NBA gambling indictments

 The NYT has the story of the latest sports-gambling scandal in which several NBA players and veterans were arrested for giving gamblers information that certain players could be expected to underperform.

NBA gambling indictments  By Mike Vorkunov

" The alleged betting scheme feasted on and weaponized what law enforcement officials called non-public information about who wasn’t playing in future games. Several games were bet on because bettors found out that players would sit out for tanking teams trying to better position themselves for the league’s draft lottery. This is something the NBA has paid some attention to in the past, but now, it will have to be extremely strict about it. Injury reports have always been important to gamblers, but the indictments show how they can be used and potentially criminalized.

...

"There is a throughline to the Jontay Porter case from last year. Some of the same people were indicted today and named in the court filings that were arrested and named in the case related to Porter. That case also led to an FBI investigation into college basketball and game manipulation. 

######

And by coincidence, here's a timely New Yorker cartoon:

“Some people say sports betting has gone too far, but I like the on-field bookie.”
Cartoon by Brendan Loper October 7, 2025
 

The international black market in stolen smartphones

Modern "pick pockets" are now  mounted on ebikes and swiping smartphones...

 The NYT has the story:

London Became a Global Hub for Phone Theft. Now We Know Why.
About 80,000 phones were stolen in the British capital last year. The police are finally discovering where many of them went.  By Lizzie Dearden and Amelia Nierenberg

" Increasingly brazen thieves, often masked and on e-bikes, have become adept at snatching phones from residents and tourists. A record 80,000 phones were stolen in the city last year, according to the police, giving London an undesirable reputation as a European capital for the crime.

...

"But last December, they got an intriguing lead from a woman who had used “Find My iPhone” to track her device to a warehouse near Heathrow Airport. Arriving there on Christmas Eve, officers found boxes bound for Hong Kong. They were labeled as batteries but contained almost 1,000 stolen iPhones.

...

"Some phones are reset and sold to new users in Britain. But many are shipped to China and Algeria as part of a “local-to-global criminal business model,” the police said, adding that in China, the newest phones could be sold for up to $5,000, generating huge profits for the criminals involved.
"
Joss Wright, an associate professor at the University of Oxford who specializes in cybersecurity, said that it is easier to use stolen British phones in China than elsewhere because many of the country’s network providers do not subscribe to an international blacklist that bars devices that have been reported stolen. 

...

"Sgt. Matt Chantry, one of the leaders of the raid last month, said in an interview that thieves on e-bikes were “a real problem.” They mount sidewalks and swipe phones from people’s hands at high speed, he said, while making themselves “unidentifiable” by wearing balaclavas and hoods. “How do you police that?” he asked.

"Attempting to chase them on London’s sometimes gridlocked streets is “high-risk,” he said, endangering pedestrians, other drivers and the offender. Ultimately, he said, the police had to ask, is the risk of a fatality worth it for a cellphone? 

...

"But the police are also hoping users will become more savvy about their personal security. Even as smartphones have become more advanced and valuable, many people’s handling of them has become less protective. For the modern phone thief, a classic mark is a pedestrian walking close to the curb, deeply absorbed by the content on a cell screen — a map, a text, a video.

“You wouldn’t count your money on the street,” said Lawrence Sherman, an emeritus criminology professor at the University of Cambridge. “But when the phone is worth £1,000, it’s like pulling £1,000 out of your wallet and looking at it as you walk.” 

The black market in stolen homing pigeons

 Below are some excerpts from a long interesting story in the Washington Post, about how a boom in pigeon racing in China led to a rash of pigeon thefts in Belgium, and how problems in identifying recovered pigeons can (probably) be expeditiously addressed.

the Pigeon Heist.  How million-dollar pigeons became the target of organized crime.  By Kevin Sieff

"Beginning in around 2019, wealthy Chinese industrialists started spending millions on Belgian pigeons. That year, a pigeon named Armando sold for $1.4 million at an auction outside Brussels. In 2020, another bird named New Kim sold for $1.9 million. Pigeon races in major Chinese cities became opulent symbols of China’s economic boom, with purses over $100 million — exceeding most of the world’s major sports.

