The scourge of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea has led to costs upwards of US$1.9 billion a year for the nearly two dozen West African states which line it, according to a recent discussion at the United Nations Security Council.

The Slovak office of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) conducted an operation that targeted four Slovak and Czech companies suspected to have violated the EU tax and customs regulations, damaging the budget for over US$54 million, the EPPO reported on Tuesday.

An American leader of a neo-Nazi group was sentenced on Tuesday to seven years in prison for threatening journalists who worked to expose anti-Semitic activity in the United States.

With the help of Europol, the Spanish National Police dismantled an organized crime network involved in human and drug trafficking as well as property crime, and arrested 24 of its suspected members, the European police agency reported on Monday.

Croatian police reported Tuesday that they have confiscated a record amount of drugs — roughly 62 kilos of cocaine and 220 kilograms of heroin — in the country’s southern port of Ploče in two separate operations in October and November.

Italian authorities uncovered on Monday a conspiracy involving about 50 people who allegedly tried to obtain a COVID-19 vaccination certificate but avoid inoculation with the help of a nurse in Ancona who - on multiple occasions - was caught on camera emptying the syringe containing the vaccine before administering it into the recipient’s arm.

A federal judge indicted nine Maryland-based members of the brutal MS-13 gang for a racketerring conspiracy which involved murder, extortion and money laundering, the U.S Department of Justice said in a statement. Another group of 12 were charged with similar crimes in Virginia a second statement said.

Two women were charged with trying to launder about US$700.000 in criminal proceeds on behalf of a drug dealer and member of an outlaw motorcycle gang, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) reported on Friday.

How deep corruption stretches into the South African government was revealed last week, after South Africa’s Judicial Commission dropped the first of its three-part report into state capture in the African nation. Deep is the answer.

Spain received financial support from Europol on Tuesday in order to augment its investigative capabilities against lucrative transnational organized criminal enterprises such as drug smuggling, human trafficking, and illicit firearms.