In a heist that would have put Caesar’s sack of Gaul to shame, nearly 500 golden coins produced by an ancient Celtic culture in what is now southern Germany were boosted from the Celtic and Roman Museum in the Bavarian town of Manching, Germany this week.

Reported incidents of Organized Crime rose some 17% in Germany over the course of 2021, according to new statistics released by the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) but the spike in cases doesn’t necessarily point to a spike in crime but a spike in enforcement thanks to the dismantling of an encrypted messaging service criminals used.

German and Hungarian authorities arrested the alleged kingpins of a Hungarian gang of traffickers for sexual exploitation, dismantling the criminal network, according to Europol’s Tuesdaypress release.

German police raided on Tuesday the luxury yacht of a Russian businessman suspected of laundering hundreds of millions via offshore companies, the Frankfurt Public Prosecutor's Office said. German media reported that the megayacht belongs to sanctioned Uzbek-born oligarch Alisher Usmanov.

Germany’s recent reforms to combat money laundering have received mixed reviews from an international watchdog, citing cross-border cash smuggling risks and lack of coordination among domestic authorities as causes of concern.

German customs officers on Tuesday raided a network of companies suspected of selling precursor chemicals to Russia that could be used to manufacture chemical and biological weapons.

Brazilian Federal Police said they dismantled a criminal group that bribed airport employees to ship cocaine to Europe on commercial flights from the largest airport in Latin America, São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport, to Lisbon, Frankfurt or Amsterdam.

In an operation finalized last week, German, Dutch and Belgian authorities have last week arrested 13 gang members who have stolen over 1.6 million euros (US$1.7 million) after bombing several cashpoints across Germany.

G7 nations announced this week a ban on all future Russian gold imports, in order to apply pressure to President Vladimir Putin’s regime as his invasion of Ukraine now enters its fifth month.

Italian police busted a criminal group that made girls working as housekeepers seduce elderly men and siphon from them money that was then sent to Romania, the European Union’s law enforcement agency Europol said in a statement.

The German financial services conglomerate Allianz agreed to pay US$6 billion to settle with the U.S. banking authority accusations of fraud within its U.S. asset management unit in connection with the $11 billion collapse of the conglomerate's Structured Alpha funds.

Dutch police, with support from Europol and German authorities, reported Thursday the arrest of three alleged members of a criminal gang responsible for a bombing spree of multiple ATMs and the theft of almost one million euros.

German authorities are investigating a peculiar case involving a Berlin dentist who sold millions of euros’ worth of properties owned by the Russian state, allegedly by using forged powers of attorney, German outlet Der Spiegel reported in cooperation with OCCRP.

Authorities in Germany, Italy and Hungary have searched on Wednesday the premises of  Japanese car producer Suzuki and its suppliers, looking for evidence of the use of emission devices that provided fake readings and made it look as if the cars met European Union regulations.

Authorities across Europe took down last week one of the continent’s most active drug trafficking networks in a joint operation that culminated in the arrest of 39 individuals linked to the importation of over 57 tonnes of cocaine since last year.

A global, multi-agency effort took down one of the world’s largest hacker forums and arrested several individuals, including the site’s administrator, Europol said in a press release.

A joint German, Austrian and Bosnian police operation dismantled an organized crime group suspected of stealing luxurious cars in several German federal states, Europol reported on Wednesday.

German and Greek authorities have jointly dismantled an organized human trafficking group that has smuggled people from Greece to Germany and other EU countires, Europol reported.

Authorities in Germany, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Netherlands and Ukraine teamed up against an organized crime group suspected of binary option fraud and believed to have scammed people of millions of euros, European law enforcement agencies said.

Europol announced on Wednesday that, in cooperation with German authorities, Romanian police arrested 21 suspected members of a transnational network that smuggled Afghan migrants to Germany and France.