Italian interior minister Luciana Lamorgese alerted over mafia network transformation and diversification. OCGs in Italy are less high profile in recent years as they spread into new economic sectors, but they remain a threat to Italy’s institutions and economic system. The Ndrangheta mafia is estimated to weight around 54 billion euros, more than Deutsche Bank and McDonalds combined.
The European Network of Prosecutors for the Environment and Eurojust jointly organised a conference about the rise in environmental crime. The highlighted OCGs are rapidly expanding their activities into illicit waste management. The 100 participants present from Europe, Brazil, China and North and South America called for greater global cooperation in tackling environmental crime.
Authorities from seven European countries supported by Europol and Eurojust dismantled an OGC involved in illicit tobacco trafficking. The group is suspected of illicit money laundering and the trade of more than 670 tonnes of tobacco.
UK former anti-slavery commissioner Kevin Hyland condemned the country’s failed approach to people-trafficking after the death of 39 migrants last week. He called to treat human trafficking as a serious organised crime instead of a social issue and asked for more resources for investigating trafficking networks.
According to the West African Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (WENDU) Report (2014 – 2017) released on October, 30, seizures of Tramadol drug increased ten-fold from 17 tonnes in 2014 to 170 tonnes in 2017 in West Africa.
Costa Rican authorities seized a shipment of 954 kilos of cocaine hidden in a container destined for Belgium. The drugs had been concealed in a load of banana pulp that was set to leave the Moín Terminal at the Caribbean port of Limón for Belgium.
