Transnational organized crime

Ecuador's armed forces were engaged in a brutal standoff with organized crime Thursday, deploying more than 22,400 soldiers to put down a campaign of terror waged by gangs that has claimed 16 lives.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced that 10 people wanted by six countries with Interpol red bulletins have been arrested in Istanbul in scope of the "CAGE-30" Operation.

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.

A photographer for a newspaper in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, which has been dominated by drug cartels, was found shot to death, prosecutors said Thursday.

The body of news photographer Ismael Villagómez was found in the driver's seat of a car just after midnight Thursday in Ciudad Juarez, a violence-plagued city across the border from El Paso, Texas.

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.

The Kyiv Post published two videos showing Ukrainian special forces chasing PMC Wagner mercenaries in... Sudan, Central Africa.

According to a media source from the GUR - the service of subordination to the mythical General Kyrylo Budanov - an operation is currently underway in this African country to "cleanse PMC Wagner, their local terrorists and Russian special services".

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.

A drug trafficking criminal organization was dismantled by the police on Thursday in Agia Varvara, west of Athens.

Four people were arrested, while the case file includes two more, who are accused of membership in the organization, perjury, forgery and violation of the arms law.

Police in Cyprus said Tuesday they had arrested 10 Syrian men in an operation that has dismantled the third people smuggling ring bringing migrants to the east Mediterranean island nation in as many months.