...

" a rash of pigeon thefts ... swept through Belgium and the Netherlands in 2024 and 2025. Dozens of pigeon lofts were raided; hundreds of pigeons were taken. “A crisis,” said the Belgian pigeon fanciers’ association in an alert to its members. 

...

"By 2023, China’s Ministry of Public Security began prosecuting cases of illegal gambling on pigeons. Last September, Ding Tao, the director of the Tengzhou Pigeon Association in a city about 350 miles south of Beijing, admonished his fellow pigeon enthusiasts in a speech, published by the city’s sports bureau, for engaging in “illegal profit-making activities.” 

...

"The thefts across Belgium were often focused on a particular commodity, police said. One gang exclusively took racing bicycles. Another targeted construction cranes. One stole dozens of expensive trumpets.

"The investigators knew how Chinese demand had led to the skyrocketing value of pigeons. It seemed possible that European organized crime groups could target the birds with an intention to resell them on the black market in Asia, allowing them to skirt the Chinese government’s scrutiny.

,,,

"The rescued pigeons were transported in cages to a loft run by the Belgian pigeon association outside Brussels. Their identification rings had been cut off. The police planned DNA tests to confirm which birds were registered with which owners. Victims of the thefts were invited to see if they could identify their birds.

 ...

 "Many of the recovered birds have still not been matched to their owners, most likely because they were taken in thefts not recorded by the Belgian police.

"It is increasingly likely, investigators say, that there will be only one way to reunite the birds to their owners: They will open the cages and hope that the birds still remember how to fly home."

Internet advertising: affiliate marketing scams, evolving

 Ben Edelman announces a return to his roots, detecting advertising fraud on the internet. (Remember when malware would flash unwanted pages on your browser?)

From his blog:

June 12, 2025

Advertising Fraud Detection at VPT Digital

Today I announced joining the security startup VPT Digital as Chief Scientist.  VPT operates in a space I feel I pioneered: Automated testing to find misconduct in affiliate marketing.  As early as summer 2004 (not a typo!), I was catching affiliates using adware to claim commission they hadn’t earned.  I later built automation to scale up my efforts.

Think affiliate fraud is no big deal?  I was proud to recover large amounts for my clients.  For one large client, I once proved that nine of its top ten biggest affiliates were breaking its rules – which might sound like a disaster, and in some sense it was, but ejecting the rule-breakers yielded ample funds to pay more to those who genuinely drove incremental value.  Affiliate marketing experts may also remember Shawn Hogan and Brian Dunning, who faced both criminal and civil litigation for affiliate fraud – allegations that the FBI said stemmed from reports from me.  Litigation reported that defendants collected more than $20 million in 18 months.  “No big deal,” indeed.

The web is a lot messier than when I started down this path, and tricksters use a remarkable range of methods.  Reviewing VPT’s automation, I’ve been suitably impressed.  They test a range of adware, but also cookie-stuffing, typosquatting, and more.  Of course they test Windows adware and browser plug-ins, but they and have Mac and mobile capabilities too.  They test from multiple geographies, at all times of day.  Their testing is fully automated, yielding spiffy reports in a modern dashboard – plus email alerts and API integration.  It’s all the features I used to dream of building, and then some.

I’ll be working with VPT part-time in the coming months and years to continue to hone their offerings, including making their reports even more accessible to those who don’t want to be experts at affiliate fraud.  I’ll also blog about highlights from their findings.

#########

Earlier:

Saturday, February 15, 2014 Ben Edelman, Internet Sheriff

and (still earlier), I may have helped secure that nickname in this post:

Friday, October 10, 2008 Online advertising--Ben Edelman

 
 

 

Jewish cemetery and Pinkas synagogue in Prague

 During our visit to Prague in May we visited the Old Jewish Cemetery, crowded with the dead from the historic Jewish Ghetto.

 We also visited the Pinkas synagogue, whose walls are covered with the names of those murdered in the Shoah, with their birth dates and death dates.  The birth dates reveal a vibrant community, from small children to senior citizens.  The dates of death are all from 1942 to 1944.

