Mafia

The identities of four men, aged 20-23, belonging to a 12-member drug trafficking gang which was dismantled on April 26 by narcotics officers in Patra, western Greece, were made public on Wednesday.

According to police, the suspects are the four leading members of the gang, which is believed to have been peddling drugs at a school.

Signaling their determination to step up efforts to catch four of the eight suspects implicated in the Greek Mafia investigation who are still evading arrest, the prosecution authorities disclosed the names of all eight on Thursday.

Maybe we don't understand how much everything around us seems to be losing its momentum and cheapening, and I hope we don't suddenly realize it by some "accident." Lawlessness is a widespread phenomenon and, worst of all, no one has any answers for how you deal with it.

The recent police operations in the wake of last week's mob-style killing in the Athens suburb of Neos Kosmos reveal that criminal networks thrive on specific sources of illegal wealth, including the smuggling of fuels and tobacco. 

The mafia prospers in areas where the state has consistently failed to establish control, despite the significant cost to the public treasury.

Police in violence-plagued Ecuador arrested 68 people Sunday who had attempted to take over a hospital in the country's southwest in the midst of a "war" between drug gangs and the security forces.

The video of the latest murder of a prominent member of the Greek Mafia is more than shocking. 

It will be unthinkable if Greek society and the state get used to this routine which is often swept under the rug with the excuse that it is just gangs "settling their scores." 

It is a common secret from Russia to Latin America and from Eastern Europe to the Western Balkans that hooliganism and common crime often tread common ground; that hard-line associations of fans of the rituals of war and violence are sometimes the reservoirs from which extremist formations and organized crime recruit executioners.

Spanish authorities apprehended Ivo "El Bulgaro," the alleged head of the notorious Bulgarian mafia group "Rompecostillas" (Bone Crushers), in connection with an extortion attempt targeting a Sevilla football club executive, as reported by Telecinco TV.

BELGRADE - Serbian Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic said on Thursday organised crime groups smuggling migrants in northern Serbia were assisted by Albanian mafia from Kosovo-Metohija.

Turkish police have dismantled the notorious international criminal organization Comanchero, arresting 18 of its alleged members.

The arrests come after a joint effort by Turkish law enforcement agencies to apprehend individuals involved in a wide range of criminal activities, including drug trafficking, murder, armed robbery, arson, kidnapping and global money laundering.