The Kingpin Fallacy: What Happens When You Take Out the Leader of a Mexican Cartel?

While Washington and Mexico City celebrate the death of Mexican organized crime group leader “El Mencho,” history shows that decapitating cartels splits them into smaller, more violent groups. And it ...

occrp.org

UK to Dissolve Crypto Exchange Accused of Funding Iran's Revolutionary Guard

Companies House to strike off Zedxion Exchange after an OCCRP investigation found the firm used a stock-photo model to hide its links to sanctioned Iranian tycoon Babak Zanjani.

occrp.org

Conflict-Tainted Venezuelan Gold Entered World Market Through Caribbean Island, Documents Indicate

The Caribbean island of Curaçao has no natural gold deposits. So why did dozens of tons of gold refined at a prestigious Swiss refinery come from the island? The evidence points to their origin in con...

occrp.org

Fear is the Message: How the Jalisco New Generation Cartel Weaponized Algorithms to Paralyze Mexico

In the hours after Mexican drug lord "El Mencho’s" killing by the military, his Jalisco New Generation Cartel responded by deploying hundreds of roadblocks, torching banks and supermarkets — and rapid...

occrp.org

The Cat and the Stock-Footage CEO: How a Digital Trail Helped Unmask an Iranian Money Machine

A woman named Elizabeth Newman supposedly runs two U.K.-registered crypto exchanges. But she appears to be a corporate fiction used as a front for a convicted embezzler whom the United States has accu...

occrp.org

Breaking Bad In The Attic: A Dutch City’s Battle Against Secret Amphetamine Labs

The tranquil city of Echt is being poisoned by the Netherlands' booming drug trade. As drug labs leak toxic waste, the city's mayor has teamed up with the police chief to contain the cartel-driven ope...

occrp.org

Meet the South Pacific Ponzi King With a Bogus Bank — and a Global Fan Club

Fugitive Ponzi schemer Noah Musingku reigns over an armed “cargo cult” deep in the interior of one of the world’s most isolated islands. OCCRP went to investigate how he had attracted an international...

occrp.org

Cocaine and Bananas: How Balkan Traffickers Used Fruit Shipments From the Ecuadorian President's Family Firm to Smuggle Drugs

occrp.org

Rwanda sanctions will undermine push for Congo peace talks, proscribed minister says

International sanctions against Rwanda will reduce the incentive for Kinshasa to engage in peace talks with M23 rebels who have made lightning advances in eastern Congo this year, a proscribed Rwandan minister has said.

reuters.com

Rwanda’s Kabarebe, sanctioned by US over ties to Congo rebels, is Kagame's 'hatchet man'

When Rwanda's ex-spy chief Patrick Karegeya was murdered in South Africa in 2014, his former brother-in-arms James Kabarebe was blunt: "When you choose to be a dog, you die like a dog."

reuters.com

UN Security Council to call on Rwanda to pull troops from Congo

The United Nations Security Council will vote on Friday to call on Rwanda's military to stop supporting the M23 rebel group in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and immediately withdraw all troops from Congolese territory "without preconditions."

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Rwanda says DRC criticism of Arsenal, Bayern and PSG deals threatens regional peace

Rwanda on Thursday described recent criticism of its Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Paris St Germain sponsorship deals by the Democratic Republic of Congo’s foreign minister as a threat to regional peace and stability.

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Somalia says its army, allied militias repel al Shabaab attacks, kill more than 130

Somalia said on Thursday its army and allied clan militias have fought off coordinated raids on villages by the Islamist al Shabaab armed group in the country's south, killing more than 130 attackers.

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US sanctions Rwandan minister, militant over DRC conflict, says Treasury

The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday imposed sanctions on a Rwandan government minister and a senior member of an armed group for their alleged role in the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to a statement.

reuters.com

Burundi's army is withdrawing from DR Congo, four sources say

Burundian soldiers, who have been fighting Rwandan-backed M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, were pulling out following the fall of the city of Bukavu, four sources, including a Burundian army officer and two U.N. officials, said on Tuesday.

reuters.com

Congo's defeated foreign mercenaries head home with 'big relief'

Nearly 300 foreign mercenaries hired by the Democratic Republic of Congo government to counter a swift offensive by Rwandan-backed M23 rebels in the east have surrendered and were on their way home on Wednesday.

reuters.com

With fear and fist-bumps, Goma residents greet Congo's M23 rebels again

Residents greeted the arrival of Rwanda-backed rebels with trepidation, some staying indoors and others coming out to cheer in what one called a "show" of happiness.

reuters.com

More than 100 dead dolphins found on Somali coast, cause a mystery

More than 100 dead dolphins have been found on the coast of Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region, with officials yet to establish what caused their deaths.

reuters.com

Somalia's Jubbaland government suspends ties with federal administration

The government of Somalia's semi-autonomous Jubbaland state said on Thursday it was suspending relations and cooperation with the federal government in Mogadishu following a dispute over local elections in the region.

reuters.com

Egyptian warship delivers more arms to Somalia, officials say

An Egyptian warship has delivered a second major cache of weaponry to Somalia including anti-aircraft guns and artillery, port and military officials said on Monday, in a move likely to stoke further friction between the two countries and Ethiopia.

reuters.com

Tanzania arrests opposition leaders to thwart protest

Tanzanian police arrested two opposition leaders again on Monday, their party and police said, to stop anti-government protests in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam.

reuters.com

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