Twenty-three arrests and around 10,000 cultural items seized

On 18 November 2019, an international police operation involving over 350 police officers, supported by Europol (within the framework of EMPACT) and Eurojust, dismantled an international organized crime group involved in large-scale trafficking of looted archaeological items resulting in the arrest of 23 individuals, 80 house searches, and the seizure of around 10,000 cultural items, including hundreds of figurative terracottas

Is metal theft committed by organized crime groups, and why does it matter?

Using the example of metal theft in the United Kingdom, this study used mixed methods to evaluate the accuracy of police estimates of the involvement of organised crime groups (OCGs) in crime. Police estimate that 20-30% of metal theft is committed by OCGs, but this study found that only 0.5% of metal thieves had previous convictions for offences related to OCGs, that only 1.3% were linked to OCGs by intelligence information, that metal thieves typically offended close to their homes and that almost no metal thefts involved sophisticated offence methods. It appears that police may over-estimate the involvement of OCGs in some types of crime. The reasons for and consequences of this over-estimation are discussed

The mechanism of disaster capitalism and the failure to build community resilience:learning from the 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy

This paper reflects on what materialised during recovery operations following the earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy, on 6 April 2009. Previous critiques have focused on the actions of the Government of Italy and the Department of Civil Protection (Protezione Civile), with little attention paid to the role of local authorities. This analysis sheds light on how the latter used emergency powers, the command-and-control approach, and top-down planning to manage the disaster context, especially in terms of removal of rubble, implementing safety measures, and allocating temporary accommodation. It discusses how these arrangements constituted the mechanism via which ‘disaster capitalism’ took hold at the local and national level, and how it violated human rights, produced environmental and social impacts, hindered local communities from learning, transforming, and building resilience, and facilitated disaster capitalism and corruption. To make the disaster risk reduction and resilience paradigm more effective, a shift from centralised civil protection to decentralised, inclusive community empowerment systems is needed

Analysing the European Union's responses to organized crime through different securitization lenses

In the past 30 years, organized crime (OC) has shifted from being an issue of little, or no concern, to being considered one of the key security threats facing the European Union (EU), the economic and political fabric of its society and its citizens. The purpose of this article is to understand how OC has come to be understood as one of the major security threats in the EU, by applying different lenses of Securitization Theory (ST). More specifically, the research question guiding this article is whether applying different ST approaches can lead us to draw differing conclusions as to whether OC has been successfully securitized in the EU. Building on the recent literature that argues that this theoretical framework has branched out into different approaches, this article wishes to contrast two alternative views of how a security problem comes into being, in order to verify whether different approaches can lead to diverging conclusions regarding the same phenomenon. The purpose of this exercise is to contribute to the further development of ST by pointing out that the choice in approach bears direct consequences on reaching a conclusion regarding the successful character of a securitization process. Starting from a reflection on ST, the article proceeds with applying a “linguistic approach” to the case study, which it then contrasts with a “sociological approach”. The article proposes that although the application of a “linguistic approach” seems to indicate that OC has become securitized in the EU, it also overlooks a number of elements, which the “sociological approach” renders visible and which lead us to refute the initial conclusion

Health and social problems associated with recent Novel Psychoactive Substance (NPS) use amongst marginalised, nightlife and online users in six European countries.

Continued diversification and use of new psychoactive substances (NPS) across Europe remains a public health challenge. The study describes health and social consequences of recent NPS use as reported in a survey of marginalised, nightlife and online NPS users in the Netherlands, Hungary, Portugal, Ireland, Germany and Poland (n = 3023). Some respondents were unable to categorise NPS they had used. Use of ‘herbal blends’ and ‘synthetic cannabinoids obtained pure’ was most reported in Germany, Poland and Hungary, and use of ‘branded stimulants’ and ‘stimulants/empathogens/nootropics obtained pure’ was most reported in the Netherlands. Increased heart rate and palpitation, dizziness, anxiety, horror trips and headaches were most commonly reported acute side effects. Marginalised users reported substantially more acute side effects, more mid- and long-term mental and physical problems, and more social problems. Development of country-specific NPS awareness raising initiatives, health and social service needs assessments, and targeted responses are warranted

