News briefing week of 14 February

15/02 45 people arrested in the crackdown on Albanian-speaking criminals and cocaine trafficking. An international operation involving judicial and law enforcement authorities in eight countries has resulted in the takedown of one of Europe’s most active Albanian-speaking cocaine trafficking networks Europe. On this occasion, Eurojust and Europol supported a series of actions carried out in…

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News briefing week 7 February

07/02 Ammunition seized in Dakar from a Guyanese ship. The Eolika, a cargo ship flying the Guyanese flag, was detained in the port of Dakar. When the authorities searched the vessel, three containers of Italian-made ammunition worth an estimated $5 million were seized. https://allafrica.com/stories/202202080183.html 07/02 The discovery of a torture chamber used by drug gangs. Seized in…

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News briefing week of 31 January

31/01 The crime gangs cashing in by burying illegal waste. Organised crime gangs are illegally burying thousands of tonnes of waste across Scotland, a BBC investigation has found. Some of the rubbish is being brought up from the north of England by the gangs and is believed to include hazardous clinical waste from hospitals. 01/02…

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News briefing week of 24 January

25/01 Illicit gold mining in Ecuador – challenges and considerations. Although exploration of the country’s mineral resources is not complete, the government estimates that the mining of gold and copper will generate around USD $4 billion in tax revenue and about USD $40 billion in exports over the next decade. There are, however, challenges with…

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News briefing week of 17 January

17/01 NDLEA intercepts cocaine, cannabis, 1.5m tramadol tablets, others in nationwide raids. The NDLEA spokesman also said the same day, 425,000 Diazepam tablets were recovered at Segemu, Kano. He said in the past week, N1,413,344 was seized along with arms and ammunition from a suspected bandit and a drug kingpin in Plateau State while over…

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News briefing week of 10 January

10/01 Virtual currencies are being used increasingly in human and drug trafficking, the Government Accountability Office says in a new report. 10/01 Cocaine with a street value of over 5 billion euros was intercepted in the port of Rotterdam last year. A collaboration of customs, FIOD, Seaport Police, and Public Prosecution Service in Rotterdam found…

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News briefing week of 03 January

03/01 Niger police seize more than 200 kg of cocaine from mayor’s truck. The mayor and his driver, who were in the vehicle at the time, were arrested with 199 bricks of cocaine at a checkpoint on the road heading north out of the desert trading hub of Agadez, the sources said. 03/01 Nigerian police:…

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News briefing week of 27 December

27/12 The National Drug Control Directorate (DNCD) indicated that more than 25,300 kilos of different drugs had been seized during the operations carried out throughout this year in the Dominican Republic. 27/12 English authorities seize 1.2 tons of cocaine from Costa Rica. The value of the seizure was estimated to be 120 million U.S. dollars.…

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News briefing week of 20 December

20/12 Interpol: illicit fishing trade fuels transnational organized crime. A global investigation showed that the illicit fishing trade fuels transnational organized crime activities such as the trafficking of humans, drugs, and explosives, Interpol reported. 21/12 Mexican cartels are turning to meth and fentanyl production. Mexican drug cartels are turning to bigger, more productive labs to…

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News briefing week of 13 December

13/12 Ukraine arms-trafficking into Poland on rise. Attempts to smuggle illegal firearms into Poland from the Ukraine are on the rise, according to an internal EU document. “Although large-scale trafficking of firearms has not yet become apparent, an increasing number of attempts to smuggle firearms from Ukraine to Poland has already been observed,” notes the…

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