Colombia is a country that has been racked by conflict for around 60 years - multiple armed groups and organized crime have waged war against each other and the state.

In 2016, after nearly seven years of negotiations, the FARC demobilized, creating a power vacuum that other groups, such as the National Liberation Army (ELN), Clan del Golfo, and FARC dissidents, quickly filled. Despite the FARC's exit, violence persisted, with cocaine production and illegal mining continuing unabated, leaving many communities under the control of criminal organizations.

In 2022, the President of Colombia Gustavo Petro brought forward new legislation, known as 'Total Peace'. This ambitious and wide ranging policy looks to negotiate with all criminal groups, whether they are politically minded, like the FARC were or organized crime. Why? To help reduce violence, in particularly homicides, but also to try a new approach to end these long-running conflicts.

One of the key players in these negotiations was the ELN, the oldest guerrilla group in the world. The Petro administration expressed optimism, claiming a peace agreement could be reached within three months of taking office. However, over two years later, those talks have stalled and ultimately collapsed, raising questions about the future of peace efforts in Colombia.

Speaker(s):

Juanita Durán-Vélez, Lawyer, Crime and Justice Lab, Colombia.

Kyle Johnson, Researcher & Academic Director of the Conflict Responses Foundation, Bogotá, Colombia

Felipe Botero Escobar, Head of Andean Regional Office, Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime

Links:

Andean Regional Office, Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime

Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime

Podcast & Article - Clan del Golfo: The fall of 'Otoniel': How Colombia's biggest drug lord was taken down.

The base research (Negotiating with Criminal Groups: Colombia´s Total Peace Policy) for this episode was initially developed and supported by Serious Organized Crime and Anticorruption Evidence research program.

Additional Links:

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/colombia-recognizes-dissident-eln-faction-independent-organization-2024-05-08/

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/colombias-illegal-armed-groups-grew-2023-secret-security-report-2024-05-07/

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/colombia-peace/

https://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-colombia-farc-killings-20180605-story.html

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1265909/former-farc-members-killed-colombia/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcT51WTFlUM

https://www.abcolombia.org.uk/eln-peace-talks-timeline/

https://www.elcolombiano.com/colombia/guerra-entre-el-eln-y-las-disidencias-de-las-farc-en-arauca-MD16408859

https://english.elpais.com/international/2022-06-11/in-colombias-saravena-theres-no-theft-just-murder.html

https://insightcrime.org/news/insight-crime-2022-homicide-round-up/

https://insightcrime.org/news/is-the-ex-farc-mafia-betting-all-its-chips-on-the-colombian-venezuelan-border/

https://insightcrime.org/investigations/inviting-war-into-venezuela/

https://collections.unu.edu/eserv/UNU:8960/FARCdissidentColombia_FINAL.pdf

https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-59863553

https://www.elespectador.com/judicial/el-contratista-del-eln-article-838805/

https://insightcrime.org/news/eln-receiving-payments-companies-colombia/

https://newsradio.com.co/2019/02/investigan-si-el-eln-se-financio-con-recursos-publicos-del-departamento-de-arauca/

https://www.pulzo.com/nacion/financiacion-eln-arauca-PP640382

https://www.elespectador.com/noticias/judicial/el-contratista-del-eln-articulo-838805

https://www.eltiempo.com/justicia/delitos/facundo-castillo-detalles-del-caso-por-el-que-fue-capturado-por-fiscalia-626787

https://colombiareports.com/colombia-arrests-governor-on-corruption-terrorism-support-charges/

https://www.cgfm.mil.co/en/multimedia/noticias/army-and-prosecutors-office-carried-out-confiscation-right-domain-assets-ex

https://www.infobae.com/en/2022/04/21/they-impose-an-insurance-measure-on-the-former-governor-of-arauca-due-to-irregularities-with-the-pae/

https://www.eltiempo.com/unidad-investigativa/luis-diaz-un-vendedor-de-divisas-de-maicao-detras-del-secuestro-del-padre-del-jugador-825082

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/colombia-eln-guerrillas-free-kidnapped-father-liverpool-soccer-star-diaz-source-2023-11-09/

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/least-40-colombias-eln-rebels-seen-rejecting-peace-deal-security-sources-2023-09-22/

https://www.eltiempo.com/justicia/conflicto-y-narcotrafico/entrevista-a-pablo-beltran-del-eln-desde-cuba-sobre-regreso-a-colombia-317422

https://www.financecolombia.com/insight-crime-report-eln-has-beaten-ivan-duque-now-colombias-largest-criminal-threat/

https://verdadabierta.com/se-reanuda-formalmente-la-guerra-contra-el-eln/

https://x.com/JuanManSantos/status/1167053956255748097

https://colombiareports.com/police-identify-and-hunt-guerrilla-responsible-for-pablitos-escape/

https://colombiareports.com/arauca-prison-director-suspected-of-assisting-eln-leaders-escape/

https://colombiareports.com/eln-guerrilla-escapes-from-jail/

https://www.eltiempo.com/archivo/documento/CMS-6307429

https://www.fides.org/en/news/72782-AMERICA_COLOMBIA_The_testimony_of_Monsignor_Jaramillo_prophet_and_martyr_of_peace_is_always_alive_and_current

https://colombiareports.com/pablito-eln/

https://insightcrime.org/colombia-organized-crime-news/eln-profile/

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/worlds-oldest-guerrilla-force-revives-war-on-oil/

https://web.archive.org/web/20090302075901/http:/www.cyemh.org/resource/camilo.htm

https://www.britannica.com/topic/liberation-theology

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kU30QVJl8ac

https://thecitypaperbogota.com/news/petro-on-arauca-bombing-eln-practically-closes-peace-process-with-blood/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37W-nrGMB5U&t=18s

https://i0.wp.com/efe.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/rss-efe3d9924349b8c7efe16223eebbb9025ada2404bf0w.jpg?fit=1920%2C1080&ssl=1

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/colombias-petro-says-eln-attack-practically-ends-peace-talks-2024-09-18/

https://llanera.com/dos-soldados-asesinados-por-el-eln-en-tame-arauca/26595

https://www.laopinion.co/sucesos/atacaron-unidad-militar-en-tame-arauca-reportan-dos-soldados-asesinados

https://insightcrime.org/news/eln-attack-destroys-chances-peace-strengthening-guerrilla-group/

https://x.com/OscuraColombia/status/1828154886862610855

https://maps.app.goo.gl/rUBZJfYcLSFYNGr47

https://thecitypaperbogota.com/news/colombian-army-confirms-eln-behind-oil-pipeline-attack-in-arauca/

https://www.elcolombiano.com/colombia/crisis-combustible-ataque-oleoducto-cano-limon-covenas-en-arauca-DN25286995

Disclaimer: SOC ACE is funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, & Development Office. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the UK government’s official policy.

In May 2024, a prison van was attacked at a highway toll in Normandy, France. In dramatic footage shared on social media, a black SUV, driving the wrong direction, rammed into the prison van just as it went through the barriers. Then gunmen, dressed head-to-toe in black and armed with Kalashnikov rifles got out and started shooting at the van, killing two prison officers.

They opened the van and freed the prisoner, a man named Mohamed Amra, aka "The Fly", who escaped with the gunmen. There is now an Interpol Red Notice out for Amra.

The attack took place in broad daylight and sheds light on the dramatic increase in gang violence over the last few years in France. Mohamed Amra had connections to the city that has been at the forefront of this violence, Marseille, on the Mediterranean coast.

Speaker(s):

Iris Oustinoff Leroux, YPN Coordinator and Analyst, Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime

Links:

(GI article) France in the crossfire: Prisoner escapes in Normandy amid rise in organized crime

(GI Paper) Smoke on the horizon: Trends in arms trafficking from the conflict in Ukraine

(GI Article) The Western Balkans is still the criminals’ choice for weapons.

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Global Organized Crime Index

Senate Report FAIT au nom de la commission d’enquête (1) sur l’impact du narcotrafic en France et les mesures à prendre pour y remédier,

Additional Links

https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/provence-alpes-cote-d-azur/bouches-du-rhone/marseille/reglements-de-comptes-a-marseille-huit-ans-de-prison-pour-une-fusillade-a-l-origine-de-l-ete-meurtrier-de-2021-2915706.html

https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/provence-alpes-cote-d-azur/bouches-du-rhone/marseille/il-y-a-un-regain-assez-important-de-la-violence-pourquoi-les-fusillades-se-multiplient-ces-dernieres-semaines-a-marseille-3005078.html

https://www.lyonne.fr/avallon-89200/actualites/jamilah-habsaoui-maire-d-avallon-en-sursis_14508004/

https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/narcotrafic-a-marseille-felix-bingui-le-chef-du-clan-yoda-accepte-detre-extrade-du-maroc-30-04-2024-STLZ2JCQTVBFVF4J7T626BXSCE.php

https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2024/05/362400/suspected-drug-dealer-arrested-in-morocco-agreed-on-extradition-to-france

https://www.bfmtv.com/marseille/info-bfmtv-l-extradition-de-felix-bingui-chef-presume-du-clan-marseillais-yoda-pourrait-prendre-entre-six-et-huit-mois_AN-202404010255.html

https://www.laprovence.com/article/faits-divers-justice/76954482590199/tuerie-du-kfc-a-marseille-kamel-meziani-condamne-a-30-annees-de-reclusion

https://www.lemonde.fr/police-justice/article/2023/02/11/le-narcotrafiquant-marseillais-kamel-meziani-condamne-a-trente-ans-de-reclusion-criminelle_6161379_1653578.html

https://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/lutte-contre-les-narcotrafics-importante-operation-de-police-dans-le-quartier-de-la-castellane-a-marseille-20240318

https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/provence-alpes-cote-d-azur/fin-tour-k-symbole-cite-castellane-marseille-1731937.html

https://www.laprovence.com/article/faits-divers-justice/17784277478911/marseille-des-policiers-attaques-a-coup-de-cocktail-molotov-et-de-tirs-de-mortier

https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/faits-divers-justice/bilan-mitige-de-l-operation-place-nette-a-marseille-c-est-un-gros-coup-d-epee-dans-l-eau-2678660

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240411-marseille-district-sees-weary-but-wary-relief-in-drug-crackdown

https://www.bfmtv.com/marseille/marseille-plus-de-500-mortiers-saisis-dans-les-quartiers-nord-a-l-approche-du-reveillon_AV-202312290592.html

https://actu.fr/provence-alpes-cote-d-azur/marseille_13055/video-marseille-les-images-d-un-face-a-face-violent-entre-police-et-gang-de-dealers_60308105.html

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.3657598,5.3413223,3a,55.6y,27.77h,92.57t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sfKg-EOZLQ1CLmILQAL987A!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.3663096,5.341913,3a,75y,205.45h,80.31t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1seDmzdjbm3ZwBJKBDjGT8Sg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu

https://www.francebleu.fr/infos/faits-divers-justice/macron-a-marseille-pour-lancer-une-operation-sans-precedent-contre-le-trafic-de-drogue-1973178

https://www.ft.com/content/11c65285-57dd-49f6-aaeb-82cd94221936

https://www.francetvinfo.fr/faits-divers/criminalite-a-marseille/info-francetv-une-arme-fabriquee-a-l-aide-d-une-imprimante-3d-retrouvee-apres-une-tentative-d-assassinat-a-marseille_6304755.html

https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20240210-police-in-marseille-bust-network-trafficking-in-3d-printed-weapons

https://news.sky.com/video/cache-of-3d-printed-guns-and-manufacturing-equipment-seized-in-france-13065857

https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/guerre-des-gangs-apres-yoda-comment-la-dz-mafia-sest-retrouvee-dans-les-mailles-de-la-police-12-03-2024-LEB6NALRNNCH5IU4XKOOEYJ2TU.php

https://time.com/how-europes-terrorists-get-their-guns/

https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0TH0A2/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34818994

https://x.com/rubnpulido/status/1790388865385001329/video/2

https://www.europol.europa.eu/crime-areas-and-trends/eu-policy-cycle-empact

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/06/03/teenage-hitmen-marseille-drugs-instagram/

https://timesofmalta.com/article/book-tells-the-history-of-lark-mirrors.120320

https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/what-we-do/crime-threats/drug-trafficking/county-lines

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/05/29/paris-2024-french-police-arrest-15-for-drug-trafficking-near-olympic-village_6673007_7.html

https://www.dw.com/en/the-gangs-of-marseille-drug-trafficking-in-the-south-of-france/a-65960877

https://www.euronews.com/2024/03/01/inside-marseilles-deadly-drug-wars-why-are-youths-killing-youths

https://www.tiktok.com/@lecastellas13015/video/7305725649581247777

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSQkNhNQ3pk

https://www.tiktok.com/@lecastellas13015/video/7303990545527950624

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXrBOAKuWis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB-EuIMJhno

https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/provence-alpes-cote-d-azur/bouches-du-rhone/marseille/flambee-des-reglements-de-comptes-a-marseille-depuis-le-debut-de-l-ete-2218306.html

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.3314688,5.4133432,3a,50y,349.55h,87.74t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sq0PuUdMIVn2RoquTbYweVw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.3320164,5.4130486,3a,75y,200.66h,74.99t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1st9owqf4YKoawLLpYDSS4Jg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu

https://www.google.com/maps/@43.3283083,5.4057151,3a,75.4y,166.68h,79.76t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1shNY6Py44ViIaCk2MPJIOFw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu

https://www.lefigaro.fr/marseille/les-dessous-d-un-reseau-de-trafic-de-drogue-marseillais-qui-realisait-50-000-euros-de-chiffre-d-affaires-quotidien-20240311

https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/le-vrai-visage-du-narco-banditisme-a-marseille-02-05-2016-5760745.php

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/01/we-are-seen-as-less-human-inside-marseilles-quartiers-that-the-police-have-abandoned

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-58395124

https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-drug-gangs-torture-rooms-arm-kids-kalashnikov-eu-agency-emcdda-warn/

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/murder-by-kalashnikov-the-drug-war-stalking-marseilles-75l77cjh8

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65664329

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2023/08/18/marseille-s-increasingly-deadly-war-between-dz-mafia-and-yoda-two-drug-trafficking-networks_6097326_7.html

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2022/07/21/in-corsica-the-mafia-has-taken-root-with-little-consequences_5990869_7.html

https://www.cairn-int.info/article-E_VIN_115_0089--the-french-connection-between-myths.htm

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mafia-operates-frances-corsica-tourists-064408707.html

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/05/15/interpol-issues-red-notice-for-escaped-french-convict-mohamed-amra_6671555_7.html

https://www.lepoint.fr/societe/une-fusillade-a-evreux-fait-deux-morts-et-un-blesse-25-07-2023-2529431_23.php

https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/2-killed-in-drug-related-shooting-in-northern-france-4239250

https://www.equinoxmagazine.fr/2024/05/15/mohamed-amra-implique-dans-une-tentative-dassassinat-dun-francais-en-espagne/

https://news.sky.com/story/who-is-the-fly-the-french-prisoner-who-escaped-in-convoy-ambush-13135860

https://www.liberation.fr/societe/police-justice/menaces-achat-darmes-gestion-de-ses-activites-criminelles-ce-que-revelent-les-ecoutes-dans-la-cellule-de-mohamed-amra-20240523_E3BYYPSQHNCT3MH6PDQIGAXJOE/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQV6CijIzrc

https://www.france24.com/en/france/20240516-desire-to-kill-french-prison-van-attack-takes-drug-trafficking-fight-to-new-level-of-violence

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/two-people-killed-inmate-run-061200254.html

https://www.google.com/maps/@49.2454726,1.1840619,3a,75y,313.93h,93.15t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sOVJ380YVCaj81X1XGYo3Ag!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu

On the 1st May 2024, 711 migrants successfully crossed the Channel between France and the UK in small boats. This year is so far on track to see the highest number of crossings on record.

This highly industrialised illicit industry estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of Euros, has seen the coast of northern France demarcated between competing gangs from a specific region of the Middle East, and who have a long history of smuggling.

They control the entire length of the route, from beginning to end - targeting prospective migrants through social media, offering package deals, and advice on how to speak to authorities on arrival. Some migrants even use their own knowledge of the trip to become smugglers themselves.

In this episode we take a look at the criminal groups behind the small boat crossings; how organised the logistics are; how much money they make and where it goes; and finally what this could mean for the future of other illicit economies in Western Europe.

Speaker(s):

Tuesday Reitano, Deputy Director of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, author of the book Migrant, Refugee, Smuggler, Saviour. Author of the report Small Boats, Big Business: The Industrialization of Cross-Channel Migrant Smuggling.

Julien Goudichaud, documentary filmmaker who has been reporting on people smugglers who operate in Calais.

Afshin Ismaeli, a journalist and war photographer from Norway.

