By a Biometrica staffer Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic struck, all manner of criminal activity also increasingly shifted to the virtual world. That included human traffickers, who began to use online channels more and more to conduct their activities. They used digital...
By a Biometrica staffer On Friday, Feb. 4, the Justice Department announced that Aaron Crawford of Maryland had been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison, followed by 20 years of supervised release. Why? For engaging in what Attorney General Merrick B....
By a Biometrica staffer Only yesterday, Dec. 2, Europol announced the results of a massive international law enforcement operation that targeted money mules. The operation, codenamed EMMA 7 (i.e. the European Money Mule Action), involved 26 countries including the U.S., and led...
By Deepti Govind The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), along with its law enforcement partners, said it removed nearly 745,000 lbs of unneeded prescriptions from medicine cabinets across the country under its National Prescription Drug Take Back Day program, which was held on...
By a Biometrica staffer As part of their mandate to prevent substance abuse, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) periodically puts out a resource guide titled “Drugs of Abuse.” The latest version from 2020 is meant to serve as a “comprehensive guide” to...
By a Biometrica staffer On Tuesday, Oct. 26, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the results of a massive ten-month, multinational, multi-agency operation (called “Dark HunTor”), which included over 150 arrests across the world and the seizure of 45 weapons, 234 kgs...
By a Biometrica staffer A few months ago, Reuters News analyzed data from the National Emergency Medical Services Information System, which represents almost 90% of all emergency responses in the U.S., and found that during the pandemic, “the rate of drug-related 911...
By a Biometrica staffer A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) special agent was killed in Tucson, Arizona, on Monday, Oct. 4 when a passenger on an Amtrak train fatally shot him. The passenger also died in the course of the operation in which...
By a Biometrica staffer The Global Organized Crime Index paints a "worrying picture of the reach, scale and impact of organized crime in 2020." The data driven analytics tool evaluated 193 United Nations member states. The 2020 report, the first published by Global Initiative,...
By a Biometrica staffer In late 2020, much before anyone ever imagined that a deadlier variant of the Covid-19 virus would sweep across the world and wreak renewed havoc on healthcare and governance systems, organizations like the United Nations Office on Drugs...
By a Biometrica staffer The latest report in the Cocaine Insights series, published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Europol takes a hard look at the trade in the illegal drug around the world, highlighting some of...
By a Biometrica staffer The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has bumped up to $5 million the reward for information that might lead to the apprehension of Jian Zhang, a man believed to be a key figure in illegal fentanyl trafficking in...
By Deepti Govind In July, the U.S. government reported that drug overdose deaths last year, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, soared nearly 30% to a record number of around 93,000. That's a massive spike from 2019's 72,000 drug overdose deaths,...
By Deepti Govind At the end of last month, a drug dealer called Chukwuemeka Okparaeke, whose online darknet avatar is "Fentmaster," was sentenced to 15 years in prison. He imported and trafficked fentanyl analogues and other synthetic opioids through the dark web,...
By Aara Ramesh The nation’s continued struggle with the opioid epidemic and its fallout entered a new phase on Tuesday, June 29, when a dozen companies faced in court, for the first time, a six-member jury in a case brought by the...
By Aara Ramesh In what is being called the “largest and most sophisticated” operation ever against encrypted criminal activities, Europol, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and law enforcement agencies in 16 countries across the world have managed to take down hundreds...
By Aara Ramesh On May 18, Governor Doug Ducey signed into law a bill that excludes narcotic drug testing products from an existing law that classifies them as illegal drug paraphernalia. The particular target of this action are fentanyl test strips (FTS),...
By a Biometrica staffer If you recall, just over a week ago, we had written a piece on how organized crime groups (OCGs) managed to carve out a $2.6 billion cut in Italy’s strong tourism sector, based on an article by the Organized...
By a Biometrica staffer In the last week or so of April, sentences were given out to various individuals who had committed drug-related crimes. Biometrica rounds up ten of those for you, based on statements published by the Department of Justice (DOJ)...
By Anand Vasu Tony Hernández, a former Honduran Congressman, was sentenced to life in prison and ordered to forfeit $138.5 million for distributing 185 tons of cocaine, and related firearms and false statements offenses. Over a 15-year-period, Hernández played a leadership role...
By a Biometrica staffer Rachel Manna, an Iowa resident, pled guilty to posting the photographs and names of individuals assisting authorities with a narcotics investigation on her Facebook page, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement. She got this information...
By a Biometrica staffer US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers seized more than 3,100 pounds of methamphetamine, fentanyl powder, fentanyl pills, and heroin at the Otay Mesa commercial facility on Friday. This was part of the second largest methamphetamine bust along...
By a Biometrica staffer The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and other agencies were part of an international operation to disrupt drug trafficking on the darknet. As part of the investigation, charges were also brought on against...