29.11.24 – Hitman offered $71,000 for Canadian reporter’s assassination. A hitman offered C$100,000 ($71,400; £56,000) for the assassination of a crime reporter at Montreal newspaper La Presse, the outlet has reported. Convicted killer Frédérick Silva confessed to La Presse that he had offered the contract to anyone willing to carry out the hit on Daniel Renaud, who was covering his trial for three murders and an attempted murder in 2021. Silva was convicted in 2022 and became a police informant. Quebec Premier François Legault condemned the plot. “It makes no sense that in Quebec – we are not in a movie – there is a contract placed on the head of a journalist because he does his job,” he said. “This is not the Quebec we want,” he said, adding that the province’s police must continue to target organised crime.
28.11.24 – France arrests 26 for smuggling migrants from Indian sub-continent. A French-led investigation, supported by Europol, has resulted in the dismantling of a large criminal network comprising several small criminal groups involved in migrant smuggling and money laundering. The extensive migrant smuggling and financial investigation of the French National Police (Police aux frontiers/OLTIM Roissy Charles de Gaulle) was supported nationally by the French Inter-ministerial Investigation Unit (GIR Bobigny), and Luxembourg, Portugal, the United Kingdom, among several other EU and non-EU countries. The investigation focused on several interlinked criminal groups that were smuggling migrants from the Indian sub-continent (India, Sri Lanka and Nepal) to Europe, the United Kingdom and North America. The smugglers facilitated migrants’ travel to the EU via Dubai or different African countries using unlawfully obtained tourist, work or medical visas. Migrants would be charged between EUR 15 000 and EUR 26 000 per person for the full smuggling service.
28.11.24 – Heroin kingpin arrested after 703 kilos of heroin found in soap shipment. An international law enforcement operation supported by Europol has led to the arrest of a suspected heroin trafficker running a criminal network stretching from Iran to Western Europe. The investigation was led by the German authorities with the support of the Netherlands and Europol. Over the past few months, the authorities involved joined forces within the framework of an Operational Taskforce (OTF) set up at Europol to gather intelligence and coordinate the operational activities. On 23 November, a 57-year-old Turkish citizen was arrested in Albania. Residential and business properties linked to the suspect and his girlfriend were searched in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The suspect, one of Europol’s high-value targets, is suspected of heading a criminal network responsible for the large-scale import of heroin into Western Europe. The investigation was able to link the suspect to the seizure of 703 kilos of heroin in the port of Hamburg in Germany on 30 August 2022. The heroin was hidden in a container shipment of soap originating from Iran.
26.11.24 – Violent Albanian criminal group linked to corruption disrupted via SKY ECC analysis. On 25 November, Albanian authorities, with the support of Europol, took enforcement actions against 21 individuals, including a former judge, a lawyer a police officer, and two investigative journalists as part of a corruption investigation linked to a high-risk criminal organisation. Over the course of the investigation, an arrest was made in Milan, Italy, thanks to swift operational coordination among the countries involved. The operation, supported by Europol, was launched after the analysis of encrypted communications from the SKY ECC communication platform revealed extensive evidence of corrupt practices, including organised and serious crimes. The suspects are alleged to have played key roles in enabling and shielding the activities of a violent Albanian criminal group importing cocaine from South America to Europe. The proceeds from these criminal activities were laundered in Albania, where numerous properties and assets linked to the criminal network were identified and seized.
26.11.24 – 11 arrested in new sting against wholesale cocaine traffickers. A long-running cross-border investigation has led to the takedown of a large-scale drug trafficking criminal network smuggling cocaine from South America into the EU. The operation spanned Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia. The cocaine traffickers targeted in this investigation used different maritime routes and modus operandi. The criminal network is connected to a seizure of over half a tonne of cocaine, with a street value of a EUR 50 million, at the port of Ploče in southern Croatia in late March 2021. The drugs were concealed in a modified cargo container floor. This seizure is a further indication that international drug trafficking organisations are increasingly targeting smaller EU ports.
