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Hello John,
Ecuador is the world’s leading exporter of bananas — and cocaine. Our new investigation reveals how drugs were sent from Ecuadorian ports in containers of bananas belonging to a shipping company owned by the family of the Ecuadorian President — and establishes that these smuggling operations were organized by prominent crime figures from the Balkans. Read on for this and more of the latest in global organized crime and corruption. |
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| | | Balkan Traffickers Used Banana Shipments Sent By Ecuadorian President's Family Firm to Smuggle Cocaine |
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| Ecuador is the world’s leading exporter of bananas — and cocaine.
While the country itself does not produce the drug, its neighbors do — and its ports offer organized crime networks the opportunity to move their wares onto the European continent. A new investigation by OCCRP and partners reveals how shipping containers sent by Noboa Trading Co., owned by the family of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, have been used for drug shipments. A confidential Croatian prosecution document obtained by OCCRP showed how two people, using the encrypted messaging platform Sky ECC, boasted that “no one but them” was allowed to load cocaine in containers shipped by Noboa. The document identifies them only by their anonymous Sky PIN numbers. But by carefully cross-referencing court documents from across the Balkans, reporters from OCCRP and Serbian member center KRIK were able to identify other key figures involved in the scheme, including convicted Montenegrin drug lord Darko Šarić. Read the full story → |
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| | | In 2024, OCCRP published the Crime Messenger investigation, which showed how organized crime groups used purpose-built mobile phones from encrypted communications company Sky Global to facilitate business. Reporters from OCCRP and 12 partners gained access to over 3,800 files from a major court case involving Sky, including evidence, police reports and chat logs, which provided an unprecedented look inside these operations.
Former OCCRP editor Brian Fitzpatrick, now a senior editor with the Investigative Journalism Bureau, says the Sky investigation paved the way for the Ecuador story. “It let reporters understand how underworld figures across Europe had been communicating using this service — using secret PIN numbers — and how law enforcement had eventually closed in on the network.” |
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| “It let reporters understand how underworld figures across Europe had been communicating using this service — using secret PIN numbers — and how law enforcement had eventually closed in on the network.” While Fitzpatrick hadn’t worked on the Sky project directly during his time at OCCRP, he hoped to find a way to work with its data in the future. “With these types of valuable datasets, a good thing to remember is that they always live on and can keep offering up stories, or road maps for stories, for months and even years after they first see the light of day.” The Ecuador story came about, he says, in a slightly more roundabout way. In the wake of both the Crime Messenger and NarcoFiles investigations, an informal group of journalists began discussing potential follow-ups — and then an idea came to them. In March 2025, Colombian media began to report on seized shipments linked to Noboa Trading Co., which exports bananas through brands such as Bonita. “We wondered, given the crucial role played by cocaine exports from Ecuador in the global cocaine trade, and the havoc being wreaked by that same trade around the world, if there was something that we could do to add to that picture,” Fitzpatrick said. Sources began approaching reporters, and the high public interest aspect made it a compelling story. In using various data tools at the disposal of OCCRP, reporters began to identify patterns. “First, with Noboa Trading Co. as our reference point, we noticed that a confidential Croatian prosecution document showed alleged narco-traffickers who appeared to be discussing various Noboa Trading Co. shipments in their secret chats,” Fitzpatrick said. “They also seemed to be indicating that they, alone, had some sort of monopoly over the Noboa containers arriving from Ecuador into the Balkans.” They now had dates, ship names and container numbers. Next, they had to map the shipments being discussed to real-life events. |
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| “This was something we were able to do by matching import, export and shipping data to the shipments referred to in the chats. “This triangulation — a painstaking thing to do, expertly led by researchers at [Serbian member center] KRIK and OCCRP — let us know we weren't just reading these narco chats in isolation,” Fitzpatrick said. It allowed them to establish “that the shipments that these guys were talking about had actually happened.” Croatian prosecutors identified some individuals in the chats, but others were referred to only with six-character anonymous Sky PINs. Serbian journalists working on the story managed to find court documents from their country that revealed two of the names behind the PINs: Nikola Đorđević, a Serbian criminal figure charged with cocaine smuggling, and Darko Šarić, a Montenegrin drug lord. “This was the first time that any Noboa containers had ever been linked to a known alleged criminal grouping, and it never would have been possible without our partners in Serbia and their knowledge of the Sky ECC system and how it all worked,” Fitzpatrick said. While there is no indication of criminality from Noboa Trading Co., the revelation raises questions about President Noboa’s touted "tough on organized crime" stance, and whether his family’s company has done enough to prevent drugs being smuggled in its banana exports. Both Noboa Trading Co. and the president were approached for comment with detailed questions, but neither offered a response. Fitzpatrick says the story is a prime example of how OCCRP’s collaborative, cross-border journalism model pays off. “It shows the value of partnerships, good team work, persistence and lasting camaraderie,” he said. |
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| | | Ukraine Charges Russian “Dr. Evil” in Absentia with War Crimes |
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| | | Romania’s Coal-Powered Energy Giant May Have Under-Declared Emissions — and Saved Hundreds of Millions |