 

Hate crimes in the United States

 The data graphic on hate crimes below is from the NYT editorial (and dates back to 2023).

Antisemitism Is an Urgent Problem. Too Many People Are Making Excuses.
June 14, 2025

 

 

Ransomware evolving

 MedCity News reports on the evolving cat and mouse game between ransomware criminals and health care organizations.

The Changing Landscape of Ransomware: Why Healthcare Organizations Are Paying Less
Threat actors continue to refine their strategies, and the financial incentives for cybercrime persist. However, the combination of stronger defenses, regulatory pressure, and industry collaboration is starting to shift the balance in favor of defenders.  By Chris Henderson  

"Ransomware has long been a persistent and costly threat to healthcare organizations, which hold vast amounts of sensitive patient data and operate under critical, time-sensitive conditions. The disruption caused by these attacks can have life-threatening consequences, delaying essential treatments and compromising patient safety. Historically, the urgency of restoring services quickly and avoiding disruptions compelled many victims to pay ransoms. But that’s starting to change. As healthcare organizations boost their cybersecurity investments — with IT budget allocations rising from 10% in 2020 to 14%(Opens in a new window) in 2024 — fewer victims are paying ransoms, thanks to stronger defenses and heightened regulatory scrutiny.

Overall, ransomware payments in the U.S. dropped 35%(Opens in a new window) in 2024, totaling $813 million, down from $1.25 billion in 2023. The median ransom payment also fell 45%(Opens in a new window) in Q4 2024 to $110,890, as payments remain largely a last-resort option for those without alternatives to recover critical data. Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) researchers also noted a decline in the number of ransomware victims reporting(Opens in a new window) ransom payments

...

"One of the most effective deterrents to paying ransomware demands is having a robust backup and disaster recovery strategy. In the past, many healthcare organizations lacked adequate redundancy, leaving them with few options beyond paying attackers to restore access to their systems. However, the industry has made significant progress by investing in modern backup solutions, including immutable storage, air-gapped backups, and real-time data replication. Restoration from backups is rarely instantaneous, though. This makes having documented and practiced continuity plans critical for maintaining operations without key technology.

These measures significantly reduce the leverage attackers hold. With reliable, easily restorable backups, and rehearsed continuity plans, healthcare providers can refuse ransom demands and recover systems independently. Additionally, security tools that improve organizations security posture, like endpoint detection and response (EDR), managed detection and response (MDR), and zero-trust architectures, are making it harder for ransomware to gain a foothold in the first place.

...

"At the same time, government regulations are increasing the risks associated with making payments. In the U.S., the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has issued warnings that organizations paying ransoms to groups linked to sanctioned entities could face legal consequences. Given that many ransomware groups have ties to sanctioned regions, healthcare providers face significant liability if they choose to pay.

...

"As direct ransomware payments decline, cybercriminals are adapting their tactics. Many groups have shifted away from traditional encryption only attacks toward data exfiltration and extortion. Instead of only locking organizations out of their systems, attackers steal sensitive patient records, financial data, and proprietary information, threatening to release it publicly if their demands aren’t met.

This strategy allows cybercriminals to bypass traditional defenses such as backups and file encryption protection, which are ineffective against data leaks. While organizations may recover their infrastructure without paying, the risk of exposing protected health information (PHI) creates a new pressure point for victims."

Train robbery in the 21st Century

The LA Times has the story about how it's done these days:

Inside the Mojave Desert train heists targeting Nike sneakers  By Alex Wigglesworth

"The thieves stealthily board eastbound freight trains, hiding out until they reach lonely stretches of the Mojave Desert or high plains far from towns. They slash an air brake hose, causing the mile-long line of railcars to screech to an emergency stop.
"
Then, they go shopping.

"That’s the modus operandi described by investigators in a string of at least 10 heists targeting BNSF trains in California and Arizona since last March. All but one resulted in the theft of Nike sneakers, their combined value approaching $2 million, according to investigators.

 ...

"Theft crews typically scout high-value merchandise on rail lines that parallel Interstate 40 by boarding slow-moving trains

...

