He gave a scathing assessment of the state of law enforcement in the Western world, speaking of police forces more interested in ''glory grabbing'' and competing with other agencies for funding than in understanding and tackling organised crime. ''The only winners in that type of environment is the criminals. Law enforcement has had to take a short-term focus, because that is what their political masters take.
''Most damning of all, however, is that governments have seen dealing with serious organised crime as the responsibility of law enforcement alone.''
In a speech before Mr Hughes, the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, Simon Overland, agreed that governments needed to take up the baton instead of expecting police to fight an ''unwinnable war''.
''I get nervous when, from a public policy point of view, we start talking about wars on organised crime, because [it's] a war that you can never win and never end.
The Moroccan government is calling for regional action in the face of growing collaboration between drug traffickers and terrorists in the Sahel.
Morocco's Interior Ministry confirmed Friday in Rabat that police had arrested 34 members of an international drug trafficking ring that had ties to the terrorist group, al-Qaida of the Islamic Maghreb.
Authorities said the traffickers, who also had links to South American drug cartels, were transporting cocaine and marijuana from South America to Europe, via North Africa.
"'Organised crime has been connected with violent fan groups and extreme political organisations,' Tadic said.
“They are planning to reactivate the sect’s hit squad whose duty will be to eliminate any security officer found to be an easy target and also to identify security personnel who are executing sect members for possible elimination,” read part of the report.
Of some nations in east Africa - though he chose not to name any - Mr Hughes said: ''Their infrastructure is broken, corruption is rife, it's endemic in many of them, and what we're seeing is enclaves of organised criminals - Colombians and Venezuelans, Russians and Asians - getting in and exploiting the government and law enforcement.''.
Somalia got away from us and northern Mali is in the process of getting away from us," said Marou, speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of a meeting organised by the lay Catholic community Sant'Egidio.
The other question repeatedly asked by the citizens is whether the police have the capacity to provide and maintain security in areas where mungiki and other organised criminal groups thrive? The mungiki draws its members from poor communities and gives members a sense of purpose, cultural and political identity, as well as income.
Indeed, mungiki have a strong threshold in slum areas where they operate, thus making it increasingly difficult to effectively ensure security and enforce the rule of law. They purportedly have taken up duties that the state has not sufficiently provided such as security, transport, and even traditional government functions such as collection of garbage. Extortion seems to be the order of the day, as citizens have to provide ‘a small fee’ for these services. Failure to pay the expected fees results in death or loss of property through arson or malicious damage.
The mungiki sect mirrors the discontent arising from severe unemployment and landlessness caused by Kenya’s rapid population growth. Its leadership claims to have over three million members around the country and have infiltrated civil service, factories, schools and the uniformed forces. Such members do not necessarily sport dreadlocks – like the mungiki - but support and finance the sect behind the scenes.
Bulgaria's gray economy is worth about BGN 7 B per year, according to Regional Development Minister Rosen Plevneliev.
This is about 10-12% of Bulgaria's projected 2010 GDP, Plevneliev said during a surprise inspection of construction sites together with Labor Minister Totyu Mladenov.
About 25% of the Bulgarian gray economy is made up of the construction sector – or about BGN 1.7 B in absolute value.
Across the Balkans, minority Wahhabi groups seek to convert mainstream Islam to their more militant interpretation through the operation of cultural centers, mosques, schools and at times by battling for control of majority Muslim organizations and community-owned property. A majority of the region's Muslims are secular and analysts caution against overstating the Wahhabi threat.
'It should not be ignored, but neither should it be exaggerated,' said Hajrudin Somun a former Bosnian ambassador to Turkey and history professor at Sarajevo's Philip Noel-Baker International University.
The network, which has branches in Latin America, Europe and Africa, is specialized in the trafficking of hard drugs (cocaine) and chira, transported to Europe by land, sea and air, a statement of the Interior Ministry said on Tuesday.
Ex-Touareg rebels in Mali are ready to join the fight against al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), AFP reported on Sunday (October 10th). "We are waiting for the green light from the Malian government chase al-Qaeda in our desert," a former rebel said. Pursuant to the terms of the 2006 Algiers Agreement, elite units of ex-rebels trained by the Algerian military would reportedly participate in the counter-terror fight under the command of the Malian army.
The leader of the Algerian Tuareg Idebir Ahmed finds it increasingly difficult to ensure security in the Algerian part of the Sahel, in an interview published Monday in the Algerian daily El Watan.
