Turkish police have arrested twenty alleged smugglers, members of one of Europe’s largest human trafficking ring, as part of joint intelligence operations across Turkey. The organisation smuggled migrants from Afghanistan and northern Iraq to European countries, in exchange for large sums of money.
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will provide support to countries of the Sahel region, particularly Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon, in the fight against organised crime. They will help strengthen the countries defence and security forces to face rising security challenges, especially the terror-crime nexus.
Belgian customs have seized 1.2 tonnes of shark fins and ray fins at Brussels airport. This is the first seizure of this sort in Belgium. The illicit goods were being transported from Liberia to Hong Kong. The shipment would have involved the killing of around 1.6000 to 2.000 animals.
Juridical and law enforcement authorities from France, Poland and Ukraine tackled an organised crime group involved in international trafficking of heroin substitute. Eurojust actively supported the operation that led to the arrest of nine suspects and the seizure of over 7.200 pills of a total value of $100.000.
Spanish police have dismantled a Colombian organised criminal gang that impregnated cocaine into plastic pellets before smuggling them to laboratories in the Madrid region. 12 suspects were arrested. The main laboratory was capable of producing half a tonne of cocaine per month.
