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The Italian Financial Police (Guardia di Finanza), supported by Europol, arrested on 28th April 2015, 10 members of a transnational criminal group. The criminals, mainly Nigerian citizens, were involved in laundering the proceeds of online fraud, amounting to over EUR 2.5 million.

More than 130 police officers were involved in the operation, supported by experts from Europol’s Financial Intelligence Group and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), leading to 10 arrests and 32 searches in different locations.

Hundreds of individuals and tens of companies in Europe and beyond have become victims of the sophisticated techniques employed by the criminal group via so-called payment diversion fraud and Internet romance scams.

With payment diversion fraud, fraudsters hijack a company’s means of communication and provide company staff in charge of payments with different account details for suppliers or customers. Money is therefore inadvertently transferred to bank accounts controlled by the criminal group members who then send the money abroad and ultimately withdraw it as cash.

With the second type of fraud – romance scams – fraudsters target victims by creating fake profiles on legitimate Internet dating websites. They then gain the interest and trust of their victims and feed them with false information, to convince them to send money.

Law enforcement analysed thousands of financial transactions to reconstruct the money flows and their destinations across several jurisdictions. The criminal group relied on a network of accomplices who operated a sort of coordinated ‘bank run’ within a few hours in order to make withdrawals in cash from the bank accounts chosen as final destinations.

Head of Europol’s Financial Intelligence Group, Igor Angelini, said: “Criminals, too, operate in a completely integrated financial environment in Europe and beyond. Money can travel as fast as digital data across many jurisdictions and eventually become ready-to-use cash in the hands of fraudsters thousands of kilometres away from the money’s criminal origin. Sharing and combining the financial intelligence available in the different Member States is the only way to tackle large-scale money laundering. Europol’s Financial Intelligence Group is here to support European countries with this challenge.”

The deployment of a Europol team in Turin, Italy, assisted Guardia di Finanza officers with real-time intelligence analysis and technical support, which aided the identification of transnational links.

Interpol has issued global arrest warrants for the 100 most-wanted corrupt Chinese officials who have fled overseas, 60 percent of whom allegedly committed bribery and graft, in what is China’s heaviest global crackdown on exiles in history.

French police (OCLCTIC)¹ supported by Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) have arrested 18 members of a criminal gang who were illegally using modified, ’ghost’ point-of-sale (POS) terminals. The terminals were used to copy and store magnetic strip card data and confidential PIN codes, and then to steal at least EUR 3 million from victims’ accounts. Of the 18 arrestees, 12 were imprisoned after the final raids last week.

The ghost POS terminals were modified by the criminal gang who skimmed and then cloned the cards of unsuspecting customers. The customers handed over their cards, thinking that they were making payments; however the fake devices were off-line and had never been connected to a bank payment network. Instead, the devices copied the customers’ card data, printed fake receipts for them and their cards were then cloned. Alternatively, the customers were not given a fake receipt but informed of a ‘connection error’. Their card was still skimmed and they were then asked for another means of payment.

Forensic analysis of the devices has revealed a highly sophisticated crime. French investigators have disclosed the technical manipulation of the hardware and POS software which actually enables the use of POS as a ghost terminal and for data compromising.

The fake terminals were used in taxi cabs and discount stores to skim card data, and then fraudulent money withdrawals were later made using cloned cards in the Miami area of the United States, Dubai, and in Thailand.

On 22nd December 2014 in the morning the GNR Almancil arrested a  33-year-old man for committing theft within a residence (burglary).

During an anti-crime operation in the area of Town For Sale – Loulé, the GNR saw a  person behaving in a suspicious manner, moving a tricycle in the street. The GNR approached the person concerned and discovered in a backpack that he was carrying, a cap, gloves and a screwdriver. A search of his residence subsequently took place were the GNR discovered and seized many objects that are suspected stolen, as well as two mobile phones, watches, jewelry, various tools and a camera. 

According to Agence France-Presse, Hong Kong’s former deputy leader Rafael Hui and property tycoon Thomas Kwok have been jailed after being convicted of corruption.

Hui, 66, was sent to prison on Tuesday (23rd December)  for seven and a half years after being found guilty of five graft charges, including misconduct in a public office, making him the highest-ranking official in Hong Kong’s history to be convicted of taking bribes.

Kwok, 63 – who was joint chairman of Hong Kong’s biggest property company, Sun Hung Kai – was sentenced to five years after he was found guilty of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office over a series of payments totalling HK$8.5m to Hui.

