Italian organized criminal groups have infiltrated the country’s robust tourism sector to the tune of US$2.6 billion in 2020, a recent report by Italian think tank Demoskopika, revealed. The groups take control over legitimate businesses in order to launder revenue from illegitimate enterprises like drug and arms trafficking, experts say.

The U.K. government has imposed asset freezes and travel bans against 22 individuals from six countries in its first set of measures under the nation’s new Global Anti-Corruption sanctions regime.

Saudi Arabia has banned the import of fruits and vegetables from Lebanon until authorities in Beirut provide guarantees that the shipments will no longer be used for systematic drug smuggling, the kingdom announced.

One of Mexico’s most violent cartels has introduced a new tactic in its war against the government and attacked the country’s security forces with explosive drones in at least three states last week, authorities said. 

Incarcerated Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny ended his three-weeks-long hunger strike after prison authorities transferred him to a civil hospital, where doctors persuaded him to start eating again.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) urged the public not to buy vaccines on the Internet after it received reports that counterfeit COVID-19 jabs are being sold via social media in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil.

Giant clam shells, cyberattacks against Dutch cheese distributors, cats used to smuggle drugs into prison, and the man who tried to ‘blow up the internet’ — OCCRP’s Daily News team here with your regular roundup of oddities from the world of corruption and organized crime.

Montenegrin police said they have arrested five suspected members of a criminal group involved in usury, bribery, extortion and drug trafficking. The operation took place in the coastal city of Kotor, the home of two of the Balkans most dangerous mafia clans.

Canada released on Monday its 2021 federal budget in which it announced intentions to create a public registry of corporate beneficial ownership, dedicating CAD2.1 million (US$1.68 million) to the development of the project over the next two years.

Russian police arrested nearly 2,000 people who hit the streets of multiple cities across the country on Wednesday to support the incarcerated top Kremlin critic, Alexei Navalny, an independent monitoring group reported.