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.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev appointed the chairman of a bank owned by his family members as the new governor to the country’s Central Bank. Opposition leaders see the move as Aliyev’s complete takeover of the country’s banking system.

The U.K. government announced Thursday that it has frozen 10 billion pounds (US$13 billion) in assets held by two Russian oligarchs, both known to be longstanding business partners of Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich.

Authorities in Cyprus have revoked the passports of four sanctioned Russian nationals and their families who were awarded citizenship through the island’s now terminated citizenship-for-investment program, local media reported and government sources confirmed to OCCRP.

Italian police seized 82 tonnes of counterfeit cigarettes and arrested one person during a raid of an abandoned factory in the industrial area of Pomezia, close to Rome, where officers found machinery and materials for the production of cigarettes and several foreign workers, including a number of Ukrainian refugees.

The U.K. announced on Wednesday sweeping sanctions against 178 individuals from the seperatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, family members, close associates, and employees of Russian oligarchs and struck out major Russian Industries from metals to technologies.

A court order from the island of Jersey froze on Tuesday US$7 billion in assets belonging to Russian oligarch and Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich, in a move that sanctions nearly all of the billionaire's reported wealth.

Brazil and Paraguay initiated on Tuesday a regional security project that will allow their security forces to quickly exchange information, organize joint operations and reduce bureaucratic procedures when combating organized crime.

After three months of calm that offered hope the problem may be receding, another incident of piracy has been reported in the Gulf of Guinea, the world’s most dangerous maritime region.

There was no luck of the Irish for the Kinahan crime family this week.