Gold

tracked under Shadow ▸ Illegal extraction

state of play · Shadow

Ukraine struck Wildberries e-commerce warehouses in the St. Petersburg region for at least the fifth time in a week on July 23-24, citing the platform's documented role as a marketplace for FPV drone components, attack-drone parts, and military equipment sold to Russian armed forces in violation of international sanctions; Russian authorities have officially designated the strikes "terrorist attacks," underscoring the legal and political stakes of targeting a consumer platform. The Wildberries case is the clearest documented instance in the current conflict of a civilian e-commerce platform functioning as part of a military supply chain.

Nigeria's military and police rescued 308 people abducted from Kwara and Niger states on August 5, in what President Tinubu's office called the largest single-day rescue operation in Nigerian security history; Tinubu directed agencies to intensify early-warning and community intelligence systems. The operation reflects the scale of kidnapping networks operating across Nigeria's north-west, where bandit groups have been operating without formal ideological affiliation but with organised logistics.

Enforcement against Russia's shadow fleet is shifting from paper to the water: UK forces boarded a sanctioned tanker in the Channel and designated 27 more vessels plus insurers, under new interdiction powers. Physically seizing ships raises Russia's export costs and widens the discount on its crude, and reportedly diverted other tankers. Watch: whether other states adopt shadow-fleet interdiction; how the fleet reroutes in response; whether Western governments issue formal secondary sanctions against Wildberries for enabling drone sales; whether Russia restricts the platform's operating licence as political cover.

Criminal extraction and trafficking of gold outside licensing rules funds Sahel insurgencies and launders drug proceeds across Latin America and South-East Asia, accelerated by record prices.

full dossier ›

JNIM's gold war economy bankrolls the Sahel insurgency as juntas raid artisanal mines

Al-Qaeda's Sahel coalition taxes and attacks gold sites to fund ~6,000 fighters; Niger kills 13 in mine raids aimed at drying up financing

Whose Money ·9 takes ·Jun 25

Greenpeace traces $3.9bn 'ghost-permit' gold laundering as illegal mining spreads in Peru's Amazon

Brazilian artisanal permits laundered 25 tonnes of gold from likely-illegal sites; mercury contamination pushes deeper into Cusco and Puno

Whose Money ·12 takes ·Jul 7

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