Hong Kong Customsreported Monday that it had intercepted a shipment of approximately 42 million illicit cigarettes with an estimated worth of HK$120 million (US$15.3 million) on the open market.

A security strategist who spent months undercover on the darkweb published a report on Monday that offers insight into one of the world’s most notorious ransomware groups, claiming its members are using internet services owned by billionaire Elon Musk and laundering money through Hong Kong and China.

Hong Kong Customs reported Tuesday the seizure of approximately 64 million suspected illicit cigarettes with an estimated market value of HKD$180 million (US$23 million).

New documents confirm previous investigations byOštro and OCCRP that Mihajlo Perenčević, a Croatian businessman sanctioned due to his important strategic business in Russia, has extensive financial ties to a major Croatian tourism developer with a portfolio of property and assets worth some 200 million euros (US$207.95 million).

Cambodian wildlife officials, black market dealers, and executives at a monkey breeding company were charged by U.S. federal prosecutors last week with running an illicit monkey trading scheme that smuggled thousands of endangered wild macaques from Southeast Asia to the U.S. to be used in lab research.

Hong Kong Customs seized over seven tonnes of suspected smuggled meat and fish, including thousands of kilograms worth of Chinese hairy crab, also known as Chinese mitten crab, a delicacy in Chinese society.

A shipment of 7,000 donkey penises, which were to be smuggled to Hong Kong, was seized last week at the Lagos Airport after a suspicious smell attracted the attention of export officers – the Nigeria Customs Servicereported.

A Brazilian court sent a man who helped a gemstone company launder at least US$44 ill-gotten millions to prison for 13 years. The case is an offshoot of the famous Operation Lava Jato, or Car Wash, South America’s biggest corruption scandal in history.

Hong Kong Customs reported on Wednesday the conclusion of an eight-day operation against the sale of illicitly sold karaoke players and pirated music.

Hong Kong Customs said they seized approximately 27 million “suspected illicit cigarettes” last week during a raid on an industrial complex in the island’s Tuen Mun region and arrested a 31-year-old man.

Hong Kong Customs reported last week the seizure of a smuggling vessel carrying approximately 200 tonnes of frozen meat with an estimated market value of HK$5 million (US$642,000).

In a series of anti-smuggling operations this past month, customs officials in the Chinese special administrative region of Hong Kong have seized tens of millions of dollars of contraband, surpassing local records.

A U.S. court sentenced a 25-year-old Chinese national to more than three years in prison after he pleaded guilty to laundering money for a wildlife trafficking syndicate which specialized in smuggling turtles, the Department of Justice revealed in a statement last week.

Thousands of fins and other shark parts were intercepted at El Dorado airport in Bogota, the city's Secretary of the Environment, Carolina Urrutia Vásquez, revealed on Twitter, expressing her outrage.

In a blow to organized crime groups profiting off of illegal gambling networks, Interpol aided police raids across Asia and Europe, which seized US$7.9 million in cash and arrested approximately 1,400 suspects, the organization reported on Tuesday.

Hong Kong will include illegal wildlife trafficking in its Organized and Serious Crime Ordinance, following a Legislative Council vote on Wednesday.

A Hong Kong company has cut ties with Myanmar’s military, which staged a coup last week, terminating its contract to upgrade a commercial airliner to a VIP jet for generals after the deal was exposed in an OCCRP investigation.

An Airbus A319 acquired by Myanmar’s military from a domestic airline on the runway in Bangkok in 2014 CREDIT: Alec Wilson/Creative Commons

Hong Kong police arrested seven former bankers on Tuesday who were allegedly responsible for laundering US$813 million of illicit funds into numerous local banks, the Commercial Crime Bureau confirmed to OCCRP in an emailed statement. 

Moldovan authorities accused two current, two former officials of the National Bank of being involved in a US$1 billion theft from three banks, theOffice of the Prosecutor Generalannounced.

Police in Hong Kong arrested six people on Monday suspected of having participated in a mob attack against people on the subway the night before.