Links:

(GI Paper) Small Boats, Big Business: The Industrialization of Cross-Channel Migrant Smuggling - available in English & French

(Book) Migrant, Refugee, Smuggler, Saviour

(GI Paper) The Human Conveyor Belt: Trends in human trafficking and smuggling in post-revolution Libya

(GI Analysis) An increasing number of Albanians are crossing the English Channel from France using small boats

(GI Analysis) Western Balkan criminal groups are important players in the Netherlands

Additional Links

https://calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com/deaths-at-the-calais-border/

https://www.duvarenglish.com/illegal-networks-in-turkey-said-to-be-providing-fake-passports-to-isis-members-to-travel-to-west-news-60262

https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/16-arrests-vietnamese-network-smuggling-migrants-across-english-channel-busted

https://www.migrationwatchuk.org/channel-crossings-tracker

https://news.sky.com/story/more-than-700-people-cross-channel-in-busiest-day-of-the-year-so-far-13127430

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/migrants-detected-crossing-the-english-channel-in-small-boats

https://labour.org.uk/updates/stories/labours-immigration-and-border-policy-stop-small-boats/

https://www.bbc.com/news/explainers-61782866

https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/five-high-value-targets-arrested-one-of-largest-networks-smuggling-migrants-across-english-channel-halted

https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/39-arrests-in-cross-border-operation-against-migrant-smuggling-in-small-boats-across-english-channel

https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20220923-france-busts-people-smugglers-accused-of-making-thousands-from-channel-crossings

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/16/decathlon-stops-canoe-sales-in-northern-france-to-curb-migrant-crossings

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/migrants-detected-crossing-the-english-channel-in-small-boats/migrants-detected-crossing-the-english-channel-in-small-boats-last-7-days

https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/50834/inside-frances-battle-against-migrant-smugglers-a-closer-look

https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/convicted-the-east-london-money-launderer-who-took-payments-for-small-boats-crossings

https://www.facebook.com/NCA/videos/-arrest-footagea-man-investigated-by-the-nca-for-laundering-money-made-by-people/1573557123417557/

https://www.cps.gov.uk/cps/news/man-convicted-running-illegal-financial-service-people-smugglers

https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/gang-leader-who-bragged-of-smuggling-more-than-100-women-into-uk-jailed-for-10-years

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/migrant-channel-crossings-europol-nca-arrests-b2116830.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-67145474

https://news.sky.com/video/former-landlady-of-hewa-rahimpur-says-she-is-in-shock-over-people-smuggling-allegations-12956583

https://news.sky.com/story/hewa-rahimpur-gang-leader-who-smuggled-up-to-10-000-migrants-across-channel-jailed-12986202

https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/prolific-small-boats-people-smuggling-network-dismantled-as-part-of-international-operation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC85bBq8MXo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuZjG3UCufg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv2mJtx9o5M&t=53s

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/gunfights-between-channel-smugglers-jns9dcntj

https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/06/19/mediterranean-migration-crisis/why-people-flee-what-eu-should-do

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/663cdb73bd01f5ed3279386c/07_May_2024_Small_boats_-_time_series.ods

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/channel-migrants-small-boats-asylum-rwanda-b1155217.html

LockBit, the world's largest ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) provider suffered a very public takedown by an international law enforcement task force, Operation Cronos.

The ransomware behemoth quickly relaunched just days later. But in a world where trust is key, might the reputational damage be too great?

This is the story of the rise of LockBit, its relationship with other infamous cybercriminal groups, its uneasy relationship with some affiliates, its curious leader LockBitsupp, the public takedown and the relaunch, and what this means for the future of ransomware-as-a-service.

Speaker(s):

Koryak Uzan, Co-founder & Managing Director of PRODAFT

Links:

GITOC - The Rise and Fall of the Conti ransomware group

PRODAFT - LockBit: Behind the Lines of the Notorious RaaS

PRODAFT - The Demise of LOCKBIT: Disrupting the Most Prominent Ransomware Gang by Utilizing Upstream Threat Intelligence

https://twitter.com/PRODAFT

https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/gb/security/news/ransomware-by-the-numbers/lockbit-blackcat-and-clop-prevail-as-top-raas-groups-for-1h-2023

https://www.wired.com/story/lockbit-ransomware-takedown-website-nca-fbi/

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2024/02/fulton-county-security-experts-call-lockbits-bluff/

https://www.blackfog.com/the-top-10-ransomware-groups-of-2023/

https://go.recordedfuture.com/webinar/threat-briefing/lockbit-takedown

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-19/fbi-uk-crime-agency-say-they-have-disrupted-lockbit-hacking-gang?cmpid=cyber

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/lockbit-ransomware-returns-to-attacks-with-new-encryptors-servers/

https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/nca-leads-international-investigation-targeting-worlds-most-harmful-ransomware-group

https://samples.vx-underground.org/tmp/Lockbit_Statement_2024-02-24.txt

https://therecord.media/lockbit-lied-about-deleting-exfiltrated-data-after-ransom-payments

https://www.sophos.com/en-us/content/state-of-ransomware

https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/gb/security/news/ransomware-spotlight/ransomware-spotlight-rhysida

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/06/hacker-british-library-cybersecurity-cybercrime-uk

https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa23-352a

https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/ransomware-spotlight/ransomware-spotlight-royal

https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/blackcat-ransomware-site-claims-it-was-seized-uk-law-enforcement-denies-being-2024-03-05/

https://thehackernews.com/2024/03/exit-scam-blackcat-ransomware-group.html

https://twitter.com/ddd1ms/status/1764979901965201552

https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/under-increasing-federal-scrutiny-blackcat-ransomware-gang-pulls-exit-scam-on-its-way-out/

https://www.trustwave.com/en-us/resources/blogs/spiderlabs-blog/resurgence-of-blackcat-ransomware/

https://www.cpomagazine.com/cyber-security/blackcat-ransomware-gang-recovers-from-early-december-law-enforcement-operation-restores-websites-seized-by-doj/

https://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/lockbit-leak-site-reemerges-week-after-complete-compromise-

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/prodaft_manual-ransomware-business-activity-7026870344648916992-mgZX/?originalSubdomain=nl

https://therecord.media/lockbit-ransomware-indictments-us-doj-bassterlord

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2114

https://therecord.media/lockbit-affiliates-arrested-in-ukraine-poland

https://www.reuters.com/technology/cybersecurity/ukraine-arrests-father-son-duo-lockbit-cybercrime-bust-2024-02-21/

https://www.chainalysis.com/blog/lockbit-takedown-sanctions-february-2024/

https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/law-enforcement-disrupt-worlds-biggest-ransomware-operation

https://analyst1.com/this-forum-is-a-bunch-of-communists-and-they-set-me-up-lockbit-spills-the-tea-regarding-their-recent-ban-on-russian-speaking-forums/

https://securityaffairs.com/149941/hacking/lockbit-3-leaked-code-usage.html

https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/ransomware-as-a-service-gang-lockbit-pays-first-50k-bounty-a-20099

https://therecord.media/wazawaka-cyber-most-wanted-interview-click-here

https://www.state.gov/the-department-of-state-announces-reward-offer-against-russian-ransomware-actor/

https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/cyber/mikhail-pavlovich-matveev

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/evil-corp-switches-to-lockbit-ransomware-to-evade-sanctions/

https://resources.prodaft.com/fin7-cybercrime-gang

https://analyst1.com/ransomware-diaries-volume-1/

https://www.mimecast.com/content/darkside-ransomware/

https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/cybersecurity-advisories/aa21-291a

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/lockbit-ransomware-goes-green-uses-new-conti-based-encryptor/

https://blog.talosintelligence.com/ransomware-affiliate-model/

https://www.csoonline.com/article/573937/with-conti-gone-lockbit-takes-lead-of-the-ransomware-threat-landscape.html

https://youtu.be/0EQenbbPSaE

https://threatpost.com/darkside-hackers-court-paying-affiliates/166393/

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/us/politics/biden-colonial-pipeline-ransomware.html

https://twitter.com/vxunderground/status/1568273779050127363?lang=en

https://twitter.com/vxunderground/status/1568981950043414530?lang=en

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/msrc/bounty

https://bughunters.google.com/

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/lockbit-30-introduces-the-first-ransomware-bug-bounty-program/

https://analyst1.com/lockbit-takedown-operation-cronos-a-long-awaited-psyops-against-ransomware/

https://twitter.com/vxunderground/status/1697027546452259277

https://twitter.com/NCA_UK/status/1759888184979157123

https://twitter.com/NCA_UK/status/1759873080069910955

https://twitter.com/NCA_UK/status/1759857979086499939

https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/law-enforcement-disrupt-worlds-biggest-ransomware-operation

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-and-uk-disrupt-lockbit-ransomware-variant

https://twitter.com/NCA_UK/status/1759842879688655053

https://twitter.com/NCA_UK/status/1759906806044725514

https://therecord.media/an-interview-with-lockbit-the-risk-of-being-hacked-ourselves-is-always-present

Russian organized crime has a mythology attached to it - the brutal tattooed men of the Vory v Zakone. But those days are long in the past, rapid globalisation saw a new type of organized criminal take the reins in the Russian underworld, spreading their influence as criminal facilitators across the world.

But the war in Ukraine has changed that. It's changed the relationship between organized crime and the Russian state, the status quo within the established criminal order, the potential vacuum left by those criminals who fight and die in the conflict, the establishment of Russian criminal groups outside of the country, the flows of illicit goods themselves have evolved, and then Ukraine, once so critical to those illicit flows, is currently lost.

Such is the uncertainty surrounding organized crime that there have been rumblings about a possible return to a dark period in Russian history, known as the 'Wild 90s' - a period of anarchy that is etched into the Russian psyche.

Speaker(s):

Mark Galeotti, the Executive Director of Mayak Intelligence, honorary professor at University College London, member of the GI Network. Author of ‘The Vory: Russia’s Super Mafia' and the GI-TOC paper: Time of Troubles: The Russian underworld since the Ukraine invasion

Links:

(GI Paper) Rebellion as racket: Crime and the Donbas conflict 2014-2022

(GI Paper) Evolving drug trends in wartime Ukraine

(GI Analysis) The devil’s not-so-new psychoactive substance: Alpha-PVP, a highly addictive synthetic drug, is experiencing growing demand in Ukraine.

(GI Paper) Crossroads: Kazakhstan's changing illicit drug economy

(GI Paper) Port in a storm: Organized crime in Odesa since the Russian invasion

(Podcast) “Death Can Wait”: Drugs on the Frontline in Ukraine

Research Links:

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/10/23/russian-artist-fined-for-extremist-toy-doll-with-prison-tattoos-a82852

https://tass.ru/obschestvo/9218777

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/08/17/russia-outlaws-childrens-criminal-underground-movement-a71178

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2014/sep/18/decoding-russian-criminal-tattoos-in-pictures

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68140873

https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-recruited-convicts-fierce-assault-units-storm-gladiator-/32806371.html

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/russia-turns-off-prison-heating-to-make-inmates-fight-in-ukraine-njgg08wc9

https://www.gazeta.ru/politics/2015/08/26_a_7719581.shtml

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/08/18/murders-drugs-and-brawls-russias-pardoned-ex-convicts-return-home-after-fighting-in-ukraine-a82175

https://vk.com/wall-62402836_32981

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/11/14/in-russia-pardoned-murderers-are-returning-from-the-front-and-reoffending_6254288_4.html

https://www.ft.com/content/9fdb5668-7e55-4b09-a6ca-6ba77999530b

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/08/18/murders-drugs-and-brawls-russias-pardoned-ex-convicts-return-home-after-fighting-in-ukraine-a82175

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/11509

https://www.depo.ua/rus/politics/mae-shist-sudimostey-i-krishu-na-rosii-shcho-vidomo-pro-odnogo-z-nayplivovishikh-zlodiiv-v-zakoni-loru-sumskogo-yakogo-mozhut-viklyuchiti-z-sanktsiynogo-spisku-rnbo-202110171379964

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBFIKYeOgCA

https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/knb/press/news/details/545229?lang=ru

https://www.gov.kz/memleket/entities/knb/press/news/details/527735?lang=ru

https://meduza.io/feature/2023/01/26/mnogie-rossiyane-bezhali-ot-mobilizatsii-v-kazahstan-no-teper-v-strane-zapreschayut-vizaran-blagodarya-kotoromu-oni-mogli-zhit-bez-vnzh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DarVDSo5vY

https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-troops-locked-out-of-stolen-john-deere-farm-equipment-2022-5?r=US&IR=T

https://www.grainews.ca/machinery/machinery-brands-comply-with-global-sanctions-against-russia/

https://www.politico.eu/article/farm-machinery-gps-theft-uk-rural-crime-ukraine-russia-war-sanctions/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/13/british-farms-crime-wave/

https://www.nfumutual.co.uk/media-centre/harvest-security-alert-as-cost-of-gps-thefts-doubles-in-2023/

https://www.businessinsider.com/catalytic-converter-thefts-rhodium-palladium-platinum-russian-involvement-2023-2?r=US&IR=T

https://www.businessinsider.in/politics/world/news/russia-is-resorting-to-putting-computer-chips-from-dishwashers-and-refrigerators-in-tanks-due-to-us-sanctions-official-says/articleshow/91519650.cms

https://web.archive.org/web/20221107114101/https:/www.thetimes.co.uk/article/russia-suspected-of-buying-eu-fridges-to-strip-for-weapon-parts-p73sdtngc

https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/special-resources/silicon-lifeline-western-electronics-heart-russias-war-machine

https://www.aftonbladet.se/ledare/a/GMMK76/darfor-behover-putin-svenska-fartkameror

https://www.uasvision.com/2022/10/24/swedens-stolen-speed-cameras-inside-russian-drones/

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202302199696

https://www.twz.com/bizarre-theft-wave-targets-same-rotax-engines-used-in-iranian-drones

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/bizarre-theft-wave-targets-same-rotax-engines-used-in-iranian-drones

https://x.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1584476545912971264?s=20

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/04/27/colonel-alexander-denisov-russia-ukraine-tank-engines/

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/16386

https://svpressa.ru/society/article/398101/

https://93.ru/text/incidents/2023/12/26/73060844/

https://cepa.org/article/fsb-gamekeepers-turn-poachers-in-putins-crime-riddled-state/

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/01/08/russian-fsb-officers-arrested-for-55mln-bribes-tass-a83655

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/05/12/banditry-threatens-the-new-russia/e46ef158-bd84-4ca9-870f-612817fe5854/

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/23/how-organised-crime-took-over-russia-vory-super-mafia

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1997/05/12/banditry-threatens-the-new-russia/e46ef158-bd84-4ca9-870f-612817fe5854/

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/abramovich-tells-of-role-in-aluminium-wars-6256950.html

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/apr/13/mining.russia1

https://www.svoboda.org/a/27226932.html

https://www.rferl.org/a/blood-sports-rise-of-russia-gangster-athletes/27722386.html

At the start of the year masked gunman burst into a television studio in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The cameras were live and the entire event was broadcast. The video shows gang members shouting at staff, pushing them to the ground, threatening them with guns and explosives. These pictures subsequently travelled around the world.

But this event was just one in a series to hit Ecuador in a short space of time. Car bombs, kidnappings, murder, prison riots, prominent prisoner escapes, and another national state of emergency.

Criminal violence has washed over the country as competing gangs like Los Choneros and Los Lobos battle in prisons and on the streets over control of the lucrative cocaine trafficking business. Foreign organized criminal actors like the Mexican Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartels, the Albanian Mafia, FARC dissident groups from Colombia, and others, are all active in Ecuador, a country described as a "cocaine superhighway".

In the space of just five or so years, Ecuador has gone from one of the safest countries in Latin America to a country with one of the highest murder rates. In this episode we are going to talk about how this happened.

Speaker(s):

Felipe Botero Escobar, the Head of Andean Programmes at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime

GI-TOC:

(Paper) Organized crime declares war: The road to chaos in Ecuador

(Blog) Fernando Villavicencio - Assassination Witness Project

The Global Organized Crime Index - Ecuador Country Profile

(Paper) Transnational Tentacles: Global Hotspots of Balkan Organized Crime

(Podcast episode) The Index - Ecuador

(Paper) The cocaine pipeline to Europe

Additional Reading:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-12/gang-violence-ecuador-cocaine-banana-exports-los-choneros/103311442

https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/seguridad/el-fiscal-cesar-suarez-asesinado-en-los-ceibos-investigaba-el-ataque-armado-en-tc-television-nota/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-68014040

https://news.sky.com/story/prosecutor-investigating-ecuador-tv-station-attack-shot-dead-13050642

https://ecuador221.com.ec/ofrecen-recompensa-por-informacion-de-cinco-cabecillas-de-bandas-criminales/

https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/seguridad/colon-pico-captura-riobamba-enero-2024-nota/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-67912235

https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-01-09/daniel-noboa-declares-an-internal-armed-conflict-in-ecuador-after-an-armed-commando-breaks-into-a-television-station-live-on-air.html

https://crisis24.garda.com/alerts/2024/01/ecuador-criminal-groups-launch-attacks-jan-9-following-declaration-of-state-of-emergency-and-curfew-update-3

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/09/world/americas/ecuador-gang-prison-emergency.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12943831/Chaos-Ecuador-cops-abducted-prison-riots-cities-rocked-explosions-feared-Los-Choneros-gang-boss-Fito-escaped-jail-sparking-state-emergency.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-67921986

https://time.com/6552988/ecuador-most-wanted-criminal-fito-escape-guayaquil-prison/

https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-01-09/state-of-emergency-declared-in-ecuador-as-security-crisis-worsens.html

https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/seguridad/quien-es-alias-fito-el-cabecilla-que-el-gobierno-no-hallo-en-la-carcel-regional-durante-operativo-nota/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/09/ecuadoran-president-declares-armed-conflict-gunmen-storm-tv-studio/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/2/ecuadors-embattled-president-lasso-will-not-seek-re-election

https://www.infobae.com/america/america-latina/2023/03/31/ecuador-asesinaron-a-ruben-cherrez-amigo-del-cunado-de-guillermo-lasso-y-vinculado-a-la-mafia-albanesa/

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ecuadors-President-Calls-for-Investigation-of-Brother-in-law-20230314-0021.html

https://usacrime.com/leandro-el-patron-norero-beheaded-ecuador-prison/

https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20221005-new-clashes-break-out-in-ecuador-prison-after-deadly-riot

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-63126159

https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2024/01/25/can-ecuador-free-itself-from-the-grasp-of-the-drug-lords

https://insightcrime.org/news/gang-boss-money-launderer-murdered-ecuadorian-pison-riots/

https://insightcrime.org/news/judges-officials-fall-ecuador-cleans-house/

https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20240121-diana-salazar-the-prosecutor-spearheading-ecuador-s-fight-against-narcopolitics

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/12/ecuador-violence-bloody-drug-war

https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-08-13/once-ecuador-was-a-peaceful-country-now-it-is-one-of-the-regions-most-violent.html

https://www.ft.com/content/579d9423-e10d-4f2e-8fe8-33e12b80f25e

https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/seguridad/asesinan-julio-cesar-farachio-candidato-a-la-alcaldia-de-salinas-nota/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-64553935

