News brief – Week of 15 August

15/08 – FBI Announces Results of Nationwide Sex Trafficking Operation. The FBI, working with its state and local partners during two weeks in August, identified and located 84 minor victims of child sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation offenses and located 37 actively missing children during a nationwide enforcement campaign, dubbed “Operation Cross Country.” The…

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News Brief – week of 8 August

08/08 – U.S. slams China’s ‘unacceptable’ disruption in countering fentanyl. China’s move to suspend cooperation with the United States to combat narcotics trafficking, including illicit fentanyl, is “unacceptable,” the White House said on Monday, as Beijing continued to protest a visit to Taiwan by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. 12/08 – AFP seizes 208 kilograms…

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News Brief – Week of 1 August

01/08 – Inaugural Pacific regional conference talk transnational organised crime. The Inaugural Pacific Regional Law Enforcement Conference officially began today at the Hilton Resort on Denarau Island in Nadi. The three-day conference brought together representatives from the police, Customs and Immigration from across the Pacific, with academic partners. While opening the event, Acting Minister for…

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News Brief – Week of 25 July

26/07 – Production of fake pesticides on the rise in the EU. Operation Silver Axe VII, coordinated by Europol, took place between 25 January and 25 April 2022 and involved law enforcement authorities from 31 countries (25 EU Member States and six third party countries). The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), the European Anti-Fraud…

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News Brief – Week 18 July

18/07 – Red-hot demand for ipê wood coincides with deforestation hubs in Brazil. The highest rates of illegal exploitation of ipê trees are found in areas of the Brazilian Amazon where deforestation is skyrocketing. Increasing domestic consumption and exports have encouraged the felling of these threatened tropical hardwood species, with demand outstripping the authorized supply…

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News Brief – Week 11 July

14/07- 514 employers linked to labour infringements identified across the EU. An EU-wide coordinated action week targeting human trafficking for labour exploitation and related offences took place between 15 and 21 June 2022. The action days, supported by Europol, were led by the Netherlands and co-led by France, Italy, Romania and the United Kingdom and…

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News Briefing – Week of 4 July

4 July – Spanish police seize underwater drug-smuggling drones (video). Police in Spain have broken up a gang that was allegedly building semi-submersible drones, each capable of ferrying up to 200kg of drugs across the strait of Gibraltar. The Policía Nacional, which arrested eight people in Cádiz, Málaga and Barcelona, said it was the first…

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News Briefing – Week of 27 June

29 June – Thirteen arrested over German cashpoint explosions that netted gang over EUR 1.6 million. The German authorities, together with their Dutch and Belgian counterparts, have arrested thirteen members of a Dutch gang linked to 12 attacks against cash machines in Germany, causing millions of euros in damage. 1 July – Chile receiving synthetic…

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News briefings week of 20 June

21/06 Phishing gang behind several million euros worth of losses busted in Belgium and the Netherlands. The suspects sent emails and text messages with phishing links to bogus banking websites. A cross-border operation, supported by Europol and involving the Belgian Police and the Dutch Police, resulted in the dismantling of this organised crime group involved…

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