Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project

Federal Police arrested in Buenos Aires an internationally wanted drug trafficking suspect from Poland who had been living in Argentina under a new identity, Interpol stated on Wednesday.

Targeting an Italian mafia organization operating in Italy, South America, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, authorities arrested on Wednesday 90 people suspected of criminal association, drug trafficking, and money laundering.

A Philadelphia police officer pleaded guilty Thursday to selling drugs with corrupt members of a Baltimore police task force in what is considered to be one the worst U.S. police corruption scandals in recent decades, the Associated Press reported. 

Italian authorities arrested 14 alleged members of a Camorra clan for trafficking crack, cocaine and hashish along the coast near Naples. Three days earlier, Corriere del Mezzogiorno reported that camorristi put a bounty on a drug-sniffing police dog.

Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte temporarily placed the Bureau of Customs under military control after two massive shipments of illegal drugs each valued at over US$100 million evaded detection in the port of Manila, the Associated Press reported. 

Albanian State Police police said Monday they arrested 27 suspects, seized weapons, charged three officers and confiscated drugs in a major crackdown against heroin trafficking.

Because Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy flooded federal courts with illegal entry cases, border drug prosecutions have fallen to their lowest levels in decades, USA Today reported on Wednesday.

The European Union and Albania signed an agreement last Friday to strengthen judicial coordination in the fight against organized crime in the Western Balkan nation. The deal represents a significant step in combating cross-border crimes including drug trafficking, human smuggling, and contract killings, according to a press release by Eurojust, the EU signatory.

Over the past 17 years, nearly 96 million large sea snails valued at US$900 million have been illegally poached off the coast of South Africa and trafficked by organized crime groups, a new report released Wednesday reveals.

US authorities arrested last Thursday more than 20 suspected members of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang, better known as MS-13, for assault, racketeering and drug dealing. The Department of Justice also unsealed two indictments against more gang members, charging them with kidnapping, murder and racketeering.

Drug production and markets are expanding to unprecedented levels and an increase in non-medical use of prescription drugs is leading to a worldwide public health crisis, according to a UN report released on Tuesday.

The United Arab Emirates are at war with drug traffickers as authorities have seized an unprecedented amount of narcotics and addicts are becoming younger, The National reported Tuesday.

After receiving a tip-off about a colla — a group that delivers illegal shipments — and a tobacco drop-off, police in a Spanish town bordering Gibraltar dispatched an undercover vehicle but it was blocked by a burning barricade and pelted with bricks, flares and Molotov cocktails, El Pais reported Wednesday.

Over the weekend, Spanish police seized more than 900 kilograms of cocaine and 15 tons of hashish, and dismantled an international drug trafficking group. Spanish drug gangs still seem unstoppable despite all this.

If Nicolas Maduro wins another term, cocaine cartels will further secure their foothold in the government, InSight Crime reported Thursday.

An Albanian court decided that the former minister of interior will have to remain under house arrest and face trial on charges of drug trafficking and corruption, Reuters reported Saturday.

Australian and Irish police have exposed a major drug trafficking network involving one of Ireland’s most notorious crime groups – the Kinahan cartel. The two-years long operation has led to the arrests of four Irish in Australia and New Zealand, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Sunday.

US prosecutors charged nine suspected members of the Kensington area “TruHittaz” drug trafficking group with 44 counts of conspiring to distribute and selling phencyclidine, also known as PCP or angel dust, and crack cocaine, according to a Department of Justice announcement on Friday.

A Denver federal court sentenced a member of the darknet drug-trafficking organization “ItalianMafiaBrussels” to three years in prison for importing controlled substances to the US, according to Wednesday’s US Attorney’s Office press release.

Colombian authorities arrested a former rebel leader on Monday who allegedly conspired to produce 10 tons of cocaine and import them to the US. The suspect was one of five former rebels with a seat in the lower house of Colombia’s Congress.