"Once the desired loot is found, the thieves alert “follow vehicles,” which track the train. The stolen goods are tossed off the train after it comes to a halt — either for a scheduled stop or because an air hose has been cut or control wires inside signal boxes have been sabotaged, said the federal agent, Brynna Cooke.

The cargo is then loaded into box trucks, or hidden in nearby brush until they arrive — provided the surveillance crews that are following the train don’t detect law enforcement, Cooke said. These tactics are often employed by transnational criminal groups that consist primarily of Mexican citizens from Sinaloa, she said.

There were at least 65,000 railroad cargo thefts last year, a 40% increase from 2023

...

"In the Jan. 13 heist, stolen cases of Nikes hurled from the train were later picked up by trucks, the federal complaint states. County and state law enforcement officers were able to catch up with the vehicles with the help of tracking devices that were inside some of the boxes. "

Mexico focuses on cross-border gun traffic after U.S. designates drug cartels as terrorists

 Politico has the story (from the Associated Press):

Mexico to reform constitution in wake of US terrorism designations
The move by the Trump administration has stirred worry that it could be a preliminary step toward U.S. military intervention on Mexican territory 

“What we want to make clear in the face of this designation is that we do not negotiate sovereignty,” Sheinbaum said. “This cannot be an opportunity for the United States to invade our sovereignty.”

"Her administration also proposed reforming the constitution to apply the most severe penalties available under law to foreigners involved in the building, smuggling and distribution of guns. Mexico has long demanded that the U.S. do more to prevent the flood of guns into Mexico from U.S. gun shops and manufacturers." 

#######

Earlier:

Wednesday, March 27, 2024 Mexico’s Law Suit Against US Gun Dealers

 

"Rhino horns are a renewable resource." Would a legal market help save endangered rhinoceroses?

 Right now it is illegal to buy or cell rhino horn, to protect endangered rhinoceroses from poachers who kill them.  But could a legal, tightly regulated market work better? It's controversial...

From Science:

Protect white rhinos by legalizing horn trade  by Martin Wikelsk  Science
10 Oct 2024, Vol 386, Issue 6718, p. 157, DOI: 10.1126/science.adq5925

 "Rhino horn is a renewable resource that grows like fingernails. To protect white rhino populations effectively, the international trade of rhino horn should be legalized and carefully monitored, including the tracking of each sample sold. Legal trade—the preferred option of horn consumers (3)—will derail international trafficking syndicates and enable essential private rhino guardianship. Legalized trade provides the best chance for the future of white rhino populations ."

 

 

And here's a companion story from the Guardian:

‘We have to change our attitude’: wildlife expert says rhino horn trade must be legalised
Call for illicit market to be taken out of hands of criminals as numbers continue to fall drastically due to poaching  by Robin McKie 

"International trade in rhino horns should be legalised, a leading wildlife expert has urged.

...

“A few years ago, I was very much against this idea but now looking at the grim situation we are in I believe we have to change our attitude to the issue of trade in rhino horn,” said Wikelski, of the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour in Germany.

“International crime syndicates have overcome every countermeasure that conservationists have mounted to defend rhinos from poachers. The result has been a drastic drop in numbers of animals. By legalising trade in rhino horn we can take back control of the market and halt the loss.” 

"Wikelski’s idea would be to remove the horn and allow a new one to grow while selling the horn to make money. This could be used to fund protection for the rhino. At present, removed horn is stored in secure vaults.

"However, the proposal to use stocks to create a legitimate trade in rhino horn has triggered worried responses from many conservationists, who reject the idea that such a scheme would save the rhino from the attention of poachers. 

...

“In addition, a legal rhino horn market could increase demand, provide opportunities for money laundering, and complicate law enforcement’s ability to distinguish legal sources from illegal sources,” Rascha Nuijten, director of Future For Nature Foundation, wrote in a response to Wikelski’s arguments that was also published in Science."

Adultery is no longer a crime in New York State.

 Not only is jaywalking no longer a crime in New York City, the seldom-enforced criminal law against adultery in New York State has now been repealed. 

