01/11 Customs officials made the largest drug bust of 2021 at the Port of Rotterdam as 4,178 kilos of cocaine was seized in the Netherlands. According to a statement published by the Public Prosecution Service in Rotterdam on Sunday, customs officials found the drugs in two containers from Paraguay, which were loaded onto another ship in Uruguay. The cache, which has an estimated value of approximately €313 million, was hidden inside bags full of soybeans. The statement said the beans were “destined for a company in Portugal.”
02/11 Damage caused by organised crime on the rise. Organised crime caused significant economic damage in 2020, according to the annual report by the federal crime police agency. In 2019, authorities seized assets worth €644 million, while 2020 saw seizures worth €1.02 billion, the report also stated. Some 594 investigations had been conducted, relative to 2019’s 579, a relatively modest uptick despite 2020 being a year of travel bans.
03/11 Ecuadorian authorities seize 1.5 tons of cocaine hidden in a banana shipment headed for New Zealand. In addition to seizing the container holding the cocaine hydrochloride, the officers made 20 arrests of those suspected to be involved with the operation.
05/11 US government offers $10M bounty for DarkSide ransomware hackers. The State Department said it’s also offering as much as $5 million for information that leads to the arrest or conviction of anyone ”conspiring to participate in or attempting to participate in a DarkSide variant ransomware incident.” This is likely a nod to the group’s affiliate program, in which members receive a custom variant of the DarkSide ransomware and receive a chunk of any ransom payment profits.
05/11 US prosecutors have charged an alleged MS13 leader in Honduras and his associate with international cocaine trafficking, raising fresh questions about the gang’s role in the regional drug trade. Prosecutors allege that Yulan Andony Archaga Carías, alias “Alexander Mendoza” or “Porky,” is a top MS13 boss in Honduras and responsible for moving large cocaine shipments through the Central American nation to the United States, the US Justice Department announced November 3.
07/11 INTERPOL disrupts global malware crime network. The agency issued two Red Notices on Friday, alerting its 194 member countries following a request by South Korea’s cybercrime investigation division via INTERPOL’s National Central Bureau in Seoul.
07/11 Italian Mafia: ‘Ndrangheta members convicted as Italy begins huge trial. An Italian court has sentenced 70 members of the powerful mafia group, the ‘Ndrangheta, in the first stage of the biggest mafia trial in decades.
