Organized Crime
IJB reporters uncover organized crime, including human smuggling, drug trafficking, and how an ex-bank burglar in the crosshairs of police is living large among Toronto’s A-listers.
Across Canada’s increasingly militarized border, an undercover IJB probe revealed how a shadowy human smuggling industry is brazenly advertising illicit travel into and out of Canada. Reporters identified interconnected smuggler networks, analyzed their advertisements, and spoke to these smugglers online.
In Europe, court records detail how alleged Balkan drug traffickers had bragged about using shipping containers owned by the Ecuadorian president’s family firm to smuggle cocaine.
At one of Toronto’s most exclusive condo towers, sitting courtside at Raptors games and in a Drake music video, Hamdi Lataj does not appear shy of public view. But an IJB and OCCRP review found Lataj is a convicted bank burglar who police suspected once trafficked drugs with Mexican kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and who was targeted in an illegal gambling and money-laundering case involving alleged members of Italy’s ‘Ndrangheta mafia.
‘Mission Abort’: Inside a derailed human smuggling operation on the Canadian border
Here’s what messages on an alleged human smuggler’s phone reveal about human smuggling tactics on the U.S.-Canada border.
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Who is Hamdi Lataj, the Balkan ex-bank burglar living large among Canada’s A-listers?
Hamdi Lataj is a convicted bank burglar who police suspected once trafficked drugs with Mexican kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán and who was targeted in an illegal gambling and money-laundering case involving alleged members of Italy’s ‘Ndrangheta mafia.
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Croatian authorities seizing over half a ton of cocaine at the Port of Ploče in Croatia in 2021. CREDIT: Policijska uprava dubrovačko-neretvanska
Cocaine and bananas: Fruit shipments from Ecuador president’s family firm allegedly used to smuggle drugs
An encrypted chat allegedly between Balkan drug traffickers shows them bragging about having exclusive rights to smuggle cocaine alongside bananas in shipping containers exported by the Ecuadorian president’s family firm.
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‘Be ready in the morning’: Inside the sprawling online industry selling human smuggling services
Across Canada's increasingly militarized border, an undercover IJB probe revealed how a shadowy human smuggling industry is brazenly advertising illicit travel into and out of Canada.
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Behind the Reporting: Drug trafficking, Ecuador, and the president’s family firm
In recent days the IJB, with partners at the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Serbia’s KRIK, detailed links between alleged Balkan drug traffickers — a number of whom had communicated on an encrypted message service Sky ECC — and shipping containers exported to Europe by Noboa Trading Co.
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VIDEO: Inside the underground industry selling human border smuggling and dubious Canadian visas online.
An underground industry is openly selling human smuggling services and dubious Canadian visas on Instagram.
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