An international survey on the awareness, use, preference and health perception of Novel Psychoactive Substances (NPS)

© 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Deligianni, E, Corkery, JM, Schifano, F, Lione, LA. An international survey on the awareness, use, preference, and health perception of novel psychoactive substances (NPS). Hum Psychopharmacol Clin Exp. 2017; 32:e2581, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/hup.2581. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.ObjectiveThis survey investigated the level of public awareness, preference and motivation of NPS use as well as knowledge of potential associated health risks.Methods A Bristol Online Survey was advertised through social media and a drug forum ‘’Bluelight’’ between 7 January and 7 February 2015. ResultsResponses were received from 17 countries, mainly from Europe. Most responses (83%) came from University educated students. Two-thirds (65%) of the 168 respondents were aware of NPS. Awareness was significantly increased in those with bisexual/homosexual orientation (p0.05). Nearly half of the NPS users perceived NPS to carry either a low risk to health (20%) or did not know whether or not they posed a health risk (29%).ConclusionsThese survey data indicate that awareness of NPS and, importantly, perception of the potential health risks associated with NPS use is lacking. NPS awareness and use is higher in those in employment but is unaffected by the level of education. This highlights the need for targeted drugs education intervention by policy-makers in schools and universities.Peer reviewe

Development aid and international migration to Italy: Does aid reduce irregular flows?

In recent years, donors have claimed to tackle the root causes of migration from low‐income countries using aid. While others have studied the effects of aid on regular migration, we test whether aid deters irregular migration to Italy using two innovative dependent variables: asylum applications and apprehensions at border. For asylum applications, the largest significant effect size implies we should expect one extra application for an additional $162,000 in bilateral aid. For border crossings, the only significant effect implies the marginal cost in bilateral aid is$1.8 million per deterred migrant. The conclusion that effect sizes are small is robust to different types of aid, measures of migration and various controls. We find robust evidence that irregular migration flows are significantly affected by conflict, poverty, and the pre‐existing stocks from that country. Comparing our results to the existing aid‐migration literature, we find similar effect sizes. The cost per deterred (regular) migrant is in the range $4‐7 million. Statistically significant estimates for the effect of aid on regular migration are only found for sub‐samples or specific specifications. In short, aid does not deter regular or irregular migration, so should be used for other purposes

Drowning in diversity? A systematic way of clustering and selecting a representative set of new psychoactive substances

Published by the Royal Society of Chemistry. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. Material from this article can be used in other publications provided that the correct acknowledgement is given with the reproduced material.New psychoactive substances (NPS) can be generally described as a set of compounds that have been designed to mimic the effects of illegal recreational drugs, but are not subject to restriction or control with respect to existing regulation and legislation. In recent years, the number and chemical diversity of emergent NPS has increased substantially, and regulators have struggled to develop methods for accurate detection of NPS at the same rate. Existing approaches to NPS classification are pragmatic and/or semi-systematic and do not lend themselves to objective spectroscopic classification of emergent NPS. As such, this research discusses the identification of a systematic NPS classification based on chemical structures. A set of 478 NPS were grouped according to the similarity between their chemical structural features using hierarchical clustering and a maximum common substructure of 9 atoms, which included both hydrogen and heavy atoms. The rationale for including hydrogen atoms is that accurate spectroscopic identification of NPS will be dependent upon variations in substitution patterns in the molecules. This analysis generated 79 clusters, arising from 21 superclusters. The medoid substances of each cluster were used to form a dataset that was representative of the chemical space encompassed by known NPS. Subsequent categorisation of a test set of NPS showed that the test substances were assigned to an appropriate cluster when the Tanimoto similarity coefficient between the cluster medoid and the test substance was at least 0.5. This indicates that the cluster medoids could be used for assignment of emerging NPS to systematically-defined categories based on chemical structure. These medoids will also aid in the prediction of spectroscopic properties for emergent NPS, which will be invaluable for structure-based classifications and development of methods for detection of emerging NPS.Peer reviewe