The seven-month trial centred on a total of HK$34m in handouts which the prosecution said were made to Hui by Kwok and his billionaire brother, Raymond, to be their “eyes and ears” in government.

Raymond Kwok was cleared of all charges and Thomas cleared of two of the three against him.

Judge Andrew Macrae told Hui before sentencing: “To know that the former number two in government had received bribes must be a deep disappointment to many people in Hong Kong,” he said. “It is vitally important in these times the Hong Kong government and business community remain and are seen to remain corruption free, particularly when the mainland is taking obvious and positive steps to eradicate the cancer of corruption in their own jurisdiction.”

In sentencing Kwok, he said he had no doubt that he was “at heart a good man”. Macrae said he had considered a maximum sentence of six years but handed down one year less to account for Kwok’s good character.

Before the sentencing hearing, Macrae had described the case as difficult. “One is dealing with otherwise decent men who are not young, but who have committed serious offences,” he said, adding that going to prison would be a “particular hardship” for the defendants.

The payments to Hui were said to have been made via a series of complicated transactions involving middlemen.

Two middlemen, Sun Hung Kai former director Thomas Chan and Francis Kwan – the former non-executive director of investment firm New Environmental Energy Holdings – were also found guilty of two charges. Chan was sentenced to six years while Kwan was given five years.

On 19th December the  Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) apprehended in Faro, a foreign citizen aged 40 years who had been on the run having escaped from prison in 2007, where he was serving a prison sentence for drug trafficking.

The prisoner was delivered to the Olhão Regional Prison after the authorities had determined his true identity. At the time of being apprehended he provide false identification.

The Judicial Police, through the National Unit for Combating Drug Trafficking, identified and arrested nine men suspected of drug trafficking offences, following ongoing investigations into the fight against international cocaine trafficking by air.

During the operation about 90 kilograms of cocaine, which came to Lisbon International Airport in suitcases from countries in South America was and were taken from the airport premises with the help of four airport employees, who have been arrested. Following the arrests 16 house searches were carried out and eight private motor vehicles, two motorcycles, about € 55,000 in cash, two weapons and two guns of large calibre, a (big game) carbine gun and another firearm similar to those used by the Portuguese army, were seized.

 The detainees, aged between 32 and 51, were present at the first judicial interrogation to determine remand/reporting conditions.

On 10th December, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Professor Anabela Miranda Rodrigues conducted her first visit to GNR Headquarter units.

 The visit began at the School of the Guard -. Queluz, at 10:15 hours, where there was a ceremony, during which the Minister officiated the delivery to the GNR of 175 vehicles (126 cars and 49 motorcycles), which will enhance the patrolling capacity of the various territorial commands, the National Traffic Unit and Fiscal Action Unit. 

During the visit to the headquarters in Lisbon, there was a briefing conducted by the GNR and a static exhibition  held to demonstrate the different capabilities of the GNR.

Between now and  14th December the GNR will be conduction Operation  TIPSOL throughout the national territory, aiming to step up surveillance of driving under the influence of alcohol and psychotropic substances and the fight against crime. 

During the operation 4836 GNR officers from the National Traffic Unit of Intervention Unit and the territorial commands, will carry out enforcement action against excess alcohol and psychotropic substance abuse at locations where this is more prevalent or in places where there is evidence of crime. 

Figures for 2013 and 2014, from January 1 to November 30 of each year, show that the number of drivers detected with alcohol in the blood above the legal limit has decreased from 2013 to 2014. Thus 1,045,510 tests were conducted in 2013  resulting in 28,969 exceeding the limit and 11,344 above the crime limit (equal to / greater than 1.20 g / l). In 2014 1,058,364 test were conducted, resulting in 24,332 over the limit and 9,316 above the crime rate level.

 This operation, the second to be conducted, is part of the strategy to combat road accidents, defined by the National Road Safety Strategy and the “Road Safety Programme 2011-2020” of the European Union, aimed at contributing to greater safety of all road users.

Two men who were responsible for a number of robberies have been sentenced to seven and a half and six years in prison respectively at the conclusion of their trial in a court in Portimao.

In February 2014 the two persons broke into a residence in Albufeira and threatened the occupants with a knife and assaulted them before escaping. In June they were responsible for stealing handbags from two British women which also took place in Albufeira.