LONDON — Global delegates and campaigners are gathering in Geneva this week for a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, known as CITES. The trade in ivory is high on the agenda as poaching continues to hit elephant populations across parts of Africa. Campaigners want tougher enforcement of regulations to tackle organized criminal gangs behind the trade. The United Nations estimates the illegal wildlife trade is worth $23 billion per year, with much of that value coming from ivory. Asia, and especially China, is by far the biggest market. The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency spent three years infiltrating one of the major smuggling syndicates shipping ivory from east African ports. Investigators identified the southern Chinese town of Shuidong as the major hub for poached ivory, they say 80 percent of ivory destined for China passes through the town. Read More ...
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Not everyone, it seems, is troubled by the migrant crisis engulfing Sicily. On one side, there are the ruthless criminal gangs making huge sums ferrying people across the Mediterranean – and now it emerges that the Mafia is exploiting the other end of the operation, attracted by the hundreds of millions in EU cash that has been given to Rome. From this fund, including money from British taxpayers, those sheltering and feeding migrants receive £31 per day per person. Mainly it goes to hoteliers, or those owning buildings equipped to house large numbers. Never slow to ‘wet their beaks’, the mob, according to prosecutors, decided it was too good an opportunity to ignore. Read More ...
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Criminal gangs are using online dating sites to steal hundreds of thousand of pounds from their victims, the boss of eHarmony has said. Fraudsters are using a technique known as catfishing, where a person uses a fake identity to attract those looking for genuine dates, to trick victims into sending them money. The culprits will often build trust with potential victims before begging them for money to help them with an emergency situation, for instance a mugging or medical treatment. In extreme cases, victims can part with hundreds of thousands of pounds. Read More ...
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£7m of ivory is found in frozen fish: Biggest haul in 30 years is seized in Hong Kong after being smuggled from Malaysia
- More than seven tons of ivory – worth £7million – have been seized in Hong Kong
- The seizure represent the deaths of hundreds of elephants, killed for their tusks
- The haul found in Hong Kong was hidden underneath frozen fish in a container
- Customs officials said the cargo came from Malaysia from a large smuggling ring Read More ...
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A drug baron's Aston Martin Virage supercar was sold at auction for £58,000 by detectives who smashed her multi-million pound network. Paula White, who masterminded a mail order trade of so-called 'legal highs' worth around £3m, was jailed for nine years in 2015. The luxury motor she once drove went under the hammer at a police-approved auction house. It was seized after her arrest by Titan, the north-west regional organised crime unit, and has now been sold off under the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA). Items of her jewellery were also auctioned. Read More ...
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Fraudsters who conned NHS hospitals, councils and a government out of more than £12m have been sentenced. Ten conspirators were given sentences at Leicester Crown Court of up to 10 years in prison. In each case forged letters, emails or faxes were sent to the 22 targeted organisations, pretending to be from a legitimate firm already carrying out contract works. The biggest victim was the Guernsey government, which lost £2.6m. In one case, a £1.28m payment to build a mental health unit at Lincoln's St George's Hospital was diverted when NHS trust staff failed to check the new bank details supplied. Read More ...
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The U.K. government published the final anti-money laundering legislation that took effect June 26 and includes details on future risk updates and rules for due diligence and screening staff. The regime implements the European Union’s Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, which places new reporting requirements on banks monitoring suspicious transactions to prevent the concealment of funds and stop the use of the financial system to fund terror attacks. Serious and organized crime costs Britain at least £24 billion ($30.5 billion) every year, the government said. The proceeds from criminal activity in the EU has been estimated at €110 billion (€123 billion) per year, corresponding to 1 percent of the EU’s GDP. Read More ...
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HMAS Arunta has completed a third significant narcotics interdiction after seizing 260kg of heroin in the Indian Ocean, while operating in support of the French-UK led Combined Task Force 150 (CTF 150).
The Royal Australian Navy frigate intercepted the dhow after the ship's embarked Seahawk helicopter detected it acting suspiciously on 7 June during a planned surface search.
The following morning, the frigate’s boarding team climbed on board the suspect vessel and began conducting their search. Read More ...
