In two massive operations that spanned three continents, authorities in North America, Europe and Brazil cracked down on transnational organized crime groups and drug traffickers, arresting nearly 750 suspects.  

One of the highest ranking members of Group America, a prolific US-Serbian drug gang, may soon be set free from his prison cell in Peru after a criminal court of appeals ruled that he was denied due process, local media reported on Friday. 

A court in Melbourne sentenced on Thursday a 49-year-old woman who described herself as the “queen” of a criminal drug smuggling syndicate to 18 years in jail with a 13 years-long non-parole period, according toAustralian Federal Police (AFP).

Spanish and Polish authorities seized four cannabis plantations with more than 3,000 plants and arrested 13 alleged members of a large-scale drug trafficking network that operated across the continent, Europol said in a statement released Wednesday.

Kyrgyz law enforcement officers on Thursday arrested Kamchybek Asanbek, aliasKamchybek Kolbayev, one of the Kyrgyzstan’s top organized crime bosses.

In a joint operation earlier this month, Spanish and Dutch police cracked down on drug trafficking routes from Latin America to Europe, seizing six metric tons of cocaine.

Prosecutors in Bosnia and Herzegovinapressed charges against seven people, Bosnian and Croatian nationals, for trafficking 6.8 tons of marijuana from Montenegro via Bosnia and Herzegovina to the European Union.

More than 8,800 law enforcement officers across Europe arrested 166 people in a joint operation against organized and serious international crime originating from South-East Europe (SEE),Europol said in a statement on Wednesday.

Spanish police arrested 64 people and confiscated tons of drugs during an operation that brought down a gang that used speed boats to move drugs from Morocco to Spain, Europol said.

During televised remarks that followed a cabinet meeting on the coronavirus pandemic, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte publicly called on the country’s top customs official to simply execute drug smugglers. 

Authorities in the U.K. have confiscated properties worth an estimated 17 million pounds (US$22.4 million) in what marks the end of an eight-year investigation into one of the country’s most prolific drug trafficking groups.

Drug dealers in Scotland are using the homes of disabled, mentally ill and otherwise vulnerable people as ‘nests’ from which to sell their product, according to a recent study.

Even as he faces allegations of corruption and drug trafficking himself, the president of Honduras has said he will continue to rain down “blow after blow” on the country’s organised criminal groups after state security forces announced that cocaine seizures have already surpassed last year’s record.

The United States and Colombia announced a new plan to combat drug trafficking by helping the economic development of poor areas of the Latin American country which would allow the population to make money legally and turn its back to organized crime.

A 62-year-old Cuban who once tried to buy a Russian submarine to help Colombian suppliers smuggle drugs to the U.S. pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute a large amount of high-grade marijuana to Florida, theU.S. Justice Department said in a statement Tuesday.

Prosecutors in Florida accused a former economics minister of Guatemala, of laundering about US$10 million in illegal drug trafficking proceeds and of corruption, a statement from theU.S. Department of Justicesaid on Wednesday.

Albanian authorities said on Monday that they have seized the assets of a media mogul whose wealth is believed to have come from drug trafficking in Turkey and Italy.

A Chinese gang is using guns, threats, and fear to corner the market for transporting Chinese-made goods in Europe.

US authorities have charged 11 alleged members of a criminal group operating on the Hawaiian island of Oahu with a combined 22 offensives ranging from bank fraud to murder-for-hire - 17 of which included the group's leader Michael J. Miske Jr. 

When packages of cocaine started washing up on the beaches of the Black Sea last year, it made headlines around the world. Romanian police swiftly scrambled hundreds of officers in what they said was an unprecedented search for the seaborne drugs.