Spain Cracks Down on Cyber Network Criminals

For week 3, I decided to write about cyber crime as a current transnational crime occurring around the world. I will focus on how Spain officials cracked down on the Russian criminals. 

I gathered my information from an article found on the New York Times website in addition to a posting on Europol's website. Both sources reported on an event that happened in February of this year. The article from the New York Times was titled " Cybercrime Network Based in Spain is Broken Up." This article was written by Raphael Minder. 

Minder explains how Russian cybercriminals were successful in persuading vast numbers of Europeans  from over 30 countries to fall victim to their trickery. They fooled so many people by using a computer software program called Ransomware that allowed criminals to send fake police messages to civilians. These police messages would inform the victim that they had been caught doing some form of illegal downloading online. This message would also lock the victim’s computer until they paid 100 Euros (136$). Even though not all were fooled by this message and some were able to find ways to unlock their computer with out paying, the Russian criminals made an estimated 1.3 million dollars from the 3% they successfully convinced. 

Spain was able to dismantle these criminals by arresting the head of the pursuit, in December, along with 10 other people in February. "The Spanish police arrested six Russians, two Ukrainians and two Georgians along the Costa del Sol, a popular vacation destination in southern Spain, where the criminals are believed to have had their main base of operations." The Spanish police confiscated 200 credit cards, computers and 26,000 Euros from the Russian criminals on the day they were captured. In addition, the Spanish Ministry set up a website to help victims disable the virus. 

This transnational crime fits Professor Burch’s description from the PowerPoint. The Russian criminals were not trying to draw attention to themselves, had economic goals and felt no need to articulate any kind of political goals. They also threatened human and individual security more than national security, and used corruption over violence.

If you would like to read more on Spain’s success in finding the Russian criminals, the Europol article can be found at: “Police DismantleProlific Ransomware Cybercriminal Network”

Illegal Animal Trade

For decades now, the trade of illegal animals and animal parts has been happening across international borders, mainly in Africa and Asia. Animal trafficking is similar to drug and arms trafficking and can make someone, or a group, very wealthy. A huge part of the animal trafficking business is the trade of ivory. According to World Wild Life, in 2011, 23 metric tons of ivory was seized. Thats equivalent to 2500 elephants. The sad part is, that was only one seize in 2011. There a numerous more people and groups getting away with successfully trading ivory for large profits.

Other illegal animal trafficking involves tigers, cheetahs, monkeys, and turtles to name only a few. People see a value in these animals, whether it be their skin or shells, and want to put them on black market. Endangered species sell especially high just because having part of that endangered species is seen as a sign of wealth.

One of the main ways people transport these exotic animals across borders is by flying. Because London's Heathrow airport is a popular transfer airport in Europe, Marc Owen head of the UK Border Agency Operations at Heathrow, says each endangered animal that is transported through Heathrow should have a special marking, like a microchip. This microchip makes it easy to track the animal and helps prevent illegal selling and trading of the animal. Isaac (below), a cheetah from South Africa was being transported to Russia but was seized in Heathrow because he had a missing microchip. Isaac is being kept at a UK wildlife park while his investigation continues.  

The cruel treatment and death of these beautiful animals for either their tusks or skins or just money is hard to accept. Nothing should ever be treated like some organizations treat these helpless animals. "The planet's most majestic species are being massacred for nothing nobler than vacation trinkets, hangover remedies and false promises of miracle cancer cures," said Carter Roberts, President and CEO of WWF-US. 

On a brighter note, there are measures being taken to try and get rid of animal trafficking. Recently Thailand's Prime Minister announced Thailand would end their sales of ivory. With Thailand being a country with a huge exotic animal population, this is a huge step towards getting rid of animal crime. President Obama was recently in Africa and has vowed to help stop animal trafficking, presenting $10 million for the necessary training to combat African wildlife trafficking. "Poaching and trafficking is threatening Africa's wildlife" said Obama during his visit to Tanzania. With the involvement of Obama and the United States, this is yet another huge step to stopping or reducing illegal animal trafficking. The best way to help end animal crime across international borders is to spread the world and keep people educated on the subject. With more people involved around the world, supporting the end of animal trafficking, there is hope that these beautiful animals will never have to be killed just for someone to make a profit. 

The Crackdown of Colombian Cartels

Ever since President Álvaro Uribe took office in 2002, the drug cartels in Colombia have been on their heels. After 30 years of terror and control, the cartels are a shell of their former organization, and have continued to fragment into smaller organizations. The DEA and the Colombian National police have continued to keep the pressure on the cartels, and while they are still in operation, they do not have near the strength they did even 10 years ago. 

Trafficking of Human Body Parts: Serbia

I found this really insanely scary article in the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com) from only a year ago about illegal body part trafficking. It details the Europeans facing "grinding poverty" who are seeking to sell their kidneys, lungs, bone marrow, and cornea among many other parts for cash.

(www1.american.edu)

The Internet provides a platform for this black-market. The asking price for a lung, for example, will pull you in around $250,000. Unfortunately, there is a lot of fraud within this system, as you can probably already imagine. There are two sides of this coin: the wealthy but sick, and the desperately poor. People will either falsify information, or not come through on their end of the deal.