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A businessman and his son were jailed for a total of 21 years in their absence for masterminding an £80million money laundering operation for organised criminals across the UK. Bhadresh Shah, 49 - branded a 'disgrace' by his own barrister - and son Abhishek Shah, 24, helped to siphon profits for organised crime gangs around the country through their hub at the Chandi Bazar in Wembley, northwest London. Police found ten false company stamps used to create legitimate business documents at the Bazar in Ealing Road which were linked to at least £10million in dodgy transfers. Cash was also laundered through three legitimate money service bureaus, who were duped with false invoices from multiple companies using the same cut-and-paste templates. Bhadresh and Abhishek were today found guilty of money laundering offences following a trial at Southwark Crown Court - but the pair were not in the dock to hear the verdicts. Read More ...
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The authorities in Nepal have destroyed more than 4,000 animal body parts in an effort to discourage illegal hunting and trading in wildlife. Horns of endangered rhinos, and skins of tigers and leopards - including a snow leopard and two clouded leopards - were among exhibits burnt on Monday in Chitwan, south of Kathmandu. Foreign Minister Prakash Sharan Mahat set the stockpiles on fire at Chitwan National Park, home to many of the world's endangered wild animals, to mark International Day for Biological Diversity. "We hope that burning the stockpiles of dead wild animals will impart the message that the body parts are valuable only when the wild animals are alive and not, when they are dead. Read More ...
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Rich Russians are flocking to Cyprus to become – not Russian. Foreigners can become citizens here in less than six months in exchange for investing two million euros.
In Limassol, on the southern coast of Cyprus, shop signs in Cyrillic outnumber those in Greek. Yachts emblazoned with Russian monikers fill berths in a newly built marina. And just past the office of radio station Russkaya Volna, restaurants lining the boardwalk serve pelmeni with, of course, vodka.
This Moscow-on-the-Mediterranean has blossomed as Russians and their money flock to the tiny European outpost to become, in a sense, not Russian. Read More ...
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Over nearly 30 years at the head of one of the most powerful crime organisations in the world, the jailed drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán is reputed to have built up a fortune worth at least $1bn. But according to Mexico’s attorney general, US authorities investigating the kingpin have still not been able to trace a single dollar’s worth of Guzmán’s ill-gotten gains. “As of today, US authorities have not found not even one dollar of El Chapo’s assets,” Raul Cervantes told the broadcaster Televisa on Wednesday. “His money hasn’t been found because he didn’t use the financial system.” Read More ...
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Sir Andy Murray is spearheading a powerful campaign to lobby the Prime Minister against post - Brexit plans to curb efforts to protect endangered species.
The Wimbledon champion has joined forces with a string of public figures – including Boris Johnson’s father Stanley – following last week’s disclosure in The Mail on Sunday that diplomats were being secretly briefed by Liam Fox’s department to stop working on environmental issues to concentrate on striking new trade deals. In a letter today to Theresa May, the 27 signatories, who also include former Bishop of London Richard Chartres, actress Anna Friel and Dragons’ Den star Deborah Meaden, warn against a ‘race to the bottom’ on wildlife protection. Read More...
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Nearly half of the world’s most valuable natural assets are being threatened by the illegal wildlife trade, a damning report has warned. Poaching, illegal logging and fishing and the trafficking of rare species are damaging World Heritage Sites, from Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park, to the Great Barrier Reef. The sites, designated for their importance to nature, are being increasing threatened by man, according to conservation charity the World Wildlife Federation (WWF). Poaching of species such as elephants, rhinos and tigers has been reported in at least 43 World Heritage sites, while illegal logging of valuable plants such as rosewood and ebony has been reported in 26 designated places. Read More ...
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Nearly half of all the natural World Heritage sites on the planet are being ravaged by poachers who are driving some endangered animals towards extinction, according to a new report. The illegal wildlife trade was estimated to be worth some £15bn, making it the fourth largest international criminal trade after drugs, guns and human trafficking, according to the ‘Not For Sale’ report. Illicit logging and fishing are also occurring on an epic scale. The illegal felling of trees – a trade valued at between $30bn and $100bn (about £24bn-£80bn) a year – was estimated to account for up to 90 per cent of deforestation in major tropical countries. Fish piracy, blamed by some in countries like Somalia for pushing people into actual piracy, was found to occur in 18 out of 39 marine heritage sites with protected species of sharks and rays among those being caught. Read More ...
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