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-66289355

https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-10-07/colombian-hitmen-who-killed-presidential-candidate-fernando-villavicencio-murdered-in-an-ecuadorian-prison.html

https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-08-13/fito-the-gang-leader-who-threatened-to-kill-candidate-fernando-villavicencio-moved-to-maximum-security-prison.html

https://www.ecuavisa.com/noticias/seguridad/orden-muerte-fernando-villavicencio-salio-desde-la-carcel-LD5948827

https://veja.abril.com.br/mundo/a-relacao-entre-membros-do-pcc-e-a-crise-de-violencia-no-equador

https://www.metropoles.com/mundo/faccoes-em-guerra-com-o-estado-no-equador-tem-vinculos-com-pcc-e-cv

https://eu.courier-journal.com/story/news/crime/2024/01/26/mexican-cartels-play-role-in-ecuador-violence-tv-station-storming/72255406007/

https://apnews.com/article/ecuador-crisis-killings-mexican-cartels-2b82e62999b2696e70bd0f6ce933026f

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/09/30/ecuador-prison-riot-cartels/

https://www.proceso.com.mx/nacional/justicia/2021/8/31/detienen-en-colombia-presunto-operador-del-cjng-270991.html

https://insightcrime.org/news/arrest-mexico-sinaloa-cartel-presence-colombia/

https://dialogo-americas.com/articles/mexican-cartels-bolster-foothold-and-alliances-in-colombia/

https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/latin-america/ecuador-nabs-wanted-narco-president-says-crackdown-bearing-fruit.phtml

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/senior-farc-commander-pleads-guilty-brooklyn-federal-court-conspiring-distribute

https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/22-00767-INCSR-2022-Vol-1.pdf

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-64785502

https://www.unodc.org/unodc/frontpage/2022/December/record-amounts-of-cocaine-seized-bring-the-builders-32-tons-of-cocaine-disposed-through-encapsulation-method-in-ecuador.html

https://insightcrime.org/news/record-cocaine-seizure-blow-to-ecuadors-gangs/

https://2009-2017.state.gov/j/inl/rls/nrcrpt/2016/vol1/253260.htm

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/ecuador-presidential-hopefuls-pledge-action-ports-where-bananas-hide-cocaine-2023-10-11/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-08-10/dutch-seize-record-660-million-cocaine-hidden-in-banana-cargo

https://www.intellinews.com/banana-crates-from-ecuador-now-usual-suspect-for-turkey-s-cocaine-police-286135/?source=latin-america

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/italian-police-find-880-million-cocaine-stashed-banana-crates-2023-05-16/

https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/prison-for-drugs-gang-who-attempted-to-smuggle-cocaine-worth-11-million-in-bananas

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12451487/Spain-cocaine-Ecuador-banana.html

http://www.fsb.ru/fsb/press/message/single.htm%21id%3D10439686%40fsbMessage.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-67964229

https://www.ft.com/content/0bcff64a-4a16-49e4-87dc-03295e40b63d

https://apnews.com/article/ecuador-kidnapping-british-businessman-former-consul-ba9c148f10b39071375250119b6c1710

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/02/ecuador-violence-deadly-attacks-gangs-cartels

https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/latin-america/mutilated-bodies-gang-wars-shock-once-peaceful-ecuador.phtml

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/13/ecuador-violence-galapagos-cocaine/

https://www.elcomercio.com/actualidad/seguridad/gobierno-declaracion-excepcion-carceles-ecuador.html

https://elpais.com/internacional/2023-03-01/419-muertos-y-cero-responsables-dos-anos-de-la-oleada-de-masacres-carcelarias-en-ecuador.html

https://insightcrime.org/ecuador-organized-crime-news/lobos-ecuador/

https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2020/12/07/nota/8075287/dos-bandas-relacionadas-choneros-lagartos-pelea-carcel-esmeraldas/

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/fito-cartel-leader-ecuador-violence-b2476638.html

https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20240111-what-we-know-about-fito-ecuador-s-notorious-gang-leader-who-escaped-jail

https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2020/07/04/nota/7894974/guerra-bandas-guayaquil-pierde-protagonistas-hasta-covid-19/

https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2019/06/12/nota/7374450/quien-era-alias-cubano/

https://insightcrime.org/es/noticias-crimen-organizado-ecuador/los-lagartos/

https://insightcrime.org/news/brief/homicides-ecuador-prisons/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7m8a8/gang-war-causes-brutal-prison-riots-across-ecuador-leaving-79-dead

https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2020/12/28/nota/9045034/persona-herida-bala-interior-centro-comercial-manta/

https://www.primicias.ec/noticias/sociedad/macabro-mensaje-muerte-rasquina/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-67930452

https://english.elpais.com/international/2024-01-11/tv-studio-hostages-recall-terror-of-on-air-attack-it-is-very-easy-to-kill-journalists-in-ecuador-too-easy.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12948857/Gangsters-stormed-Ecuadorian-TV-station-guns-grenades-taking-journalists-hostage-humbled-detained-police.html

'The King is dead, long live the King!'

In September 2023, Ovidio Guzmán López, the son of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán, stood in a courtroom as a series of charges were laid out, including his alleged role as a leader of the Sinaloa Cartel.

There is a long list of cartel and organized crime leaders over the past few decades who have been targeted through what become known as the 'Kingpin Strategy'. The strategy aims to weaken, destabilise, and destroy criminal groups through a variety of methods, but is not without critics.

In this episode of Deep Dive: Monitoring, we look at the arrest of Ovidio, the history and impact of the Kingpin Strategy, how organized crime responds to a prominent criminal leader being removed, the so-called "Narco-Culture" that surrounds criminal actors, and the impact it has on the communities bearing the greatest impact of these criminal groups.

Speaker:

Siria Gastelum Felix, the Director of Resilience, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime - Link

GITOC:

OC Index - Mexico

OC Index - Colombia

Clan del Golfo: The fall of 'Otoniel' - How Colombia's biggest drug lord was taken down.

Mexico’s war with itself? ¿La guerra de México consigo mismo?

Additional Reading:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cmlj7cFHlsA

https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/criminal-prosecution-drug-traffickers-under-continuing-criminal

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-66853111

https://insightcrime.org/colombia-organized-crime-news/oficina-de-envigado-profile/

https://insightcrime.org/colombia-organized-crime-news/auc-profile/

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-66784678

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/20/colombias-coca-crops-grew-to-historic-levels-last-year-un

https://museum.dea.gov/video-archive/kingpin-strategy-did-it-work

https://justiceinmexico.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/OCVM-21.pdf

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/VC.IHR.PSRC.P5?locations=CO&most_recent_value_desc=true

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-foreign-policies-of-the-sinaloa-cartel-and-cjng-part-i-in-the-americas/

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-foreign-policies-of-the-sinaloa-cartel-and-cjng-part-v-europes-supercoke-and-on-the-horizon-issues-and-the-middle-east/

https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-america-latina-64186716

https://insightcrime.org/news/failed-kingpin-strategy-heart-us-mexico-security/

https://museum.dea.gov/video-archive/disrupt-kingpin-strategy

https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/mexican-state-bans-narco-music/

https://insightcrime.org/news/brief/narcocorrido-ban-sinaloa-state-lifted/

https://insightcrime.org/news/analysis/narco-culture-and-mexico-s-drug-gangs/

https://www.gao.gov/assets/ggd-99-108.pdf

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-41804243

https://www.latimes.com/la-fg-narco-glossary28-2009oct28-story.html

https://shoc.rusi.org/blog/the-kingpin-strategy-more-violence-no-peace/

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/watch-live-u-s-mexico-to-announce-new-plans-on-cartels

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64337404

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/mexicos-long-war-drugs-crime-and-cartels

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/31/mexico-president-peace-agreement-cartels

https://dataunodc.un.org/dp-intentional-homicide-victims

https://apnews.com/article/mexico-missing-disappearances-united-nations-147b08e445c715fe0ee487a5b0787288

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1281640/mexico-number-persons-reported-missing/

https://www.milenio.com/espectaculos/musica/soy-el-raton-narco-corrido-ovidio-guzman-origen-cancion-codigo-fn

Website:

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

The Global Organized Crime index

“If you can do it without consequences, then you should do it”.

What are illicit Financial Flows, or IFFs? And why do they matter?

Every illicit market, from drug trafficking, people smuggling, the illegal wildlife trade, arms trafficking etc. all are connected to IFFs. IFFs are about the movement of money across borders that is illegal in some way.

The money could be from a criminal act, like corruption or its money associated with the illicit markets above. Perhaps, it could be legitimately earned money that is transferred in a way that evades taxation, like being paid in cash and not declaring it or money is funnelled into complex corporate schemes and secrecy jurisdictions. Or perhaps its ultimate use is something like terrorist financing or funding organised criminal activity.

Dirty money is a global problem, according to the IMF, it makes up between 2-5% (up to $5.25 trillion dollars) of global GDP.

Given the scale of the problem, in this episode we will focus in on the Western Balkans in South-Eastern Europe through three IFFs - money laundering investigations in Kosovo, corruption and the role of the private sector in Albania, and tax evasion in Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Speaker(s):

Dardan Kocani, Field Coordinator for Kosovo for the South Eastern Europe Observatory at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime

Sokol Toska, Legal Auditor in Albania and expert in money laundering and illicit financial flows.

Anesa Agovich, Field Coordinator for Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Links:

Illicit financial flows in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia: Key drivers and current trends

Illicit Financial Flows in Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia: Key drivers and current trends

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Global Organized Crime Index

Research Links:

 https://www.europol.europa.eu/cms/sites/default/files/documents/europol-review-2016.pdf

https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-the-105-trillion-world-economy-in-one-chart/

https://www.ibe.org.uk/resource/tax-avoidance-as-an-ethical-issue-for-business.html

https://www.transparency.org/en/corruptionary/tax-evasion

https://albaniandailynews.com/news/wanted-for-incinerators-affair-stela-gugallja-detained-in-austria

https://top-channel.tv/english/former-minister-is-sentenced-to-5-8-years-in-prison-for-corruption-with-the-incinerators-his-second-is-found-innocent/

https://telegraf.al/i-pakategorizuar/boset-e-inceneratoreve-denohen-per-here-te-dyte-ne-arrati-policia-dhe-spak-nuk-arrijne-dot-te-zoto-mertiri-e-gugallja/

https://www.eu-ocs.com/albania-seizes-waste-disposal-facility-amid-fraud-allegations/

https://balkaninsight.com/2022/01/06/short-circuit-the-stunning-simplicity-of-top-level-corruption-in-albania/

https://balkaninsight.com/2023/07/10/albania-prosecutors-seek-former-deputy-pm-arben-ahmetajs-arrest/

https://balkaninsight.com/2020/09/28/the-incinerator-how-a-politically-connected-albanian-built-an-empire-on-waste/

https://balkaninsight.com/2023/09/25/albania-former-minister-sentenced-for-corruption/

https://balkaninsight.com/2023/08/01/albania-seizes-tirana-waste-disposal-company-over-alleged-fraud/

https://www.cna.al/english/aktualitet/mirel-mertiri-bosi-real-i-inceneratorit-elbasan-mesazhet-e-plota-qe-b-i362014

https://albaniandailynews.com/news/spak-asks-meta-to-find-out-location-of-former-minister-ahmetaj

https://www.voxnews.al/english/investigim/dosja-buka-arben-ahmetaj-doli-mbi-vendimin-e-formes-se-prere-te-gjyka-i50069

http://www.panorama.com.al/privatizimi-i-fabrikes-spak-kemi-prova-demi-1-5-milione-euro-ahmetaj-nxjerr-dokumentet-e-bejne-per-presion-duan-te-me-mbyllin-gojen/

https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/albanian-government-to-continue-concession-with-companies-implicated-in-financial-crime/

https://www.transparency.org/en/projects/cases-project/data/public-private-partnership-for-waste-incinerators

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7f6aa0ed915d74e33f64bf/20160607_Handbook_for_the_Concession_Contracts_Regulations_2016_final.pdf

https://www.transparency.org/en/projects/cases-project/data/public-private-partnership-for-waste-incinerators

https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/single-market/public-procurement/legal-rules-and-implementation/concession-contracts_en

https://egmontgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/2021-Financial.Analysis.Cases_.2014-2020-3.pdf

https://egmontgroup.org/

https://www.coe.int/en/web/corruption/-/financial-intelligence-unit-of-kosovo-attends-the-24th-egmont-group-plenary-meeting

https://egmontgroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/2021-Financial.Analysis.Cases_.2014-2020-3.pdf

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07nkd84/episodes/downloads

https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/topten/ruja-ignatova/@@download.pdf

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-50435014

https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2022

https://www.businessinsider.com/fbi-russian-oligarch-roman-abramovich-shell-companies-luxury-jets-2022-6?r=US&IR=T

https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/oligarchs-jets-yachts-luxury/

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/02/02/pandora-papers-reveal-1600-works-of-art-in-tax-havens

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-51299018

https://www.redflagalert.com/articles/risk/a-guide-to-shell-companies

https://www.icij.org/investigations/fincen-files/

https://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/

https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/

https://complyadvantage.com/insights/structuring-vs-smurfing/

https://www.acamstoday.org/from-smurfs-to-mules-21st-century-money-laundering/

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/smurf.asp

https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/money-laundering-cash-couriers-smuggled-100-million-in-suitcases

https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Money_Laundering_and_Illicit_Financial_F.html?id=gkiCzQEACAAJ&redir_esc=y

https://oxfordre.com/criminology/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264079.001.0001/acrefore-9780190264079-e-708;jsessionid=ADF024BF24F76DA5720F4017B035E029

https://financialcrimeacademy.org/the-history-of-money-laundering-2/

In September 2023, there were four large cocaine seizures in and around the Atlantic Ocean - off the coast of Ireland, West Africa, Brazil, and Cape Verde.

The flows of cocaine that traverse the Atlantic travel mainly by sea, from the huge bulk carriers to small fishing vessels or sailing boats. Much of this illicit drug ends in the cocaine markets of Europe.

In this episode of Deep Dive: Monitoring, we briefly take a look at the seizures, what they mean for cocaine markets and the organized criminal networks involved. And do drug seizures make a dent in this multi-billion dollar industry?

Speaker:

Jason Eligh, Senior Expert, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and Thematic Lead of the GI-TOC's Global Drug Program - Link

Papers:

The cocaine pipeline to Europe

Atlantic connections: The PCC and the Brazil-West Africa cocaine trade

West Africa's Cocaine Corridor: Building a subregional response

Cocaine politics in West Africa: Guinea-Bissau's protection networks

A powder storm: The cocaine markets of East and southern Africa

Additional Reading:

https://www.donegaldaily.com/2023/10/03/gardai-believe-e157m-drugs-gang-tried-to-buy-boat-in-killybegs/

https://www.sundayworld.com/crime/cocaine-bust-trawler-remains-wedged-on-sandbank-off-wexford-coast/a295844397.html

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-41235682.html

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:5058595/mmsi:250004351/imo:0/vessel:CASTLEMORE

https://afloat.ie/safety/marine-warning/item/26428-marine-notice-aim-requirements-for-seagoing-passenger-ships

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/2023/09/28/us-sanctions-colombian-cartel-leader-linked-to-157m-irish-cocaine-haul/

https://www.policia.es/_es/comunicacion_prensa_detalle.php?ID=15905

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazils-navy-seizes-record-36-tonnes-cocaine-2023-09-20/

https://maoc.eu/joint-operation-between-the-brazilian-federal-police-and-the-brazilian-navy-seizes-3-6-tonnes-of-cocaine-in-the-atlantic/

https://www.premar-atlantique.gouv.fr/communiques-presse/la-fregate-de-surveillance-fs-ventose-saisit-2-4-tonnes-de-cocaine-au-large-des-cotes-africaines

https://maoc.eu/maoc-n-supports-french-seizure-of-2-4-tonnes-off-the-coast-of-west-africa/

https://maoc.eu/maoc-n-supports-irish-operation-off-the-cork-coast-2253-kg-of-cocaine-seized/

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:711870/mmsi:356182000/imo:9228150/vessel:MATTHEW

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/2023/09/29/irelands-biggest-cocaine-haul-how-the-plan-ran-aground/

https://www.icontainers.com/us/2016/11/11/friday-fun-fact-3-only-2-to-10-of-containers-are-inspected/

https://www.identecsolutions.com/news/drug-trafficking-container-terminal-safety

Website:

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

The Global Organized Crime index

Scam call centres are a blight on the lives of anyone unfortunate enough to have any dealings with them. They come to you with promises of a short cut to wealth, to fix a non-existent issue with your computer, claiming to be from a charity, threatening you with arrest for unpaid taxes.

There are 70 million of these phone calls worldwide every day and they generate billions of dollars each year. Organized crime is very much a part of this industry from Mexico to India and from the Philippines to Ukraine.

In this episode we delve into the hundreds, possibly thousands of scam call centres based in Ukraine, where investment scams are mainly targeting Russians.

