Indonesian authorities seized over 11,000 wild birds last month, mostly songbirds headed for the notorious bird markets on the island of Java, according to an NGO press release on Friday.

As the Arab Spring rippled across the region in 2011, Syrians took to the streets to protest government corruption and call for freedom and democracy, but the uprising turned into a decade-long civil war that saw “massive crimes” including genocide, a U.N. commission said in a report published end of last week.

A Bishkek court has put Raimbek Matraimov, former deputy head of the Kyrgyzstan’s Customs Service, in pre-trial detention on Saturday, after the State Committee for National Security (GKNB) rearrested him last week.

German police arrested two people last week and raided over 20 locations in Berlin during a massive operation that targeted members of a family-based organized crime group allegedly involved in arms and drug trafficking, financial crime, museum heists and clan clashes.

Olympian smugglers and meth-laced candles, allegations of money laundering at Nelson Mandela’s funeral, and dispatches from the international trade in tiny fighting songbirds — OCCRP’s Daily News team here with a recap of all things weird and criminal from this past week.

Botswana’s lucrative yet controversial trade in donkey skins is back in the spotlight after an investigation published on Wednesday asserts that one of the country’s four licensed donkey abattoirs is still engaging in cross-border smuggling and environmental criminality.

Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador asked the head of the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) to present a full report on The Riviera Maya Gang, after the regulator blocked nearly 80 bank accounts linked to the criminal organization suspected of having skimmed ATMs in Cancun and other tourist destinations across the country.

A Belarus court sentenced on Wednesday journalist Katsiaryna Andreyeva and camerawoman Daria Chultsova of the Poland-based Belsat broadcaster to two years in prison for “organizing activities violating public order.” The two were covering a peaceful demonstration last year.

Spanish Authorities announced on Monday the arrest of one of Colombia’s most wanted criminals who was sought for his murderous role in the “false positives” scandal of the 2000s, when soldiers killed innocent people and then dressed them as guerrilla fighters to secure combat medals, promotions and other benefits.

Cybercriminals claim to be selling the personal details of as much as 93% of Ukraine’s population in a dataset supposedly stolen from the country’s scandal-ridden, largest public lender, PrivatBank -- something the bank has been quick to describe as incredulous, even impossible.