Dilitas International Security Brief

This week's international security brief from Dilitas Ltd.

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INVESTIGATIONS

DUE DILIGENCE

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SECURITY CONSULTANCY

The threat to the UK from International Terrorism is SUBSTANTIAL

The threat to Great Britain from Irish Republican Terrorism is SEVERE

Threat levels are designed to give a broad indication of the likelihood of a terrorist attack.

LOW means an attack is unlikely

MODERATE means an attack is possible, but not likely

SUBSTANTIAL means an attack is a strong possibility

SEVERE means an attack is highly likely

CRITICAL means an attack is expected imminently

AFRICA

A notorious gang leader behind the abduction of more than 300 students in Nigeria in December has been killed by a rival gang.

More than 30 prisoners have escaped after a police van that was transporting them to a law court was attacked by gunmen in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

A man has been shot dead in Moundou, in southern Chad, according to media reports, amid protests against the country's ruling military council.

Civilians are fleeing several areas of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, fearing renewed clashes between forces supporting President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo and those backing the opposition.

Security officials in Burkina Faso say four people have been kidnapped near the Pama nature reserve on the eastern border with Benin and Niger. The four - a soldier in Burkina Faso's army, two Spanish nationals and a conservation worker from Ireland - were ambushed on a road near the reserve.

Egypt has executed nine people found guilty of involvement in the killing of 13 policemen during the unrest in 2013 following the removal of the Islamist Mohamed Morsi from power.

A new report by the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank, has warned that criminals in the wildlife trade have relocated to West Africa from other parts of the continent

ASIA

Indonesia has formally designated Papuan separatists as "terrorists", its chief security minister said on Thursday.

North Korea has hit out at the Biden administration as it prepares to unveil its strategy for dealing with Pyongyang and its nuclear programme. The foreign ministry said recent comments out of Washington showed President Joe Biden was intent on maintaining a "hostile policy".

AUSTRALIA

Australia’s spy agency has revealed it believes a terrorist attack is likely to happen in the next 12 months, as the Australian federal police called for extremist insignia and online propaganda to be banned.

EUROPE

Italian police have carried out raids across the country, arresting some 30 people suspected of operating for the Nigerian Black Axe mafia syndicate.

France has detained seven former members of far-left Italian militant groups, including the Red Brigades.

The French government has condemned an open letter signed by active soldiers that said the country was heading for "civil war".

Turkish police have arrested more than 200 people for holding unauthorised protests on May Day, which has seen rallies across the world despite the continued spread of Covid-19.

Ioannis Lagos, facing jail in Greece for crimes linked to the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party, has been detained by Belgian police after the European Parliament voted to lift his immunity.extremism.

A 37-year-old British national was arrested Wednesday, 28 April)within the British control zone in Coquelles, France, as part of a pre-planned operation by officers from the MPS Counter Terrorism Command.

A US man has been detained after arriving in Sicily on a private jet from Florida in possession of weapons and drugs,

UK

Police have arrested a British man suspected of being an ISIS terrorist at the entrance of the Channel Tunnel in France.

Five people, including a 16-year-old boy, have been arrested on suspicion of right-wing terrorism offences. Officers carried out a series of raids in Keighley, in West Yorkshire, Swindon and Anglesey in Wales.

Crawley shooting incident: Police ‘liaising with counter terrorism officers’. A Crawley teenager has been detained and a gun and a knife have been seized after a shooting incident

A Rotherham man has appeared in court charged with terrorism and drug offences in relation to an investigation into “right wing terrorism”.

An alleged co-founder of banned neo-Nazi group National Action has appeared in court charged with terror offences.

PC Benjamin Hannam, 22 (22.07.1998), of north London, was identified by a proactive counter terrorism police investigation as having previously been a member of a proscribed right-wing terrorist organisation when he was linked to an online profile by Counter Terrorism (CT) officers. He was sentenced 30 April, at the Old Bailey to a total of four years and four months’ imprisonment, plus one year on extended licence.

USA

The US has started formally withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, beginning the end of what President Joe Biden called "the forever war".

US Navy Seals to shift from counter-terrorism, focus now on China and Russia

A former White House advisor and spouse to a well-known national news anchor was arrested on charges of fraud and money laundering.

A former Netflix executive was convicted of taking bribes and kickbacks from vendors doing business with the company, according to the US Department of Justice.

A federal judge has sentenced a Miami money manager to nearly four years in prison for his role in a $1.2 billion conspiracy to embezzle funds from Venezuela’s state-owned oil company.

Tens of thousands of Colombians joined protest marches in the country's major cities against a proposed tax reform.

A gunfight in a prison in Ecuador left five inmates dead and 15 injured on Wednesday, the latest deadly incident in the country's overcrowded jails.

Chinese money-laundering rings in Chicago, New York cleaning Mexican drug cartel cash. They’ve used complex schemes to disguise millions in drug proceeds, making them seem to be legitimate transactions, according to law enforcement sources and court files.

Mexico’s congress voted Friday to impeach the current governor of the border state of Tamaulipas on charges of tax evasion, money laundering and organised crime.

CYBER/CRYPTO

Russian hackers breached Washington DC police department's database and have threatened to share information with criminal gangs unless it pays an unspecified ransom.

U.S. officials on Tuesday arrested Roman Sterlingov, the alleged principal operator of cryptocurrency money laundering website Bitcoin Fog, according to a federal court filing.

Chinese hackers with suspected ties to the People’s Liberation Army have been hacking into military and government organizations in Southeast Asia over the course of the last two years.

At least five federal civilian agencies appear to have been breached in the latest hack to hit the US government, a discovery that follows emergency measures to mitigate potential damage from the incident,

A global coalition of technology companies and law enforcement bodies is calling for "aggressive and urgent" action against ransomware. Microsoft, Amazon, the FBI and the UK's National Crime Agency have joined the Ransomware Task Force (RTF) in giving governments nearly 50 recommendations.

Turkey added cryptocurrency trading platforms to the list of firms covered by anti-money laundering and terrorism financing regulation, it said in a presidential decree published early on Saturday.

A man in Australia has been arrested after allegedly placing fake QR labels over official Covid-19 check-in signs in South Plympton, Adelaide.

Over the past few years, the problem of Chinese Underground Banking has grown exponentially across the globe including here in the UK, states the National Crime Agency (NCA). As a form of informal value transfer system (IVTS), Chinese Underground Banking is commonplace within the Chinese community. Involving the transfer of value between countries without actually moving any funds, the IVTS pre-dates Chinese commercial banking and postal systems, but is now being misused by criminals for commodity-based money laundering such as trafficking drugs and humans in the UK and in many other countries.