02/11 – Troops deployed in Ecuador after spate of organized crime attacks. Police and soldiers on Wednesday patrolled the terror-stricken streets of two Ecuadoran cities after a spate of attacks blamed on organized crime groups waging a deadly drug war. Following a wave of strikes Tuesday in which five police officers were killed and a civilian wounded at a clinic, a state of emergency and nightly curfew has taken effect in the western provinces of Guayas and Esmeraldas.
02/11 – How Illegal Logging Became National Security Crisis in Chile. Chile has long grappled with rampant illegal logging, particularly in the south. But as clashes between timber mafias, loggers, and Indigenous communities worsen, a new legal framework is trying to contain the problem. In a new report published in October, following an amendment to the country’s timber theft law, Chilean think-tank AthenaLab sought to unravel this complex problem.
02/11- Cambodia’s modern slavery nightmare: the human trafficking crisis overlooked by authorities. Despite promises by government to eradicate trafficking rings, people are still being sold in Cambodia and forced to run online scams. The World Justice Project ranks Cambodia among the worst in the world for rule of law. Analysts say that highlighting the trafficking crisis both embarrasses the government and threatens to disrupt income streams for corrupt officials.
04/11 – 382 arrests during joint actions against traffickers using the Balkan route. Law enforcement authorities jointly targeted firearms trafficking, drugs trafficking, migrant smuggling and trafficking in human beings during coordinated EMPACT Joint Action Days between 26 and 29 October. The actions, which included intensified checks on the EU’s external borders, were coordinated by Spain and Europol, and financially supported by IPA/2019.
04/11- INTERPOL-coordinated operation combats organized crime in Asia-Pacific. More than 60 fugitives wanted for crimes ranging from financial crime, online gambling and drug trafficking were arrested across Asia during an INTERPOL-coordinated operation. INTERPOL launched Operation Tighten the Net between September and October in partnership with the Korean National Police Agency. Operation Tighten the Net 2022 involved 13 countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam along with China, Japan and Korea. Simultaneous action in the participating countries led to new criminal intelligence gathered to support ongoing investigation.
