Organized Crime – Asia Times

Japan

Jake Adelstein’s Tokyo Vice hits the big time: HBO

by Bradley K. Martin April 10, 2022April 10, 2022

Yakuza and Asia Times go way back together, to the daily’s very first day. The Japanese gangsters, then burrowing ever deeper into legitimate business, were a frequent topic of reports from the late Richard C. Hanson and myself in the Tokyo bureau of the fledgling Bangkok-based broadsheet during its maiden year and a half of […]

The Environment

What palm oil and organized crime have in common

by Jennifer Devine November 16, 2021November 17, 2021

US infrastructure package may lose billions to fraud

by Jetson Leder-Luis September 29, 2021September 29, 2021

Japan

Yakuza alive, well and still kicking in Japan

by Grant Newsham December 3, 2020December 7, 2020

Australia, Oceania

Big Brother Australia aims to ban cash spending

by Alan Boyd January 17, 2020February 18, 2020

Susi Pudjiastuti, center, Indonesia’s Fisheries Minister, takes a tour of the USS New Orleans (LPD 18) during the ship’s recent visit to Bali. Photo: US Navy / Flickr.

AT Finance, Indonesia, Middle East, Russia, World

Indonesia wants illegal fishing listed as crime

by Basten Gokkon February 4, 2019February 18, 2020

Japan, Northeast Asia

French probe casts light on dark practices in Tokyo’s Olympics bid

by Jake Adelstein January 31, 2019February 18, 2020

Kawaguchi, Japan. Photo: Wikipedia.

China, Japan, Northeast Asia

Chinese man detained in Japan for printing fake documents

by Asia Times staff January 30, 2019February 18, 2020

Press freedom. Violence against journalists. Image: iStock

AT Finance, European Union, India, Mexico, Middle East, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, South Asia, United Kingdom, World

Killing the messenger will not kill the story

by Robert Mahoney October 31, 2018October 31, 2018

Participants show their traditional Japanese tattoos related to the Yakuza during the annual Sanja Matsuri festival in the Asakusa district of Tokyo on May 20, 2018. Photo: AFP/Behrouz Mehri

AT Finance, Cambodia, China, European Union, Hong Kong, Japan, Northeast Asia, Singapore, South Asia, World

Japan’s leading yakuza gangs in US Treasury’s cross-hairs

by Jake Adelstein October 8, 2018February 18, 2020

Four of the 'wildlife smugglers' arrested by Congo police now held in Brazzaville. They are alleged to be part of gangs shipping big loads of illegal wildlife parts to Southeast Asia and China. Photo: Supplied

AT Finance, China, Hong Kong, South Asia, Thailand, Vietnam

African ‘gang’ linked to big hauls of wildlife seized in Asia

by Jim Pollard July 26, 2018February 18, 2020

Japanese police take gun control seriously. This regional police poster from Kagawa prefecture urges, "Banish All Firearms!”

Japan, Northeast Asia, World

Japan’s gun control laws so strict the Yakuza turn to toy pistols

by Jake Adelstein December 7, 2017February 18, 2020

Reclamation Street, Mong Kok, Kowloon. Photo: Google Maps, Wikimedia Commons

China, Hong Kong, Pakistan, South Asia

Drug, gambling den raids yield 66 arrests in 3-day sweep

by Asia Times staff June 27, 2017February 18, 2020

In February, four Vietnamese teenagers were arrested by Wiltshire Police tending a vast marijuana farm in a disused government nuclear bunker complex. Photo: AFP/Wiltshire Police

AT Finance, European Union, Russia, South Asia, United Kingdom, Vietnam, World

Britain’s ‘blood cannabis’ shame

by Richard Cook March 20, 2017February 18, 2020

FILE PHOTO: Arrangement of various world currencies including Chinese Yuan, US Dollar, Euro, British Pound, shot January 25, 2011. Reuters/Kacper Pempel

World

The case for cash

by Asian Development Bank Institute and James McAndrews March 13, 2017February 18, 2020

British Prime Minister Theresa May and German Chancellor Angela Merkel attend the EU summit in Brussels on March 9, 2017. Photo: Reuters

European Union, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, World

UK let Chinese smugglers duck US$2.1b in duties, EU says

by Asia Times and agencies March 10, 2017February 18, 2020

An Indonesian woman was arrested in Yuen Long for picking up a drug parcel. Photo: Google Map, Wikimedia Commons

AT Finance, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Middle East, World

Former Indonesian maid held after 250g cocaine pickup

by Asia Times staff March 9, 2017February 18, 2020

Western Union has agreed a settlement over its illegal wire fraud activities. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

China, Middle East, World

Human traffickers face cash crunch after Western Union probe

by Peter J. Brown February 7, 2017February 18, 2020

Jockeys compete in a race at the Orient Lucky City International Racecourse in Wuhan, Hubei province. Photo: ImagineChina

AT Finance, Australia, Cambodia, China, European Union, France, Japan, Macau, Malaysia, Middle East, New Zealand, Northeast Asia, Oceania, Philippines, Shanghai, South Asia, Taiwan, Turkey, Vietnam, World

Horses, wolves & gamblers anonymous: China’s racing quandary

by Richard Cook February 4, 2017February 18, 2020

Crime of crimes: behind every case of slavery there lie multiple crimes and conspiracies. The 2015 discovery of a mass grave in Thailand exposed a complex nexus linking refugees fleeing religious persecution, corrupt police and politicians, plantation owners and global commodities supply chains, criminal gangs and a complicit financial system. Also, a world that had largely chosen to look away. Photo: Reuters.

AT Finance, Cambodia, India, Malaysia, Middle East, Myanmar, South Asia, Vietnam, World

Slavery scourge thrives because of all we still don’t know

by Duncan Jepson January 9, 2017February 18, 2020