08/08 – U.S. slams China’s ‘unacceptable’ disruption in countering fentanyl. China’s move to suspend cooperation with the United States to combat narcotics trafficking, including illicit fentanyl, is “unacceptable,” the White House said on Monday, as Beijing continued to protest a visit to Taiwan by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
12/08 – AFP seizes 208 kilograms of meth in Sydney. The AFP-led National Anti-Gangs Squad (NAGS) has seized a shipment of more than 200 kilograms of liquid methamphetamine, worth more than $25 million, as part of an ongoing investigation into a transnational organised crime group. Officers from Brisbane NAGS and the AFP’s Eastern Command located the drugs hidden in a shipment of olive oil on a truck in the Sydney suburb of Fairfield on 30 July, 2022.
12/08 – Uruguay Becoming Arms Trafficking Hub Between Argentina and Brazil. Uruguay has been making regular seizures of weapons smuggled in from Argentina, indicating that the country is becoming a preferred transit hub for arms traffickers. In the latest case, ten people were convicted of arms and ammunition trafficking in early August, according to Uruguay’s Interior Ministry.
13/08 – Pacific used as transit point for organised crime, UN says. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has identified the Pacific as a transit point for drug and human trafficking routes including Aotearoa New Zealand.
15/08 – New Indonesian seizure of helmeted hornbill casques shows trade ongoing, targeted investigations needed. Pressure continues to pile on for the Critically Endangered Helmeted Hornbill, targeted for its ivory-like casque, as Indonesian authorities seized ten pieces from a trafficker on 6 August 2022 in North Sumatra. A similar seizure occurred in the same district just 6 months earlier.
