with it. But in 1996, Italy passed a pioneering law to allow the reallocation of land for social purposes. “Governments were focused on selling confiscated goods,” says Tatiana Giannone, a specialist in confiscated assets for Libera, a civil society coalition that campaigned for the law. “But increasingly there is a move to reuse land and property, and to put it to use in the public good. Italy has really been the pioneer on this.”
19.05.23 – Gang convicted for cocaine and cannabis smuggling. Four men who conspired to supply drugs from the Netherlands to the UK and Ireland have been convicted following a National Crime Agency investigation. Anthony Terry, 49, from Wolverhampton, organised the importation and was under surveillance when £1.6 million worth of cocaine was seized at Belfast port on 22 February 2021. The drugs were transported from the Netherlands to England and then across on the ferry to Northern Ireland in fuel tanks being transported within a van.