Links:

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

PORT IN A STORM: Organized crime in Odesa since the Russian invasion

New front lines: Organized criminal economies in Ukraine in 2022

Global Organized Crime Index

Additional Reading:  

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/katie-investigates/father-attempted-suicide-crypto-fraudsters-tricked-144k/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36108762

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-22/ukraine-s-economy-grows-year-on-year-first-time-since-war-began

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2023/03/30/western-lenders-may-regret-forcing-ukraine-to-turn-to-the-imf

https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/latvia-and-lithuania-detain-108-over-multi-million-euro-call-centre-scam

https://www.dnainfo.com/new-york/20100609/midtown-west-hells-kitchen/fbi-raids-suspected-mafia-boiler-rooms-midtown/

https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna6928696

https://www.occrp.org/en/fraud-factory/trail-of-broken-lives-leads-to-kyiv-call-center

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-65038949

https://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/fraudfactory/

https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/bulgarian-authorities-take-down-online-investment-scam-responsible-for-losses-of-more-eur-10-million

https://www.epravda.com.ua/publications/2023/03/24/698383/

https://twitter.com/i/status/1606340479196479488

https://www.businessinsider.com/russians-scammed-torching-kremlin-offices-cars-2023-4?r=US&IR=T

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66440752

https://t.me/mashmoyka/11725

https://www.businessinsider.com/russians-scammed-torching-kremlin-offices-cars-2023-4?r=US&IR=T

https://t.me/url_mash/4742

https://www.businessinsider.com/russians-scammed-torching-kremlin-offices-cars-2023-4?r=US&IR=T

https://www.interfax-russia.ru/moscow/main/fsb-preduprezhdaet-moskvichey-o-moshennikah-sklonyayushchih-k-perevodu-deneg-i-podzhogam

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66440752

https://t.me/rabota_vakansii_dnepr0/10

https://lawrange.net/en/services/lawyer-for-fraud-in-ukraine-under-article-190-of-the-criminal-code-of-ukraine/

https://ruscrime.com/breaking-through-potential-victims-conversation-scenarios-and-tricks-of-telephone-crooks-from-ukrainian-call-centers/

https://crime-ua.com/node/30638

https://en.fromheartua.charity/ua/stats

https://incident.obozrevatel.com/crime/organizator-narkosindikata-pri-podderzhke-fsb-razvernulsya-v-ukraine-on-v-rozyiske-no-rulit-iz-za-granitsyi.htm

https://censor.net/ru/news/3434694/sluga_naroda_seminskiyi_otritsaet_prichastnost_k_rossiyiskomu_kolltsentru_posle_obvineniyi_tischenko

https://lb.ua/news/2023/08/01/568007_tishchenko_zayaviv_pro_vikrittya.html

https://denzadnem.com.ua/aktualno/139009

https://incident.obozrevatel.com/crime/organizator-narkosindikata-pri-podderzhke-fsb-razvernulsya-v-ukraine-on-v-rozyiske-no-rulit-iz-za-granitsyi.htm

https://antikor.com.ua/ru/articles/650654-rossijskij_narkobaron_meksikanets_podminaet_pod_sebja_rynok_moshennicheskih_kol-tsentrov

https://regionews.ua/rus/news/ukraine/1693672865-tayny-meksikanskogo-ekspressa-smi-rasskazali-zachem-egor-levchenko-na-samom-dele-lovit-baryg

https://antikor.com.ua/ru/articles/650654-rossijskij_narkobaron_meksikanets_podminaet_pod_sebja_rynok_moshennicheskih_kol-tsentrov

https://incident.obozrevatel.com/crime/organizator-narkosindikata-pri-podderzhke-fsb-razvernulsya-v-ukraine-on-v-rozyiske-no-rulit-iz-za-granitsyi.htm

https://lb.ua/news/2023/08/01/568007_tishchenko_zayaviv_pro_vikrittya.html

https://regionews.ua/rus/news/ukraine/1693672865-tayny-meksikanskogo-ekspressa-smi-rasskazali-zachem-egor-levchenko-na-samom-dele-lovit-baryg

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/17182-spanish-police-arrest-key-figure-in-scam-brokerage-linked-to-fraud-factory-investigation

https://www.pravda.com.ua/rus/news/2023/08/21/7416432/

https://gp.gov.ua/ua/posts/na-dnipropetrovshhini-vikrito-diyalnist-saxraiskix-sall-centriv-yaki-osukali-gromadyan-derzav-jevropeiskogo-soyuzu

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/The-Big-Story/Cyber-slavery-inside-Cambodia-s-online-scam-gangs

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/06/07/mexican-drug-cartel-eight-dead-scam-call-centre/

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/02/world/americas/remains-mexico-call-center.html

https://ruscrime.com/breaking-through-potential-victims-conversation-scenarios-and-tricks-of-telephone-crooks-from-ukrainian-call-centers/

https://www-cyberpolice-gov-ua.translate.goog/news/kiberpoliczejski-prypynyly-diyalnist-shaxrajskyx-sall-czentriv-u-trox-oblastyax-ukrayiny-3573/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

https://cybernews.com/news/ukraine-police-bust-digital-fraud/

https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/ukraine-cracks-down-on-investment-scams-raids-call-centers-a-22386

https://cyberpolice.gov.ua/news/kiberpolicziya-kyyeva-vykryla-sxemu-psevdoinvestuvannya-organizatory-yakoyi-pryvlasnyly-ponad--mln-grn-7606/

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/ukrainian-police-bust-phishing/

https://www.bankinfosecurity.com/ukrainian-police-disrupt-cryptocurrency-scam-aimed-at-canada-a-22341

https://www.hiya.com/global-call-threat-report

https://www.truecaller.com/blog/insights/us-spam-scam-report-21

https://t.me/joker_ukr/8398

https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252525373/Most-hackers-exfiltrate-data-within-five-hours-of-gaining-access

https://hyperms.com/the-new-generation-of-gsm-gateway-sim-bank/

https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/delhi-news/man-arrested-for-illegally-procuring-and-selling-22-000-sim-cards-to-cyber-criminals-in-india-delhi-police-busts-pan-india-scam-101681928317089.html

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2271839/illegal-sim-cards-integral-to-scams

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga/pr/multiple-india-based-call-centers-and-their-directors-indicted-perpetuating-phone-scams

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-65038949

https://www.dn.se/nyheter/sverige/fraudfactory/

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-16/china-crackdown-scam-epidemic-australia/102850120

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2023/apr/02/i-couldnt-escape-the-people-trafficked-into-call-centres-and-forced-to-scam-australians

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-china-watcher/2022/08/25/the-china-scam-calls-just-wont-die-00052537

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/17030-cross-border-cybercrime-raid-nabs-scam-call-centers-exposed-by-occrp

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/over-200-spike-in-fake-friend-call-scam-reports-in-2022-victims-lost-88-million

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2023/apr/02/i-couldnt-escape-the-people-trafficked-into-call-centres-and-forced-to-scam-australians

https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-05-30/marijuana-blood-and-phone-scams-new-clues-in-the-case-of-seven-workers-who-disappeared-from-a-mexican-call-center.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36108762

https://www.pymnts.com/news/security-and-risk/2022/italian-and-albanian-authorities-break-up-crypto-scam-ring/

https://www.firstpost.com/tech/news-analysis/indian-scam-call-centres-looted-over-10-billion-in-11-months-from-us-senior-citizens-this-year-11896001.html

For over half a century armed groups in Colombia have battled one another and the state across the country. The FARC, ELN, AUC, AGC, and the infamous drug cartels, have committed untold atrocities on everyday Colombians. These groups use violence to control the local population and to assert territorial control over illicit drug production and trafficking routes.

This episode is about the people who live in those areas, those that have suffered at the hands of armed groups and organized crime, and those who put themselves at risk to fight for a better future for their communities.

Speaker(s):

Felipe Botero Escobar, Head of Colombia Programmes, Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime

Joshua Mitrotti - Director of Somos Comunidad (Resilience Community). Somos Comunidad is backed by USAID, and implemented by FUPAD Colombia and the PADF, who work alongside GI-TOC. Through a series initiatives in rural communities affected by violence, Somos Comunidad is trying to enhance community resilience and contribute to human security.

Community Leaders – Yolima, Yenis, Nancy, Luz, Luis

Initiative Beneficiaries – Jamileth, Dana, Dayanis, Nicole, Sofia

Links:

Somos Comunidad

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

PADF

Research Links:

https://www.eluniversal.com.co/sucesos/masacre-en-el-carmen-de-bolivar-mi-hijo-era-un-nino-venia-de-la-tienda-NF3447834

https://aldianews.com/en/culture/destinations/worlds-first-soda-pop

https://www.semana.com/nacion/cartagena/articulo/golpe-a-la-delincuencia-caen-13-presuntos-integrantes-de-la-subestructura-heroes-del-caribe/202204/

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/former-leader-violent-clan-del-golfo-drug-trafficking-organization-pleads-guilty

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/VC.IHR.PSRC.P5?locations=CO

https://colombiareports.com/assassinations-driving-increase-in-colombias-homicides-report/

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/771130/The_mental_health_needs_of_gang-affiliated_young_people_v3_23_01_1.pdf

https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-05-27/the-forced-recruitment-of-child-soldiers-in-colombia-families-are-uprooted-isolated-and-threatened.html

https://www.savethechildren.net/blog/child-recruitment-colombia-fear-river

https://insightcrime.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Estudio-de-caracterizacion-de-ninez-desvinculada-de-grupos-armados-organizados-al-margen-de-la-ley-2013-2022-1.pdf

https://www.rcnradio.com/colombia/antioquia/cerca-de-500-indigenas-en-riesgo-de-desplazamiento-por-combates-en-caceres

https://colombiareports.com/colombias-front-lines-drug-war-cauca/

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Another-Murder-in-Cauca-137-Social-Leaders-Killed-in-2022-20221007-0018.html

https://participedia.net/case/5661

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2019/12/23/on-patrol-with-the-indigenous-guards-of-colombia

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/23/colombian-activist-killings-hit-record-high-in-2022-ombudsman#:~:text=Carlos%20Camargo%20said%20in%20a,2021%20and%20182%20in%202020.

https://www.wradio.com.co/2023/07/11/precandidato-a-la-alcaldia-de-santa-ana-magdalena-atacado-a-piedras/

https://marketresearchtelecast.com/the-murder-of-three-people-in-southwestern-colombia-brings-the-number-of-massacres-so-far-this-year-to-54/107196/

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/30/world/americas/colombia-february-christmas-quinamayo.html

Disclaimer: Somos Comunidad is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The content of this episode is the responsibility of GI-TOC, and does not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

For around two years the Conti ransomware group rampaged across the internet. They attacked hospitals, educational institutions, businesses, governments, and many more, raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in ransomware payments.

Business was booming for the cybercriminals. At least it was until the Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Conti leadership quickly pledged their loyalty to Russia and then everything began to fall apart.

This is the story of one of the most professional, prolific, and devastating organized cybercriminal groups in history.

Speaker(s):

Selena Larson – Senior Threat Intelligence Analyst and DISCARDED Podcast Co-host at Proofpoint - Twitter

Berk Albayrak, Threat Intelligence Analyst within the PRODAFT Threat Intelligence team and expert on Wizard Spider - Twitter

Conor Gallagher – Crime and Security Correspondent of the Irish Times - Twitter

Allan Liska, Threat Intelligence Analyst at Recorded Future and author of Ransomware: Understand. Precent. Recover. - Twitter

Juan Ignacio Nicolossi, the team leader for the Threat Intelligence Team at PRODAFT.

Zoë Brammer, Cyber & Information Operations Associate at the Institute for Security and Technology - Ransomware Ecosystem Map

Jake Moore, Global Cybersecurity Advisor for ESET.

Artwork by Paulina Rosol-Barrass

Additional Reading:

Reports/Papers:

PRODAFT - Conti Ransomware Group In-Depth Analysis

PRODAFT - Wizard Spider In-Depth Analysis

Google - Fog of War: How the Ukraine Conflict Transformed the Cyber Threat Landscape

DISCARDED Podcast (Proofpoint) - Defending Against Cyber Criminals: Emotet’s Resurrection & Conti’s Implosion - April 12 2022

pwc - Conti cyber attack on the HSE: Independent Post Incident Review

CNN - ‘I can fight with a keyboard’: How one Ukrainian IT specialist exposed a notorious Russian ransomware gang

Proofpoint - The Human Factor Report 2022 - Threat Report

Ransomware Task Force (Institute for Security and Technology - Blueprint for Ransomware Defense

Ransomware Task Force (Institute for Security and Technology - Combating Ransomware

Ransomware Task Force (Institute for Security and Technology - MAPPING THE RANSOMWARE PAYMENT ECOSYSTEM - Video: Mapping the Ransomware Payment Ecosystem & Opportunities for Friction

Ransomware Task Force (Institute for Security and Technology - MAPPING THREAT ACTOR BEHAVIOR IN THE RANSOMWARE PAYMENT ECOSYSTEM: A MINI-PILOT

Ransomware Task Force (Institute for Security and Technology - GAINING GROUND

Book - Ransomware: Understand. Precent. Recover.

Recorded Future - The Business of Fraud: Botnet Malware Dissemination

Recorded Future - Russia’s War Against Ukraine Disrupts the Cybercriminal Ecosystem

Sophos 2023 Threat Report

Sophos - The State of Ransomware 2023

Europol - Wasabi Wallet Report

Wasabi - CoinJoin Legal Concern

vmware - Emotet Exposed: A Look Inside the Cybercriminal Supply Chain

Krebs on Security - Conti Ransomware Group Diaries

Elliptic - Conti Leaks Investigation - The $19m in DAI found in an account linked to Conti Member ‘Target

The Chainalysis 2022 Crypto Crime Report

The Chainalysis 2023 Crypto Crime Report

AdvIntel - DisCONTInued: The End of Conti’s Brand Marks NewChapter For Cybercrime Landscape

FinCEN - Ransomware Trends in Bank Secrecy Act Data Between January 2021 and June 2021

FinCEN - Advisory on Ransomware and the Use of the Financial System to Facilitate Ransom Payments

(Forescout) Vedere Labs - Analysis of Conti Leaks

FATF - Professional Money Laundering

FATF - Targeted update on implementation of the FATF standards on virtual assets and virtual asset service providers

accenture - Global Incident Report: Threat Actors Divide Along Ideological Lines over the Russia-Ukraine Conflict on Underground Forums

Links:

https://cybermagazine.com/articles/the-state-of-ransomware-2023

https://cert.gov.ua/article/339662

https://cert.gov.ua/article/39934

https://cert.gov.ua/article/39708

https://cert.gov.ua/article/39609

https://research.checkpoint.com/2022/leaks-of-conti-ransomware-group-paint-picture-of-a-surprisingly-normal-tech-start-up-sort-of/+

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/conti-leaks-ransomware-work-life

https://twitter.com/HoldSecurity/status/1498364291468169219

https://twitter.com/ContiLeaks/status/1509159431904374793?s=20

https://www.trellix.com/en-gb/about/newsroom/stories/research/conti-leaks-examining-the-panama-papers-of-ransomware.html

https://twitter.com/ContiLeaks/status/1498030708736073734?s=20

https://twitter.com/contileaks?lang=en

https://go.chainalysis.com/2023-crypto-crime-report.html

https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/Colonial-Pipeline-hack-explained-Everything-you-need-to-know

https://www.state.gov/darkside-ransomware-as-a-service-raas/

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64586361

https://intel471.com/blog/conti-emotet-ransomware-conti-leaks

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/emotet-botnet-comeback-orchestrated-by-conti-ransomware-gang/

https://therecord.media/putin-speech-television-ddos-ukraine-it-army

https://t.me/itarmyofukraine2022/1054

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-65250356

https://www.computerweekly.com/news/365530999/Killnet-DDoS-attacks-disrupt-Nato-websites

https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2021/07/the-life-and-death-of-the-zeus-trojan

https://cybernews.com/security/the-8-biggest-botnets-of-all-time/

https://www.malwarebytes.com/glossary/bot-herder

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/01/international-action-targets-emotet-crimeware/

https://www.npu.gov.ua/news/kiberpolitsiya-vikrila-transnatsionalne-ugrupovannya-khakeriv-u-rozpovsyudzhenni-naynebezpechnishogo-v-sviti-kompyuternogo-virusu-emotet

https://www.npu.gov.ua/news/kiberpolitsiya-vikrila-transnatsionalne-ugrupovannya-khakeriv-u-rozpovsyudzhenni-naynebezpechnishogo-v-sviti-kompyuternogo-virusu-emotet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BLOmClsSpc

https://research.checkpoint.com/2022/leaks-of-conti-ransomware-group-paint-picture-of-a-surprisingly-normal-tech-start-up-sort-of/

https://threatpost.com/affiliate-leaks-conti-ransomware-playbook/168442/

https://www.bleepstatic.com/images/news/ransomware/c/conti/leaked-playbook/folder-listing.jpg

https://cyberhoot.com/cybrary/tactics-techniques-and-procedures-ttp/

https://www.redscan.com/news/key-insights-from-the-conti-ransomware-playbook-leak-foothold/

https://www.bleepstatic.com/images/news/ransomware/c/conti/leaked-playbook/forum-post.jpg

https://www.state.gov/reward-offers-for-information-to-bring-conti-ransomware-variant-co-conspirators-to-justice/

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/courts/2023/05/18/up-to-100-cases-taken-over-hse-cyberattack-judge-told/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9486432/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9486432/

https://www.irishtimes.com/crime-law/2022/12/12/cost-of-hse-cyberattack-rises-to-80m-letter-shows/

https://www.proofpoint.com/us/resources/threat-reports/human-factor

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/03/30/politics/ukraine-hack-russian-ransomware-gang/index.html

https://www.prodaft.com/resource/detail/conti-ransomware-group-depth-analysis

https://www.wired.com/story/how-mimikatz-became-go-to-hacker-tool/

https://www.huntress.com/defenders-handbook/persistence-in-cybersecurity

https://www.blumira.com/glossary/malicious-macro/%5d

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/security/intelligence/macro-malware?view=o365-worldwide

https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/96eb4c-statement-from-the-national-public-health-emergency-team/

https://cyberscoop.com/conti-ransomware-russia-ukraine-critical-infrastructure/

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/conti-ransomware-russia

https://www.darkreading.com/analytics/ukraine-war-fault-line-cybercrime-forever

https://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/dark-web-revenue-down-after-hydras-demise

https://flashpoint.io/blog/history-of-conti-ransomware/

https://thehackernews.com/2022/05/us-offering-10-million-reward-for.html

https://www.state.gov/reward-offers-for-information-to-bring-conti-ransomware-variant-co-conspirators-to-justice/

https://www.cisecurity.org/insights/blog/the-conti-leaks-a-case-of-cybercrimes-commercialization

https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2022/11/30/how-cybercriminals-have-been-affected-by-the-war-in-ukraine

https://theintercept.com/2022/03/14/russia-ukraine-conti-russian-hackers/

https://theintercept.com/document/2022/03/14/contileaks-translations/

https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/24/russian_cybercrime_economy/

https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/crypto-ransomware-revenue-down-as-victims-refuse-to-pay/

https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/11/conti_leaks_code/

https://www.rapid7.com/blog/post/2022/03/01/conti-ransomware-group-internal-chats-leaked-over-russia-ukraine-conflict/

https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/10/conti_ryuk_trickbot_sanctions/

https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/27/10m_hive_reward_russia/

https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/18/wizard-spider-ransomware-conti/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-61323402

https://blog.checkpoint.com/security/ransomware-cyber-attacks-in-costa-rica-and-peru-drives-national-response/

https://securityaffairs.co/131093/cyber-crime/conti-ransomware-peru-direccion-general-de-inteligencia.html

https://www.darkreading.com/attacks-breaches/fin7-former-conti-gang-members-collaborate-domino-malware

https://www.wired.com/story/conti-leaks-ransomware-work-life/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-02-03/ireland-hospital-ransomware-attack-fractured-hacker-group-conti

https://cyberscoop.com/conti-ransomware-russia-ukraine-critical-infrastructure/#:~:text=The%20ransomware%20gang%20vowed%20to%20attack%20Russia's%20enemies.&text=An%20infamous%20ransomware%20group%20with,full%20support%20of%20Russian%20government.%E2%80%9D

https://www.ft.com/content/13d33a08-ce83-4f8a-8d93-a60a5e097ed8

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-57184977

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-57134916

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-57111615

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ransomware-gangs-cobalt-strike-servers-ddosed-with-anti-russia-messages/

https://cyberscoop.com/cisa-fbi-nsa-conti-ransomware-alert/

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2022/0223/1282617-cyber-attack-cost/?utm_campaign=wp_the_cybersecurity_202&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_cybersecurity202

https://heimdalsecurity.com/blog/conti-ransomware-shuts-down-and-rebrands-itself/

