21/02 Tobacco smuggling ring brought down in Spain and Portugal. With the support of Europol’s European Financial and Economic Crime Centre, a joint investigation between Spain’s Civil Guard (Guardia Civil) and Customs Surveillance Directorate (Dirección Adjunta de Vigilancia Aduanera) and Portugal’s Republican National Guard (Guardia Nacional Republicana) has led to the dismantlement of a criminal network involved in cross-border tobacco smuggling.
22/02 Organized Crime Destroys Latin American Forests. Drug trafficking, illegal mining, and illegal logging in Latin America not only fuel violence, but also destroy the environment. As an example, In the last two decades, Guatemala lost nearly a quarter of its forests as a result of narcotrafficking, illegal gold mining, and illegal logging.
22/02 Meeting on firearms data collection in Serbia. UNODC Global Firearms Programme (GFP) held a meeting on firearms data collection in Serbia. The overall meeting objective is to collect information on data collection practices, in order to provide a baseline assessment and give recommendations to ensure submission of high-quality information to UNODC’s Illicit Arms Flow Initiative on regular basis.
23/02 Arrest in Germany of 3 suspects involved in theft of EUR 1.5 million worth of vehicles. A coordinated strike between the German Police Inspectorate Emsland/Bentheim (Polizeiinspektion Emsland/Grafschaft Bentheim), the German Dortmund Police (Polizei Dortmund) the Austrian Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt Österreich) and the Bosnian Ministry of Interior Affairs Canton Sarajevo, under the coordination of Europol, has led to the dismantlement of a gang of car thieves operating across Germany.
27/02 Nigeria’s anti-drug agency arrests 7 in drug trafficking bust. Nigeria’s anti-drug agency said that it had arrested a major drug kingpin and six other suspects, recovering 5,862 kg of assorted illicit drugs including codeine in Lagos, the country’s economic hub.
