#Illicit Trade

[reportwire]

ICAIE Applauds Global Financial Integrity (GFI) in New Report on China's Role in Transnational Crime and Illicit Trade

ICAIE Applauds Global Financial Integrity (GFI) in New Report on China’s Role in Transnational Crime and Illicit Trade

According to ICAIE, China Inc. has leveraged corruption, illicit markets, and predatory trade and lending practices to become the world’s biggest transnational illicit trade syndicate across global markets, supply chains, and online marketplaces, and to finance its economy and military, enhancing prosperity and anchoring stability for the ruling CCP regime. Press Release – Oct 27,…

[vigilskeep]

templar specialisation in dao is kind of fun bc you have your bestie alistair spilling chantry secrets like hot gossip but in the other games it feels so much lamer and in dai you have to canonically take lyrium like a chump

[trendynewsnow]

Arrest Warrant Issued for Antiquities Dealer Edoardo Almagià

Arrest Warrant Issued for Prominent Antiquities Dealer In a significant development, prosecutors in Manhattan secured an arrest warrant on Thursday for Edoardo Almagià, a renowned antiquities dealer with a prestigious education from Princeton who is currently residing in Italy. The court documents accuse Almagià of trafficking thousands of illicit artifacts, which are estimated to be worth tens…

[josephkravis]

Opinion: The Great Imbalance

By promoting responsible gun ownership and addressing social issues, society can foster security without compromising individual rights.

[l-in-c-future]

To understand which assumed transshipment points could be used to facilitate trade with Russia, it is important to first understand the impact sanctions have had on Russia’s ability to import goods from other countries. S&P Global Market Intelligence extracted data from customs agents and national statistical authorities to highlight individual country exports to Russia.

To date, Hong Kong has not sanctioned Russia and remains one of Russia’s key trade partners for goods relating to electronic and communications equipment, specifically semiconductors and microchips

The largest exponential increase in exports of Tier 1 items to Russia came from Armenia, India, Turkey and Kazakhstan. In 2023, Armenia and Kazakhstan exported approximately $25.5 million and $18.3 million worth of Tier 1 items, respectively, whereas in 2021, there was almost no reported trade. Goods classified under "HS Code 854239: Electronic integrated circuits" were the most exported in 2023. 

[disarmamentawarenessday]

Press conference on the Fourth Review Conference on the Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons.

Press Conference: USG Izumi Nakamitsu (UNODA), Amb. Maritza Chan-Valverde, President-designate of RevCon4 and Ivor Fung, Chief of Conventional Arms Branch (UNODA) on the Fourth Review Conference on the Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons

Hybrid briefing by Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, along with Ambassador Maritza Chan-Valverde, President-designate of RevCon4 and Ivor Fung, Chief of the Conventional Arms Branch in the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA). They will brief reporters on the Fourth Review Conference on the Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons.

[foodlawlatest]

WTO report on "Illicit trade in food and food fraud"

World Trade Organization (WTO) just published an interesting report titled “Illicit trade in food and food fraud“.Key elements/inputs:🛡️ WTO role: The WTO agreements provide a legal framework for combating illicit trade in food.🔍 hashtag#FoodSafety: Emphasis on modern food safety legislation to prevent fraud.🤝 Collaboration: The importance of public-private and international cooperation is…

[inkskinned]

the thing is that they're so fascinated by sex, they love sex, they can't imagine a world without sex - they need sex to sell things, they need sex to be part of their personality, they need sex to prove their power - but they hate sex. they are disgusted by it.

sex is the only thing that holds their attention, and it is also the thing that can never be discussed directly.

you can't tell a child the normal names for parts of their body, that's sexual in nature, because the body isn't a body, it's a vessel of sex. it doesn't matter that it's been proven in studies (over and over) that kids need to know the names of their genitals; that they internalize sexual shame at a very young age and know it's 'dirty' to have a body; that it overwhelmingly protects children for them to have the correct words to communicate with. what matters is that they're sexual organs. what matters is that it freaks them out to think about kids having body parts - which only exist in the context of sex.

it's gross to talk about a period or how to check for cancer in a testicle or breast. that is nasty, illicit. there will be no pain meds for harsh medical procedures, just because they feature a cervix.

but they will put out an ad of you scantily-clad. you will sell their cars for them, because you have abs, a body. you will drip sex. you will ooze it, like a goo. like you were put on this planet to secrete wealth into their open palms.

they will hit you with that same palm. it will be disgusting that you like leather or leashes, but they will put their movie characters in leather and latex. it will be wrong of you to want sexual freedom, but they will mark their success in the number of people they bed.

