The San Diego Union Tribune reports on Mexican Human Smugglers using high-speed boats to smuggle people into the United States.
From the San Diego Union Tribune:
The newest battleground between Mexican smugglers and federal agents isn’t on the ground. It’s on the water.Frustrated by anti-smuggling measures along the U.S.-Mexico border, smugglers increasingly are running up the Pacific [...]
May 14, 2008
May 13, 2008
The FBI reported on Friday that it is investigating 3,500 counterfeit technology products from China.
From Reuters:
The FBI on Friday said an investigation into the sale of counterfeit Chinese computer components to the U.S. government has recovered about 3,500 bogus devices with a retail value of $3.5 million.The criminal probe, code-named Operation Cisco Raider, came amid [...]
May 13, 2008
From the Counterterrorism Blog:
Today Thai authorities announced arrests in an enormous counterfeit passport ring. 12 people were arrested and some 20,000 fake passports were seized. It was the second such arrest in the past month.
The 12-person gang, included Thais, Burmese, and Indonesians. The 20,000 passports were from a diverse group of countries: Burma, Brunei, Canada, [...]
May 13, 2008
David Sarno of the LA Times Blog Web Scout writes about a new ordinance that makes selling pirated DVDs and CDs a “legal nuisance”.
From the blog Web Scout:
At Tuesday’s L.A. County Board of Supervisors meeting [PDF], the board added an ordinance to the county code’s Title 13, which deals with public peace, morals and welfare, [...]
May 12, 2008
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is stating that cigarette smuggling activities are providing revenue to over 100 criminal gangs in Canada.
From the Toronto Star:
Cheap contraband cigarettes are fuelling activities of more than 100 organized crime gangs that are “exploiting” native communities and their “politically sensitive” relationship with government and police, the RCMP says.At a news [...]
May 12, 2008
Swiss watch maker Rado has introduced a new system to protect consumers from purchasing fake watches.
From Emirates Business:
To combat the problem of counterfeiting and the loss of market share to the producers of fake watches, Rado of Switzerland has come up with a system where consumers can log on to the internet, enter their watch’s [...]
May 12, 2008
The Los Angeles Times reports on the dual currency system of Cuba.
From the LA Times:
Cuba uses the dominant convertible peso known as the CUC — introduced four years ago to replace the U.S. dollar, which had been circulating for more than a decade — and the Cuban peso known as moneda nacional.
Those with jobs in [...]
May 9, 2008
The Montana Meth Project is a drug prevention project known for its graphic ads depicting life on meth. The ads have been very effective in droping the rate of meth use in the state of Montana.
However, a new ad has been deemed too graphic and will be taken down.
From Montana’s News Station:
You may have noticed [...]
May 9, 2008
In an interesting twist, US Border Patrol Agents are now setting up checkpoints at the US-Mexico border and are catching illegal migrants ON THEIR WAY OUT.
From the Los Angeles Times:
U.S. border authorities no longer apprehend illegal immigrants only as they enter the country. Now they’re catching them on the way out.
At random times near the [...]
May 9, 2008
The New Yorker published a great article this week on the human trafficking situation in Moldova.
From The Countertraffickers:
Even those in the group at highest risk—poor young women—tend to see trafficking as something that may happen to someone else, but not to them. In surveys, most Moldovans say that they don’t know anyone who’s been trafficked. [...]
