The Romanian Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) arrested three heroin traffickers Monday and seized 40 kilograms of heroin heading to the Austrian market. The anti-drug trafficking operation was conducted with the help of Bulgarian and Austrian authorities. According to the officials, the group’s leader is an Austrian citizen Nicole Smith. 

The suspects allegedly purchased the heroin in Turkey, and were transporting it to Austria through Romania. According to the authorities, this international organized crime group specializes in trafficking narcotics from Turkey into the countries of the European Union via heroin trafficking hubs that include Romania and Bulgaria. The heroin originally came from Afghanistan, the world’s primary opium producer.

Lack of political will and inadequate anti-corruption efforts are hindering Bosnia’s fight against corruption, says a joint report by the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN) from Sarajevo and the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD) from Sofia.

The Corruption Monitoring Report examines “corruption and anti-corruption developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)” between 2001 and 2011 according to citizens’ accounts. The report is based on CSD’s Corruption Monitoring System, and examines parameters such as “actual involvement in and personal experiences with corrupt practices; public attitudes towards corruption; perceptions of corruption; corruption-related expectations.”

The United States House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill on Thursday to impose sanctions on a group of Russian officials connected to the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian anti-graft lawyer who died in a Russian prison.

Magnitsky was arrested in November 2008 on charges of tax evasion, days after he accused Russian state tax authorities of participating in a $230 million tax refund fraud. He died a year later in a Moscow pre-trial detention center.

The United States imposed sanctions on Wednesday against five alleged members and associates of the Eurasian crime group the US Government has been calling the "Brothers’ Circle.” The men were identified as being members of or providing assistance to transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), in accordance with the Executive Order (E.O.) 13581.

This designation means that the US is “freezing any assets the designated persons may have within the jurisdiction of the United States and prohibiting any transactions with them by U.S. persons.” TCOs and their members and associates are identified “by the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of State.”

Polish authorities have uncovered the largest amphetamine factory found in Poland to date, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBS) reported on Wednesday.  The authorities started monitoring the Warsaw area amphetamine production ring in September 2011, and conducted a raid on Monday after learning that the group was expecting two shipments of precursor chemicals used to make synthetic drugs.

Polish authorities have uncovered the largest amphetamine factory found in Poland to date, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBS) reported on Wednesday. The authorities started monitoring the amphetamine production ring in September 2011, and conducted a raid on Monday after learning that the group was expecting two shipments of precursor chemicals used to make synthetic drugs.

The European Union (EU) has launched a special operation to combat an expected rise in human trafficking during the Euro 2012 football tournament in Ukraine. The European Agency for the Management of External Borders (Frontex) is monitoring Poland’s border with Ukraine, as well as other European travel hubs. 

According to Frontex, over 1 million people are expected to enter Ukraine and Poland during the Euro 2012 tournament, which will run from June 8 until July 1. As matches will take place in both countries, the border between them will experience a significantly higher amount of traffic than normal, posing a serious challenge to the border service.

Serbian police arrested 22 people belonging to an organized crime group that defrauded the state for nearly RSD 1 billion (US$ 10,572,847.27) through customs fraud, Tanjug news reports.

The police arrested 14 directors and owners of private companies, as well as eight employees of the Serbian Customs Administration. The alleged leader of the group Zarko Radonjic is the owner of an import-export and shipping company “Moravex” in Subotica, northern Serbia. Radonjic was among the 22 arrested.

Dozens were arrested in seven countries in an action against a drug smuggling network connected to the Italian Ndrangheta organized crime group. The arrests were carried out in Italy, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Finland, Netherlands, Croatia and Spain at the request of the Milan District Anti-Mafia Prosecutor’s Office.

The police seized 6 tons of cocaine and around €10 million (US$12.4 million) worth of assets. In addition, the Italian authorities tracked down bank accounts in Switzerland suspected of being connected to the dismantled trafficking operation.

 Bulgarian journalist Lidia Pavlova has been the target of threats once again. Her car was set on fire on May 25. Pavlova, winner of awards for investigative journalism and courage in journalism, writes about organized crime for Bulgarian daily Struma, based in the south-west city of Blagoevgrad.

Numerous threats against Pavlova and her son started after she began an investigation into the dealings of the Galevi brothers, a notorious Bulgarian gangster pair from Dupnitsa, 60 kilometers south of the capital of Sofia. The Galevi brothers are currently at large, having escaped right after their sentencing in early May. Bulgaria issued an international search warrant for the two fugitive gangsters.