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/news/hse-cyber-attack-ireland-dollar83m/

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/new-royal-ransomware-emerges-in-multi-million-dollar-attacks/

https://www.trendmicro.com/en_us/research/22/l/conti-team-one-splinter-group-resurfaces-as-royal-ransomware-wit.html

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/the-week-in-ransomware-may-5th-2023-targeting-the-public-sector/

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-says-former-conti-ransomware-members-now-attack-ukraine/

https://therecord.media/google-conti-repurposing-tools-for-ukraine-attacks-using-follina-bug-musk-impersonation

https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/news/252507702/Two-suspected-ransomware-operators-arrested-in-Ukraine

https://www.wired.com/story/emotet-botnet-takedown/

https://flashpoint.io/blog/malware-loaders-continue-to-evolve-proliferate/

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/emotet-botnet-disrupted-after-global-takedown-operation/

https://www.npu.gov.ua/news/kiberpolitsiya-vikrila-transnatsionalne-ugrupovannya-khakeriv-u-rozpovsyudzhenni-naynebezpechnishogo-v-sviti-kompyuternogo-virusu-emotet

https://explore.avertium.com/resource/an-in-depth-look-at-emotet-botnet

https://www.cybereason.com/blog/threat-analysis-report-all-paths-lead-to-cobalt-strike-icedid-emotet-and-qbot

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/hacktivism-russia-ukraine-ddos

https://cybernews.com/security/the-8-biggest-botnets-of-all-time/

https://therecord.media/how-ukraines-cyber-police-fights-fraud-scams-and-attacks-on-critical-infrastructure

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/blogs/a-rundown-of-the-emotet-malware/

https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/world%E2%80%99s-most-dangerous-malware-emotet-disrupted-through-global-action

https://www.malwarebytes.com/emotet

https://www.ft.com/content/9895f997-5941-445c-9572-9cef66d130f5

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/how-conti-ransomware-hacked-and-encrypted-the-costa-rican-government/

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/costa-rica-ransomware-conti

https://www.hoxhunt.com/blog/dawn-of-the-undead-king-of-malware-emotet

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/angry-conti-ransomware-affiliate-leaks-gangs-attack-playbook/

https://securereading.com/conti-ransomware-hits-jvckenwood/

https://www.redscan.com/news/key-insights-from-the-conti-ransomware-playbook-leak-foothold/

https://www.csoonline.com/article/3638056/conti-ransomware-explained-and-why-its-one-of-the-most-aggressive-criminal-groups.html

https://www.rte.ie/news/analysis-and-comment/2022/0507/1296538-cybersecurity-ireland/

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/conti-ransomware-hacking-spree-breaches-over-40-orgs-in-a-month/

https://darktrace.com/blog/the-future-of-cyber-security-ransomware-groups-aim-for-maximum-disruption

https://go.checkpoint.com/2023-cyber-security-report/chapter-02.php

https://therecord.media/costa-ricas-ministry-of-public-works-and-transport-crippled-by-ransomware-attack

https://cyberint.com/blog/research/iocs-identified-to-hunt-conti-ransomware/

https://www.breachquest.com/blog/conti-leaks-insight-into-a-ransomware-unicorn/

https://cyberint.com/blog/research/contileaks/

https://explore.avertium.com/resource/in-depth-look-at-contis-leaked-log-chats

https://thedfirreport.com/2021/10/04/bazarloader-and-the-conti-leaks/

https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2023/02/23/ransomware-group-conti-has-re-surfaced-under-a-new-name-trm-labs/

https://flashpoint.io/blog/crypto-cashouts-and-closures-the-darknet-ecosystem-after-hydra-market/

https://securityintelligence.com/posts/ex-conti-fin7-actors-collaborate-new-backdoor/

Throughout history soldiers have used drugs, sometimes to fight better or to stay alert, or perhaps to help cope with the extreme psychological situation and trauma they are faced with. The current conflict in Ukraine is no different.

Concerns around this led to the Ukrainian parliament passing a new law that authorizes random drug and alcohol tests on soldiers. Organized crime is nothing if not adaptable, even in this most extreme environment. The soldiers fighting to protect their homeland represent a new and relatively wealthy market, ripe for criminal networks to exploit. And they are doing just that.

So who is behind this market? This is a story about war, drugs, the darknet and corruption.

Speaker(s):

Ted

Sasha

Additional Reading:

(GI Paper) New front lines: Organized criminal economies in Ukraine in 2022

Business Insider - Russian lawmakers baselessly claim their army is up against biologically modified Ukrainian super soldiers

LiveScience - Nazis Dosed Soldiers with Performance-Boosting 'Superdrug'

History - G.I.s’ Drug Use in Vietnam Soared—With Their Commanders’ Help

The Atlantic - The Drugs That Built a Super Soldier

Journeyman Pictures - Sierra Leone's Cocaine-Drugged Child Soldiers

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime - Lebanon’s role in Syria’s Captagon trade

Washington Post - Zelensky takes on Ukraine’s top internal enemy

Legatum Institute - Looting Ukraine: The East, the West and the Corruption of a Country (Full Version)

Transparency International - Corruption Perceptions Index

US DoJ Press release - Justice Department Investigation Leads to Shutdown of Largest Online Darknet Marketplace

Chainalysis - OFAC Sanctions Hydra Following Law Enforcement Shutdown of the Darknet Market, As Well As Russian Exchange Garantex

National Institute on Drug Abuse - Synthetic Cathinones ("Bath Salts") DrugFacts

UNIAN.info - SBU busts major drug lab in Kyiv region in raid against local branch of int'l drug cartel

Kyiv Post - Authorities bust cocaine hidden in banana freight container in Odesa port

The Institute of Psychiatry, Forensic Psychiatric Examination and Drug Monitoring of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine - Report on drug situation in Ukraine 2020

Kyiv Post - NABU to serve notice of suspicion on SBU Deputy Chief Demchyna

Slate - Ransomware Goes to Business School - Good customer service has become a key part of a lucrative scam

US DoJ Press Release - Colorado Man Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison for Moderating Disputes on Darknet Marketplace AlphaBay

News.pn - Chopped fingers, millions of dollars and gold bars »: SBU told details about the largest drug cartel

Служба безпеки України (SBU) - CБУ блокувала діяльність «підрозділу» міжнародного наркосиндикату «Хімпром» (SBU blocked the activities of the "unit" of the international drug syndicate "Khimprom")

Forbes - The U.S. And Allies Go After Crypto Exchange And Russian Money Laundering

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) - Dubai Uncovered: Data Leak Exposes How Criminals, Officials, and Sanctioned Politicians Poured Money Into Dubai Real Estate

SBU - ДБР жорстко протидіє спробам розповсюдження наркотиків в прифронтових районах

Artwork by Paulina Rosol-Barrass

Part 2: "The truth will triumph".

The description of Ahmed's murder showed that the killers were professionals, trained in the use of firearms. But despite the crowds that witnessed the killing, no one has ever been prosecuted for the crime.

Since the assassination of Ahmed, press freedom in Ghana has suffered. He is one of a number that have been attacked, harassed and arrested over the last few years, sparking fears for the future of press freedom in the country.

Much of the violence has been committed by state forces, either the police or the military, and yet impunity reigns and consequences are minimal.

We will look at the organized crime landscape in Ghana, and how alongside the traditional illicit markets such as drug trafficking and illegal mining, organized crime is at the forefront of the commercialization of violence.

Speaker(s):

Anas Aremeyaw Anas – Multi-award winning Ghananian Investigative Journalist and founder of the TigerEye PI, an investigative organisation in Ghana – famous motto “name, shame and jail”.

Muheeb Saeed, the program manager for Freedom of Expression at the Media Foundation for West Africa, the MFWA, which is a press freedom and media development organization based in Accra, but working across the West African sub-region.

Gideon Ofosu-Peasah, Analyst at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.

Jonathan Rozen, Senior Africa researcher at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

Ana Paula Oliveira – Analyst and Manager of Assassination Witness Project, GITOC.

Liliane MOUAN – Senior Advisor on Corruption and Human Rights – West and Central Africa for Amnesty International.

Additional Reading:

Assassination Witness Project

Ahmed Divela - Faces of Assassination

Global Assassination Monitor

The Ripple Effect: the impact of contract killings (Podcast)

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) - Four years since murder of Ahmed Hussein-Suale Divela, Ghana’s journalists still attacked with impunity.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Freedom of the Press Index

(GITOC Paper) The business of killing: Assassinations in South Africa

(GITOC Paper) Killing in silence: New research uncovers sheer magnitude of assassinations linked to organized crime

Murder of journalists in Mexico a threat to democracy: El asesinato de periodistas en México pone en peligro la democracia

(Deep Dive Podcast) Killing the Power of the Pen: Violence against journalists in Mexico - Part 1; Part 2.

(Deep Dive Podcast) Killing in Silence: The Global Assassination Monitor.

(Deep Dive Podcast) Guinea-Bissau Part 2: Pau de Sangue (Blood Timber).

Kennedy Agyapong Says He Knows Killer Of Ahmed Suale

Opinion: Exposing Corruption in Ghanaian Soccer Proves a Deadly Game

Betraying the Game: Anas Aremeyaw Anas investigates football in Africa - BBC Africa Eye documentary

Justice! (Al Jazeera - Featured Documentary)

Malawi's Human Harvest - BBC Africa Eye documentary

Corruption has held back African football-Anas Aremeyaw Anas

Number 12: Ghana FA begins charging implicated individuals of famous Anas corruption expose

Kwesi Nyantakyi remains our President – GFA

Eyewitnesses recount how Tiger Eye PI investigator was brutally murdered

World Press Freedom Day 2018

President Obama praises conviction of human traffickers in Ghana

The Anas Obama praised in 2009 not same as ‘contaminated’ Anas we have today – Ghana Bar Scribe

Murder in Accra: The life and death of Ahmed Hussein-Suale (BBC)

ARNOLD ROTHSTEIN (Mob Museum)

(FourFourTwo) Narcos: When Pablo Escobar did football – and changed the game in Colombia forever

Exclusive: Top international cricketers involved in spot-fixing

Revealed: godfather of cricket's scandals

Cricket Corruption: How reforms led to the match-fixing scandals

How Dawood's D-Company taints Test cricket

U.S. DESIGNATES DAWOOD IBRAHIM AS TERRORIST SUPPORTER

The Mob, Murder Inc. and Madison Square Garden: Boxing's Tale of Corruption

Panorama: BBC team threatened following Boxing and the Mob programme

Kinahan cartel: 'Nobody is untouchable' - how the net is tightening around Ireland's $1billion drug gang

‘Bloodlines’ Tracks Bloodshed Across the Border

A Drug Family in the Winner’s Circle

Kennedy Agyapong fights Anas

Ghanaian police beat, arrest journalist Malik Sullemana

News release: Three Police Officers involved in an alleged assault on Ghanaian Times Journalists interdicted

There is drug money in politics - Former NACOB boss

100g of cocaine seized at Kpoglu border goes missing

Ghana's NPP calls for inquiry after London cocaine bust

First rare photo of Nayele Ametefe walking free after 3-year jail sentence over drugs

Monetisation of elections: Very soon drug barons will take over parliament as MPs – Former NPP MP

An NPP man was the first person to accuse me of being a drug dealer — Kennedy Agyapong

Ghana politician calls for journalist Erastus Asare Donkor to be beaten over protest coverage

The Agyepong Family

Breaking News: Protesting youth clash with military over death of Social media activist (29-6-21)

THE ATTITUDE WITH HON. KENNEDY AGYAPONG (JULY 9, 2021) S02 E4

BBC version of Anas' 'Number 12' airs

Some judges who were hailed for not taking bribe had prior notice from Anas about the investigation — NPP MP

Anas’ plot to ‘entrap’ Ghana president, Ivorian PM in corruption web ‘devious’ – Judge

Nothing will stop us from fighting corruption – Anas reacts after losing defamation lawsuit

You are practicing investigative terrorism, not journalism - Judge tells Anas Aremeyaw Anas

African journalists are dying. They need the world’s help to hold power to account (Anas Aremeyaw Anas The Guardian)

Ghana: Undercover journalist Hussein-Suale shot dead | Al Jazeera English

Ghana arrests made in slaying of journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale

Ahmed Suale’s Family Slams Ken Agyapong For 110K Deceptive Ransom

GACC condemns murder of Ahmed Hussein-Suale

Disturbing press freedom violations continue in Ghana

Is free speech under threat in Ghana?

President Akufo-Addo’s claim about freedom of expression condition in Ghana not entirely true

Anas vs Kennedy Agyapong: CENOZO petitions Akufo-Addo, CJ, others over ruling against Anas

Akufo-Addo promised to use ‘Anas principle’ without ‘knowing’ Anas – Ken Agyapong

I didn't kill Ahmed; don’t have time for him – Kennedy Agyapong

AHMED SUALE'S MURDER: I don't trust Ghana Police - Kennedy Agyapong (30-1-19)

AHMED S. HUSSEIN: 'It was necessary for me to bring the guy's picture out' - Ken Agyapong. (17-1-19)

'Kennedy Agyapong must be called to explain what he did' - Lawyer for Anas. (17-1-19)

Part 1: "Ahmed was no coward".

On World Press Freedom Day (3rd May) 2018, the Ghanaian President, Nana Akufo-Addo, took to the stage in Accra to deliver a speech on press freedom. Ghana, had long been a beacon for press freedom and was selected to host the celebrations.

Just a few weeks later, TigerEye PI, the world famous undercover investigative unit led by Anas Aremeyaw Anas released their latest investigation, Number 12, which looked at corruption in professional football.

Around the same time, an MP, who disapproved of the methods of TigerEye PI, outed one of its undercover journalists, Ahmed Hussein-Suale Divela, live on air by showing his picture and calling for him to be attacked.

A few months later Ahmed was shot and killed in a targeted assassination on the streets of Madina in Accra.

In these two episodes we will tell the story of Ahmed, his death, what it means for press freedom in Ghana and how the commercialisation of violence is a perfect opportunity for organized crime.

Speaker(s):

Anas Aremeyaw Anas, Multi-award winning Ghanaian Investigative Journalist and founder of the TigerEye PI, an investigative organisation in Ghana – famous motto “name, shame and jail”.

Jonathan Rozen, Senior Africa researcher at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)

Additional Reading:

Assassination Witness Project

Ahmed Divela - Faces of Assassination

Global Assassination Monitor

The Ripple Effect: the impact of contract killings (Podcast)

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) - Four years since murder of Ahmed Hussein-Suale Divela, Ghana’s journalists still attacked with impunity.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Freedom of the Press Index

(GITOC Paper) The business of killing: Assassinations in South Africa

(GITOC Paper) Killing in silence: New research uncovers sheer magnitude of assassinations linked to organized crime

Murder of journalists in Mexico a threat to democracy: El asesinato de periodistas en México pone en peligro la democracia

(Deep Dive Podcast) Killing the Power of the Pen: Violence against journalists in Mexico - Part 1; Part 2.

(Deep Dive Podcast) Killing in Silence: The Global Assassination Monitor.

(Deep Dive Podcast) Guinea-Bissau Part 2: Pau de Sangue (Blood Timber).