Caribbean societies are reportedly being devastated by the highest rates of violent crime in the world. According to the United Nations, Bahamians, Jamaicans, Haitians, Puerto Ricans and Trinidadians are four times more likely to die by gun violence than a North American
The US voices its disappointment at Guinea-Bissau’s move to reinstate an alleged drugs kingpin as the head of the navy.
Three former Gambian security chiefs currently held at the State main Central Prison Mile Two, on drug, economic crime, and other related offences are likely to die in jail due to poor health condition, stress related illnesses, and hunger, prison sources here said. The three former officials: Bun Sanneh, Ousman Sanneh, and Essa Badjie are between “life and death” thanks to the “neglect, and persecution” they suffered in the hands of the country’s law enforcement agencies. The men suffered both mental, and emotional torture. They have been denied access to a balanced diet, proper sanitary conditions, and decent dwelling, prison sources alleged.
Dini, who is originally from Somalia, says al-Shabab has gained sway at two major mosques, where radical imams now encourage followers to return to Somalia and fight with the group.
'They use people for their political agenda,' Dini says. 'They pay people money -- we don't know where they get it -- they bring together children, women, people who are uneducated.'
Southern Italian mobsters trying to intimidate law enforcers who are targeting them, police say.
The British NGO Chatham House said that Mozambique has become an international drug trafficking hub. It is a crossroad between the producing countries of Latin America and Asia, and Europe consumers. After heroin, the Mandrax and the marijuana in the 80s, cocaine is transiting now by this southern African country. The report is based on the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), the UK's Department for fight against organised crime.
The upsurge has took off neatly in a past eighteen months, mostly as a outcome of tougher immigration controls by a United States. Yardie gangsters find it not usually simpler to come in Britain though can additionally have bigger increase than in a US, where a travel cost of heroin has slumped.
Serbian President Boris Tadic said that Serbia today is stronger than any criminal structure, but that its institutional capacity for efficiently combating organized crime was not fully mobilized until this year.
It is a misnomer to call these Somali remittance companies. While the owners and origins of these companies are Somali, most of them have operations in the Gulf, United States, Europe and East Africa and almost all are, in fact, owned and managed by citizens of these countries.
According to Waldo, Somali nationals own less than 15 hawalas while the overseas-owned remittance companies could number in the hundreds.
It is the close partnership and networking between the overseas hawalas and the local Somali hawalas that gives the impression that they are one and the same.
While the remittance companies rely mainly on the business of migrant money transfers from Western economies for family maintenance and investment in Somalia, individuals and businesses within the country use them as crude savings banks, depositing funds for short periods.
According to the KPMG report, this quasi-banking role continues to generate the most interest amongst major remittance companies. In fact, Dahabshiil is currently constructing a bank in downtown Hargeisa.
However, most other remittance companies face major constraints in converting themselves into banks, not the least of which is the lack of a centralised government and financial regulatory authority.
While the political ramifications of Hawala are hugely important and interesting in the post-9/11 world, what I find more pertinent are the mechanics and how technology is changing the way it works.
The East African newspaper put out a good visualization today on the way that Hawala currently operates in the form of remittances from Western nations to the Middle East and finally to Somalia. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) serves as a central clearing house for both simple cash transfers and more complicated import/export relationshipsAs can be seen, the person in the US or Europe gives money to a branch agent in their country. This is sent to a central country clearing house, then onto a UAE clearing house, then to a Somali agent and finally to the individual who collects the funds in Somalia.
It used to be that Somali local private operators could only communicate by HF radio (yes, they did it before this via trust networks, family ties and paper), but when the mobile phone revolution hit Africa in the 90′s the communications were made more efficient. At first this was through satellite phones, and now by the robust local mobile phone network.
A World Bank report has confirmed that 45 million hectares of land in developing countries were bought in 2009, a tenfold jump from the previous decade.
Moreover, two-thirds of these controversial “land grabs” have been in Africa where critics say public and governmental institutions offer weak defences against western multinationals and Far Eastern state companies seeking farm land for food and biofuels.
While many development agencies and African campaigners are aghast at the latest news some believe that good land development projects are exactly what the world needs to solve the food crisis as they bring investment, knowhow, and transport links, as well as creating jobs.
Unlike in past crackdowns, police are now gunning for top members instead of youths at bus parks.
And recent reports of cocaine floating up on beaches of Trinidad is more proof that the waters around the island may be a drug transshipment highway. Fishermen admit many amongst them are involved in the profitable, if dangerous and illegal, business.
The former head of the army of Guinea Bissau is still being held in prison without a formal charge six months after a mutiny led by his deputy, a rights activist and a judge said Thursday.
Posts
