Centuries-old network faces government heat as authorities link it to cryptocurrency, gold smuggling and tax evasion.
Tag: smuggling
Hundreds of migrants and asylum seekers have been detained, many of them deported, in recent months in Egypt amid an orchestrated campaign that is targeting African refugees in the country.
The reforms introduced by Bola Tinubu, the new president of Africa’s most populous country, will take time to have an effect on the daily lives of Nigerians. In the meantime, the population is suffering from inflation, corruption and insecurity. The disillusioned youth are impatient and dream of elsewhere.
The continuing heavy shelling of Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities shows that Russia still has more missiles than Ukrainians would have hoped. The look through the web of Kremlin diktats and murky international commerce that keeps the Russian military churning out hardware that drives the war in Ukraine
Grandpa, pass the unmarked 20s….
The pandemic and subsequent closing of the border with Ceuta, a Spanish enclave in Morocco, put an end to the ‘atypical trade’ that sustained the Fnideq region.
Drugs, weapons and… spring rolls? Add the Asian fried staple to the list of contraband items that have been seized in the illegal international smuggling market. Police discovered 61.5 kilograms (136 lbs) of chicken spring rolls stashed in a car trunk during a control at a France-Switzerland border crossing on Feb. 16. The driver, a […]
Italy, as everyone knows, is the place for pasta. And so it goes without saying that visitors to the country often head home with a package or two in their duffels or suitcases. The woman in this story was no exception, in that regard. And yet, there was something about her that must have puzzled […]
AGADEZ — Mahamane Ousmane is an unrepentant people smuggler. He makes no effort to deny having transported migrants “countless times’ across the Sahara into Libya. When he is released from prison in Niger’s desert city of Agadez, he intends to return to the same work. The 32-year-old is even more adamant he has done nothing wrong. “I don’t like criminals. I am no thief. I have killed no one,” he says. As Ousmane speaks, a small circle of fellow inmates in filthy football shirts and flip-flops murmur in agreement. The prison at Agadez, where the French once stabled their horses […]
Illegal border crossings won’t stop, but prices will rise.
JALALABAD — It’s early morning in Jalalabad, eastern Afghanistan. Haroon Sarwari, 17, and Manzoor Ali, 18, are wearing their backpacks and walking quickly to get a taxi to reach Kabul on time. These close friends have laid out plans to travel to Europe illegally with the help of a smuggling agent. Haroon’s cousins managed to get to Germany three months before, so his father, Sarwar Khan, supports the plan. “My father sold a few of his cows and borrowed some money from his friends to send me to Europe,” the teenager explains. “He has already agreed with the agent on […]
The public is welcome at Germany’s “Big Cat Sanctuary,” a place of last resort for animals once in the grips of illegal circuses and mob traffickers.
THIAROYE — Sitting on the corner of his bed, behind the curtains drawn to hide the blazing sun, Saada Ndiaye is waiting for the moment to come. That moment is his would-be departure to Spain, via a clandestine and uncertain path from this small town in Senegal, and onward through Morocco. Ndiaye, who introduces himself […]
Al-Akhbar, Oct. 27, 2015 “His Royal Drugs,” reads Tuesday’s front page of Lebanese Arabic-language daily Al-Akhbar, one day after a Saudi prince and four others were arrested at the Beirut airport after authorities found more than two tons of illegal drugs on a Saudi-bound private jet. Prince Abdel Mohsen Bin Walid Bin Abdulaziz was among […]
GARABULLI — Two unfinished houses on the sand, facing a Mediterranean sea in shades of grey. So this is where they left from. According to various Libyan sources, the vessel carrying more than 800 people left Libya on what became its fateful crossing between Saturday April 18 and Sunday 19 from this long stretch of […]
Amid the mayhem of civil war, huge money is to be made from stealing and selling archeological treasures from Iraq and Syria. ISIS ambitions are fueling an already huge black market.
Calais, France along the English Channel has served as a hub for UK-bound illegal migrants for more than a decade. Now Egyptian, Kurdish and Albanese traffickers are fighting for control.
Muslim Seleka and Christian anti-Balaka militiamen have squared off for the Central African Republic’s so-called blood diamonds. Some call the wartorn nation a ‘gemocracy’.
Looking for family members who have emigrated to Europe, or in search of better opportunities, Congolese girls instead find themselves prey at the hands of human traffickers.
Four years into Syria’s conflict, cannabis has become an unlikely key source of financing for a number of groups in the opposition-held north. It’s used mostly to buy weapons. Jabal al-Zawiya in the province of Idlib is a mountainous area close to the Turkish border. Once famous for growing olives, it is now used to grow pot. Farmers here say the plant grows quickly, and yields higher revenues than olives. Most villages in Idlib province are living off the spoils of goods smuggled between Syria and Turkey, and many basic commodities available for purchase here now come from Turkey, too. […]
About two weeks before Israel started its Operation Protective Edge, the entire political leadership of Hamas in Gaza attended a funeral for five members of the movement’s military wing — among the attendees were former premier Ismail Haniyeh, Speaker of the Gaza parliament Ahmad Bahar and other senior figures from Hamas’ politburo. On its face, […]
TIGRE — Is there a place they haven’t thought of yet to hide drugs? How about a meat pie? Argentine police have uncovered a so-called “narcopizzeria” in the district of Tigre in the northern outskirts of Buenos Aires, which supplied customers with cocaine hidden in “pizzas, pies and chicken.” A report in Clarín showed pictures […]
Anthropomorphic containers, ancient ceramic bowls, mysterious instruments, jewelry and delicate painting tools belonging to the native Colombian cultures that collapsed in the 16th century, before the onslaught of Spanish invaders. These were some of almost 700 items Spanish police confiscated from traffickers, which authorities in Madrid formally handed over to Colombia’s ambassador this week, a […]
Italy is often a point of arrival in Europe for immigrants from troubled points east and south. But most will eventually wind up in northern destinations. What have they seen? What will they find?
GÄVLE — Under the dark of a freezing arctic night, Jimi arrived at his destination. They welcomed him with a plate of Swedish meatballs, before showing him to a soft, white bed in a room that sleeps eight. “Welcome to Sweden,” says a man of African origins, shaking his hand. Jimi, 25, who is from […]
LAMPEDUSA — Two brothers, both with the same dream: escaping the violence and chaos of Eritrea. One has already spent nine years living that dream; the other still hasn’t been rescued from the sea that swallowed him last Thursday. Desperation and grief are in the eyes and voice of Adel, who emigrated to Sweden nine […]
Striking farmers in Colombia say free trade agreements are responsible for their woes. Better to look closer to home, including industrial cartels and all the contraband entering the country.
As war has made regular work scarce, Ayham has trafficked in anything that has a buyer. But lately he says the face of the black market has started to change.
BENI – For many years in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the military was the main seller of liquor imported from Uganda. But now soldiers have changed sides, and are now fighting those who try to import liquor into Congo. In order to reduce the trafficking and consumption of banned liquors […]
O GLOBO, FOLHA DE S. PAULO (Brazil) Worldcrunch CAMPINAS – A Brazilian transvestite has been arrested at Viracopos International Airport for allegedly trying to smuggle drugs he’d packed into an extra-large prosthetic posterior, reports Folha de S. Paulo. According to police in this southeastern Brazilian city, the suspect was due to embark on a Lisbon-bound […]
ALGIERS – The ultimate goal is Europe. But first the immigrants from countries in central Africa are trying to get refugee status in Algeria. “We were told that if we claimed we were fleeing the war, we would be taken care of and handed out IDs,” says Trésor, a Congolese migrant taken in by the […]