1/06 Barbados homicides have more than doubled since 2012, reaching a record of 49 murders in 2019, dropping to 42 in 2020. The government has pointed to the influx of illegal guns as a facilitator to the increase in violence.
1/06 Mafias operating along Ecuador’s borders with Peru and Colombia profit from the increased demand for balsa wood. The quantity of illegally sourced balsa wood seized in Ecuador increased from 700 cubic meters in 2019 to 1,973 cubic meters in 2020.
02/06 The number of displaced people within Mexico has increased for the first time in three years as hundreds of people fled their homes in the violence-plagued region of western Mexico known as Tierra Caliente. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IMDC), at least 9,700 Mexicans were uprooted from their homes due to conflict and violence in 2020, about 2,600 more people than in 2019.
04/06 operation Lake-V which involved law enforcement authorities from 24 countries, OLAF, the EU Wildlife Enforcement Group and the EU Food Fraud Network, targeted the trafficking of the protected European eel, which has seen its population decrease by 90 % in recent years.
04/06 Irish security services tip-off leads to a 22 tonnes of hashish valued at €220 million found in the industrial-sized fishing vessel off the coast of the Canaries. The drugs are believed to have come from North Africa destined for the European market
