In the latest crackdown on violent organized crime groups, Mexican security forces arrested the leaders of two drug cartels, prompting members of their gangs to block roads and shoot at government buildings in retaliation.

A federal judge indicted nine Maryland-based members of the brutal MS-13 gang for a racketerring conspiracy which involved murder, extortion and money laundering, the U.S Department of Justice said in a statement. Another group of 12 were charged with similar crimes in Virginia a second statement said.

A U.S. court found two members of the Gypsy Joker Outlaw Motorcycle Club (GJMC) — widely known as an organized crime group — guilty of the kidnapping and murder of a former member they believed stole from them, the U.S. Department of Justice reported on Wednesday.

Italian State Police arrested on Monday 37 suspected members of a clan believed to be part of the ‘Ndragheta, Italy’s biggest Mafia syndicate. The Martorano-Stefanutti clan was allegedly involved in drug trafficking, extortion, protection rackets and infiltrated trade unions.

Italian authorities arrested 103 suspects in a sweeping anti-Mafia operation carried out last week across the country, the Italian state-run news service, ANSA reported.

A group of U.S. lawmakers intend to introduce three bipartisan bills designed to curb kleptocracy and corruption worldwide. They say their proposals close gaps in existing laws concerning sanctions of corrupt individuals, address abuses to investor visa programs and allow visa bans to be imposed on corrupt individuals.

A criminal group in Serbia has most likely used an industrial meat grinder to get rid of bodies of its victims, Serbian police and forensic experts said after having detected a number of different human DNA samples on the machine and the walls of the room.

Montenegrin police said they have arrested five suspected members of a criminal group involved in usury, bribery, extortion and drug trafficking. The operation took place in the coastal city of Kotor, the home of two of the Balkans most dangerous mafia clans.

Authorities in Portugal said on Saturday that they have arrested two alleged members of a Montenegrin criminal organization who are sought in the Balkans for extortion and drug trafficking.

Corrupt prison officials and military personnel in Syria are using the systematised extortion of detainees and their families to fund the Assad regime, according to a recent report.

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

A Russian police major died on Wednesday in what appears to be suicide she committed soon after she testified against her boss who is accused of criminal extortion, Russian media reported Thursday.

Ukraine’s National Police on Sunday detained the alleged leader of an shakedown gang on charges of extortion, handling weapons and coordinating organized crime activities.

Uzbekistan’sSupreme Court in Tashkent said it put on Wednesday Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of the late Uzbek President Islam Karimov, on trial for extortion, embezzlement of budget funds and money laundering abroad.

A corruption scandal involving a controversial ex-reality star, a businessman, a special prosecutor, and €1.5 million (US$1.68 million) stuffed into a Louis Vuitton bag, is both rocking North Macedonia and bogging down into a political mishmash.

Ten reporters employed by the Nay Pyi Taw Times were arrested last week and charged with extortion, the Myanmar Times, a leading English-language newspaper in Yangon, reported.

Sextortion — a scam in which hackers claim to compromise a user’s computer, record them watching pornography via their webcam, and threaten to release the video online if the victim does not meet their demands — has been linked to the Bitcoin money laundering site Bitblender.io.

While Mexico’s drug traders make over US$31 billion per year, the country’s legitimate economy is taking a toll from being targeted by criminal groups, according to new reports released Monday.

New eyewitness reports say that the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), an armed insurgent group in Myanmar, is extorting money from vehicles traveling along the Mandalay-Muse highway in the war-torn Shan state in the country’s north.

How does a criminal transfer or steal large sums of money in 2018 without leaving a trace?