Colombia is losing billions of dollars every year to the illegal mining and smuggling of gold, according to a report published on Wednesday, as criminal groups, unscrupulous multinationals and desperate miners bleed the economy and environment.

After a long struggle, a court in Budapest has finally succeeded in shuttering Hungary's last independent broadcaster, Klubradio, after it ruled against the station in an appeal case this week. 

Mexican steel tycoon Alonso Ancira Elizondo on Tuesday agreed to pay US$219 million in damages to state oil company PEMEX to avoid trial for money laundering and corruption.

An appeal against a 700-year-old corruption conviction, fake IDs featuring Sylvester Stallone, and the ever-inventive smuggling ploys of international cocaine traffickers — welcome to OCCRP’s semi-regular round-up of oddities from the world of corruption and organized crime.

A district court in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan's capital, ordered Raimbek Matraimov, the former deputy chairman of the Kyrgyz customs service to pay a US$3,000 fine after he pleaded guilty on Thursday to orchestrating numerous corruption schemes and agreed to testify against his accomplices.

In a landmark ruling hailed by human rights activists, Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday overturned the death sentences of two prisoners with mental illnesses after they spent decades awaiting execution.

Police in Bosnia detained three men believed to be members of one of Montenegro’s two criminal clans known for drug smuggling and for their years-long bloody rivalry that has so far taken more than 170 lives on both sides.

Reporters Without Borders called on the international community to press Chinese authorities to immediately release seven journalists who were arrested for reporting on the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan a year ago.

Non-governmental organizations advocating freedom of speech in Nicaragua shuttered their doors last week after the country passed the “Foreign Agents Law” in October, which required organizations receiving international funds to register as foreign agents.

Historically based on exports to the huge U.S. market, the axis of the global cocaine trade has in the last twenty years increasingly tilted towards Europe, argues an investigation published on Tuesday.