Latest news with #organisedcrime
The Guardian
3 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
Leader in Kinahan drug gang extradited to Ireland from UAE
A leader of the notorious Kinahan organised crime group has been flown from the United Arab Emirates to Ireland in the first extradition of its kind. An Irish military aircraft carrying Sean McGovern – who is wanted on charges of murder and directing organised crime – was due to land in Dublin amid heavy security on Thursday afternoon. The 39-year-old has been in custody in Dubai since October, when he was detained on an Interpol red notice, which is a request to law enforcement agencies to locate and provisionally arrest a suspect pending extradition or similar legal action. McGovern, who has been named in Ireland's special criminal court as a senior member of the Kinahan cartel, is wanted in connection with the murder of Noel Kirwan, an innocent man who was shot in Dublin in 2016 amid a feud between the Kinahan and Hutch criminal gangs. UAE authorities handed McGovern to gardai on Wednesday, after which he was put on an Irish Air Corps Airbus C295. After landing at the Casement aerodrome McGovern is expected to be taken under armed guard to the special criminal court to be formally charged. Shawna Coxon, the deputy commissioner of Ireland's police force, An Garda Síochána, said it was a significant development in international law enforcement. 'Transnational organised crime gangs cause misery to communities not only in Ireland but throughout the world. They engage in murder, human trafficking and drug dealing.' Ireland's justice minister, Jim O'Callaghan, thanked his Emirati counterpart, Abdullah bin Sultan bin Awad Al Nuaimi, and the Dubai police for their cooperation. The UAE has become a base for Irish criminals and their associates partly because the state has no extradition treaty with the EU. However, a decade of lobbying by Irish officials paved an extradition treaty with Ireland that became operational on 18 May. It was not retrospective and did not apply to McGovern but authorities in both jurisdictions made a separate, one-off arrangement to transfer the suspect. McGovern was shot in the stomach in 2016 when a rival gang's hit team stormed a Kinahan-organised boxing weigh-in at a Dublin hotel. Sign up to Headlines Europe A digest of the morning's main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week day after newsletter promotion Irish authorities hope to also extradite the gang's founder Christy Kinahan and his sons Daniel and Christopher, who are believed to be in Dubai. British police say the Kinahan cartel, which started as a low-level street-dealing operation in the 1980s, has flooded Britain with guns and drugs. In 2022 the US announced sanctions against alleged Kinahan gang leaders and offered a $5m reward for information leading to arrest or conviction.
Zawya
5 days ago
- Business
- Zawya
Britain sees 12% spike in fraud cases as banks battle $1.6bln epidemic
LONDON: Britain's financial sector saw a record 3.31 million fraud cases in 2024, up 12% on the year before, according to data from industry body UK Finance released on Wednesday, as criminals responded to efforts to combat complex scams by ramping up high-volume, low-value attacks. That increase led to a total of 1.17 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) being stolen in 2024, unchanged from the year before, as firms showed limited progress in combating a problem that accounts for 41% of all reported crime in Britain and which banks and regulators have said threatens financial stability. Fraud "causes severe harm to individuals, society and our economy, as the stolen money goes to serious organised crime groups, both here and abroad," said Ben Donaldson, managing director of economic crime at UK Finance. Britain has in recent years emerged as the global epicentre for scams and fraud, Reuters reported in 2021, as criminals take advantage of super-fast payment channels, relatively light policing of such crimes and the prevalence of the world's most widely used language, English. Finance industry players have since then increased efforts to fight so-called authorised payment fraud, where people are tricked into sending money to criminals via social engineering techniques. Awareness campaigns and technology that can flag fraud have helped reduce a form of scam that spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, when social distancing measures drove more people online and into the clutches of scammers who often spoke with victims for days or weeks as they drained their funds. Criminals in 2024 instead ramped up so-called remote purchase fraud attempts, often compromising one-time passwords to enable fraudulent purchases on e-commerce sites, the UK Finance data showed. Yet the UK Finance data on reported fraud is just the tip of the iceberg, with fraud going chronically unreported by its victims, said Jim Winters, head of financial crime at Britain's second-biggest mortgage lender Nationwide. One in seven consumers in Britain is exposed to potentially fraudulent emails per day, but 43% of them would not report fraud if they were the victim or witnessed it, research from Nationwide showed.
