Albanians soon may no longer be free to travel around Europe without a visa because of illicit activities involving the Albanian mafia in the Netherlands.

Authorities in 22 countries seized more than 4,400 live reptiles and birds in a worldwide operation against illicit animal trade that saw 12 people arrested and nearly 200 identified as suspects, the European police announced on Monday.

The UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) would need to double its budget in order to adequately fight organized crime, which is the nation’s top security threat, the agency said in a press release on Tuesday.

Over 200 victims of human trafficking, 157 of them children, were rescued by police in Benin and Nigeria in an operation led by Interpol.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Montana, a nonprofit legal organization, filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against members of the bail bonds industry, including bail bondsmen, bounty hunters and insurance companies, who it says amount to organized crime actors.

The Peruvian government published last week a decree restoring the independence of OSINFOR, its agency in charge of combating illegal logging in the Peruvian Amazon, reversing a decision from a few months ago that had placed the organization under ministerial control.

Brazilian Federal Police assisted Paraguay’s National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD) in the destruction of 1,132 tons of marijuana plants on the countries’ shared border as part of a new phase of Operation New Alliance (Operação Nova Aliança), a bilateral agreement to combat drug trafficking, Brazil’s Ministry of Justice and Public Security said in a press release Tuesday.

The United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested on Monday woman who is thought to have supplied Albanian organized crime syndicates with some 500 UK passports. 

Over 87,000 properties in England and Wales valued at an excess of US$132.4 billion (£100 billion) are owned by anonymous companies registered in tax havens, a new analysis from the UK-based NGO Global Witnessreveals.

Law enforcement and customs authorities from 16 European countries dismantled a massive network trafficking in medicines, arresting 435 suspects and seizing goods worth US$185 million in a Europol-coordinated operation known as “MISMED 2,” the organization announced in a press release on Friday.

Thousands rallied against the Albanian government on Thursday, claiming it is corrupt and linked to organized crime, as opposition lawmakers resigned from parliament, demanding an early election.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro signed Tuesday the Anti-Crime Bill, a significant step in the country’s crackdown on organized crime, violent crime and corruption, the country’s Justice Ministry said.

China’s organized crime crackdown is proving successful, according to the government’s press agency, with 3,021 people investigated or “punished,” 1,229 organized crime groups busted and millions in US dollars recovered.

President Aleksander Vucic said on Saturday that Serbia will introduce “draconian” punishment for criminals who will no longer be able to view it as their sanctuary.

Internal memos circulated among federal officials in Canada reveal that the government continues to doubt the infiltration of organized crime networks into the legal cannabis industry despite investigations that have found shady money in legal marijuana enterprises, local media reported.

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.

Migrants are paying organized crime groups 200 Moroccan dirhams (US$ 21.15) to help them jump over the border fence between Morocco and the Spanish North African cities of Ceuta and Melilla, according to a confidential report by the Spanish Civil Guard and obtained by El Pais on Thursday.

British authorities said on Wednesday they arrested one of Europe’s most wanted criminals who is suspected of trafficking Romanian women to Ireland, Finland and Dubai for sex work as well as of conspiring to kill a criminal rival

A UK court sentenced a 28 year-old man to more than 17 years in prison on Monday after he pleaded guilty to conspiring to sell a gun as well as class A drugs such as heroin and cocaine.