One of the world’s largest consulting firms has agreed to pay over half a billion dollars to resolve a U.S. investigation into its role in advising drug companies how to ‘supercharge’ opioid sales while the country was suffering from an opioid epidemic.

The economic downturn resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to increase the number of potential human trafficking victims, with criminal groups targeting people in vulnerable socioeconomic conditions, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in a recent report.

California-based clothing brand LuLaRoe has agreed to pay US$4.75 million to settle a lawsuit that accused the company of operating a pyramid scheme, Washington’s Attorney General said this week.

Italian authorities detained on Tuesday 20 suspected members of three distinct mafia clans operating in the Naples area. Police said they believe the suspects trafficked hashish to Malta and cocaine to Italy.

A Lebanese activist and Hezbollah critic was found dead in his car on Thursday morning with five gunshot wounds in his body, according to local media. 

A court in Stockholm has upheld acquittal for Lars Nyberg, former president of telecoms group Telia, and two associates in a case involving multi-million dollar payments made to Gulnara Karimova, daughter of the former president of Uzbekistan.

As the pandemic continues to rage, international authorities are gaining traction in their pursuit of corona-related criminality, with French and British police both recently dismantling forgery rings selling fake negative test certificates, and Chinese and Mexican authorities apprehending fraudsters selling fake vaccines.

An explosive Al Jazeera investigation revealed this week the strong links between Bangladesh’s Prime Minister and a criminal family led by the head of the army who is using his post and the country’s security forces to extract bribes in return for state contracts and job positions.

NGO Human Rights Watch on Wednesday called for an international investigation into the port explosion that devastated the Lebanese capital of Beirut last August, saying that the existing domestic probe has so far failed to deliver justice for the families of 204 people killed in the blast.

A Moscow court sentenced Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny to two years and eight months in jail for violating the terms of his probation while riot police arrested hundreds of protesters who hit the streets in support of Kremlin’s loudest critic. Analysts say that Navalny is the most popular political opponent in the country but that this may not be enough to prompt changes in Russia.