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| Romania’s state-owned Complexul Energetic Oltenia SA coal plants supply one-fifth of the country’s electricity. Over the past eight years, Oltenia has reported unusually low carbon dioxide emissions, despite almost exclusively burning lignite, a low-grade coal considered the most hazardous and polluting form of fuel. An OCCRP data analysis found that potential underreporting could have helped the company avoid over 250 million euros in European Union carbon taxes — funds that are meant to be invested in green energy. At the same time, Oltenia has received hundreds of millions of euros in aid from Brussels as part of a 2022 deal to phase out coal in favor of natural gas and renewables. "While technicalities of the EU’s carbon tax system may not be the most accessible topic for wider audiences, they remain pivotal for understanding how the bloc attempts to meet its green energy transition goals,” OCCRP Environmental Team Coordinator Eli Moskowitz told OCCRP Weekly. “Our findings point to significant regulatory and integrity concerns that will hopefully be addressed by the European Commission if it is indeed serious about tackling important climate issues, such as transitioning away from the inefficient and highly polluting coal plants that we scrutinized in our investigation.” Read the full story → |
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| | Fleeing Russian Bombs, Ukrainian Orphans Faced Abuse and Neglect in Turkish Hotels |
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| In the frantic early days following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, businessman Ruslan Shostak was approached to help fund the evacuation of orphans from the war zone. However, the hastily organized evacuation of 3,500 children and their caretakers from over a dozen orphanages and care homes in the southeastern frontline region of Dnipropetrovsk ultimately led to hundreds of Ukrainian children being stranded in a Turkish seaside town, with little oversight and in poor conditions. Among other disturbing episodes, two underage girls became pregnant by older Turkish men who had access to their hotel, several committed petty crimes around town, and one went missing and had to be sought by helicopter. Moreover, the children were told they had to perform at events that were used to solicit donations — and could be punished or shamed if they refused to participate. Meanwhile, the Ruslan Shostak Charitable Foundation, founded to oversee the children’s stay in Turkey, received press plaudits and support from Ukrainian celebrities. Read the full story → |
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| | Lithuanian Journalists Accuse Populist Party of Threatening Independence of Public Broadcaster |
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| Legislation proposed by Lithuania’s powerful populist Nemunas Dawn party, which would make it easier to fire the head of the country’s public broadcaster, has gained approval in the parliament and appears to be getting fast-tracked. The move has been met with protest from journalists. Reporters at public broadcaster Lithuanian National Television and Radio (LRT) held on-air moments of silence this week. A public rally outside the parliament in the capital of Vilnius is planned for December 9. Remigijus Žemaitaitis, who founded Nemunas Dawn in 2023 after his expulsion from another party over antisemitic statements, has accused LRT of bias against his movement. A November 8 resolution from his party said that “the biggest threat to society” stemmed from the political opposition and the media. “Make no mistake, this is not just about LRT,” said Birutė Davidonytė, chair of the Association of Professional Journalists. “The suppression of free speech has begun — it will not stop unless we act now.” Read the full story → |
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| | | | Globally, around 50 million people are trapped in modern forms of slavery, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned this week, highlighting the role of organized criminal networks that “prey on people facing extreme poverty, discrimination, environmental degradation, armed conflict, or migration in search of safety and opportunity.”
In the U.S., a Russian national charged with lying about alleged contact with Russian intelligence had her bail revoked and was ordered into pre-trial detention this week, after she continued to harass an FBI officer with drunken text messages, despite a judge’s warnings.
The trial of 24 humanitarian workers charged with migrant smuggling and money laundering for their work rescuing migrants at sea got underway in Greece this week. If convicted, they face up to 20 years in prison.
The Georgian Dream government has opened an inquiry into a new report from the BBC, which alleges security forces deployed dangerous chemical agents as crowd control measures during 2024 protests in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.
European law enforcement officials say they have dismantled “Cryptomixerm,” a service which helped to launder the proceeds of narcotics and weapons trafficking, ransomware attacks, bank card fraud and other crimes.
Haiti is “rapidly becoming a central hub” for international drug trafficking, the U.N. warned this week, noting gang expansion and growing ties with organized crime networks abroad is fuelling the worsening security crisis.
Swiss prosecutors have filed charges against Credit Suisse over organizational failures that allegedly enabled money laundering linked to Mozambique’s “tuna bonds,” which devastated the country’s economy in the 2010s.
Former EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini was detained as part of a probe involving a suspected fraud scheme connected to the training of European diplomats.
Ukrainian authorities have detained an unnamed former deputy energy minister on suspicion of embezzling funds from the state-owned nuclear power firm Energoatom, a move which comes amid a broader crackdown on corruption. Separately, a search by anti-graft bodies prompted top presidential aide Andriy Yermak to resign, with President Zelenskyy vowing full transparency as the Energoatom probe widens.
The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for Russia to return forcibly transferred Ukrainian children separated from their families and taken to Russia since the 2014 seizure of Crimea.
European and Israeli authorities are taking action against companies and suspects behind fraudulent social media advertising campaigns, as part of a broader crackdown on a massive cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering operation, which allegedly scammed thousands of victims through fake online investment schemes.
An Italian man doing business in Slovakia has been convicted on drug charges involving a group linked to the ’Ndrangheta mafia — but OCCRP member centers have found that the alleged ’Ndrangheta ties don’t end there.
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| | | Illicit Finance Data Lab: A New Initiative to Fight Corruption
Fighting corruption requires new types of alliances.
The Illicit Finance Data Lab is a new initiative between OCCRP and the Anti-Corruption Data Collective (ACDC) that will strengthen collaboration between investigative journalists, academic researchers, and data scientists. The Illicit Finance Data Lab seeks to better organize and analyze the wealth of real-world data on secret and illicit financial activity, supporting key projects and cultivating cooperation between media and academic organizations. |
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