Law enforcement officials said this week that they had taken down a “sophisticated” decade-long operation to ship drugs and cash through the United Parcel Service, leading to the arrests of 11 people and the seizure of commercial-grade equipment to manufacture illegal drugs. The scheme involved transporting both large amounts of narcotics throughout the eastern part […]
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Investigators have charged Douglas A. J. Latchford, a leading expert on Khmer antiquities, with smuggling looted Cambodian relics and helping to sell them on the international art market by concealing their tainted histories with falsified documentation. In a federal indictment unsealed on Wednesday, Mr. Latchford, 88, was accused of having served for decades as a […]
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MEXICO CITY — The seven-month-old baby Faith Marie Johnson survived hours without food and water in a bullet-ridden SUV in northern Mexico until her family members arrived. She had miraculously escaped the bullets flying around her. Her mother was among the three women and six children killed on Monday when gunmen ambushed their cars after […]
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LONDON — The driver of a truck in which 39 bodies were found in southeastern England made his first court appearance on Monday to face criminal charges related to the deaths and suspected human trafficking, even as the authorities were working to establish the identities of the victims. The driver, 25-year-old Maurice Robinson, has been […]
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LONDON — A man and a woman were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic people and manslaughter after 39 people were found dead in a refrigerated trailer in southeastern England, the British police said on Friday. The arrests were announced as officials from at least five countries in two continents tried to piece together […]
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AMSTERDAM — In 1998, Sirak Asfaw, a Dutch civil servant who was born in Ethiopia, noticed something shiny in the suitcase of a guest who was staying at his house. Curious, he opened the case to find a glittering gilded crown inside. “I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Mr. Sirak, who moved to the Netherlands a […]
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YANGON, Myanmar — Late last month, some 200,000 Rohingya living in refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh gathered to mark the anniversary of the brutal crackdown by the Myanmar military that drove more than 700,000 people to flee western Myanmar in August 2017. Citing security concerns, the Bangladeshi government promptly banned phone companies from providing mobile […]
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BEIJING — China said it would reduce the penalties for the sale and import of unapproved drugs, effectively giving poor and critically ill patients the green light to access cheaper generic pharmaceuticals from other countries. The move, announced on Monday, could help fill a gaping hole in the country’s overburdened health care system. For years, […]
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CLARENDON, Jamaica — She came to Jamaica from the United States about four years ago, sneaking in illegally, stowed away to avoid detection. Within a few short years, she became one of the nation’s most-wanted assassins. She preyed on the parish of Clarendon, carrying out nine confirmed kills, including a double homicide outside a bar, […]
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Officials of the Indian government and the Metropolitan Museum of Art are discussing whether a number of prized antiquities that the museum began acquiring three decades ago were the product of looting by Subhash Kapoor, a Manhattan art dealer accused of being one of the world’s most prolific smugglers of stolen artifacts. Since 1990, the […]
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Iran has seized a foreign oil tanker in the Persian Gulf that was smuggling fuel to some Arab states, according to a state television report on Sunday. The report said that the tanker had been detained and the ship’s foreign crew held by the country’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. No further details were provided, […]
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The two Marines pulled over on an exit ramp along a desolate desert highway in Southern California this month, and opened a back door of their black BMW just long enough for three people to rush from the thorny scrub into the back seat. They were about a mile from the southern border, where thousands […]
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WASHINGTON — Sixteen Marines were arrested on Thursday at a military base in Southern California and charged with an array of offenses, including human smuggling and drug violations, the Marine Corps said in a statement. At about 7:30 a.m., at the regular morning formation of the First Battalion, Fifth Marine Regiment, the 16 Marines were […]
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[What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.] Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the Mexican drug lord known as El Chapo, was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison, ending one of modern history’s most brutal and notorious criminal careers. The life sentence, mandated by law as a result […]
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In a sweeping new criminal case, Subhash Kapoor, a former Manhattan art dealer the authorities describe as one of the world’s largest smugglers of antiquities, was charged Monday with running a multinational ring that trafficked in thousands of stolen objects, valued at more than $145 million, over 30 years. Mr. Kapoor, 70, is currently jailed […]
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Over 26 days in June, world law enforcement officers recovered dolphins and sharks, lion and tiger cubs, nearly two dozen primates and more than 10,000 reptiles, birds and marine animals, Interpol said on Wednesday, announcing the results of a major operation against wildlife traffickers. The campaign, called Operation Thunderball, was coordinated by Interpol and the […]
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CHAGUARAMAS, Trinidad and Tobago — She slipped out of the house around dusk, without telling her mother. Sixteen and hungry, she followed the men who had promised her work and food. Instead, they smuggled her out of Venezuela by sea, secretly planning to force her into a Trinidad brothel. Put in a fishing boat, the […]
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In his 30-year career as one of Mexico’s wiliest and most successful drug lords, Joaquín Guzmán Loera — better known as El Chapo — made so much money selling drugs that he once owned a pair of yachts, a fleet of Learjets and a private zoo with tigers, crocodiles and panthers. His fortune was vast […]
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BUENOS AIRES — Law-enforcement officials in Argentina suspected they would find plenty of weapons when they began raiding houses across the country this week as part of a monthslong investigation into the thriving arms trade that is outfitting Brazil’s violent drug trafficking gangs. It soon became clear that this was no ordinary gun bust. Investigators […]
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Weather: Rain and thundershowers are expected this morning and then again this afternoon. Temperatures could reach into the low 80s. Alternate-side parking: In effect until July 4. ImageSix candidates are running in the Democratic primary for Queens district attorney. Rory Lancman, third from right, has dropped out of the race.CreditMary Altaffer/Associated Press The key to […]
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[What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.] Some bet as much as $200. Others wager as little as breakfast or a beer. The real prize — bragging rights and status — goes to the owner of the bird that sings the most vigorously during the competitions […]
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Weather: Rain and thundershowers are expected this morning and then again this afternoon. Temperatures could reach into the low 80s. Alternate-side parking: In effect until July 4. ImageSix candidates are running in the Democratic primary for Queens district attorney. Rory Lancman, third from right, has dropped out of the race.CreditMary Altaffer/Associated Press The key to […]
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NENTÓN, Guatemala — The Aguilar family had been preparing since February to migrate north. They borrowed $2,600, made a down payment to a smuggler and set off from their home in northern Guatemala last week. But at Guatemala’s border with Mexico, their smuggler had some bad news: Crossing into Mexico was too risky. A June […]
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