EUROPOL ANNUAL REPORT

According to the 2006 Europol Annual report organised crime groups in 2006 continued to increase their level of specialisation as well as the use that they make of legitimate business structures. Their internal structure allows them to expand their fields of activity across crime types and international borders. As expected, globalisation is heavily influencing the EUROPOL ANNUAL REPORT

IP CRIME DIRECTIVE APPROVED

A controversial Directive which criminalises intellectual property violations in Europe was approved yesterday by the European Parliament but does not include its most controversial element, the criminalising of patent infringement. Supporters of the Directive say it is aimed at organised crime, but opponents claim that it could criminalise legitimate activities. The proposed directive is also controversial because if passed IP CRIME DIRECTIVE APPROVED

NEW SMUGGLING TACTIC: SWALLOWING MONEY

The Royal Marechaussee on Schiphol airport last week arrested a woman who had instead of the usual drugs had swallowed money in secure packages. In total the 57-year old woman had swallowed 43 packages containg 258 bills worth 500 euro each, totalling 129.000 euro. The woman was trying to smuggle the money on a flight to Madrid.

UNODC:COUNTRIES IGNORANT ABOUT THREATS POSED BY TRANSNATIONAL CRIME

Law enforcement authorities around the world “operate in an information fog” about transnational organized crime, ignorant of the scope of the threats faced and unable to gauge global trends, the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warned today, calling on UN Member States to develop a coherent blueprint to deal with UNODC:COUNTRIES IGNORANT ABOUT THREATS POSED BY TRANSNATIONAL CRIME

GLOBAL ORGANISED CRIME. A LECTURE.

A lecture by former BBC journalist Misha Glenny on how globalisation and the collapse of communism are jointly responsible for the exponential growth in the global shadow economy since the mid-1980s.

ORGANISED CRIME WAVE GRIPS GUATEMALA

In 1996, when Guatemala emerged from a bloody civil war lasting more than 30 years, people thought that the peace accords between government and leftwing rebels would bring an end to the violence. A little more than a decade later, spiralling drugs­related crime has proved them wrong. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 6,033 people ORGANISED CRIME WAVE GRIPS GUATEMALA