Just like Homer’s queen of Ithaca, Maria Campagna loyally pulled the strings in the “kingdom” of her incarcerated husband for years. But Salvatore Cappello was not sailing from one adventure to another. He was serving a sentence under a particularly restrictive prison regime reserved for mafiosi, murderers, and terrorists.

Photo: CC0 Public Domain

It was late November 2016, and Brazil’s largest-ever corruption scandal was finally reaching the country’s political elites.

Demonstration of support for Lava Jato probe, Sao Paulo, December 4, 2016; Photo by The Photographer ()

For almost a decade, corrupt politicians and wealthy businessmen have purchased European passports using dirty money. In January, the European Commission finally delivered its response. But rather than urging action, many of its toughest demands were withdrawn.

The flag of Cyprus, reimagined for the island country’s new investor citizens. Photo: Edin Pasovic / OCCRP

When Hungarians picked up their ballots to vote in April’s national elections, more than half of their 23 choices were parties they’d never heard of.

Votes are counted in Hungarian parliamentary election, at the polling station in Budapest, Hungary, April 8, 2018. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

A two-year investigation culminated this week with 90 arrests, splitting wide open a mafia coalition that trafficked drugs to Europe from across the world. Here’s how the clans ran it.

Masked police stand in an ice parlor in Duisburg, western Germany, Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2018 as authorities conduct coordinated raids in Germany, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands in a crackdown on the Italian mafia. (Christoph Reichwein/dpa via AP)