Kennedy Agyapong Says He Knows Killer Of Ahmed Suale

Opinion: Exposing Corruption in Ghanaian Soccer Proves a Deadly Game

Betraying the Game: Anas Aremeyaw Anas investigates football in Africa - BBC Africa Eye documentary

Justice! (Al Jazeera - Featured Documentary)

Malawi's Human Harvest - BBC Africa Eye documentary

Corruption has held back African football-Anas Aremeyaw Anas

Number 12: Ghana FA begins charging implicated individuals of famous Anas corruption expose

Kwesi Nyantakyi remains our President – GFA

Eyewitnesses recount how Tiger Eye PI investigator was brutally murdered

World Press Freedom Day 2018

President Obama praises conviction of human traffickers in Ghana

The Anas Obama praised in 2009 not same as ‘contaminated’ Anas we have today – Ghana Bar Scribe

Murder in Accra: The life and death of Ahmed Hussein-Suale (BBC)

ARNOLD ROTHSTEIN (Mob Museum)

(FourFourTwo) Narcos: When Pablo Escobar did football – and changed the game in Colombia forever

Exclusive: Top international cricketers involved in spot-fixing

Revealed: godfather of cricket's scandals

Cricket Corruption: How reforms led to the match-fixing scandals

How Dawood's D-Company taints Test cricket

U.S. DESIGNATES DAWOOD IBRAHIM AS TERRORIST SUPPORTER

The Mob, Murder Inc. and Madison Square Garden: Boxing's Tale of Corruption

Panorama: BBC team threatened following Boxing and the Mob programme

Kinahan cartel: 'Nobody is untouchable' - how the net is tightening around Ireland's $1billion drug gang

‘Bloodlines’ Tracks Bloodshed Across the Border

A Drug Family in the Winner’s Circle

Kennedy Agyapong fights Anas

Ghanaian police beat, arrest journalist Malik Sullemana

News release: Three Police Officers involved in an alleged assault on Ghanaian Times Journalists interdicted

There is drug money in politics - Former NACOB boss

100g of cocaine seized at Kpoglu border goes missing

Ghana's NPP calls for inquiry after London cocaine bust

First rare photo of Nayele Ametefe walking free after 3-year jail sentence over drugs

Monetisation of elections: Very soon drug barons will take over parliament as MPs – Former NPP MP

An NPP man was the first person to accuse me of being a drug dealer — Kennedy Agyapong

Ghana politician calls for journalist Erastus Asare Donkor to be beaten over protest coverage

The Agyepong Family

Breaking News: Protesting youth clash with military over death of Social media activist (29-6-21)

THE ATTITUDE WITH HON. KENNEDY AGYAPONG (JULY 9, 2021) S02 E4

BBC version of Anas' 'Number 12' airs

Some judges who were hailed for not taking bribe had prior notice from Anas about the investigation — NPP MP

Anas’ plot to ‘entrap’ Ghana president, Ivorian PM in corruption web ‘devious’ – Judge

Nothing will stop us from fighting corruption – Anas reacts after losing defamation lawsuit

You are practicing investigative terrorism, not journalism - Judge tells Anas Aremeyaw Anas

African journalists are dying. They need the world’s help to hold power to account (Anas Aremeyaw Anas The Guardian)

Ghana: Undercover journalist Hussein-Suale shot dead | Al Jazeera English

Ghana arrests made in slaying of journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale

Ahmed Suale’s Family Slams Ken Agyapong For 110K Deceptive Ransom

GACC condemns murder of Ahmed Hussein-Suale

Disturbing press freedom violations continue in Ghana

Is free speech under threat in Ghana?

President Akufo-Addo’s claim about freedom of expression condition in Ghana not entirely true

Anas vs Kennedy Agyapong: CENOZO petitions Akufo-Addo, CJ, others over ruling against Anas

Akufo-Addo promised to use ‘Anas principle’ without ‘knowing’ Anas – Ken Agyapong

I didn't kill Ahmed; don’t have time for him – Kennedy Agyapong

AHMED SUALE'S MURDER: I don't trust Ghana Police - Kennedy Agyapong (30-1-19)

AHMED S. HUSSEIN: 'It was necessary for me to bring the guy's picture out' - Ken Agyapong. (17-1-19)

'Kennedy Agyapong must be called to explain what he did' - Lawyer for Anas. (17-1-19)

Part 2: “It’s the worst kept secret in Sudan”.

In 2019, the Dossier Centre in London, shared some leaked internal documents from the private military company, the Wagner Group. The documents showed that Wagner had identified several countries they wanted to target for future operations. What was clear is that they often targeted countries with weakened autocratic government, seeking support against an internal threat.

In this episode, we navigate the illicit gold trade in Sudan and beyond by studying a complex corporate web. How these structures are used to bypass sanctions and whether the US designation of the Wagner Group as a "Transnational Criminal Organization" adds anything to the fight.

Speaker(s):

Julia Stanyard, senior analyst at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and author of the paper ‘The Grey Zone: Russia’s military, mercenary and criminal engagement in Africa’.

Thierry Vircoulon, Research associate at the French Institute for International Affairs in Paris, member of the GI Network of Experts and a lead author of ‘The Grey Zone: Russia’s military, mercenary and criminal engagement in Africa’.

Kholood Khair - the Founder and Director of Confluence Advisory, Khartoum.

Ken Opala, the Field Network Coordinator for East and Southern Africa, Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.

Mohanad Hashim, freelance Sudanese journalist, currently working at the BBC.

Jason Blazakis, Professor and Director of the Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

Justin Lynch, researcher, and author of Sudan’s Unfinished Democracy.

Additional Reading:

(GI Paper)The grey zone: Russia's military, mercenary and criminal engagement in Africa

(GI Paper) Going for Gold: Russia, sanctions and illicit gold trade

'If you desert, we'll execute you': 'Putin's chef' recruits convicts for war Yevgeny Prigozhin: UK reviews rules after Wagner head sued journalist

UK exposes sick Russian troll factory plaguing social media with Kremlin propaganda

Fake news and public executions: Documents show a Russian company’s plan for quelling protests in Sudan

Wagner chief admits to founding Russian troll farm sanctioned for meddling in US elections

Ukraine capital Kyiv endures Russian onslaught - BBC News

Russia is plundering gold in Sudan to boost Putin’s war effort in Ukraine

Sudan TV broadcast taken off air after loud bangs during military clashes

Sudan fighting: RSF and army clash in Khartoum for third day

Sudan's military removes President Omar al-Bashir | Al Jazeera English

Dmitry Medvedev’s meeting with President of the Republic of the Sudan Omar Al-Bashir

Yevgeny Prigozhin: the hotdog seller who rose to the top of Putin’s war machine

The Chef’s Global Footprints, OCCRP

Sudan defence minister dies of heart attack at Juba peace talks

Hemedti: the feared commander pulling the strings in Sudan

OpenSanctions - Autolex Transport LTD.

Hemetti, senior Russian official agree to strengthen military cooperation

Statement to the United Nations Security Council on the Situation in Darfur, pursuant to UNSCR 1593 (2005)

Sudan: Darfur: “Too many people killed for no reason”

“Men With No Mercy”: Rapid Support Forces Attacks against Civilians in Darfur, Sudan

The Organized Crime Index - Sudan

“They Were Shouting ‘Kill Them’”: Sudan’s Violent Crackdown on Protesters in Khartoum

RSF declare firm commitment to the formation of single army in Sudan

Factbox: Who are Sudan's Rapid Support Forces?

Sudan’s army declares paramilitary RSF ‘rebel’ group: Fighting breaks out between army, paramilitary RSF in Sudan

Sudan's army declares paramilitary RSF 'rebel' group

SUDAN: Hemeti says troops were forced into a confrontation with the Sudanese army

Sudanese army warns against military escalation after RSF deployment in Merowe

CNN - How Russia could be stealing over $13 billion of gold a year from Sudan

Exchange of gunfire heard in northern Sudanese city of Merowe - witnesses

Al Jazeera - Breaking News: Heavy gunfire heard in Sudan’s capital Khartoum

Global Witness - Exposing the RSF's secret financial network

Sudan crisis: The ruthless mercenaries who run the country for gold

Facebook Watch - حميدتي الجزء الخامس

Radio Dabanga - Secret financial network of Sudan’s main militia exposed

The Rapid Support Forces: A Comprehensive Profile

Reuters - Exclusive: Sudan militia leader grew rich by selling gold

Global Witness - Leaked Documents

Sudan Activists Stand Firm Against 'Toxic, Monopolistic' Mining Practices

Heap Leach: Mining’s breakthrough technology

YouTube - 'Sudan 300000 ton per year Heap Leaching for gold tailing'

A Case Report on Cyanidation of Gold Heap Tailings at Agbash Mine in South Darfur State (Sudan)

Sudan activists stand firm against ‘toxic, monopolistic’ mining practices

About 11 civilians killed across Sudan after SAF-RSF clashes

EU imposes sanctions on Sudan’s Meroe gold company

Sudan Looks to Gold to Boost Economy, Denies Russian Smuggling 

Blood and gold: Now Sudan's land wars have spread to mining

Sudan: Minerals Ministry Signs Agreement With Miro Gold of Russia

Treasury Targets Financier’s Illicit Sanctions Evasion Activity

Darfur village left reeling from Wagner Group's CAR massacre

Documents Reveal Wagner’s Golden Ties to Sudanese Military Companies, OCCRP

The U.S. wants to counter China’s moves in Africa. But American officials try not to mention that.

Digital Press Briefing with the Commander of the U.S. Africa Command, U.S. Army General Stephen J. Townsend

Sudan News Agency - موتمر صحفي : دقلو والهادي ادريس بمطار الخرطوم بعد عودتهم من ولايات دافور

Hemeti's CAR coup boast sheds light on Sudanese role in conflict next door

Sudan paramilitary funnelling weapons into Central African Republic, UN report reveals

Russia confirms security companies training Sudanese army

The Mercenaries Behind Russian Operations in Africa

Russian mercenaries accused of deadly attacks on mines on Sudan-CAR border

Wagner Group Terrorizing Sudanese Gold Miners

Russian mercenaries near Sudan accused of killing hundreds as African gold rush intensifies

C4ADS - PAPER TRAILS: How a Russia-based logistics network ties together Russian mining companies and military contractors in Africa

Trade Data Reveal Shipments to Sudanese Mining Company Linked to Russian Paramilitary Group

The Murder of Three Russian Journalists Should Not Go Unsolved: Russian and Central African Authorities Have Put Little Effort Into Finding the Perpetrators

The Dossier Centre - Final Report on the Murder of Orkhan Dzhemal, Aleksandr Rastogruev and Kirill Radchenko in the Central African Republic

Russians Probed Over Gold in Sudan as West Vies for Influence

CNN Investigation - Russia is plundering gold in Sudan to boost Putin’s war effort in Ukraine

More Than 30 Russians Questioned In Sudan Over Gold Smuggling Case

Sudan Aiming to be Africa’s ‘Next Major Gold Mining Destination’

Treasury Sanctions Russian Proxy Wagner Group as a Transnational Criminal Organization

Executive Order 13581--Blocking Property of Transnational Criminal Organizations

US Dept. of Treasury - Yamaguchi-gumi

US Dept. of Treasury - MS13

US Dept. of Treasury - The Kinahan Organized Crime Group

EU - Wagner Group: Council adds 11 individuals and 7 entities to EU sanctions lists

Al Jazeera - ‘Angry and enraged’: Sudan's former foreign minister on bombings in Khartoum

Artwork by Paulina Rosol-Barrass

Part 1: “Who are these guys and what are they doing here?”

In late February 2022, Airport workers in Khartoum International Airport in Sudan are stood glued to television screens, watching Russian tanks entering the outskirts of Kyiv in Ukraine. But just outside on the runway, a Russian cargo plane laden with cookies was about to take off, heading to Latakia on the coast of Syria.

Earlier that day, officials had inspected the aircraft, suspicious of the cargo manifest. It turned out they were right to be suspicious, because hidden under the cookies was gold. A ton of gold. But the military arrived and the plane was waived through.

Gold is Sudan’s largest export, although 80% of that is thought to be smuggled out of the country. The industry has a number of players, including the Rapid Support Forces who are currently locked in battle with its rival the Sudanese Armed Forces . But there is also another active group that works alongside both these two forces and has its eyes firmly on Sudanese gold - the Wagner Group.

Speaker(s):

Kholood Khair - the Founder and Director of Confluence Advisory, Khartoum.

Ken Opala, the Field Network Coordinator for East and Southern Africa, Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.

Mohanad Hashim, freelance Sudanese journalist, currently working at the BBC.

Justin Lynch, researcher, and author of Sudan’s Unfinished Democracy.

Additional Reading:

(GI Paper)The grey zone: Russia's military, mercenary and criminal engagement in Africa

(GI Paper) Going for Gold: Russia, sanctions and illicit gold trade

'If you desert, we'll execute you': 'Putin's chef' recruits convicts for war Yevgeny Prigozhin: UK reviews rules after Wagner head sued journalist

UK exposes sick Russian troll factory plaguing social media with Kremlin propaganda

Fake news and public executions: Documents show a Russian company’s plan for quelling protests in Sudan

Wagner chief admits to founding Russian troll farm sanctioned for meddling in US elections

Ukraine capital Kyiv endures Russian onslaught - BBC News

Russia is plundering gold in Sudan to boost Putin’s war effort in Ukraine

Sudan TV broadcast taken off air after loud bangs during military clashes

CNN - How Russia could be stealing over $13 billion of gold a year from Sudan

Sudan fighting: RSF and army clash in Khartoum for third day

Sudan's military removes President Omar al-Bashir | Al Jazeera English

Dmitry Medvedev’s meeting with President of the Republic of the Sudan Omar Al-Bashir

Yevgeny Prigozhin: the hotdog seller who rose to the top of Putin’s war machine

The Chef’s Global Footprints, OCCRP

Sudan defence minister dies of heart attack at Juba peace talks

Hemedti: the feared commander pulling the strings in Sudan

OpenSanctions - Autolex Transport LTD.

Hemetti, senior Russian official agree to strengthen military cooperation

Statement to the United Nations Security Council on the Situation in Darfur, pursuant to UNSCR 1593 (2005)

Sudan: Darfur: “Too many people killed for no reason”

“Men With No Mercy”: Rapid Support Forces Attacks against Civilians in Darfur, Sudan

The Organized Crime Index - Sudan

“They Were Shouting ‘Kill Them’”: Sudan’s Violent Crackdown on Protesters in Khartoum

RSF declare firm commitment to the formation of single army in Sudan

Factbox: Who are Sudan's Rapid Support Forces?

Sudan’s army declares paramilitary RSF ‘rebel’ group: Fighting breaks out between army, paramilitary RSF in Sudan

Sudan's army declares paramilitary RSF 'rebel' group

SUDAN: Hemeti says troops were forced into a confrontation with the Sudanese army

Sudanese army warns against military escalation after RSF deployment in Merowe

Exchange of gunfire heard in northern Sudanese city of Merowe - witnesses

Al Jazeera - Breaking News: Heavy gunfire heard in Sudan’s capital Khartoum

Global Witness - Exposing the RSF's secret financial network

Sudan crisis: The ruthless mercenaries who run the country for gold

Facebook Watch - حميدتي الجزء الخامس

Radio Dabanga - Secret financial network of Sudan’s main militia exposed

The Rapid Support Forces: A Comprehensive Profile

Reuters - Exclusive: Sudan militia leader grew rich by selling gold

Global Witness - Leaked Documents

Sudan Activists Stand Firm Against 'Toxic, Monopolistic' Mining Practices

Heap Leach: Mining’s breakthrough technology

YouTube - 'Sudan 300000 ton per year Heap Leaching for gold tailing'

A Case Report on Cyanidation of Gold Heap Tailings at Agbash Mine in South Darfur State (Sudan)

Sudan activists stand firm against ‘toxic, monopolistic’ mining practices

About 11 civilians killed across Sudan after SAF-RSF clashes

EU imposes sanctions on Sudan’s Meroe gold company

Sudan Looks to Gold to Boost Economy, Denies Russian Smuggling 

Blood and gold: Now Sudan's land wars have spread to mining

Sudan: Minerals Ministry Signs Agreement With Miro Gold of Russia

Treasury Targets Financier’s Illicit Sanctions Evasion Activity

Darfur village left reeling from Wagner Group's CAR massacre

Documents Reveal Wagner’s Golden Ties to Sudanese Military Companies, OCCRP

The U.S. wants to counter China’s moves in Africa. But American officials try not to mention that.

Digital Press Briefing with the Commander of the U.S. Africa Command, U.S. Army General Stephen J. Townsend

Sudan News Agency - موتمر صحفي : دقلو والهادي ادريس بمطار الخرطوم بعد عودتهم من ولايات دافور

Hemeti's CAR coup boast sheds light on Sudanese role in conflict next door

Sudan paramilitary funnelling weapons into Central African Republic, UN report reveals

Russia confirms security companies training Sudanese army

The Mercenaries Behind Russian Operations in Africa

Russian mercenaries accused of deadly attacks on mines on Sudan-CAR border

Wagner Group Terrorizing Sudanese Gold Miners

Russian mercenaries near Sudan accused of killing hundreds as African gold rush intensifies

C4ADS - PAPER TRAILS: How a Russia-based logistics network ties together Russian mining companies and military contractors in Africa

Trade Data Reveal Shipments to Sudanese Mining Company Linked to Russian Paramilitary Group

The Murder of Three Russian Journalists Should Not Go Unsolved: Russian and Central African Authorities Have Put Little Effort Into Finding the Perpetrators

The Dossier Centre - Final Report on the Murder of Orkhan Dzhemal, Aleksandr Rastogruev and Kirill Radchenko in the Central African Republic

Russians Probed Over Gold in Sudan as West Vies for Influence

CNN Investigation - Russia is plundering gold in Sudan to boost Putin’s war effort in Ukraine

More Than 30 Russians Questioned In Sudan Over Gold Smuggling Case

Sudan Aiming to be Africa’s ‘Next Major Gold Mining Destination’

Treasury Sanctions Russian Proxy Wagner Group as a Transnational Criminal Organization

Executive Order 13581--Blocking Property of Transnational Criminal Organizations

US Dept. of Treasury - Yamaguchi-gumi

US Dept. of Treasury - MS13

US Dept. of Treasury - The Kinahan Organized Crime Group

EU - Wagner Group: Council adds 11 individuals and 7 entities to EU sanctions lists

Al Jazeera - ‘Angry and enraged’: Sudan's former foreign minister on bombings in Khartoum

Artwork by Paulina Rosol-Barrass

Africa is often the forgotten continent for things like drug trafficking, but just look around the news, the African continent plays a critical role in the global illicit drug market – and its growing – And no more so than in East and Southern Africa. As global trade has exploded, African organized criminal networks have established relationships with other criminal organizations around the world from the PCC in Brazil to the Comancheros Bikie Gang in New Zealand.

Over the course of a few years, the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime have produced three papers covering the major illicit drug markets in the region - cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamime (crystal meth). These papers cover the movement and transiting of drugs but also the domestic markets - and the findings are that you find drugs everywhere, in coastal cities and rural villages.

In this episode we talk about all three illicit drugs, the markets, those involved and the users themselves.