My sense is that the jaywalking ban was rolled back in part because it was inequitably enforced, while the ban on adultery was so rarely brought to trial that it was simply obsolete.

NPR has the story:

Adultery is no longer illegal in New York, By Ayana Archie 

"Adultery is no longer a crime in New York.

"Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday signed off on repealing a 1907 law prohibiting the act.

"New York's penal law previously said that "a person is guilty of adultery when he engages in sexual intercourse with another person at a time when he has a living spouse, or the other person has a living spouse."

"It was considered a Class B misdemeanor, which carries a jail sentence of up to three months.

"The New York State Senate called the law "outdated."

#########

Interestingly, surveys indicate  both that most Americans disapprove of adultery, but that the frequency of adultery is quite high. So it's the law that is outdated, not the act.

Also interesting is that adultery is still forbidden under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.  This comes up in discussions about President Trump's nominee to be Secretary of Defense (where he will preside over servicemen and women who are forbidden to follow the examples of their Secretary and their Commander in Chief...)

Here's the NYT on that:

Pete Hegseth’s Mother Accused Her Son of Mistreating Women for Years  by Sharon LaFraniere and Julie Tate

"Reports of his infidelity have focused attention on his character and leadership, particularly for a civilian overseeing the military, where active-duty service members can be subject to prosecution for adultery under the Uniform Code of Military Justice."

Walk free in NYC, where jaywalking is no longer a crime

In NYC jaywalking is no longer a crime, or at least it won't be at the end of January, if I read the story correctly.  But I'm guessing is that it will be hard to tell the difference.

Here's the story from the NYT:

Jaywalking Is a New York Tradition. Now It’s Legal, Too.  New Yorkers can cross the street wherever they please without fear of a summons. By Emma G. Fitzsimmons, Oct. 29, 2024

"Telling New Yorkers, famously short of patience and time, not to cross the street mid-block did little to curb the illegal practice. Neither did the threat of fines: A violation carried a potential fine of up to $300, and hundreds of people received tickets each year.

"But after decades of mostly turning the other way, city officials finally decriminalized jaywalking, crossing against a traffic signal or outside a crosswalk. The City Council passed a bill last month to allow pedestrians to cross the street wherever they please, and it became law over the weekend, after Mayor Eric Adams ran out of his allotted time to decide whether to veto or sign the bill.

;;;

"About 200 people have died over the last five years while crossing streets in the middle of a block or against the light — about 34 percent of all pedestrian fatalities, according to city transportation officials.

"The law goes into effect in 120 days. Liz Garcia, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said in a statement that New Yorkers should still be cautious when crossing the street."

Technology and crime: cloning giant sheep

 There are things you can go to prison for that wouldn't have been possible to do not long ago.

The Washington Post is on the case:

Rancher sentenced to 6 months in prison for illegally cloning giant sheep. Arthur “Jack” Schubarth, 81, previously pleaded guilty to creating giant hybrid sheep via illegally imported genetic material.  By Kyle Melnick

"The Montana rancher’s illegal scheme began in 2012, when he paid for his son to hunt one of the world’s largest sheep species in Kyrgyzstan, court documents say. Arthur “Jack” Schubarth then used parts of the sheep in the following years to breed an even larger hybrid species and sell those animals to hunters.

"Now, Schubarth is set to spend six months in prison for the ploy after pleading guilty to two felony wildlife counts in March. Both counts stemmed from violations of the Lacey Act, a federal conservation law that prohibits interstate sales of falsely labeled animals and sales of animals to states where they’re illegal to own.

...

"Much of the scheme played out at Schubarth’s 215-acre ranch in Vaughn, Mont., where he bred and sold mountain sheep, mountain goats and similar breeds. Schubarth paid for his son to take multiple trips to Kyrgyzstan in 2012 and 2013. In January 2013, Schubarth’s son brought back viable tissue from a Marco Polo argali, a rare and large species native to central Asia, but didn’t declare the materials when he reentered the United States, court documents allege.

...

