Organized Crime

Two Chinese pharmaceutical firms and six Chinese nationals are facing charges after prosecutors said they were part of a drug-trafficking network that provided material support to the Cártel del Golfo (CDG), a Mexican criminal syndicate that was designated as a foreign terrorist organization.

South African authorities have accused captive rhino breeder John Hume of leading one of the largest rhino-horn trafficking syndicates on record and using domestic reporting requirement to conceal his illicit activity.

Prosecutors in Taiwan have indicted 10 people accused of operating a cross-border money laundering network that used Macau casinos and credit cards to launder more than $1 billion in funds.

The new leader of Mexico’s Jalisco New Generation cartel is an American citizen, a distinction that could complicate efforts by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies to target him even as Washington and Mexico deepen cooperation against drug traffickers.

Weapons traffickers supplying Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel have sharply increased shipments from the United States, with demand fueled by cartel warfare and financed through a growing cross-border smuggling business that now moves hundreds of firearms at a time.

Serious and organized crime became more diverse and more harmful in 2025, with drugs, organized immigration crime, and illicit finance all worsening, according to a new report by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA). 

Banks and investors are failing to adequately screen for illegal mining risks even when operating in sectors highly exposed to the trade, according to a report by the World Wide Fund for Nature and financial-crime risk platform Themis.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is expected to remove the nation’s anti-graft chief Azam Baki when his term ends, following claims that the agency he leads has employed mafia-style tactics for its own ends.

Mexican officials are facing renewed scrutiny following the discovery of a ledger purportedly showing a series of bribes paid by slain Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) leader Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera to police, security forces, and other authorities.

Kyiv’s assets-declaration watchdog missed multiple red flags in the filings of former Ukrainian energy minister Herman Halushchenko, according to Transparency International Ukraine.