Footage uploaded to social media shows the dramatic aftermath of a crash-landing in Mexico, shortly after the plane had been used to smuggle almost 400 kilograms of cocaine into the country.

Ryan Kamada, a former judge from Colorado’s 19th Judicial District, pleaded guilty Tuesday to obstructing a federal task force’s large scale drug trafficking investigation, according to a statement from theUS Department of Justice. 

Italian police in Sicily arrested on Wednesday 45 people believed to be linked to theCosa Nostra mafia, while German police arrested the clan’s deputy leader in the southwestern town of Wolzburg.

Authorities in Italy have seized the largest-ever shipment of amphetamines on record, believed to have been manufactured by one of the world’s most feared international terrorist groups, the Islamic State.

Croatian authorities seized on Saturday nearly 25 kilograms of cocaine after a police dog sniffed the drugs out during a routine traffic control near the southern coastal city of Ploče. The drugs have an estimated street value of HRK17 million (US$2.5 million),police said.

A report released this week by the U.S. Office of the Inspector General sounded the alarm on how the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) failed to report millions that it had earned on undercover money laundering and drug trafficking, some of it even making its way into the personal bank accounts of its agents.  

Authorities in Romania have brought drug trafficking charges against a man who once posed as US actor Robert de Niro in order to take out fraudulent bank loans.

Myanmar seized the largest quantity of synthetic drugs in the history of Southeast Asia and uncovered first evidence of fentanyl production in the region, the United Nation Office for Drug and Crime (UNODC) announced on Monday.

Authorities in the UK have jailed four members of a gang that smuggled hundreds of kilograms of cocaine into the country concealed in frozen chickens.

Authorities in Spain have arrested 18 people, including a former football player, for smuggling a ton of cocaine hidden in the fibres of cardboard fruit boxes.

British border police arrested two Albanian nationals suspected of breaking into the London Container Terminal in Tilbury to retrieve packages of drugs with a street value of more than £1 million (US$1.23 million), the UKNational Crime Agency (NCA) said on Wednesday.

Colombian prosecutors said on Tuesday that former General Mauricio Santoyo was put in jail while they investigate him for money laundering and illicit financial and criminal activity that connect him to a notorious far-right paramilitary and narco-trafficking group.

Colombia’s ambassador to Uruguay resigned on Monday after his country announced he was under investigation after authorities found a narcotic production facility on one of his properties, the Colombian Foreign Ministry announced. 

Colombia, the world’s largest cocaine producer, closed its borders on Monday to stop an outbreak of the coronavirus but experts told OCCRP that this may fuel organised crime.

European authorities arrested 13 suspected members of a Turkish drug trafficking group and seized 2.4 tonnes of heroin that was supposed to be shipped to Europe in food or construction materials containers, Europol announced on Monday.

The head of drug enforcement for the Philippine National Police told Reuters on Friday that the country’s draconian approach to curbing illicit drugs has been ineffective and that drug supply remains “rampant”.   

Spanish and Colombian authorities detained 12 drug trafficking suspects who allegedly used vehicles from their car dealerships, repair shops and caravan parks to move cocaine around and their businesses to launder money, Europol announced on Thursday.

Peruvian authorities detained 124 people suspected of being members of an organized crime group involved in prostitution and drug trafficking, theMinistry of Interior announced on Monday.

UK authorities have put a Chinese man behind bars for renting out hundreds of properties to gangs to be used in prostitution, drug trafficking and human smuggling.

When Cypriot police in July flagged a suspicious container bound for Sydney, Australian investigators intercepted the shipment and found a huge amount of ecstasy hidden inside aluminum barbeques. It took months of patience until they could make an arrest.