A4e, just awarded £100 million contract and employing David Blunkett, fined for staff making false claims of getting people into work…

Publication of UN World Drug report [http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/2009/June/world-drug-report-2009-released.html ]

The article starts with a story about which I would like to know more. two Japanese arrested on the Italian-Swiss border with $134 billion in US Government bonds. the bonds were forgeries, and the article rambles off into another strange discussion as to whether the dollar is doomed. But I want to know more about … DOLLAR COMPARED TO SEAN MCGOWAN

From la Reppublica. names, ages, indictments. Allegedly those arrested include the Mafia boss of Trapini, Matteo Messina Denaro. Quite a lot of information, including stuff on the olive oil racket. There’s so little in the British press about organised crime that I’m back to other sources, I’m afraid. anyway, its good for your foreign language … 13 ALLEGED MAFIA MEMBERS ARRESTED IN TRAPINI

our old friend Yulia Latynina arguing that Jihadists have set up a protection racket and are now well-funded and well-armed in Dagestan.

Piece from the magazine on women and shoplifting. There’s a book about to come out by Neal Lawson, author of this piece, which is accompanied by 5 interviews with shoplifters.

La Familia Michoacana, drug cartel and messianic cult, “promises to protect the poor while meting out “divine justice” to its enemies, including rituals in which executioners carve cryptic initials in their victims’ foreheads.” [Quotation from Washington post article.] the effect of the counter-narcotics strategy has been to change the nature of Mexico’s drug cartels, rather … A MEXICAN CARTEL’S SWIFT AND GRISLY CLIMB

Fake ads on real websites, with another website to take your money but claiming to “hold” it until the deal is complete…..

Dr. Daniel Tschofen and Professor Stephan Laske are organizing a conference stream on the organization of crime. The title of the stream is ‘organizing crime’. The stream will be within the Asian-Pacific-Researchers in Organization Studies (APROS) conference in December 2009 in Mexico. Concepts of criminal organizations are directly relevant to your work and a collaboration … ORGANISATION OF CRIME STREAM AT APROS CONFERENCE MEXICO DECEMBER 2009