While small arms like pistols and assault weapons such as AR-15 dominate debates around gun control and the illegal firearms trade, a disturbing trend is showing another type of weapon proliferating worldwide – shoulder mounted surface to air missile launchers.

Although Kazakh authorities have in the past decade launched numerous initiatives to curb it, corruption remains woven into the fabric of high-levels of society, public bodies, institutions and the private sector, said a report published by the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption body.

A Brazilian court sent a man who helped a gemstone company launder at least US$44 ill-gotten millions to prison for 13 years. The case is an offshoot of the famous Operation Lava Jato, or Car Wash, South America’s biggest corruption scandal in history.

The Mexican navy is investigating a large theft of military equipment, including uniforms, body armor and other paraphernalia, which is intended to be sold to powerful cartels who could then use it to impersonate the military, the navy’s secretary general revealed in a press conference.

A female Iranian singer and poet told OCCRP she is still living in fear even though she fled her country to avoid prosecution after she wrote and performed a song with international artists about the need for people to help each other during the pandemic.

Working together, police around the world arrested over the past two months thousands of suspects and seized millions in illicitly acquired assets in a global crackdown on so-called social engineering scams.

In an unprecedented move, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) asked its members to suspend trade in West African rosewood, whose stocks, falling victim to the surging demand in China, have been critically depleted over the past decade.

“Space travel continues - I moved from one ship to another,” incarcerated Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny wrote Wednesday on Instagram, confirming that he has been transferred from his detention facility to another - considered Russia’s scariest.

A three-years-long investigation into money laundering within Canada’s British Columbia revealed that provincial and federal authorities are ill-equipped to prevent the proceeds of crime from infiltrating the province’s economy.

The former head of a Honduran institution that was tasked with emergency procurement related to the COVID-19 pandemic was sentenced last week to nearly 11 years in prison for purchasing useless mobile hospitals at a highly inflated price.