"Schubarth sought to create an even more valuable species, according to prosecutors. Sheep with larger horns and bodies are worth more to hunters, including at private shooting preserves, where hunters pay to pursue captive game.

...

"Schubarth agreed to a contract with a cloning facility in 2015, and by late the following year, he had 165 cloned embryos of Marco Polo argali. He implanted embryos in his ewes and in May 2017 bred a male argali, who he named Montana Mountain King.

"In the following years, Schubarth bred Montana Mountain King’s semen with other ewe species, creating more hybrid sheep that he sold to captive hunting facilities, mainly in Texas. To do so, he bought Rocky Mountain bighorn sheeps’ testicles, despite Montana prohibiting trade of game animals."

Are Swedish gangs becoming the hitmen of Scandanavia?

 We're accustomed to drug violence among gangs even in wealthy countries, but here's a story from The Times (of London) suggesting that the drug and biker gangs in Sweden are going in for contract killing as well.

How Swedish gangs are exporting young contract killers across Scandinavia. Crime bosses are behind a wave of youths being hired for attacks in Denmark and Norway, with fears the trend could spread further

"Sweden is accused of exporting its gang violence problem to its Nordic neighbours after at least 25 young Swedes on suspected contract-killing or bombing missions were arrested in Denmark over the past four months.

...

"Part of the problem, according to Markus Kaakinen, a criminologist at the University of Helsinki, is that Sweden’s notoriously trigger-happy drug gangs are outgrowing their home market. As a result they are not only setting up distribution outposts in countries such as Norway and Finland but are also moving in on “transit” states that serve as conduits for the international drug trade, such as Denmark and Spain, where they compete with the local criminal networks.

...

"Yet that is not the main thing that bothers experts. What really worries them is a previously unknown phenomenon: Swedish youths are being anonymously hired through social media for acts of violence in Denmark, as though they were Deliveroo drivers.

“This is something very new: the recruiting of very young, completely unknown adolescents,” Kaakinen said. “There’s increasing demand for violence and these gangs have noticed that it’s less risky for them to use these channels.”

...

"he Swedish authorities are already having a hard enough time getting a grip on their country’s conventional gang wars, where kingpins with nicknames such as the “Kurdish Fox”, “The Strawberry” and “The Greek” pursue their vendettas through teenage amateur assassins hired on a semi-freelance basis.

...

"Danish ministers feel their state has dealt relatively well with its own problems along similar lines. There are estimated to be about 1,500 active gang members in a population of 5.9 million, while Sweden has roughly 14,000 in a population of 10.5 million."

Gambling addiction

 When gambling opportunities were rare and often illegal in the U.S., gambling addiction was a less visible problem than it is becoming today.

Here's a story from the NYT, about a sports news broadcaster who went to prison after pursuing fraudulent schemes to raise money to pay his gambling debts:

Saturday Mornings With the ‘Voice of Problem Gambling’  Craig Carton, the bombastic sports broadcaster, shows a different side on a weekly show that focuses on the stories of gambling addicts like himself.  By Zach Schonbrun

“There’s a preconceived notion of the kind of guy or gal that is a gambling addict,” Mr. Carton said. “And now you’re listening to schoolteachers and doctors and lawyers and first responders and librarians — normal people who went down a road never having any expectation of having a problem.”

...

"The show’s arrival coincided with an explosion in gambling as 38 states legalized sports betting. The National Council on Problem Gambling estimates that 1 percent of U.S. adults meet the criteria for a gambling disorder, and that an additional 2 to 3 percent are “experiencing problems” due to “moderate” gambling behavior.

"That suggests that most Americans are capable of gambling responsibly, and Mr. Carton believed he could, too. He had gambled his whole life.

...

"The incident that he says “accelerated” his descent into problematic gambling didn’t come until 2014, when Mr. Carton, in his typical bombastic fashion, proclaimed on the air with Mr. Esiason that he could take $10,000 and turn it into $25,000 overnight playing blackjack. To his surprise, Mr. Esiason handed him $10,000 in cash a few weeks later during a special taping at the Borgata, a casino hotel in Atlantic City. Mr. Carton backed up his boast, winning $80,000 playing blackjack.

