It was a busy weekend for authorities in Southern Spain and Gibraltar, with three separate busts against cannabis smuggling networks in the region seeing more than 24 alleged conspirators arrested and more than 1,700kg of the drug seized.

Armed assailants have killed one man and injured another at a restaurant in British Columbia, with local press identifying the victims as former suspects in a large-scale money laundering investigation.

Although the United States has given no indication that it is presently investigating any of the country’s former presidents, Mexico’s current leader has said he would be willing to extradite one of his predecessors were he asked to do so.

Authorities in Ukraine have seized assets belonging to an organised criminal group alleged to have orchestrated a pyramid scheme to defraud up to 600,000 people of more than US$250 million since the beginning of 2019.

Authorities in Italy have announced two successful organised-crime busts in the last few days, including the seizure of a shipment of cocaine hidden inside coffee beans marked for delivery to the fictional nemesis of a cinematic action hero.

Security forces in Russia have detained a regional governor on suspicion of orchestrating the 2005 murder of several entrepreneurs in the far east of the country.

At the request of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Mexican authorities are investigating a Romanian organized crime group that OCCRP recently exposed as running one of the largest ATM scams in the world from its Cancún headquarters.

UK authorities have arrested 746 suspects in the largest ever enforcement action in the country’s history, following the takedown of an encrypted communication service used “exclusively” by organised criminal groups.

Canadian police have brought over 200 criminal charges against employees at several tow truck companies allegedly locked in a deadly war across the Greater Toronto area.

Organized criminal activity like kidnapping and armed robbery has “exploded” in northern Nigeria, amid resurging jihadist activity and a deadly conflict between the country’s cattle herders and farmers.

Following a rash of prison riots, allegedly coordinated by inmates afraid of coronavirus infection, Italian authorities have so far released under house arrest more than 370 prisoners convicted of mafia-related offences, with almost 500 more requests pending review.

Authorities in Spain have arrested 18 people, including a former football player, for smuggling a ton of cocaine hidden in the fibres of cardboard fruit boxes.

Police in Italy have arrested more than 90 members and associates of the Sicily-based Cosa Nostra syndicate, including a former star of the reality TV show Big Brother.

Amid growing concern over the impact of the novel coronavirus on the global economy, international agencies are beginning to anticipate how organised criminals across different sectors will be forced to adapt to the post-pandemic reality.

Authorities in London have frozen more than 1.9 million euros (US$2.05 million) held in bank accounts with alleged links to the Italian mafia.

The EU’s anti-fraud agency has launched an inquiry to combat the sale of black market medical products amid the ongoing spread of the coronavirus pandemic on the continent.

The daughter of Uzbekistan’s late president will serve a further eight years in prison for corruption and criminal activities estimated to have cost the country a total of more than US$2.3 billion.

“I would like to ask the defendants: who gave them the right to touch the lives of our children? The defendants also have children — daughters.”

China’s organized crime crackdown is proving successful, according to the government’s press agency, with 3,021 people investigated or “punished,” 1,229 organized crime groups busted and millions in US dollars recovered.

Police on Friday arrested two mob bosses who were hiding in an underground bunker in the Calabria region, according to CNN.