EUR-Obs

Palermo strikes back

...On 11 February 2025, Italian police carried out a major operation in Palermo, Sicily, targeting key mafia districts. With 1 200 officers deployed in the city and surrounding areas, and aerial surveill...

Posted on 27 Feb 2025

Author(s): Ruggero Scaturro

Drug Policy

Evaluating Cocaine Market Interventions

Evaluating Cocaine Market Interventions

...This report looks to evaluate the effects of drug market enforcement, and broader external disruptions, through case studies (Sky ECC in the Netherlands, criminal gangs in Ireland, criminal gangs in ...

Posted on 25 Feb 2025

Author(s): John Collins, Bruno Pantaleão de Oliveira, Andrés Aponte, Michael McLaggan, Elijah Glantz, Alastair Greig

Drug Policy, WEA-Obs

Kush in Sierra Leone

Kush in Sierra Leone

...Since 2022, a synthetic drug known as ‘kush’, has killed likely thousands of people in West Africa. Kush emerged in Sierra Leone, but quickly spread across countries in the subregion, including Li...

Posted on 25 Feb 2025

Author(s): Lucia Bird Ruiz-Benitez de Lugo, Dr. Kars de Bruijne

Global Organized Crime Index, APA-Obs

The decline of media freedom undermines resilience to organized crime in Asia and Oceania

...In September 2024, Cambodian journalist Mech Dara was arrested on charges of inciting social unrest through what the authorities described as ‘provocative’ and ‘false’ social media posts. Dara...

Posted on 24 Feb 2025

Author(s): Bernadette Carreon

Crime & Conflict, EAS-Obs, EUR-Obs

Future trends in arms trafficking from the Ukraine conflict

Tomorrow's fire

...Given recent announcements, the end game of the Ukraine conflict may be approaching sooner than expected. The pace of negotiations may bring a rapid end to the fighting, but early indications suggest ...

Posted on 18 Feb 2025

Global Initiative

Smoke and mirrors: Afghanistan’s illicit drug economy after the opium ban

...In 2022, Afghanistan accounted for roughly 80 per cent of the world's opiate supply and was a major global exporter of opium and heroin. But in April that year, the newly installed Taliban regime anno...

Posted on 17 Feb 2025

Author(s): Maria Khoruk

Crime & Conflict, Geocriminality, Sanctions and organized crime, EAS-Obs, WEA-Obs

Mercenaries and illicit markets: Russia’s Africa Corps and the business of conflict

Mercenaries and illicit markets:

...The Wagner Group mercenary force and its successor, the Africa Corps, have played a pivotal and controversial role in growing Russia's influence on the African continent. Initially a covert proxy of t...

Posted on 14 Feb 2025

Author(s): Julia Stanyard