Giant clam shells, cyberattacks against Dutch cheese distributors, cats used to smuggle drugs into prison, and the man who tried to ‘blow up the internet’ — OCCRP’s Daily News team here with your regular roundup of oddities from the world of corruption and organized crime.

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.

Canada released on Monday its 2021 federal budget in which it announced intentions to create a public registry of corporate beneficial ownership, dedicating CAD2.1 million (US$1.68 million) to the development of the project over the next two years.

Russian police arrested nearly 2,000 people who hit the streets of multiple cities across the country on Wednesday to support the incarcerated top Kremlin critic, Alexei Navalny, an independent monitoring group reported.

Activists fighting against the illegal trade in endangered species of both plants and animals have called on Chinese banks to prevent illegal wildlife traffickers from exploiting their networks to launder money. Otherwise those banks will risk greater scrutiny and pressure from foreign governments.

Spanish National Police said they dismantled the first illegal 3D-printing gun workshop in the country after investigators detected that a man had purchased parts of firearms and explosive substances online. 

The Manhattan District Attorney announced on Monday that 33 cultural artifacts, worth some US$1.8 million, have been returned to Afghanistan after authorities found them among more than 2,500 looted antiquities held in the collection of notorious New York art dealer Subhash Kapoor.

Hundreds of non-governmental organizations in Venezuela rejected a new law that requires them to fully disclose information about both their beneficiaries and their donors on a government platform.

Nearly a hundred civil society organizations have urged the United Nations to form a special expert group that will “tackle transnational, large-scale and high-level forms of corruption” which is threatening the world’s peace and prosperity, Transparency International said Tuesday in a statement.

In over two-thirds of the world, the media is “constrained,” “seriously impeded” or “totally blocked,” and since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, journalists have been harassed, imprisoned and killed, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) concluded after reviewing press freedom in 180 countries.