Speaker(s):

Jason Eligh, Senior Expert, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

x2 Anonyomous researchers (Kenya, South Africa)

Happy Assan, Drug Researcher, Tanzania

Additional Reading:

(GI Paper) A Synthetic Age: The Evolution of Methamphetamine Markets in Eastern and Southern Africa - Link

(GI Paper) A Powder Storm: The cocaine markets of East and southern Africa - Link

(GI Paper) A Shallow Flood: The Diffusion of Heroin in Eastern and Southern Africa - Link

(Website) Drug Markets in Eastern and Southern Africa - Link

News Articles:

Record Bust For Mozambique Bound Drugs - Link

Mozambican arrested in Brazil with 5 kg of cocaine hidden in ‘7-day candles’ - Link

BBC News - Fuminho: One of Brazil's most wanted criminals arrested in Mozambique - Link

Insight Crime - Cocaine Trade Grows in East and Southern Africa - Link

Insight Crime - Marcos Willians Herbas Camacho, alias ‘Marcola’ - Link

National commander of Comancheros jailed for conspiring to import 600kg of meth - Link

NZ Herald - Comancheros meth trial: Gang leader Seiana Fakaosilea, co-defendants sentenced - Link

SunStar - CUSTOMS CLARK SEIZES P11.27M WORTH OF METH - Link

Daily Maverick - Tik and cocaine worth billions found in consignments of apples, pears and oranges exported from SA to India - Link

BBC News - Abdul Nsembo and Shamim Mwasha: Tanzania popular fashion blogger and husband get life imprisonment for drug trafficking - Link

AfricaPress - Shamim Mwasha, Husband Sentenced to Life in Prison - Link

What does the term 'Environmental Crime' mean to you? Probably something like elephant or rhino poaching. Perhaps the plight of the pangolin, the adorable little armoured mammal, often sighted as the "most trafficked animal in the world". But it is so much more than that - from the illegal wildlife trade to illicit plastic waste, and from illegal mining to timber trafficking.

The spotlight on environmental crime has never been more prominent, public consciousness around climate change has seen to that. Indeed, environmental crime was implicated in early theories surrounding the origin of COVID-19.

And so, in this episode we'll show you the breadth of research taking place here at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. Through the story of our global responses to environmental crime we'll show just how integrated different illicit markets are with one another.

(This podcast is based around the paper ‘An analytic review of past responses to ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME and programming recommendations’)

Speaker(s):

Simone Haysom, Thematic Lead on Environmental Crime, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Farai Maguwu, Director at the Center for Natural Resource Governance in Zimbabwe and member of the GI Network of Experts

Vincent Opyene, a state-prosecutor in Uganda, specialising in wildlife crimes and founder of the Natural Resource Conservation Network.

Karla Mendes, Investigative Journalist at Mongabay, a non-profit environmental science and conversation news platform.

Peter Wagner, Director of the Service for Foreign Policy Instruments at the European Commission.

Natalie Pauwels, the Head of Unit, Stability and Peace - Global and Trans regional Threats at the Service for Foreign Policy Instruments at the European Commission.

Ana Paula Oliveira, Analyst at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and presenter of The Ripple Effect podcast, part of the Assassination Witness Project.

Lucia Bird, Director of the West African Observatory, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Virginia Comolli, Senior Expert, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Jason Eligh, Senior Expert, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Additional Reading:

(GI Paper) An analytic review of past responses to ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME and programming recommendations - Link

(GI Paper) A Synthetic Age: The Evolution of Methamphetamine Markets in Eastern and Southern Africa - Link

(GI Paper) Deep-rooted interests: Licensing illicit logging in Guinea Bissau - Link

(GI Paper) Plastic for profit: Tracing illicit plastic waste flows, supply chains and actors - Link

(GI Paper) Branches of Illegality: Cambodia's illegal logging structures - Link

(GI Paper) Vietnam's virtual landscape for illicit wildlife trading: A snapshot of e-commerce and social media - Link

(GI Paper) Civil Society Observatory of Illicit Economies in Eastern and Southern Africa Risk Bulletin - Issue 25 - Kromah Cartel - Link

Assassination Witness Project - Link

(Podcast) The Ripple Effect - Link

(Podcast) Deep Dive: Exploring Organized Crime - Plastics for Profit - Episode Link

(Podcast) Deep Dive: Exploring Organized Crime - Blood Timber - Episode Link

(EIA Paper) THE SHUIDONG CONNECTION: Exposing the global hub of the illegal ivory trade - Link

(Article) In Brazil, a heavily fined firm is also accused of waging a ‘palm oil war’ on communities - Karla Mendes, Mongabay - Link

CITES - Trade ban proposed to conserve one of Africa's most exploited tree species - Link

The UN's Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) - Link

International Union for the Protection of Nature, 1948 Fontainebleau - Link

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) - Link

P4 - 'Ndrangheta - "The Cocaine Gateway"

The port of Gioia Tauro in Calabria has long been considered one of the main cocaine gateways into Europe. In this episode we're going to tell the story of the 'ndrangheta and this port. How its completion in the 1990s coincided with the rise of the 'ndrangheta, were certain clans control this important node of the international cocaine market.

Our guest Anna Sergi takes us from a 'faida' ('ndrangheta feud) from her childhood in Gioia Tauro to the growth of the Piromalli 'ndrina. And from the "mother of all extortion" to the international expansion of the 'ndrangheta.

Speaker(s):

Anna Sergi, Professor of Criminology at the University of Essex, member of the GI Network of Experts and author of the new book ‘Chasing the Mafia: 'Ndrangheta, Memories and Journeys'.

Twitter

Additional Reading

(Book) Chasing the Mafia: 'Ndrangheta, Memories and Journeys by Anna Sergi

(Podcast) Clan del Golfo: The Fall of Otoniel

(Paper) - Transnational Tentacles: Global Hotspots of Balkan Organized Crime

(Book) Ports, Crime and Security: Governing and Policing Seaports in a Changing World by Anna Sergi, Alexandria Reid, Luca Storti, Marleen Easton.

(Podcast) The Index - episode 3 & 4 "Italy and mafia" - https://link.chtbl.com/TheIndex

The Global Organized Crime Index - Country Profile - Italy

OCCRP - Sting Operation Reveals ‘Ndrangheta-Colombian Cartel Partnership

Europol - Italian operation takes down corrupt port workers facilitating ‘Ndrangheta drug trafficking activities

Europol YouTube - Operation TRE CROCI

Centre for Industrial Studies - THE PORT OF GIOIA TAURO

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Part 3 - "The Chamber of Control"

Woodbridge, Vaughan, Greater Toronto Area, 2014. A man called Carmine Verduci was gunned down outside a sports café. Over the coming days Italian and Canadian law enforcement alleged that Verduci, born in Calabria, was a connecting bridge between 'ndrangheta clans in the Locride area of Calabria and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). He was reported to be a senior member of what is known as 'The Siderno Group'.

In this third episode, Anna Sergi, author of the new book ‘Chasing the Mafia: 'Ndrangheta, Memories and Journeys', talks about the growth of the 'ndrangheta in North America and presence of the 'Siderno Group'.

Speaker(s):

Anna Sergi, Professor of Criminology at the University of Essex, member of the GI Network of Experts and author of the new book ‘Chasing the Mafia: 'Ndrangheta, Memories and Journeys'.

Twitter

Additional Reading

(Book) Chasing the Mafia: 'Ndrangheta, Memories and Journeys by Anna Sergi

(Book) Mafia Republic: Italy's Criminal Curse. Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta and Camorra from 1946 to the Present by John Dickie

(Podcast) The Index - episode 3 & 4 "Italy and mafia" - https://link.chtbl.com/TheIndex

(Podcast) Deep Dive - 'Fishy Business'

The Global Organized Crime Index - Country Profile - Italy

The Global Organized Crime Index - Country Profile - Canada

The Global Organized Crime Index - Country Profile - United States

National Post - 'Carmine Verduci — the man who exposed Mafia's 'Canadian cell' — was gunned down near Toronto yesterday'

Toronto Star - 'Former GTA mob killer speaks out from Italian prison'

CBC - 'Project Sindacato ends in arrests of 9 members of alleged crime family in Vaughan'

Toronto Star - 'Massive GTA Mafia bust collapses. Defence says York police accessed lawyers’ communications'

National Post - 'Italian Mafia boss visiting Canada unwittingly carried a police wiretap to his meetings'

Toronto Sun - 'Reputed Italian crime boss Vincenzo Macrí arrested in Brazil'

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Part 2 - "ndrangheta Royalty Down Under"

In 2007, the Australian Federal Police received a tipoff about a container arriving at the Port of Melbourne. The container had come from Italy and was full of tins of tomatoes, inside those tins was the largest ecstasy bust in the world at that time.

The AFP had discovered an international drug trafficking criminal syndicate at work. At the centre of this was one criminal dynasty, not only were they a prominent Calabrian mafia clan back in Platì, the heart of the 'ndrangheta, but also one of the founding 'ndrangheta clans in Australia.

In this second episode Anna Sergi, author of the new book ‘Chasing the Mafia: 'Ndrangheta, Memories and Journeys', talks about the growth of the 'ndrangheta in Australia through one family, who she describes as "Royalty".

Speaker(s):

Anna Sergi, Professor of Criminology at the University of Essex, member of the GI Network of Experts and author of the new book ‘Chasing the Mafia: 'Ndrangheta, Memories and Journeys'.

Twitter

Additional Reading

(Book) Chasing the Mafia: 'Ndrangheta, Memories and Journeys by Anna Sergi

(Book) Mafia Republic: Italy's Criminal Curse. Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta and Camorra from 1946 to the Present by John Dickie

Anna Sergi blog, University of Essex - A flurry of attention, then collective forgetfulness – 100 years of the ‘ndrangheta Calabrian mafia in Australia

(Podcast) The Index - episode 3 & 4 "Italy and mafia" - https://link.chtbl.com/TheIndex

The Global Organized Crime Index - Country Profile - Italy

The Global Organized Crime Index - Country Profile - Australia

Four Corners (ABC and Fairfax media) - documentary

The Age - Drug accused 'tried to nurture journo'

The Age - Mr Bigs Busted

The Age - Heartache has no end for family of Donald Mackay

The Guardian - Nine charged in raids over gangland murder of Pasquale Barbaro

BBC News - Mafia 'linked to senior Australian politicians'

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Part 1 - "The Madonna of the Mountain"

In Calabria, southern Italy there is a mountain massif called Aspromonte, "harsh mountain". The villages that hug the mountain slopes, places like San Luca, Natile and Platì are the birthplaces of the clans that make up what is collectively known as ‘Ndrangheta – one of the most powerful organized criminal syndicates in the world.

From these humble beginnings the clans have spread their tentacles around the globe and become major players in the international illicit drug trade. And one of the ways they did this was by reinvesting money from one illicit act into another - kidnapping.

Over the next few podcasts we look through the eyes of Anna Sergi, a Calabrian native herself and an expert in the 'Ndrangheta. Anna's recent book 'Chasing the Mafia: 'Ndrangheta, Memories and Journeys' discusses her journey around the world looking for the 'Ndrangheta. In this first episode Anna relays stories from her childhood and memories of 'The Kidnapping Season' which took place in the Aspromonte mountains around her.

Speaker(s):

Anna Sergi, Professor of Criminology at the University of Essex, member of the GI Network of Experts and author of the new book ‘Chasing the Mafia: 'Ndrangheta, Memories and Journeys.

Twitter

Additional Reading

(Book) Chasing the Mafia: 'Ndrangheta, Memories and Journeys by Anna Sergi

(Book) Mafia Republic: Italy's Criminal Curse. Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta and Camorra from 1946 to the Present by John Dickie

(Paper) Once upon a time in Palermo: Giovanni Falcone and the fight against Cosa Nostra

(Podcast) The Index - episode 3 & 4 "Italy and mafia" - https://link.chtbl.com/TheIndex

The Global Organized Crime Index - Country Profile - Italy

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Part 2 - "I fear for my life"

In 2019, journalist Lourdes Maldonado rose from her seat to speak to President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at a press conference - it was during this moment she said "I fear for my life" due to a long running legal dispute. Three years later, and just days after that case had been ruled in her favour, she was gunned down outside her home.

Officials blamed a local cartel group, but critics were not and still are not convinced by this version of events. There is little trust between officials and journalism, and when it comes to violence against journalists in Mexico, with impunity levels over 90% it is not a surprise.

This is a story about impunity, a hostile political climate, censorship, and the families left behind with those directly affected.

Speakers:

Marcela Turati Muñoz, Mexico, is a reporter for the magazine Proceso, where she reports about human rights, social development, and the impact of drug violence and its victims. She is also the co-founder of Quinto Elemento Lab.

Miguel Ángel León Carmona - a Mexican Journalist in Veracruz.

Griselda Triana, Author of The Forgotten Ones: Relatives of murdered and disappeared journalists in Mexico and wife of Javier Valdez.

Siria Gastélum Félix, Resilience Director at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Leopoldo Maldonado - Regional Director, Office for Mexico and Central America, Article 19.

Jan-Albert Hootsen, Mexico Representative / Representante en México, The Committee to Protect Journalists.

Part 1 - "It’s a message of terror, to stop asking questions"

Mexico is known as one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist on the planet, and 2022 is on record to be the deadliest yet. José Luis Gamboa Arenas, a journalist from Veracruz became the first to be killed this year, the body of Luis Enrique Ramírez Ramos, a Sinaloan journalist was found in Culiacán on May 5th taking to total to nine.

So how has Mexico got to the point where so many journalists and media workers are being attacked and killed? This is a story of bravery in the face of surveillance, intimidation and violence, extreme corruption, organized crime, shockingly high levels of impunity, censorship and a hostile political climate.

Update: May 11th 2022 - Two more journalists were murdered in Veracruz as they sat in a car - Yessenia Mollinedo and Sheila Garcia. The total now has risen to 11.

Speakers:

Marcela Turati Muñoz, Mexico, is a reporter for the magazine Proceso, where she reports about human rights, social development, and the impact of drug violence and its victims. She is also the co-founder of Quinto Elemento Lab.

Miguel Ángel León Carmona - a Mexican Journalist in Veracruz.

Griselda Triana, Author of The Forgotten Ones: Relatives of murdered and disappeared journalists in Mexico and wife of Javier Valdez.

Siria Gastélum Félix, Resilience Director at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Leopoldo Maldonado - Regional Director, Office for Mexico and Central America, Article 19.

Jan-Albert Hootsen, Mexico Representative / Representante en México, The Committee to Protect Journalists.

Additional Reading

Murder of journalists in Mexico a threat to democracy (GITOC)

The forgotten ones: Relatives of murdered and disappeared journalists in Mexico (GITOC)

Marcela Turati on the chilling implications of Mexico’s probe into her reporting (Committee to Protect Journalists)

Veracruz: journalists and the state of fear (Reporters Without Borders)

Mexico Archives (Article19)

The Pegasus Project (Forbidden Stories)

Mexico: 'worst governor in history' sentenced to nine years for corruption - Javier Duarte, former governor of Veracruz, pleaded guilty to charges of criminal association and money laundering (The Guardian).

As the net begins to close on Otoniel, life on the run is hard. Deep in the jungles of Úraba, he never stays in a single place for more than two nights, he no longer communicates using phones and he stays away from urban centres for fear of capture. But he still runs the largest organized criminal group in Colombia.

One by one, other senior members of Clan del Golfo are picked off. But Otoniel continues to evade law enforcement in a constant game of cat and mouse.

But now, Operation Agamemnon is in full swing with Search Bloc, the Colombian army and international partners hunting Otoniel - and when he is finally captured it's reported that he said "You beat me".

This is part 3 of Clan del Golfo: The Fall of Otoniel.

Speakers:

Angela Olaya, the Co-founder and Senior Researcher at the Conflict Responses Foundation in Colombia.

Toby Muse, Foreign Correspondent, documentary filmmaker and author of the book Kilo: Life and Death inside the secret world of the cocaine cartels.

Jorge Mantilla, the Director of Conflict Dynamics and Organized Violence, Ideas for Peace Foundation and a member of the GI network

Related Links:

Toby Muse - Kilo: Life and Death inside the secret world of the cocaine cartels

Insight Crime - Dairo Antonio Usuga "Otoniel" Profile

teleSUR - A Look into 'Clan del Golfo,' Colombia's Largest Paramilitary Group

el Colombiano - Siete líneas guiarán al Ejército nacional

Los Informantes - Las chicas del clan: alias ¿Otoniel? y su red de prostitución de menores

el Heraldo - “Somos hombres de Dios”, el mensaje de alias Otoniel al Papa

Reuters - Colombian police capture sister of Clan del Golfo leader Otoniel

El Tiempo - Cayó alias Otoniel, el narcotraficante más buscado del país | El Tiempo

Semana - Presidente Iván Duque entrega detalles de la captura de alias Otoniel

The Guardian - Colombia’s most-wanted drug lord, Otoniel, captured in jungle hideout

BBC - Colombia's most wanted drug lord Otoniel captured

Insight Crime -The Urabeños After Otoniel - What Becomes of Colombia's Largest Criminal Threat?

At the end of part 1, Otoniel we left him in sole charge of Clan del Golfo, the biggest organized crime group in Colombia.

In part 2 "Don't text or call me", we look through the eyes of a man who goes by the alias "Messi", who was involved in cocaine trafficking and money laundering for Clan del Golfo. We'll see how he used real-estate, cars, watches, front companies and government contracts to clean the drug money...as well through football, music and livestock!

And finally we'll delve into the murky world of illegal gold mining and the way Clan del Golfo use violence, intimidation and even assassination to get extortion payments from the workers.

Speakers:

Daniel Rico, Researcher at Ideas for Peace Foundation and Director of C-Analysis in Colombia and member of GI Network

Luis Fernando Trejos Rosero, Profesor investigador del Departamento de Ciencia Política y Relaciones Internacionales, Universidad del Norte, Colombia

Jorge Mantilla, the Director of Conflict Dynamics and Organized Violence, Ideas for Peace Foundation and a member of the GI network

Toby Muse, Foreign Correspondent, documentary filmmaker and author of the book Kilo: Life and Death inside the secret world of the cocaine cartels.

Marcena Hunter, Senior Analyst, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Ana Paula Oliveira, Analyst, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime & Global Assassinations Monitor.

