Latest news, information and statistics on various types of global crime. Data listed below is taken from criminal court cases, lawyer statements, arrest reports, law enforcement publications, and media articles.
Teenagers in the Mexican City of Ciuadad Juarez are paid about $85 (1,000 Mexican Pesos) by drug cartels to carry out assassinations and murders on their behalf.
There have also been reports of minors in Mexico being paid up to $1,000 for working two weeks for the cartels.
Source: Ioan Grillo, El Narco: Inside Mexico’s Criminal Insurgency, Bloomsbury Press: New York, 2012, page 165.
A professional hitman working in Colombia was interviewed by journalist Ioan Grillo in his book, El Narco. The contract killer said that he is paid a base salary of $6000 a month by an organized crime group. When the assassin is assigned a hit, he is paid between $2,000 to $4,000 to carry out the murder.
The assassin works in a squad where one team is on a bike and another driving in a car. On the bike, there is a drive and the shooter riding behind. The target is stopped by the car braking in front of it, while the bike pulls up next to it to carry out the hit. The shooter then immediately passes the gun to the driver of the car, where it is hidden in a secret compartment.
Source: Ioan Grillo, El Narco: Inside Mexico’s Criminal Insurgency, Bloomsbury Press: New York, 2012, page 158-159.
The Labor Ministry in Brazil reported that 2,849 victims of human trafficking were rescued within the country in 2012.
The highest number of victims were rescued in the state of Para, where 563 people were rescued. 150 of those in Para were labor trafficking victims working for an iron producer.
Source: Miriam Wells, “Brazil Frees Nearly 3,000 Slaves,” Insight Crime, May 14, 2013.
According to a federal agents, a prison gang was operating a racket within the Baltimore City Detention Center in the state of Maryland. Documents filed in federal court by the FBI stated that one gram bags of marijuana were being sold in the jail for $50. Pain killers were being sold for $30 a pill to inmates.
In addition to the contraband drugs, female corrections officers were having sex with the inmates. According to the FBI, four correction officers became pregnant from one inmate.
In an article in the Washington Post, the article says that the names of 14 female guards were written on a wall and that each woman was charging $150 to have sex with an inmate.
(See additional illegal prostitution prices.)
Source: Theresa Vargas, Ann E. Marimow and Annys Shin, “Baltimore jail case depicts a corrupt culture driven by drugs, money and sex,” Washington Post, May 4, 2013.
In 2012, the United States Border Patrol apprehended 24,481 minors who were attempting to cross the border between the US and Mexico without an adult companion. The number of children apprehended in 2012 was three times the number of children caught in 2008.
In the state of Texas, between 80 to 120 children cross into the state illegally and without an adult each day.
Source: Pamela M. Prah, “Tally of kids entering US illegally, and alone, is surging,” Arizona Daily Star, May 13, 2013.
Organized crime groups working in the European Union earn over $1.9 Billion (€1.5 Billion) a year from payment card fraud within the region. The gang members steal information from credit cards, debit cards and ATM cards.
The Associated Press stated that many of these types of criminals are based in Romania. Due to its history under the Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, Romania has a strong history in mathematics and coding, and the organized crime groups have tapped into these skills. The AP further stated that students in Romania are often more advanced in mathematics than other students across the EU.
Source: Associated Press, “World Grapples With Rise In Cyber Crime,” NPR, May 11, 2013.
State officials estimate that there are around 30,000 prostitutes working in the city of Las Vegas. Unlike other areas of Nevada, prostitution is illegal in Las Vegas.
The high number of sex workers in Las Vegas has been impacting the legal brothel industry in Nevada. In 1985, there were 37 registered brothels in Nevada. By 2013, the number of legal brothels dropped to 18. In previous years, up to 400,000 clients would visit the brothels.
There are about 1,000 women who work in the legal brothel industry. Each woman pays over 50 percent of her fees to the brothel owner.
(Prostitute prices around the world.)
Source: David Knowles, “A bad economy and independent prostitutes running Nevada brothels out of business,” New York Daily News, May 10, 2013.
The Interior Ministry reported that in a 12 year period ranging from 2001 to 2013, nearly 800 churches and 53 mosques in Macedonia have been robbed by thieves taking religious and archaeological relics. In the first four months of 2013 alone, law enforcement reported nearly 40 churches having items stolen from their property.
Source: Aleksandar Pavelvski, “Macedonia Police Deal Blow To Organized Crime And Artifact Theft,” Eurasia Review, May 10, 2013.
An article in the USA Today stated that there were up to 27,000 people who are missing or vanished in Mexico since the conflict over drug trafficking began in 2006. The article also mentions a Human Rights Report that found 249 cases of forced disappearance that was conducted with the use of security services in Mexico.
Source: David Agren, “Mother’s Day in Mexico: Time to reflect on missing kids,” USA Today, May 10, 2013.
From July 2012 to November 2012, there were a reported 6,432 homicides in Mexico that were related to organized crime killings.
From December 2012 to April 2013, the first five months of President Enrqiue Pena Nieto’s administration, officials reported that the number of organized crime related homicides decreased by 18 percent to 5,296.
During the five months of Pena Nieto’s administration, 218 police and solders were killed by organized crime activities. In the July to November 2012 time frame, 244 security service members were killed.
Source: EFE, “Organized crime-related homicides in Mexico down 18 pct,” GlobalPost, May 11, 2013.
