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.

The Italian mafia is no longer just a violent gang running local rackets and smuggling drugs, but has mastered complex financial operations that can impact the country’s economy, experts said following a massive bust of money laundering operations run by several Italian mafia groups. 

After his supporters warned that he could die soon, Russian authorities transferred sick Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny to a prison hospital which some say is even worse than the cell he spent the past three months. Supporters plan mass protests over his treatment.

Ecuadorian authorities charged seven people, including the country’s current comptroller and a former energy minister, for their alleged role in a corruption scheme involving state oil company Petroecuador.

The U.S. Government imposed new sanctions on Russia for its interference in the 2020 U.S. election, cyberattacks and for its occupation and human rights violations in Crimea.

Two Moroccan journalists kept in unlawful pre-trial detention since 2019 and 2020 have entered a hunger strike after their trials have been postponed and their provisional release requests rejected for at least the tenth time.

The Prime Minister of Haiti, Joseph Jouthe, announced on Wednesday his resignation amid a growing wave of crime, including kidnappings for ransom, and a longstanding political crisis.

Kyrgyzstan has closed a money laundering case against former deputy chief of customs Raimbek Matraimov and released him from custody, putting an end to the investigation of a corruption scandal that marked last year’s election and made him hand over more than US$24 million to the country’s budget.

Iran’s role as a key node in the smuggling routes for methamphetamines from Central and South-East Asia to Europe has left the country with a significant drug problem, a recent EU report found.

Croatian police confiscated nearly 600 kilograms of cocaine concealed in a shipment of bananas that arrived from South America to the Adriatic port of Ploče. Officials say that with increased controls in ports in Western and Northern Europe, organized crime seems to be looking for alternative routs in the south of the continent.