Balkan gangsters piggybacked on South America’s exports, are now biggest ‘locomotive’ driving Europe’s booming cocaine trade
Despite some takedowns of major Balkan traffickers, they continue to flood Europe with cocaine due to their ever-evolving tactics, officials said. Custodio, the Brazilian detective who led the Aleksandar Nesic probe, said Balkan gangs used to create dummy companies to facilitate the movement of their drugs, but are now acquiring legitimate exporters.
Narcotics trade: To oust Latin America cocaine crowd, Balkan cartels settled in South America, made roots, married local women
Balkan traffickers bribe or threaten Balkan sailors to tamper with shipping containers, stash cocaine in their belongings, or haul it onto their vessels from smaller boats while out at sea. Back on land, criminals within Europe’s Balkan diaspora community have provided distribution and retail infrastructure for street sales, giving the Balkan Cartel a presence along the entire supply chain, authorities said.
How Balkan gangsters orchestrated cocaine smuggling revolution in Europe, became drug lords
Balkan trafficking outfits have eschewed the top-down, territorial structure of cartels from Mexico and Colombia, working instead in small cells that are highly mobile, secretive and capable of moving astonishingly large loads of cocaine, counter-narcotics officials said.
As Afghanistan pushes for economic funding, US wants its Taliban rulers to ease restrictions on women
Speaking to local media, Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesman for the Taliban-run government, recently said the West “desires the implementation of Western-equivalent rights and essentially strives to impose Western culture” on the Afghan people.
Biden administration signals US is willing to engage with Afghanistan’s Taliban-led regime
The United States has adopted a policy of “pragmatic engagement” with Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government, which Washington has yet to recognise as official more than two years after the former Western-backed leaders fled Kabul and the Taliban re-established its Islamic Emirate in the country.
World humanitarian agencies raise alarm over ‘crushing levels of violence and displacement’ in Congo
Over the past few months over 700,000 people have been forced from their homes, bringing the total forcibly displaced to 7.2 million – an all-time high.
Arrest warrant out for forrmer Central African Republic president Bozizé for human rights abuses
Bozizé lives in exile in Guinea Bissau, where that country’s President Umaro Sissoco Embaló said he had not received any request from Bangui about the arrest warrant, and that the country’s laws do not allow for extradition.
How Arsenal boss created untouchables ever ‘ready to drive, foot to the floor, every three days’
The perfectionist streak in Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta perhaps explains why he has become so attached to his crop of key performers. He believes the best players have to want to be ready to drive, foot to the floor, every three days. It’s a challenge he laid some years ago to a young Saka, using Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as the ultimate example, the best who set the highest bars for consistent performance.
Gunned! How Arsenal uses ball pace and Saka as routine missiles to blow Tottenham Hotspurs cold
When the opponents are Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal have a clear plan. They figured out how to hurt their neighbours and biggest rivals a while back, and Bukayo Saka tends to be their weapon of choice. The 22-year-old scored his 15th league goal of the season, his best tally for a single campaign, to make it 2-0 on Sunday but that was not the only significant aspect of his finish. It was the latest in a string of very similar moves he has been involved in to hurt Spurs over the past three seasons, dating back to September 2021.
Proposed international mission to Haiti in limbo even after installation transitional government
Haiti, long the poorest country in the Western hemisphere with a legacy of slavery, foreign occupation and dictatorships, has experienced an escalation in gang violence since 2021, when its last president, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated.
