Paris police bust knock-off Eiffel Tower network exploiting migrants, bag tons of trinkets
French police have broken up a suspected criminal gang who sold miniature copies of the Eiffel Tower at tourist sites around Paris often using illegal immigrants. The six-week operation also seized more than 20 tons of the trinkets stored in depots outside the capital. Police ...
In historic ruling, court says Italian state negotiated with mafia
An Italian court convicted former high-ranking state officials and mob bosses on Friday for holding secret negotiations in the early 1990s following a devastating wave of mafia murders and bombings. Speaking in a high-security "bunker" courtroom on the outskirts of Palermo, Judge Alfredo Montalto ruled ...
Fukuoka to offer financial help for gangsters trying to leave crime syndicates
Yakuza who wish to cut ties with crime groups — yet fear a backlash and cannot seek refuge elsewhere — will be entitled to the program.
Chinese shipping employee shot dead in Pakistan's city of Karachi
A Chinese man working with a shipping company in Pakistan was shot dead in Karachi Monday in what police described as a targeted attack, officials said. While there was no claim of responsibility and the motive was not immediately clear, China in December warned its ...
Central America's LGBT people forced to flee for their lives: Amnesty
Killings and violence against LGBT people in Central America are driving hundreds to flee their homes each year, but they have no safe sanctuary to run to, Amnesty International said on Monday. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are being forced to leave El Salvador, ...
Sicilian Mafia unlikely to ever again allow one 'boss of bosses' like Salvatore Riina
The death of Sicilian Mafia boss Salvatore "Toto" Riina on Friday does not mark the end of Cosa Nostra, but the crime group is unlikely to allow one man such power ever again, a top magistrate and former mobster said. The 87-year-old Riina died in ...
For Japan's casinos to work, keep the yakuza out and deal with problem drinking: experts
As the nation debates how to establish and operate casinos via integrated resorts, it must take measures to keep the yakuza out and manage not only problem gambling but also develop a responsible drinking policy for the casino floor, a group of U.S. experts ...
A man believed to be a bodyguard of the head of a yakuza splinter group linked to the largest crime syndicate in the country was shot dead during a violent ambush Tuesday in Kobe, police said. The man, identified as Yuhiro Kusumoto, 44 , was ...
Crime agency finds slavery, human trafficking common in Britain
Modern slavery and human trafficking are more prevalent across Britain than previously thought, the National Crime Agency said Thursday, because more international gangs realize they can make significant sums of money from it. The NCA said there are 300 live police operations into forced labor, ...
Mexico captures drug kingpin Lopez, former protege of 'El Chapo'
Mexican security forces on Tuesday arrested accused drug kingpin Damaso Lopez, who was believed to be locked in a bloody struggle for control of the Sinaloa Cartel against the sons of its captured leader, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. The attorney general's office announced that its ...
U.S. sanctions two yakuza groups, leader, for alleged money laundering
The United States imposed sanctions Friday on a yakuza crime syndicate, three of its members and an affiliate group over their alleged involvement in drug trafficking and money laundering. Subject to sanctions are the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi, the Yamaken-gumi, a subsidiary gang group, Kunio Inoue, leader ...
Japan's bosozoku bikers: a vanishing rebel breed
Shotaro Nagasawa knows about living on the edge. Fistfights, bloodshed and near-death encounters seemed to dog the teen wherever he went. He lost track of the number of times he was ambushed by thugs on his way home — they'd run him down, knife him ...
