Valerie HopkinsSex, drugs, and…rhino horns?

Organized crime networks are infamous for trafficking drugs, arms, and humans, but a recent spate of museum break-ins have targeted another coveted—and lucrative—item now being sold on the black market: rhinoceros horns.

The horns of these odd-toed ungulates are sought because of their uses in traditional Chinese medicines.  Traditional Chinese medical practitioners believe that the horns, made out of keratin, the same type of protein that human nails and hair, can be life-saving and are more effective than modern medicine.

The going rate for a rhino horn—purveyors can sell them for twice the price of gold—is what makes them such an attractive target for organized crime groups, .

20 museums in seven European countries have had their rhinos de-tusked in the past six months, and in South Africa Europol suspects that the majority of the thefts are being conducted by an also responsible for money laundering, drug trafficking, organized robbery, and distribution of counterfeit money.

This week in organized crime and corruption: Transnational strategies to combat organized crime unveiled, rifts in U.S.-Russia relations over corruption, organ trafficking in Australia, continued narco-violence in Mexico, and more...

Valerie Hopkins and Jamie Brewer

UK and US roll out organized crime strategies

Not to be outdone by the , announced last Monday, the .  The new agency is part of the government’s , which will take a “much tougher approach” to combating organized crime into 2015.

Diplomatic Parking an Indicator of more than Laziness

All diplomats take advantage of their immunity, especially when it comes to do-no-harm offenses like illegal parking, right?  Wrong.  Economists and analyzed the cultural underpinnings of diplomatic parking tickets and determined that there is a correlation between a government’s tolerance of corruption and its U.N. emissaries’ willingness to park illegally in New York City.  Forbes columnist , alongside .

Serbian and French police from Serbia to France. The weapons had been smuggled from the Balkans to France.

French security services and their Serbian counterpart, the Security-Information Agency (BIA), worked together to break up the ring, an official told B92.

By Beth Kampschror

In a landmark action that’s taken the better part of the summer to accomplish, to face time for his role in the 2003 assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic. Croatia’s extradition of Sretko Kalinic is the first such extradition since the wars of the 1990s, and the first under an agreement the two countries signed in June that covers organized crime and corruption suspects.

By Beth Kampschror