Organized Crime

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.

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.