Aberystwyth symposium delegates were asking for examples of prosecution of terror financing offences. Here’s a Spanish example.

Not sure if the Guardian isnt the teensiest bit behind here. Family History buffs have been looking at these for a while. Still, historians of organised crime should have a field day. It must be today that the process of putting files online finishes. Go find your transported ancestors immediately! Then do some proper research … OLD BAILEY OPENS ITS UNSEEN FILES

Breathless headline from the sub editor here. The story is actually about Somali waters, where, according to the last couple of paragraphs of the article, a lot of boats are fishing illegally. On the other hand, there is no reliable government to issue permits. Warlords or the Islamic courts: there’s your choice.

Story of investigation into links between members of Congress, paramilitary Death Squads and Narco-trafficking…and we arent talking about FARC here. We’re talking about the Colmbian elite and its killers. There’s a book, apparently called “Parapolitics”, cooauthored by a Claudia Lopez. Death squads go back as far as the 1980s. So let me see…according tho the … COUSIN OF COLMBIAN PRESIDENT ARRESTED IN DEATH SQUAD PROBE

This article would have been written for the Washington Post before news broke of today’s gun battles in Tijuana. Real “state within a state” stuff. Also introduces a displacement argument. Someone has recently argued that you have to work out where crime is going to be displaced to before you start to intervene and provide … FROM MEXICO, DRUG VIOLENCE SPILLS OVER INTO US

Colourful account of el Nene, a Ceuta-based drug smuggler. Ceuta is a Spanish enclave in North Africa.

Again, the headline in this Guardian/Observer article is misleading. Everyone expects a new round of fighting between Hizbollah and Israel. This piece offers an insight into the fact. It also gives evidence that there were far fewer fighters than previous estimates, but there will now be a whole generation trained in camps in other countries. … HIZBOLLAH BUILDS UP FIGHTING FORCE

“community fixers” being chosen to deliver justice rather than the police, says the Chief constable of Leicester: “I do recognise that you get a limited number of people at a more criminal level who seek to build a power base in communities by intimidation, by controlling the drugs, by being seen, if you like, almost … GANG FIXERS “PICKED OVER POLICE”

Article on the anniversary of the embassy bombing in Beirut 25 years ago [April 18th]. Figures included. 658 attacks last year, 542 of them in Iraq and Afghanistan. 1,840 incidents in past 25 years, 86% of them since 2001. Sounds like an exponential curve. 920 in Iraq and over 260 in Afghanistan. Seems a long … SINCE 2001, A DRAMATIC INCREASE IN SUICIDE BOMBINGS

BBC report on the “Hackers’ Panel” at the InfoSecurity Conference. Interesting argument about role for ISPs in policing botnets and claims that neither China nor Russia responsible for recent attacks. Both private individuals and murky Western agencies routing their attacks through those countries to disguise the origin of attacks. Sounds like trouble in cyberspace. Commercial … HACKERS WARN HIGH STREET CHAINS