they will crow that it's inappropriate for children so there will be no lessons on how to properly apply a condom, even to teens. it's teaching them the wrong things. no lessons on the diversity of sexual organ growth, none on how to obtain consent properly, none on how to recognize when you feel unsafe in your body. if you are a teenager, you have probably already been sexualized at some point in your life. you will have seen someone also-your-age who is splashed across a tv screen or a magazine or married to someone three times your age. you will watch people pull their hair into pigtails so they look like you. so that they can be sexy because of youth. one of the most common pornography searches involves newly-18 young women. girls. the words "barely legal," a hiss of glass sand over your skin.

barely legal. there are bills in place that will not allow people to feel safe in their own bodies. there are people working so hard to punish any person for having sex in a way that isn't god-fearing and submissive. heteronormative. the sex has to be at their feet, on your knees, your eyes wet. when was the first time you saw another person crying in pornography and thought - okay but for real. she looks super unhappy. later, when you are unhappy, you will close your eyes and ignore the feeling and act the role you have been taught to keep playing. they will punish the sex workers, remove the places they can practice their trade safely. they will then make casual jokes about how they sexually harass their nanny.

and they love sex but they hate that you're having sex. you need to have their ornamental, perfunctory, dispassionate sex. so you can't kiss your girlfriend in the bible belt because it is gross to have sex with someone of the same gender. so you can't get your tubes tied in new england because you might change your mind. so you can't admit you were sexually assaulted because real men don't get hurt, you should be grateful. you cannot handle your own body, you cannot handle the risks involved, let other people decide that for you. you aren't ready yet.

but they need you to have sex because you need to have kids. at 15, you are old enough to parent. you are not old enough to hear the word fuck too many times on television.

they are horrified by sex and they never stop talking about it, thinking about it, making everything unnecessarily preverted. the saying - a thief thinks everyone steals. they stand up at their podiums and they look out at the crowd and they sign a bill into place that makes sexwork even more unsafe and they stand up and smile and sign a bill that makes gender-affirming care illegal and they get up and they shrug their shoulders and write don't say gay and they get up, and they make the world about sex, but this horrible, plastic vision of it that they have. this wretched, emotionless thing that holds so much weight it's staggering. they put their whole spine behind it and they push and they say it's normal!

this horrible world they live in. disgusted and also obsessed.

[ancientstuff]

Wonderful. And really nice that ANU gets to hold onto the vase for another 8 years (essentially) for study.

[t-jfh]

Latin American drug cartels are using Australian airport staff to import massive quantities of cocaine — inside the dangerous world of Australia’s cocaine trade.

ABC News In-depth — Inside the cartels controlling Australia's cocaine trade | Four Corners

Right under our nose

Blocking Colombian cocaine a cat-&-mouse game for Australian police, border force.

ABC - Background Briefing

Inside the battle to keep cocaine out of Australia.

A behind-the-scenes look at the dangerous game of cat and mouse played by cops and cartels.

Cocaine cartels cash in on sky-high prices in Australia

[lejournaldupeintre]

High cigarette prices are boosting black market purchases by French smokers

France has been the worst hit by illegal tobacco among the countries of the EU, and Algeria is one of its main suppliers. Cigarette smuggling continues to be a troublesome scourge on the European Union, with an annual estimated revenue loss of €10 billion. This smuggling is also a source of funding for traffickers and criminal and terrorist groups. Marseilles is one of the key entry points for…

[themovieblogonline]

The Godfather of Harlem Reaction

In this video, I share my thoughts and reactions to the hit show "The Godfather of Harlem." This gripping drama chronicles the true story of crime boss Bumpy Johnson as he returns to Harlem in the 1960s to reclaim his turf and protect his community from the Italian mob.

As a fan of crime dramas, I was excited to watch this series and it didn't disappoint. In this video, I break down my favorite scenes, characters, and storylines, and share my overall impressions of the show.

If you're a fan of "The Godfather of Harlem" or just enjoy reaction videos, be sure to check out this video and let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more content like this!

[historyhermann]

Declassified U.S. Intelligence Documents Describe Taliban History with Illicit Narcotics Trade

On January 13 of this year, Hasibullah Ahmadi, head of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Interior’s counternarcotics department, asserted that drug trafficking from the country has dropped, but admitted this illicit trade continues in some provinces. These comments raise the question of the Taliban’s ties to the narcotics market and previous attempts to curb drug production. The declassified documents featured in today’s post, all released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), are a selection from the new Digital National Security Archive collection, Afghanistan War and the United States, 1998-2017, which was published in December of last year. The three documents examined in this post detail the Taliban’s ties to international trafficking networks in the late 1990s and attempts to regulate the market in the early 2000s in an effort to curry favor from the international community. Taken together, the documents describe the Taliban’s ties to drug trafficking schemes and how poppy bans, even when effective, financially benefited the Taliban and associated trafficking consortiums. 

