Europol, Microsoft and partners take 326 servers and 142 domains, freezing €41m in crypto
Shadow Economy
Sanctions evasion, trafficking, illicit flows and cybercrime.
state of play
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 interdiction and how the fleet reroutes.
tracking
Shadow fleets & evasion
Russia fleet2 escalatingUK boards a sanctioned tanker and designates 27 more shadow-fleet vessels Iran oil1 activeOFAC targets an Iran LPG-smuggling and shadow-banking network across the UAE and China Venezuela oil1 transitionUS tanker seizures and post-Maduro licences reshape Venezuela's oil exports North Korea2 activeNorth Korea's oil and coal shadow fleet runs on as the MSMT replaces the UN panel
Drug economies
Fentanyl precursors2 activeChina tightens fentanyl-precursor exports as US indicts PRC firms supplying Mexican cartels Cocaine1 worseningCocaine output at record highs as Ecuador's ports become the trade's superhighway Captagon1 activePost-Assad Syria seizes Captagon weekly as the trade fragments toward Suwayda Methamphetamine1 worseningMethamphetamine displaces opium as Afghanistan and the Golden Triangle pivot to synthetics
Illegal extraction
IUU fishing1 worseningUS committees brand China's distant-water fleet a 'geopolitical weapon' as patrols ramp up Gold2 worseningJNIM's gold war economy bankrolls the Sahel insurgency as juntas raid artisanal mines Timber1 worseningMexican cartels run a $172m illegal-timber trade and launder it into the fentanyl supply chain Sand1 worseningIndia's top court calls sand-mining cartels 'modern dacoits' as river deaths mount Conflict minerals1 worseningGlobal Witness traces M23 'conflict coltan' through Rwanda into Apple, Microsoft and Nvidia supply chains
latest
Damascus arrests two top traffickers and seizes 600,000 pills; the state monopoly gives way to warlords, with Jordan striking smuggling hubs across the southern border
After two years of fragmentation, the top 10 crews drive 71% of victims; a Qilin-defector brand scales faster than any on record
Global production topped 3,700 tonnes in the last UNODC count; Ecuadorian ports now move up to 80% of Europe's cocaine as Petro rejects UN monitoring
A federal-police report finds the token's supply concentrated in one address; Inecip and Cipce seek Milei's indagatoria
Treasury names front companies relabelling Iranian LPG as Omani to move millions of barrels to South and East Asia
Royal Marines seize the 'Smyrtos' in the Channel days before a sanctions package hitting ships, insurers and procurement networks
worsening US committees brand China's distant-water fleet a 'geopolitical weapon' as patrols ramp up
A January 2026 congressional report calls the ~16,000-vessel fleet a coordinated state instrument; Japan funds drone surveillance off South America
worsening Methamphetamine displaces opium as Afghanistan and the Golden Triangle pivot to synthetics
Taliban opium ban coincides with a meth surge; East and Southeast Asia logged a record 236 tonnes seized as Shan State super-labs run flat out
Ship-to-ship transfers and AIS-spoofing tankers keep breaching the petroleum cap a vetoed UN body once policed
Washington's first 'failed demonstrably' label since 1997, plus sanctions on Petro himself, collide with a Trump-endorsed successor
Beijing schedules all INCB-listed precursors and adds export controls; Washington indicts six PRC nationals over chemicals sent to a Gulf Cartel network
A 10 June 2026 investigation says Rubaya coltan, taxed by M23 at $4/kg, is relabelled Rwandan and sold into the world's biggest tech brands
Manuel Adorni concedes off-the-books savings the anti-casta government had built ethics policy around; opposition pushes a censure session
pending-decision Von der Leyen unveils the EU's 21st Russia sanctions package
First-ever hits on shadow-fleet enablers, LNG-tanker resales and a frozen oil price cap
worsening Mexican cartels run a $172m illegal-timber trade and launder it into the fentanyl supply chain
Sinaloa and CJNG-allied factions match Chihuahua's legal logging output; PROFEPA shuts 25 sawmills as timber money buys Chinese precursors
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
The Supreme Court orders GPS tracking and CCTV in the Chambal sanctuary; 18 die in a mining blast as the sand mafia kills officials and reporters
Farías Laguna's letters to Sheinbaum widen the huachicol fiscal case; his defence disputes that the full file was handed over
Reports name Sonora's Durazo and Tamaulipas's Villarreal; Sheinbaum calls it a discrediting campaign as her predecessor breaks silence
worsening 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
The French navy boards the 'Tagor' in the Atlantic as Paris, London and partners shift from blacklisting ships to taking them
The right's 2026 candidate confirms a recording asking ex-banker Daniel Vorcaro to release money for a biopic of his father, widening Lula's lead
OFAC names three executives and a Kyrgyz-Russian shell network; Grinex then halts, blaming a 'Western special services' hack
Pyongyang's hackers drove 76% of 2026 crypto-hack value while OFAC and DOJ pursued the fake-employee revenue machine
Washington has taken at least seven Venezuela-linked tankers while issuing fresh general licences for a transition government