The US request last week to extradite Guatemala’s former vice president Roxana Baldetti on drug trafficking charges has led to new revelations about her deep links to the Zetas Mexican drug cartel, Insight Crime reported Friday.

Federal authorities arrested more than two dozen alleged members of a Russian gang involved inrobbing, racketeering, selling narcotics, and other crimes, including even stealing chocolate, theU.S. Department of Justice announcedWednesday.

Italian, Spanish and Dutch police arrested Wednesday 22 out of 65 suspected members of a criminal ring that smuggled hashish from Morocco to The Netherlands and Italy via Spain.

A former diplomat asked Panamanian officials Tuesday to open a money laundering investigation into Venezuelan Vice-President Tareck El Aissami, who was blacklisted in February by the U.S. for playing "a significant role in international narcotics trafficking."

Two suspects arrested in raids in Phnom Penh and Ratanakiri Province last week have been provisionally charged with drug trafficking, media reported.

Afghanistan, the world’s greatest producer of opium, is projected to reap an even greater harvest this year from areas where it was previously not grown, fueling concerns that increased profits from trafficking the crop will further empower the Taliban militancy, Voice of America reported Tuesday.

Javier Valdez Cardenas, a well-respected Mexican journalist who covered drug trafficking and organized crime, was murdered in the northern Mexico state of Sinaloa on Monday, media reported.

In just four days, Ecuador seized 3.2 metric tons of cocaine, raising concerns about the country’s growing involvement in transnational drug trafficking and its ability to handle security challenges, Insight Crime reported Wednesday.

A U.S. government report shows that drug traffickers adapt their techniques in response to increased overland security defying President Trump’s logic that a border wall will prevent the entry of illicit drugs, InSight Crime reported Monday. 

Two drug cartel leaders were killed Saturday in separate clashes with Mexican authorities in the northern state of Tamaulipas, the Associated Press reported.

Xaysana Keopimpha, 42, known as one of Southeast Asia’s biggest drug kingpins pleaded not guilty Tuesday in a Bangkok court to charges that he was a major player in a regional drug network, the Nation reported.

The High Court in Auckland sent Tuesday a Hong Kong man behind bars for 11 and a half years for his involvement in a multi-million dollar Chinese drug syndicate, New Zealand media reported.

Transnational organized crime groups rake in up to US$ 2.2 trillion per year according to a new study released Monday by Global Financial Integrity (GFI), a Washington DC-based research and advisory group.

The Spanish Civil Guard said Tuesday it dismantled a criminal organization dedicated to human and drug trafficking and freed two women — one of them 14-years-old — that were forced into prostitution by the gang.

Cilia Flores (left, in red) and Nicolás Maduro (right) during a public meeting in Caracas.

When a US federal judge sentences two Venezuelan drug smugglers, perhaps later this month, it will mark the final chapter of a story worthy of the Netflix series “Narcos.”

Ontario police have arrested 18 people, seized illegals firearms and confiscated drugs worth an estimated US$ 3 million following an 18-month investigation dubbed "Project Silkstone."

A leader of the Sinaloa Cartel pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and money laundering in United States federal court on Thursday, admitting he was responsible for moving tons of narcotics and millions of dollars between the U.S. and Mexico, authorities said.

The United States government slapped sanctions on Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami for playing “a significant role in international narcotics trafficking,” the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said Monday.

UAE authorities arrested three alleged members of two international drug trafficking rings and seized drugs worth more than US$ 12 million, according to a police statement released Monday.

Italian police arrested 17 suspected cocaine traffickers on Tuesday, allegedly tied to a prominent Calabrian crime family, OCCRP partner IRPI reports.