OCCRP Weekly news roundup

Organized crime networks are infamous for trafficking drugs, arms, and humans, but a recent spate of museum break-ins have targeted another coveted—and lucrative—item now being sold on the black market: rhinoceros horns.

The horns of these odd-toed ungulates are sought because of their uses in traditional Chinese medicines.  Traditional Chinese medical practitioners believe that the horns, made out of keratin, the same type of protein that human nails and hair, can be life-saving and are more effective than modern medicine.

The going rate for a rhino horn—purveyors can sell them for twice the price of gold—is what makes them such an attractive target for organized crime groups, writes Esther Adley in the Guardian.

20 museums in seven European countries have had their rhinos de-tusked in the past six months, and in South Africa illegal rhino poaching is on the rise. Europol suspects that the majority of the thefts are being conducted by an Irish criminal group also responsible for money laundering, drug trafficking, organized robbery, and distribution of counterfeit money.

Entire Amazon tribe disappears from rainforest

Has a new drug smuggling route made an entire indigenous community disappear?  Brazilian officials working with indigenous affairs are alleging that a completely cut off tribe living in a remote area of the Amazon was attacked by Peruvian cocaine traffickers.

“We think the Peruvians made the Indians flee…We are more concerned than ever. This could be one of the biggest blows in decades to the work of protecting isolated Indians," Carlos Travassos, the government official in charge of the isolated Indians division, told the Christian Science Monitor.

Government officials in FUNAI, the indigenous affairs protection agency, went Monday to look for the Xinane tribe in the outpost where they used to live, but a group of traffickers forced the monitors to flee. According to The Guardian, police arrived later and arrested a Portugese national, Joaquim Antônio Custódio Fadista, who had been held for drug trafficking before.  The location of the Indians is still unknown, but police are worried about the fact that they found an arrowhead in Fadista’s backpack, one of the only clues as to the natives’ whereabouts.

Officials are unclear as to whether the traffickers are trying to make a new route for cocaine smuggling, or want to illegally log the dense forest.

2008 videos of the Xinane group filmed by the BBC show tribe members in red full body paint pointing spears at the plane flying above.

Italy: ‘tax evaders are parasites’

Italy has a lot of parasites, according to a new advertising campaign by Saatchi & Saatchi.  The ad agency has launched an initiative against tax evasion –Italy has the most evaders in Europe—whose goal is to make tax evasion socially unacceptable.

The TV and radio spots and billboards portray tax dodgers as parasites feeding off of an honest majority.

In an October poll commissioned by the association of Italian Banking Foundations and Savings Banks, almost half of the respondents said combating tax evasion should be Italy’s priority for stimulating economic growth.

Government officials say that collecting all of the tax revenue will be essential as the country weathers the global economic downturn.  Last year the national auditor recovered €10.6 billion, double the 2007 amount, according to the New York Times. Luigi Magistro, the head of the Italian Inland Revenue, told the NYT that they would recover at least €11 billion this year.

Italy’s problems with tax evaders has negatively impacted its foreign direct investment, writes the Wall Street Journal.

Zetas, in partnership with ‘Ndrangheta, have cornered European cocaine market

Los Zetas, one of Mexico’s most violent drug cartels, have become the main suppliers in the Italian cocaine market through their partnership with the Calabrian-based ‘Ndrangheta, which controls dissemination in Europe, writes InSight Crime.

According to M Semanal, the weekly publication of Mexico’s Milenio paper, the Zetas are shipping the cocaine to Italy from ports in New York.

Although links between the two syndicates were uncovered starting in 2008, their stronghold on European market is a worrying sign because their new source of significant revenue is much more resistant to pressure from the Mexican and American governments.

The report in M Semanal says that ‘Ndrangheta partnered with the Zetas to meet Europe’s growing demand for cocaine.  A recent report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said that cocaine consumption has doubled in Europe over the past ten years: between 4.5 and 5 million consumers generate revenues of up to $34 billion dollars a year.

The Dalai Lama’s values: peace, serenity, and transparency

Corruption is a pervasive problem in India, the Dalai Lama told a group assembled at a meeting of India’s National Commission for Minorities.  His speech came the same day that the Indian Congress was set to discuss the Lokpal Bill, proposed anti-corruption legislation that would, among other things, establish an Ombudsman-like institution.

The Nobel Laureate implored his adopted homeland to do something about corruption, and postulated that high levels of corruption in India are “obviously due to a lack of moral ethics,” which he said was not right for such a deeply religious country.

“Corruption by a supposedly religious-minded person is really a disgrace,” he said, urging religious people to take a personal oath to fight corruption.

As the world’s most populous democracy, he said “India must succeed.”

India has weathered a host of corruption scandals in the last year, most notably the case of A. Raja, a former telecom minister who critics say wrongly allocated licenses, costing India billions of dollars in potential revenue.