Organized Crime

Chilean authorities uncovered organized criminal networks that investigators say stole, processed, and shipped copper on a vast scale to Peru and China, exposing a trade worth an estimated 817 billion pesos, or about $917 million, between 2020 and 2025.

Britain’s new Fair Work Agency will target abuse of labor market rules in construction and social care, two sectors heavily dependent on migrant workers, as the government expands enforcement powers to pursue fraud and workplace exploitation.

Soaring chocolate prices and strong Easter demand are helping drive a rise in shop theft across Britain, with organized crime gangs increasingly targeting confectionery because it is portable, easy to resell, and difficult to trace.

Brazil’s biggest-ever bank fraud case has left the country’s banking system facing a 52 billion-real ($9.9 billion) bill after Banco Master used funds, asset sales, and other maneuvers to hide major balance-sheet problems from investors and regulators.

German authorities have uncovered an alleged €300-million payments fraud that has drawn in former staff and executives at several payment companies, deepening the sector’s long-running crisis years after the collapse of Wirecard.

Cargo theft in Britain is evolving into a high-yield criminal business that costs the economy about £700 million a year, as organized gangs target truckloads of food, alcohol, electronics, and consumer goods that can be quickly resold through online platforms and grey-market wholesalers.

The trial of Russian businessman Dmitry Klyuev, accused by French prosecutors of laundering proceeds of the $230 million Magnitsky Affair fraud through luxury purchases in France, opened in Paris on Monday. 

The Trump administration is weighing whether to designate Brazil’s two largest drug gangs as terrorist organizations, a step that could expand the U.S. sanctions toolkit to include financial restrictions on the groups and their associates.

Britain has expanded its crackdown on Southeast Asia’s scam economy by sanctioning Xinbi, a Chinese-language crypto marketplace that officials say helped service scam centers, along with Legend Innovation Co., the operator of Cambodia’s “#8 Park” compound, and six individuals allegedly tied to the network.

New details have emerged about the seizure of two armored bank vehicles by Hungarian officials earlier this month, including allegations that the then-detained Ukrainian bank workers were beaten and injected with an unknown substance.