This was originally published on January 24, 2023 on Unredacted.

As the early Taliban movement emerged, from 1994 to 1996, narcotics production skyrocketed in Afghanistan, with declassified documents asserting that the group aligned themselves with international drug traffickers. There were indications from U.S. officials that narcotics production in the country significantly increased following the Taliban’s control over large swaths of the country. In a now-declassified Secret May 2001 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence outlined that by 2000 the country supplied an estimated 72% of the world’s “illicit opium”. This heavily redacted document included a map noting opium poppy growing areas in Afghanistan (page 26), and a chart showing rising opium cultivation between 1991 and 2000. The NIE noted that producers in Afghanistan had switched to supplying and producing more heroin over several years before 2001. 

This analysis was reinforced by a now-declassified Top Secret December 1998 CIA research paper, prepared by the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) Crime and Intelligence Center, and recently released under the FOIA to the National Security Archive. This heavily-excised Top Secret report details the explosion of the narcotics market under Taliban rule, noting the ties of the group to Quetta Alliance, an international drug trafficking ring, which shared ties to Osama bin Laden. Furthermore, this report asserts that the Taliban’s increasing role in the country caused the narcotics business to explode. The paper also assesses the group’s involvement in illicit drug traffic, stating that it included top Taliban leaders and that this trade intensified “over the last several years,” leading to immense profits for the fundamentalist organization. Notably, the DCI Crime and Intelligence Center states that Afghan narcotics suppliers had shifted towards international markets, beyond distributing to drug traffickers in Turkey. The paper outlines that Taliban fighters provided “logistic support” and “protection” for drug trafficking and laboratories within the country. Most significantly, the paper argues that the Taliban forged ties to the Quetta Alliance, a major regional trafficking group, and terrorist sponsor of Osama bin Laden.

This paper was not alone in describing the Quetta Alliance. A publicly-available August 1994 report compiled by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Intelligence Division, describes the Quetta Alliance as an alliance between three powerful trafficking groups operating out of Quetta, within Pakistan’s Baluchistan Province. The DEA report stated that this loose alliance was based on familial ties, and described the operation as “similar to a large manufacturing or service consortium.” This connected to the assertion in the aforementioned paper by the DCI Crime and Intelligence Center, which argued that once the Quetta Alliance became the dominant narco-trafficking group in southern Afghanistan, it provided financial support and recruits to the burgeoning Taliban.

By late 1999, the Taliban had banned poppy cultivation. This would be followed by a ban of opium cultivation and trafficking in July 2000, the latter in an edict by Taliban leader Mullah Omar. However, these bans did not interfere with trafficking and sale of opium or poppy. A declassified Secret July 2001 cable from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) stated that while the ban was primarily effective, it still substantially increased the Taliban’s revenue from illicit drug trafficking. The ban followed the U.N. Security Council resolutions 1267 and 1333, in 1999 and 2000 respectively, which condemned “the significant rise in the illicit production of opium” and demanded that the Taliban work to “virtually eliminate the illicit cultivation of opium poppy.” Later, the DIA cable notes that the Taliban likely weighed recognition from the international community from its own interests when considering an extension of the ban. 

This now-declassified DIA cable further stated that while the Taliban’s ban would likely reduce the worldwide opium production by at least 50%, the ban resulted in the quadrupling of the Afghan price for opium, morphine base, and heroin – which were previously at record lows. The cable explicitly states that one year after the ban the Taliban was still benefiting substantially from drug revenues, “… chiefly from its taxes on continuing narcotics trafficking and from Taliban-owned narcotics stockpiles, whose value has increased substantially.” The DIA cable also notes that the ban would likely not have an impact on the U.S. over the coming months, because its main heroin sources were from Southeast Asia and Latin America. While the Taliban never faced having to weigh its interests in extending the ban due to the U.S. invasion beginning in October 2001, the DIA cable notes all of the influences that the Taliban would likely weigh in the decision making processing, including the potential recognition from the international community, major narcotics traffickers’ reactions to an extension, the size of stockpiles, and the impact on their own finances. 

For more documents on the Taliban, see the Archive’s numerous sourcebooks, including the September 23, 2021, post, “Newly Published Documents Cast Doubt on Claims Taliban Will Give Up al Qaeda.” 

