EU’s tight regulations of greenhouse gases seem to have caused an eruption of criminal trade of hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), synthetic chemicals hundreds of thousands of times stronger than carbon dioxide and used in many common household products, according to a new report published Tuesday by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a UK-based NGO.

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.

The largest criminal marketplace on the dark web for the illicit trade of drugs, firearms, computer hacking tools and more was shut down Thursday, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced.

Europeans smoked 48 billion illicit cigarettes in 2016, or more than all the legally purchased cigarettes in France that year, a study published on Tuesday claims.