Dutch police shut down an industrial-sized cocaine lab, seized more than 3.4 million euros (US$4.1 million) in cash and arrested nine suspects during several raids in Rotterdam, law enforcement reported on Friday.
Focusing on romance scams, online sextortion, investment fraud, voice phishing and money laundering associated with illegal online gambling, police in nine Asian countries arrested more than 500 suspects and seized US$83 million, Interpol said on Thursday.
A court in Bosnia and Herzegovina sentenced the former head of the country’s Indirect Taxation Authority (ITA BiH) to nine years for his role in a bribery scheme that, according to authorities, deprived the state budget of over US$1 billion over a five-year period.
As the West is considering further sanctions in response to Belarus’ hijacking of a Ryanair flight and the subsequent arrest of a journalist last weekend, President Alexander Lukashenko met on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in what appeared to be a further sign of Moscow’s support for Minsk.
Russian oil companies routinely evaded regulatory measures and instead illegally dumped toxic waste from oil drilling in “sludge barns,” which can cause untold environmental pollution in arctic waterways, according to an investigation by Radio Free Europe’s Russian Service (RFE/RL).
Panama’s anti-corruption prosecutor said on Wednesday she wants to see 50 people, including two former presidents, stand trial for their role in a bribing scheme involving the Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht.
Acting on an extradition request made by Romania, Mexican authorities arrested on Thursday Florian Tudor, the alleged leader of an organized criminal group that stole more than a billion dollars by compromising ATMs in tourist destinations across Mexico.
U.S. prosecutors charged two former executives from the defunct Meinl Bank with money laundering related to an international bribery scheme involving the Brazillian construction company Odebrecht.
Bolivia arrested its former interior minister earlier this week over an alleged bribery and money laundering scheme that enabled a U.S.-based company to secure a government contract, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Wednesday.
Three unidentified men broke on Tuesday into the apartment of a prominent Pakistani journalist who has been criticising the government and the country’s powerful military, tied him up and beat him with a pistol in what appears to be the latest attack against journalists in the South Asian country.