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Enduring Italians, Ambitious Albanians – How Cocaine is Changing Europe’s Criminal Landscape

By Chris Dalby, InSight Crime, 21 September 2021 InSight Crime — Ever greater quantities of cocaine are making their way across the Atlantic and are being sold at ever greater prices across Europe. A new Europol report reveals how this has changed the way organized crime operates… Read More

Spanish police find a ton of cocaine hidden in walls of shipping container sent from Ecuador

A joint operation between a Spanish tax agency and national police forces has seen the seizure of 1,100 kilograms of cocaine hidden in a shipping container in Valencia. Spain’s Civil Guard, national police and tax agency have joined forces to foil a major drug trafficking mission from Ecuador. On Friday,… Read More

Global Interpol-Led Anti-Trafficking Operation Arrests 286

By Emily Tan, OCCRP, 28th July 2021 OCCRP — An Interpol operation involving 47 countries worldwide rounded up 286 people suspected of being members of human trafficking and migrant smuggling criminal groups and rescued 430 victims, according to a statement released on Monday. Police… Read More

29th July 2021

Fishing Cooperatives Used to Mask Drug Shipments into Mexico

By Scott Mistler-Ferguson, InSight Crime, 28 July 2021 InSight Crime — Mexico’s largest criminal groups are outsourcing the retrieval of cocaine shipments to smaller groups posing as fishing cooperatives, providing another example of how maritime infrastructure is subverted by the drug trade. Groups such as the Sinaloa Cartel… Read More

1st July 2021

Swiss probe suspected bribery, money laundering in Ecuador oil trading

Swiss prosecutors said on Wednesday they are investigating whether bribery, money laundering or other crimes linked to Ecuador oil trading were committed in Switzerland following a U.S. criminal case against an ex-Gunvor Group employee. U.S. prosecutors are investigating “the suspected bribery of Ecuadorian public officials and money laundering,” the Swiss… Read More

30th June 2021

Drugs kingpins ‘strike deal with Ecuadorian cartel to flood Scotland with cocaine’

Drugs kingpins have struck a deal to flood Scotland with cocaine supplied by a cartel in Ecuador, it’s claimed. Hoods are said to be receiving huge hauls from South America before recruiting peddlers here to punt them on our streets. The plot comes amid disruption to the supply chain triggered… Read More

27th June 2021

Mexico wants Vitol to reveal name of Pemex official who received bribes

Mexico wants Dutch energy giant Vitol to reveal the name of the state oil company official to whom Vitol paid bribes, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Thursday. Petróleos Mexicanos, known as Pemex, is reviewing its contracts with Vitol in search of better terms after the company admitted to… Read More

24th June 2021

South Florida CEO charged in massive money-laundering case targeting illicit gold trade

The owner of a transportation company that hauls gold around the country has been charged in a massive money-laundering case extending from Latin America to South Florida that is still shaking up the precious-metals industry four years after the initial indictment was filed in Miami. Jesus Gabriel Rodriguez Jr., CEO… Read More

30th May 2021

U.S. State Department Probes Possible Embassy Construction Bribes

The State Department’s internal watchdog is investigating a possible bribery scheme involving a department employee who was allegedly paid by a construction company for inside information that helped it win contracts to build U.S. embassies and consulates. The probe by the State Department’s inspector general was disclosed in a federal… Read More

14th April 2021

Ecuador detains comptroller, ex-minister in Petroecuador probe

Ecuador on Tuesday detained the country’s comptroller and a former energy minister as part of an investigation into corruption at three state institutions, including oil company Petroecuador, the national prosecutor’s office said. The arrests come after an employee of trading house Gunvor Group pleaded guilty to U.S. charges of involvement… Read More

7th April 2021

Former Gunvor employee pleads guilty in Petroecuador bribery case

A Canadian man once employed by the commodities trading house Gunvor Group pleaded guilty on Tuesday to involvement in what U.S. prosecutors called a scheme to bribe Ecuadorean government officials to win business from state-controlled oil company Petroecuador. Raymond Kohut, 68, entered his plea to a money laundering conspiracy charge… Read More

30th March 2021

Galápagos tortoises: 185 babies seized from smugglers

Customs officials in Ecuador discovered 185 baby tortoises packed inside a suitcase that was being sent from the Galápagos Islands to the mainland on Sunday. The reptiles had been wrapped in plastic and were found during a routine inspection at the main airport on the island of Baltra. Ten of… Read More

10th March 2021

Belgium: Police swoop in on organized crime in drugs sting

Police in Belgium launched a huge operation against drug traffickers on Tuesday morning, in an operation targeted at cocaine smuggling groups. Belgium’s federal prosecutor’s office said searches had been launched at around 5 a.m. local time and involved more than 1,500 police officers. Local broadcaster RTBF said the raids… Read More

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