Reuters
5 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Britain sees 12% spike in fraud cases as banks battle $1.6 billion epidemic
LONDON, May 28 (Reuters) - Britain's financial sector saw a record 3.31 million fraud cases in 2024, up 12% on the year before, according to data from industry body UK Finance released on Wednesday, as criminals responded to efforts to combat complex scams by ramping up high-volume, low-value attacks. That increase led to a total of 1.17 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) being stolen in 2024, unchanged from the year before, as firms showed limited progress in combating a problem that accounts for 41% of all reported crime in Britain, opens new tab and which banks and regulators have said threatens financial stability. Fraud "causes severe harm to individuals, society and our economy, as the stolen money goes to serious organised crime groups, both here and abroad," said Ben Donaldson, managing director of economic crime at UK Finance. Britain has in recent years emerged as the global epicentre for scams and fraud, Reuters reported in 2021, as criminals take advantage of super-fast payment channels, relatively light policing of such crimes and the prevalence of the world's most widely used language, English. Finance industry players have since then increased efforts to fight so-called authorised payment fraud, where people are tricked into sending money to criminals via social engineering techniques. Awareness campaigns and technology that can flag fraud have helped reduce a form of scam that spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, when social distancing measures drove more people online and into the clutches of scammers who often spoke with victims for days or weeks as they drained their funds. Criminals in 2024 instead ramped up so-called remote purchase fraud attempts, often compromising one-time passwords to enable fraudulent purchases on e-commerce sites, the UK Finance data showed. Yet the UK Finance data on reported fraud is just the tip of the iceberg, with fraud going chronically unreported by its victims, said Jim Winters, head of financial crime at Britain's second-biggest mortgage lender Nationwide. One in seven consumers in Britain is exposed to potentially fraudulent emails per day, but 43% of them would not report fraud if they were the victim or witnessed it, research from Nationwide showed. ($1 = 0.7389 pounds)
ABC News
23-05-2025
- ABC News
Eight found guilty in Kim Kardashian Paris robbery trial
A Paris court has found eight people guilty over the violent armed robbery of Kim Kardashian in 2016. The reality TV star was tied up at gunpoint in her Paris hotel and robbed of $13 million worth of jewellery. Ten people were on trial for playing a role in the burglary. They faced a variety of charges including armed robbery and "kidnap in an organised gang". The court acquitted two of the 10 defendants. Ringleader Aomar Ait Khedache, also known as "Omar the Old", was handed the longest sentence — eight years' jail, with five years suspended. The case has gathered international attention, with the burglars claiming they were initially unaware of who Kardashian was. They became known as the "grandpa robbers" as most of them were aged in their 60s and 70s. But during her closing argument, the prosecutor slammed that nickname as an "insult". She instead described them as seasoned armed robbers with links to organised crime. Kardashian — who testified that she thought she would die during the ordeal — was not at the court to hear the verdict.
BBC News
23-05-2025
- BBC News
Masked gang slash man outside Edinburgh home as feud escalates
A targeted attack on a man by a masked gang in Edinburgh is linked to an organised crime feud which has been escalating since or five men emerged from a grey Land Rover Discovery and slashed the 54-year-old victim on Pitcairn Grove, at about 21:20 on is the third incident at the property in recent weeks after the front door was deliberately set on fire last month and two vehicles were torched outside the home on 8 are treating the latest attack as attempted murder and confirmed it is linked to a series of assaults, shootings and firebombings across Glasgow and Edinburgh. The 54-year-old was taken was taken to hospital and remains there but police have not provided any details about his Scotland News understands a bladed weapon was involved in the attack and newspaper reports have suggested it was a machete. Officers have established that the Land Rover travelled east along the M8, possibly at speed or "erratically".Any drivers who were on the motorway around the time of the attack have been urged to contact the force's non-emergency said the suspects were all wearing balaclavas and dressed in dark Supt Paul Grainger said: "This has been a targeted attack and we are continuing our inquiries to identify those responsible."I would appeal to any motorists with dash cams to check their footage as the images could be significant to our investigation."Anyone with information can also contact Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111. East Kilbride attack A number of violent incidents have been linked to the feud, including an attack at a garage in East Kilbride this men wearing dark clothes and face coverings are believed to have assaulted another two men in the town's Wilson Place on Monday afternoon.A blue Audi, found on fire later that evening, was likely used during the have made more than 30 arrests in connection with the crimes.
