Mario Cardenas Guillen, aka El Gordo ("Fatso"), considered one of two commanders of the infamous Gulf Cartel, was arrested  Monday in Mexico’s northern border state of Tamaulipas. His arrest is the latest of several high-profile wins by Mexican President Felipe Calderon in his war on Mexican drug gangs.

Cardenas was captured by that country’s naval special forces, which are backed by the United States.

Though one of the oldest and most powerful players in Mexico’s drug world, the Gulf Cartel has lost power in recent years to rivals like the Los Zetas and Sinaloa gangs. Los Zetas was once the “enforcer” arm of Gulf but broke from its progenitor in 2010. Though this and other infighting has weakened the group, it continues to function as an international network for smuggling Colombian-supplied drugs as well as human trafficking.

Bulgaria is one of the top European Union countries in terms of human trafficking, according to Bulgaria’s National Committee for the Fight against Human Trafficking.

The group’s Chief Secretary Antoaneta Vasileva told Bulgarian National Radio Monday that 541 trafficking victims were recorded in Bulgaria in 2011, 90 of them men.

According to EC, Bulgaria and Romania are the main European Union (EU) trafficking source states. The report also states that 76 percent of trafficking victims in the EU are sexually exploited, and 14 percent are forced to work against their will. Domestic servitude, forced begging and various criminal activities account for the rest.

In June EC adopted a new anti-human trafficking strategy, to improve identification and protection of trafficking victims in Europe. And in partnership with the Bureau of the Dutch Rapporteur on Trafficking in human beings, the Bulgarian Interior Ministry announced Tuesday a new anti-trafficking initative as well.

Russia’s anti-corruption laws are up to European standards the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has concluded, according to what the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI) wrote Monday. But other experts say good laws are not being well enforced.

Russia’s Prosecutor General's Office met with UNODC experts then announced that they were satisfied that most of the standards of the UN Convention against Corruption are fully implemented in Russian legislation. Russian ratified UNCAC in 2006.

Bulgarian police arrested a Bosnian citizen at the Kapitan Andreevo checkpoint on the border with Turkey, after finding 22 kilograms of heroin in his car worth about US$1.6 million.

Authorities said the heroin came from Istanbul, and was destined for Bosnia-Herzegovina. Police found the drugs Thursday in 23 packets inside the car’s gasoline tank.

Eight top officials of Agrobanka and two private companies were arrested on charges of corruption, the Serbian Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime announced Wednesday. The Interior Ministry and the Prosecutor's Office made the arrests. 

US security contractor Academi LLC, formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide and Xe Services, have settled charges of arms trafficking and related crimes filled against it by the US Department of Justice. Academi agreed to pay a US$7.5 million fine.

A Bulgarian investigative journalism site Bivol.bg released an interview with US journalist and intelligence expert Jeff Stein, who accuses Prime Minister Boyko Borisov of having a criminal past. Bivol.bg is the official Bulgarian partner of WikiLeaks. 

Stein wrote about Borisov’s past in a 2007 article for the Congressional Quarterly, in which he quotes a confidential dossier compiled by US law officials that describes Borisov as "a business partner and former associate of some of the biggest mobsters in Bulgaria," Stein explained in his article.

Greek police detained more than 6,000 suspected illegal migrants in Athens over the weekend, the Associated Press reported. Greece is the main entry point into Europe for African and Asian illegal migrants. 

Police announced Monday that 1,600 detainees will be deported back to their countries and are waiting in temporary detention centers. The other 4,400 were released.

By The Center for Investigative Reporting

Zoran Copic, a Serbian businessman and associate of Montenegrin drug lord Darko Saric has been sentenced to five years in prison for laundering Saric’s money.

Drago Nizol, director of Copic’s Avio Rent company, was also sentenced Tuesday in the Banja Luka County Court in Bosnia’s smaller entity, Republika Srpska (RS) to four months in prison

Judge Olga Malesevic said RS prosecutors have proven all eight counts of the indictment. Among the evidence the prosecutors presented were recorded conversations between Copic and Nizol and members of various criminal organizations.

By: The Center for Investigative Reporting

Nineteen people from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) have been detained on suspicion they smuggled unprocessed meat from BiH and sold it in several counties on the Croatian coast, the Croatian Interior Ministry announced Thursday.

According to data from the Bureau for Combating Corruption and Organized Crime (USKOK), the organized crime group smuggled at least 1,564 kilograms of meat, worth US$24,853.