Related Links:

(Paper) Cocaine Pipeline to Europe

(Paper) Transnational Tentacles

Toronto Star - Death, extortion stalk workers at Canadian mine in Colombia

Miami Herald - Dirty gold is the new cocaine in Colombia — and it’s just as bloody

Global Financial Integrity - The Gold Standard: Addressing Illicit Financial Flows in the Colombian Gold Sector through Greater Transparency

Toby Muse - Kilo: Life and Death inside the secret world of the cocaine cartels

Insight Crime - Dairo Antonio Usuga "Otoniel" Profile

El Tiempo - La historia secreta de ‘Messi’, el capo de los $ 4 billones

Semana - Alias Messi: fotos y videos de las extravagantes propiedades del narcotraficante y su espectacular vehículo

Colombia Reports - Urabeños shut down Gran Colombia Gold operations after killing mining leader

Insight Crime - Colombia Drug Trafficking Money Laundered Through Modified Gold

Full Reading List to be provided soon.



In late 2021, the leader of Clan del Golfo (The Urabeños) Dairo Antonio Úsuga, aka "Otoniel", was captured by the Colombian police. President Iván Duque said that the arrest was only matched by the fall of Pablo Escobar in the 1990s.

Over the course of two episodes we look at the birth of Clan del Golfo out of the ashes of the right-wing paramilitary movement in Colombia. We'll explore their involvement in illicit markets such as drug trafficking, illegal mining, human trafficking, sexual exploitation, and how they use extreme violence and targeted assassinations to spread fear.

So who is Otoniel? Well, a prominent drug trafficker, Daniel "El Loco" Barrera, after being captured by Colombian police, warned them that about Otoniel, repeatedly saying..."He's an animal".

Speakers:

Angela Olaya, the Co-founder and Senior Researcher at the Conflict Responses Foundation in Colombia.

Toby Muse, Foreign Correspondent, documentary filmmaker and author of the book Kilo: Life and Death inside the secret world of the cocaine cartels.

Jorge Mantilla, the Director of Conflict Dynamics and Organized Violence, Ideas for Peace Foundation and a member of the GI network

Related Links:

Toby Muse - Kilo: Life and Death inside the secret world of the cocaine cartels

Insight Crime - Dairo Antonio Usuga "Otoniel" Profile

Colombia Reports - Gaitanista Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AGC) / Gulf Clan

Insight Crime - AUC Profile

Mapping Militants, CISAC, Stanford

El Semana - Daniel "El Loco" Barrera arrested

Paramilitaries’ Heirs: The New Face of Violence in Colombia - Human Rights Watch

The Last Man Standing? The Rise of the Urabenos - Jeremy McDermott

Reuters - Virgins recruited as sex slaves for Colombian drug lords - reports

Full Reading List to be provided soon.



An assassination is like a stone being dropped into the middle of a still pond – the splash is the violent act itself – the ripples are the repercussions, that spread far and wide – fear, intimidation, silencing, corruption, erosion of trust, environmental damage, illicit firearms, impunity and retaliation – after all, violence begets violence – the damage to society is far-reaching, way beyond the shock of that initial killing.

In November 2021, the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime launched the Global Assassination Monitor - the first ever global database on contract killings.

Speakers

Ana-Paula Oliveira, Analyst, Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime

Nina Kaysser, Senior Analyst, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Presenter

Jack Meegan-Vickers

Additional material

The Global Assassination Monitor

(Paper) Killing in Silence: New research uncovers sheer magnitude of assassinations linked to organized crime

Assassination Witness Project

(Podcast) Faces of Assassination (Also available across podcast platforms)

(Book pdf) Faces of Assassination book

(Paper) The rule of the gun: Hits and assassinations in South Africa, 2000-2017

(Paper) Murder by Contract: Targeted killings in eastern and southern Africa

(Paper) How to silence the guns? Southern Africa's illegal firearms markets

(Paper) Making a killing: What assassinations reveal about the Montenegrin drug war

(Article) Mozambique’s quiet assassination epidemic

(Podcast) Too Many Enemies (Narrative podcast exploring the assassination crisis in South Africa)

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In this episode we look at the criminal involvement in the plastic waste industry.

The lucrative global market in plastic waste is expected to be reach over $50 billion US Dollars by 2022. From Mafia groups to poly-crime networks, the temptation for organised criminal groups and bad actors to get a slice of this market is too hard to resist - and so corners are cut, laws are ignored, and irreversible damage is done.

Alongside this, some waste management companies are used as Fronts to conceal other illicit activities like human trafficking, drug trafficking, prostitution, and various financial crimes like money laundering, tax evasion, mis-invoicing.

Paper: Plastic for Profit: Tracing illicit plastic waste flows, supply chains and actors

Speakers

Virginia Comolli, Research Manager, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Yuyun Ismawati, Special Advisor at the Nexus3 Foundation

Willie Wilson, Vice Chair and Private Sector Engagement Lead, INTERPOL Pollution Crime Working Group

Sedat Gündoğdu, Marine Biologist at Cukurova University in Turkey

Reading

Plastic for Profit: Tracing illicit plastic waste flows, supply chains and actors, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GITOC)

Money Laundering from Environmental Crime, Financial Action Task Force (FATF)

INTERPOL report alerts to sharp rise in plastic waste crime, INTERPOL

Plastic Waste Management and Burden in Indonesia, Nexus3 Foundation

Global Shell Game: Fate of re-exports of seized illegal imports of waste from the USA to Indonesia, Nexus3 Foundation

Why is UK recycling being dumped by Turkish roadsides?, BBC News

Biffa fined £1.5 million for 'reckless' export breach, gov.uk

UK waste firm fined £1.5m for exporting household waste, The Guardian

Three victims of trafficking and modern slavery to sue Biffa: The claimants were moved from Poland to the UK and placed in work with waste firm, The Guardian

In this episode we tell the story of a region, the "Seven Sisters", otherwise known as the Indian Northeast and one town in particular, Moreh, and the relationship with neighbouring Myanmar.

Moreh sits just on the Indian side of the border and has become a hub for multiple illicit flows that pass through - timber, gold, firearms, wildlife, counterfeits, people, and illicit drugs.

The Indian Northeast is undeveloped and has suffered multiple insurgencies over the decades. Often forgotten by governments who have eyes squarely focused on the giant neighbour to the North, China, and the geostrategic games taking place between the world's two most populous nations.

Underpinning it all is the uncertainty of the brutal military coup in Myanmar in February this year.

Speakers

Prem Mahadevan, Senior Fellow at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Thin Lei Win, Burmese journalist, living and working in Europe

Dr Ajai Sahni, Executive Director of the Institute for Conflict Management

Nicholas Farrelly, Professor and Head of Social Sciences at the University of Tasmania in Australia

This podcast is based on the paper: Crossing the Line: Geopolitics and Criminality on the India-Myanmar border.

Research

What On Earth? podcast - Episode 12 - Myanmar: ‘Anybody investing in the natural resource sector is, in essence, supporting the military’. Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).

Myanmar's tainted timber and the military coup, Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA).

Jade and Conflict, Global Witness

The hunt for Asia’s El Chapo, Reuters

How Myanmar coup fuelled rise in illegal drugs trade, The Financial Times

Indian wildlife amidst the COVID-19 crisis: An analysis of poaching and illegal wildlife trade, TRAFFIC

This is a story of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, complex corporate structures, human trafficking, arms smuggling, corruption and the capture of state institutions.

In this collaborative episode with Africa and the Global Illicit Economy, we travel to the rich fishing grounds off Puntland in Somalia and a fleet of vessels known as the "Somali 7", before looking into a politically connected company that has an uncanny ability to operate either outside or just on the fringes of the law.

This podcast is based on the report Fishy Business: Illegal Fishing in Somalia and the capture of state institutions.

Presenter: Lindy Mtongana

Speakers:

Jay Bahadur, Researcher and Investigator at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

Dr. Katharine Petrich, visiting assistant professor incoming at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California

Ian Urbina, Investigative Journalist and author of The Outlaw Ocean.

Austin Brush, Senior Analyst at C4ADS

Additional Reading

Jay Bahadur, GITOC - Fishy Business: Illegal Fishing in Somalia and the capture of state institutions

Ian Urbina - The Outlaw Ocean.

In the wake of the 2012 'Cocaine Coup' in Guinea-Bissau the illegal logging trade exploded, largely driven by huge demand for rosewood logs in China - a species protected under international law.

By 2014, such was the extent of this illicit trade, civil society pressured the new government to introduce a five-year moratorium on timber exports.

Now, in 2021, as the government seems poised to lift the moratorium, there is fear that there could be a resurgence in illegal logging causing irreparable damage to the environment.

Guests

Obento Branco Catami (Regional Delegate for Forestry and Wildlife in the Cacheu region).

Ude Fati (Economist, Head of Voz di Paz)

Fodé Mané (University of Bissau) 

Tânia Gomes (President of the Association of Friends of Guinea-Bissau)

Lucia Bird Ruiz-Benitez de Lugo, Senior Analyst, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Reading

Deep-rooted interests: Licensing illicit logging in Guinea Bissau

Authorized Plunder in Guinea-Bissau - Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA)

Breaking the vicious cycle: Cocaine politics in Guinea-Bissau

The Seidi Bá cocaine trial: A smokescreen for impunity?

Presenter: Jack Meegan-Vickers

On March 24th 2021, Islamist insurgents carried out an attack on the coastal town of Palma in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado. The days of fighting, looting, massacres, private military contractors, and dramatic rescues led to thousands more people fleeing to escape the violence.

The attack took place just a few kilometres from Total’s $20 billion-dollar natural gas project on the Afungi peninsula and in the same province as the huge ruby fields of Montepuez.

Last year the Global Initiative asked how this ongoing insurgency is impacting the illicit flows that travel through the region – after the attack at Palma, we have decided to revisit this subject.

This is a collaborative episode between Africa and the Global Illicit Economy and Deep Dive: Exploring Organized Crime.

Presenter: Lindy Mtongana

Speakers:

Prof. Adriano Nuvunga – Director of the CDD Mozambique

Zenaida Machado – Senior Researcher, Human Rights Watch

Alastair Nelson – Senior Fellow, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Johann Smith – Independent Security Analyst in Mozambique

Colonel Lionel Dyck – CEO of the of Dyck Advisory Group (DAG)

Reading:

Observatory of Illicit Economies in Eastern and Southern Africa – Risk Bulletin Issue. 17

A Triangle of Vulnerability: Changing patterns of illicit trafficking off the Swahili coast

Podcast: Deep Dive: Exploring Organized Crime – Insurgency and illicit trade in Northern Mozambique

'Criminals and Terrorists': Framing Mozambique's Insurgency - OCCRP

Hundreds Missing After Mozambique Attack: Government Should Provide More Information About Situation in Palma

Amnesty International: Mozambique: Civilians killed as war crimes committed by armed group, government forces, and private military contractors.

Producer: Jack Meegan-Vickers

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

A look at how a self-interested political and military elite used profits from illicit markets to fuel their own ambitions at the expense of the wider population. This is a story of corruption, dirty money, cocaine and illegal logging.

This is Part one of a two-part special on Guinea-Bissau, the small West African nation. In this episode we will chart the course of Guinea-Bissau from Independence to the present day through the eyes of civil society organisations, who step in to fill the void left by an absent state. 

Guests

Augusto Mário (Pres. GNB Human Rights League)

Ude Fati (Economist, Head of Voz di Paz)

Fodé Mané (University of Bissau) 

Rui Landim (Political Analyst)

Augusta Henriques (founder of Tiniguena, civil society activist) 

Reading

Breaking the vicious cycle: Cocaine politics in Guinea-Bissau

The Seidi Bá cocaine trial: A smokescreen for impunity?

Mission not accomplished?: UNIOGBIS closes amid uncertainty in Guinea-Bissau

CPJ - Guinea-Bissau editor António Aly Silva abducted and beaten

Presenter: Jack Meegan-Vickers

In June 2020, EncroChat users received a flurry of panicked messages from the company claiming its encrypted network had been hacked by "government entities". What unravelled was one of the biggest hacks by law enforcement in history, who claimed many of its users are alleged organized criminals in Europe.

The hack was said to have revealed a litany of criminal behaviour - drug deals and shipments, money laundering and arms trafficking, corrupt police officers, a planning of a murder and even the discovery of a torture chamber, hidden within a shipping container.

But was the hack even legal? And what are the implications for the encrypted communications that many of us use everyday?

This podcast was based on the reporting of Joseph Cox at Motherboard, VICE News.

Guests:

Joseph Cox, Senior Staff Writer at Motherboard, VICE News.

Jake Moore, Cyber Security Specialist at ESET.

Edouard Klein, Intelligence-Driven Cybersecurity, Sekoia.fr

Tuesday Reitano, Deputy Director of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

Reading:

How Police Secretly Took Over a Global Phone Network for Organized Crime, Motherboard

Encrochat Investigation Finds Corrupt Cops Leaking Information to Criminals, Motherboard

Encrypted Phone Network Says It's Shutting Down After Police Hack, Motherboard

Europol, Internet Organized Crime Threat Assessment (iOCTA) 2020

Al Jazeera, Opinion: The EncroChat police hacking sets a dangerous precedent

ComputerWeekly.com - Berlin court finds EncroChat intercept evidence cannot be used in criminal trials

ComputerWeekly.com - Secrecy around EncroChat cryptophone hack breaches French constitution, court hears

Presenter: Jack Meegan-Vickers

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

With more people working from home than ever before due to the pandemic,. But another parallel pandemic is taking place, that of online child sexual abuse material which has taken a sharp rise around the world.

In this podcast, we’re discussing Child Online Sexual Abuse (CSAM), COVID and technology.

Presenter(s): Lucia Bird Ruiz-Benitez de Lugo and Jack Meegan-Vickers.

Speakers:

Fernando Ruiz, Head of Operations at the European Cybercrime Centre, set up by Europol to co-ordinate crossborder investigations into cybercrime.

Amela Efendic is the director of the European Resource Centre for the Prevention of Trafficking and head of the Bosnia and Herzegovina Office for the International Forum for Solidarity-Emmaus.

Judie Kaberia is a fellow of the 2020 Resilience Fund of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime.

GI Research Paper: Transformative Technologies: How digital is changing the landscape of organized crime.

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

In this podcast, Jack is looking at the latest Global Initative Against Transnational Organized Crime report called 'Under the Shadow: Illicit Economies in Iran', which looks at how the illicit economy has become intertwined within the licit economy of the Iranian State.

Speakers

Alexander Soderholm, an international drug policy field researcher with a focus on Iran and the Middle East.

Katherine Bauer, a Senior Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former US Treasury official.

Naysan Rafati, the Senior Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group

Sign up to the AssassinationWitness campaign here.

In the Northern Triangle countries of Central America - Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, extortion is so pervasive that it has been called “A way of life”.

The growth in extortion in the region was defined by the expansion of street gangs MS13 and Barrio 18. They have a stranglehold on the countries in which they operate, extorting rich and poor and even international corporations.

The revenue from extortion has provided gangs in the region with a solid economic operating base, and at the same time allowed them to diversify into other criminal enterprises – they are now transnational organized criminal groups.

Presenter: Jack Meegan-Vickers

Speakers:

1.      Guillermo Vazquez del Mercado Almada, Senior Analyst, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

2.      Evelyn Espinosa, Research Adviser at Diálogos

3.      Pamela Ruiz, Consultant at the Coalition for Resilience Project and member of the GI Network of Experts.

4.      Professor Lucia Dammert, University of Santiago, Chile and member of the GI Network of Experts.

GI Extortion Project

Paper: A Criminal Culture: Extortion in Central America

Other content available at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime website.

Transnational Tentacles: Global Hotspots of Balkan Organized Crime.

The Western Balkans is well understood now as an important transit point for the smuggling of drugs, arms and people. But what has been less understood is how over the past few decades, criminal groups within the Western Balkans region and the global diaspora have carved out a place within the very highest echelons of the criminal world.

Paper: Transnational Tentacles: Global Hotspots of Balkan Organized Crime.

Guests:

Walter Kemp, Senior Fellow at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Fatjona Mejdini, Field Network Coordinator, Balkans at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

Susana Morán, investigative journalist in Ecuador specialising in organized crime

Mandy Wiener, journalist, broadcaster and author of Killing Kebble: An Underworld Exposed

People and Forests at Risk: Organized Crime, trafficking in persons and deforestation in Chihuahua, Mexico.

The highland ranges of the Sierra Madre are cool and temperate forests – with several species of Oak, conifers and a number of pines, and logging is permitted here. But excessive legal and illegal logging is contributing to rapid deforestation.

Organized criminal groups have established their position within the illegal logging trade, with them comes violence, corruption, kidnapping, extortion, displacement of indigenous communities and persecution of environmental and human-rights defenders.

Presenters: Livia Wagner and Jack Meegan-Vickers

Guests:

Diana Siller, co-author of the paper and Director of JADE (Environmental Justice and human rights in Mexico)

Julia Urrunaga, Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an international NGO who investigate forest and environmental crimes.

Sound Effects: Freesfx

How will the ongoing violent Islamist insurgency in the Cabo Delgado region of Northern Mozambique overlap with the organized criminal networks that operate in the area. How has the corruption within the Mozambican state contributed to the growth of the insurgency?

Presenter: Lindy Mtongana

Guests:

Professor Adriano Nuvunga, Director of the Centre for Democracy and Development and a leading civil society activist in Mozambique

Simone Haysom, Senior Analyst, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, researching the role of foreign organised crime groups in Africa.

Alastair Nelson, Senior Analyst who Coordinates the GI’s Resilience Fund work in Mozambique

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime

Destruction or Theft? Between 2014 and 2017, the Islamic State group occupied territory in Iraq. At it's height it controlled almost a third of the country and over 4,500 historical sites.

Alongside the dramatic pictures of the destruction of artefacts and irreplaceable ancient sites like Nimrud, others have claimed that this destruction was largely carried out to conceal extensive looting of valuable artefacts.

Presenters: Laura Adal and Jack Meegan-Vickers

Guests:

Colin P. Clarke, Senior Research Fellow at The Soufan Center and Assistant Teaching Professor at Carnegie Mellon University.

Christina Schori Liang, Head of Terrorism and PVE at GCSP.

Katie A. Paul, Co-Director of the ATHAR Project