Tag - gangs

 
 

GANGS

The Pentagon in Washington
WORLD / Politics
Nov 7, 2025
Resolution that would have kept Trump from striking Venezuela blocked
The Senate voted 51 to 49, largely along party lines, against a measure that would have brought the war powers resolution up for a vote.
Tokyo police have arrested seven people suspected of being involved in at least 500 fraud cases in Tokyo and three prefectures between February 2023 and this month.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 6, 2025
Tokyo police arrest fraud group head and six others
The seven men are believed to be linked to at least 500 fraud cases in Tokyo and three prefectures since February 2023.
People from various countries who were working in the KK Park compound in Myanmar and crossed into Thailand via the Moei river, board a vehicle on Oct. 24 as Thai soldiers keep watch.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Nov 5, 2025
Myanmar scam hub sweep triggers fraudster recruitment rush
Online scam hubs have mushroomed across Southeast Asia, draining victims of billions of dollars annually in elaborate romance and crypto cons.
"This is not how the system is supposed to work," Democratic Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said after Democrats were excluded from a briefing.
WORLD / Politics
Oct 31, 2025
Democrats excluded from briefing on U.S. military strikes off South America: senator
Members of Congress, especially Democrats, have been demanding more information about the deadly strikes on boats off the South American coast, which have killed nearly 60 people.
The USS Gravely, a U.S. Navy warship, is seen departing the Port of Spain on Thursday. The U.S. warship arrived in Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday for joint exercises near the coast of Venezuela.
WORLD
Oct 31, 2025
As U.S. blows up drug boats, Venezuelan oil continues to flow
“Shadow tankers,” which transport sanctioned or illicit Venezuelan oil, are still coming and going.
U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington earlier this month.
WORLD
Oct 31, 2025
'Non-interventionist' Trump flexes muscles in Latin America
Trump has been meddling in ways harkening back to an earlier era in U.S. history.
A law enforcement officer holds a firearm as residents of the Alemao and Penha favela complexes demonstrate outside the government palace, the day after a deadly police operation against drug trafficking at the favela do Penha, in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday.
WORLD
Oct 31, 2025
Families cluster at Rio morgue looking for answers after deadly police raids
Authorities said at least 121 people, including the officers, died in the Tuesday raids targeting a gang that controls the drug trade in several poor neighborhoods.
Brazilian police launched their biggest ever raids on Rio de Janeiro's drug traffickers on Tuesday, with as many as 2,500 officers taking part.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Oct 29, 2025
At least 64 killed in war-like Rio drug raids
As many as 2,500 heavily armed officers took part in the operation targeting Brazil's main drug-trafficking gang in two poor neighborhoods.
A Thai soldier keeps watch over people who crossed over from Myanmar, as they wait to be screened and interrogated by officials on Oct. 23.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Oct 28, 2025
Myanmar detains over 10,000 foreigners in scam center crackdown
The move comes as the international community pressures the junta to dismantle billion-dollar scam networks.
Workers at a coca plantation in Colombia. Experts say the U.S. strikes on narcotics traffickers are having no real impact on Latin America's drug trade.
WORLD / Crime & Legal / EXPLAINER
Oct 24, 2025
Are U.S. strikes hurting Latin America's drug trade?
In short, no.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested he could order the U.S. military to escalate attacks by hitting cartel infrastructure on land in Venezuela.
WORLD
Oct 24, 2025
Trump says U.S. eyeing land strikes next after drug boat attacks
Trump's statement was the clearest indication yet that he’s preparing to broaden strikes in his campaign to stop the flow of drugs into the U.S. from Venezuela.
Retired yakuza Mako Nishimura sorts fallen leaves during a clean-up activity at the Gifu Gokoku shrine in Gifu Prefecture on Sept. 28.
JAPAN / Society
Oct 21, 2025
Rare female yakuza walks path to redemption in Japan
Heavily inked Mako Nishimura, 58, spends her days helping other retired gangsters reintegrate into society.
Police officers escort repatriated South Koreans, who were detained by authorities in Cambodia over alleged cyberscam operations, upon their arrival at Incheon international airport, west of Seoul, on Saturday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Oct 18, 2025
64 South Koreans held in Cambodia return home under arrest
South Korea had sent a team to Cambodia on Wednesday to discuss cases of fake jobs and scam centers involved in kidnapping dozens of its nationals.
Suspect Qian Ling (center), who is believed to be the group's leader, following his re-arrest, in Tokyo's Koto Ward on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 17, 2025
Tokyo police arrest phone scam group leader
The Metropolitan Police Department suspects that the group was behind at least some 500 phone scam cases committed in half a year through January.
The Aichi Prefectural Police headquarters in Nagoya
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 17, 2025
Seven key members of major bank account brokerage ring arrested
The organization is believed to be one of the biggest of its kind in Japan, handling over 1,000 accounts annually for the purpose of money laundering
Screen captures from a video posted on the White House's X account on Sept. 15 depict what U.S. President Donald Trump said was a military strike on a Venezuelan drug cartel vessel that had been on its way to the United States.
WORLD
Oct 17, 2025
In a first, U.S. strike in Caribbean leaves survivors, U.S. official says
Tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela have escalated amid U.S. strikes on alleged drug vessels off the South American country's coast.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said Tuesday the recent kidnappings in Cambodia were causing "significant harm to South Koreans," and urged immediate government action.
ASIA PACIFIC / Crime & Legal
Oct 14, 2025
80 South Koreans missing in Cambodia scam center row, Seoul says
Between January and August this year, 330 South Koreans were reported to have gone missing or been held against their will after entering Cambodia.
U.S. President Donald Trump departs after addressing senior military officers gathered at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Quantico, Virginia, on Tuesday. His administration has declared a "non-international armed conflict” with Latin American drug cartels.
WORLD
Oct 3, 2025
Trump declares cartels in ‘armed conflict’ with U.S. military
The move offers additional legal justification for recent strikes on alleged drug-runners from Venezuela and opens the door for possible further escalation.
National Police Agency Commissioner-General Yoshinobu Kusunoki (right) hands a letter of appointment to Akira Uno, head of the agency's newly created information analysis office, at the agency in Tokyo on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Oct 1, 2025
Police in Japan launch teams to combat tokuryū crime groups
Members of the groups are connected through social media for illegal activities such as fraud and robbery.
A street in Naha in August. In entertainment districts in southern Okinawa, a drug known as "laughing gas vape" is being abused at nightclubs and bar. Now, some establishments have put up warning notices.
JAPAN / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Sep 22, 2025
Abuse of 'zombie cigarettes' among Okinawa youths raises alarm
"Laughing gas vape," inhaled using devices resembling e-cigarettes, can cause its users to lose control.

Longform

Once smoky, male-dominated spaces, today's net cafes, like Kaikatsu Club, are working to make their operations more attractive to women customers.
The second life of Japan's net cafes