Calabrian expat Antonino Vadalà was already a wealthy man with a successful cattle business in Slovakia when he bought his way into the ‘Ndrangheta, Italy’s most powerful mafia, and opened a new cocaine-trafficking route into southern Europe. Here’s how he did it — and how the cops shut it down.

One year ago, a killer snuffed out the lives of an investigative journalist working on one of the biggest stories of his career and the woman he intended to marry. In day-by-day detail, OCCRP outlines how the assassinations transpired and what happened in the aftermath.

One year ago, a former policeman slipped into the home investigative journalist Ján Kuciak shared with his fiancee, Martina Kušnírová, and shot them both at close range, authorities say.

Nenad Popovic, a nationalist Serbian minister known for his ties to the Kremlin, took part in a dubious privatization that drove a major electrical transformer manufacturer into bankruptcy. Years later, no charges have been filed.

RISE Project, an award-winning investigative journalism outlet in Romania and OCCRP’s partner, was ordered Thursday by the Romanian Data Protection Authority (ANSPDCP) to reveal its sources under the threat of a fine of up to €20 million based on the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) directive 679/2016.

Stanko Subotic, a businessman twice indicted for cigarette smuggling and known for his links to an alleged drug lord, is set to make millions from the expansion of Belgrade's airport.

Belgrade’s Nikola Tesla airport. (Photo: KRIK)

Yesterday, Slovakia’s National Crime Agency seized a mobile phone belonging to our partner, investigative reporter Pavla Holcova from the Czech Center for Investigative Reporting.

Czech investigative journalist Pavla Holcova. Credit: Aktuality.sk

Belgrade Mayor Sinisa Mali is living a life of luxury, flying business class and staying in sumptuous hotels. How he can afford it on his official salary is anyone’s guess.

Sinisa Mali, the current (and likely future) mayor of Belgrade, appears to have had a lucrative time in office. Photo by OCCRP. Some rights reserved.

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) urges support for independent media in Hungary amid mounting threats to media freedom in Europe. OCCRP expresses a deep and growing concern for challenges journalists are facing in countries that call themselves democracies: from smear campaigns to the murder of journalists on European soil.

Photo by Seth Fogelman on Unsplash

Six months ago, Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia was brutally killed by a car bomb just meters from her home. The investigation into her killing is ongoing, but there is little doubt that she was murdered because of her work. With a brazen, unapologetic and uncompromising style, she denounced corruption, nepotism, clientelism, and all kinds of criminal behaviors in her tiny EU member state.

The Forbidden Stories, OCCRP

The story begins with a stolen car. It ends -- according to a new investigation by KRIK, an OCCRP partner -- with a connection to Vladimir Marinkovic, a senior legislator and vice president of the Serbian National Assembly.

KRIK reporter Dragana Peco speaks with V.B., a victim of the “stolen car ‘finders,’” who did not want his identity revealed for fear of retribution. (Photo: KRIK)

The central London apartment where Mihaela Muruianu once lived.

The daughter of a top Moldovan judge lived large in London thanks to 1.6 million lei (US$ 130,000) that was channeled through two companies involved in the Russian Laundromat -- a massive money laundering scheme that pumped billions of dollars through Moldova from Russia.

 Corruption is everywhere. An estimated $1 trillion is paid in bribes and another $2.6 trillion is stolen worldwide every year, according to the United Nations. These incredible sums make up five percent of the world’s economy. And they mostly come out of the pockets of the poorest of the more than seven billion inhabitants of our planet.

“For decades, a dark cloud of sorts has hovered over the country and reality has been tainted, what was once beautiful has become horrid, what was moral has become immoral. Miss Venezuela … could be no exception, it could not save itself from this plague. Nothing could.”

Goodbye to Miss Venezuela, a novel by Francisco Suniaga

The 2017 Miss Venezuela pageant. (Photo: EFE news agency)

It has come to our attention that members of the current government have launched a smearing campaign against one of the members of our network.

Beka Gonashvili's love for Georgian folk music led him into the sheep export business nearly a decade ago. But he’s singing a sad song now, claiming that government-connected companies have driven him out of what had been a lucrative market.

Herds of sheep in Georgia's mountainous Tusheti region. (Photo: Studio Monitor)

The Bucharest office of RISE Project, an Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) partner, underwent an unannounced inspection by the anti-fraud bureau of Romania’s National Fiscal Agency (ANAF) even as important Romanian politicians threatened the outlet in both public and private.

Officers from the Romanian Anti-Fraud Authority at the offices of RISE Project, OCCRP's Romanian partner, during a surprise inspection. (Photo: RISE Project)

Kristina Brazauskienė, the widow of Lithuania’s former Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas, is under investigation for tax fraud. The investigation was launched in April after OCCRP’s Lithuanian partner, 15min.lt, disclosed hidden assets in Florida that documents indicate are owned by Brazauskienė and her family.

Kristina Brazauskienė, the widow of Lithuania’s former Prime Minister. (Photo: Stop kadras)

OCCRP's months-long investigation into the vast Russian Laundromat scheme involved dozens of reporters writing for outlets around the world. These are their stories.

Image by: European Press Prize

Reporters and partners of The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) have been shortlisted for the 2017 European Press Prize, announced this week by the prize's preparatory committee, chaired by Peter Preston.