© 2022-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[captain-joongz]

summer recap/favourite fics/fic recommendations for the first half of 2024

Professor Rapline by @joonsmagicshop

♡ professors! joon, hobi and yoongs x f!reader, professor x student relationship, the rapline takes turns on reader, namjoon centric, smut smut smut

backtrack by @mapofthesea

♡ producers!jimin and yoongs x assistant!reader, studio sex, situationship, reader gets absolutely railed and it's accidentally recorded

Masked miracles by @remedyx + Shadows we trust by remedyx + Boyfriend for hire by remedyx + Trouvaille by @spookyserenades

♡ these series' were already mentioned in my previous recommendations list, but i cannot stress this enough - go read them, they're absolutely amazing!! i will literally never shut up about these and i'll put them on every fic rec list i make until the end of time :D

Golden boy by @kpopfanfictrash

♡ pornstar!jin x f!reader, neighbours au, it's very sweet and funny, absolutely amazing smut

fast lane by @yminie

♡ racer!jin x pitcrew!reader, slowburn but so fucking worth it, kookie gets hurt but it's for character development, e2l/annoyances 2l, smut

midnight by @miniminimermaid

♡ yoongi struggling with burnout and reader helps relax him, soft sex, body worship

Sugar rush ride by @lo1k-diamonds

♡ producer! yoongs x producer!reader, coworkers au, reader is bratty and yoongi is a little shit, mutual pining, smut

A new rhythm by @sluttywoozi

♡ producers! yoongs and jihoon x yoongi's gf!reader, virgin!jihoon, soft sex, they help woozi lose his v-card, allusions to possible poly

three tangerines by @kithtaehyung

♡ brother's best friend!yoongs x f!reader, fuckboy!yoongi, reader asks him for help in the bedroom and gets everything and more, some angst

The early shift by @hobidreams

♡ barista!yoongs x barista!reader, coworkers au, e2l, angsty but gets sweet, yoongi is struggling and reader tries to help, smutty smut smut

love roulette by @whatifyoulivelikethat

♡ producer!yoongs x jin's bff!reader, a bet gone... right??, slowburn, humour and fluff, they help each other, smut, reader has a noona kink and nobody lets her breathe

noise complaints by @jkstompers

♡ producer!yoongs x bassist!reader, neighbours au, reader is in a rock band, smut

strike a chord by @snackhobi

♡ pianist!yoongs x f!reader, reader gets stood up and instead listens to bar musician yoongi, slowburn, smut

Illicit favours by @yoongiofmine

♡ producer!yoongi x writer!reader, bff2l, virgin reader needs help with writing sex scenes, shenanigans ensue, mutual pining, idiots in love

Tricks of the trade by @stutterfly

♡ shopkeeper!yoongs x f!reader, body swap au, jin is a deity of chaos, awkward flirting cause they don't know hot to talk to each other, misunderstandings, sexual tension and smut

Performance evaluation by @kookscrescent

♡ fuckboy!yoongs x f!reader, college au, one night stand?? au, reader asks yoongi to tell her whether she's bad in bed, yoongi is a little shit but what's new

Bad idea... right? by @joonsmagicshop

♡ college party au, e2l, sexual tension, tae is a little bit of a douche but hobi makes it all better, smut

a word from our sponsors by @ugh-yoongi

♡ podcast co-hosts joon and reader, they read smutty fanfic of themselves, sexual tension, f2l, humour, smut

porn director drabble by @badbtssmut

♡ director!tae x pornstar!reader, tae shows reader's co-star how it's done, public sex, dubcon in a way

Risk management by @chateautae

♡ investment banker!tae x f!reader, s2l, sexual tension (i mean, who could blame her it's tae), smut, window sex

petty by @hamsterclaw

♡ rich kid petty criminal!kookie x lawer babysitter!reader, reader is in charge of making sure kookie doesn't get in trouble, idiots in love, sexual tension but with feels, smut

Redamancy by @gimmethatagustd

♡ alpha!tae x omega!kookie, a/b/o, imprinting, scenting, older tae (*cough* daddy), s2l, love at first sight, smut

Like a river by gimmethatagustd

♡ alpha!tae x omega!yoongi x alpha!joon, a/b/o, unexpected heat, college professors coworkers au, semi-public sex

The love witch by gimmethatagustd

♡ demon!tae x romance blogger witch!yoongs, incubus tae, "how to summon a boyfriend" au, s2l, modern fantasy, smut

(actually you should go read everything jai has put out, she's incredibly talented and i love like every fic she's ever published)

My library | ATEEZ fic recs

[disarmamentawarenessday]

(2nd meeting) Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons — Fourth Review Conference (RevCon4).

The Fourth United Nations Conference to Review Progress Made in the Implementation of the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects will take place from 18 - 28 June 2024.

(continued).

Related Sites and Documents Provisional programme of work    United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) Website

Watch the (2nd meeting) Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons — Fourth Review Conference (RevCon4).