"But the seeds of compulsion were planted. Almost immediately, Mr. Carton began receiving calls from listeners eager to test his magic touch. Soon he was being handed duffel bags of cash and ushered into private parlors at casinos.

“That just gave me access to more money,” Mr. Carton said. “And when you’re already going down a road where you want to gamble all the time anyway, if you’re betting $100 a hand, and now you’re betting $1,000 a hand, you can’t go back to $100. It just became progressive.”

He won a lot, but at the rate he was going, the odds weren’t in his favor. Debts snowballed; then the federal agents arrived. The judge at his sentencing, Colleen McMahon, introduced herself to him as “Colleen from New York — first time, long time,” echoing a common phrase used by callers into WFAN’s shows. She then told Mr. Carton, “You have indeed descended into a hell of your own making.”

"Mr. Carton’s public disgrace resonated with Dan Trolaro, a former investment adviser for Prudential who spent four and a half years in state prison in New Jersey for stealing $1.9 million in client money. He had committed the thefts to feed an online gambling addiction.

"Mr. Trolaro went on to work for the nonprofit Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey, which is the home of the 1-800-GAMBLER addiction hotline.

...

"On a recent Monday evening, Mr. Carton stood with a microphone in a lecture hall at the LaPenta School of Business at Iona University in New Rochelle, N.Y. For an hour, he implored the 40 or so students in attendance not to follow in his footsteps.

“I’m not here to tell you not to gamble,” he said. “But I am here to tell you that, if you allow it, gambling can ruin your life.”

"The event was presented by FanDuel, the largest online sports book in the country. Mr. Carton is on his second contract as the company’s paid ambassador for “responsible gaming,” a relationship that, he admits, carries the appearance of conflict with his efforts to combat addiction. He insists the arrangement allows him to carry his message to a wider audience."

#####

See also Gamblers Anonymous  https://www.gamblersanonymous.org/ga/

Oregon is re-criminalizing drugs

 The war on drugs is unforgiving, and neither criminalization nor decriminalization seems to be a winning strategy.  The NYT has the latest from Oregon, where there were high hopes for decriminalization and harm reduction, and where there are now second thoughts. 

Oregon Is Recriminalizing Drugs, Dealing Setback to Reform Movement. Oregon removed criminal penalties for possessing street drugs in 2020. But amid soaring overdose deaths, state lawmakers have voted to bring back some restrictions.  By Mike Baker

"Three years ago, when Oregon voters approved a pioneering plan to decriminalize hard drugs, advocates looking to halt the jailing of drug users believed they were on the edge of a revolution that would soon sweep across the country.

"But even as the state’s landmark law took effect in 2021, the scourge of fentanyl was taking hold. Overdoses soared as the state stumbled in its efforts to fund enhanced treatment programs. And while many other downtowns emerged from the dark days of the pandemic, Portland continued to struggle, with scenes of drugs and despair.

"Lately, even some of the liberal politicians who had embraced a new approach to drugs have supported an end to the experiment. On Friday, a bill that will reimpose criminal penalties for possession of some drugs won final passage in the State Legislature and was headed next to Gov. Tina Kotek, who has expressed alarm about open drug use and helped broker a plan to ban such activity.

“It’s clear that we must do something to try and adjust what’s going on out in our communities,” State Senator Chris Gorsek, a Democrat who had supported decriminalization, said in an interview. Soon after, senators took the floor, with some sharing stories of how addictions and overdoses had impacted their own loved ones. They passed the measure by a 21-8 margin."

Prison gangs, in Latin America and in the U.S.

 It's one thing to be able to capture and confine prisoners. When gangs are involved, it's quite another thing to control the prisons, or the ability of prisoners to continue to control gang activity outside of prison.

The NYT has the story, from Latin America:

In Latin America, Guards Don’t Control Prisons, Gangs Do. Intended to fight crime, Latin American prisons have instead become safe havens and recruitment centers for gangs, fueling a surge in violence. By Maria Abi-Habib, Annie Correal and Jack Nicas

"Inside prisons across Latin America, criminal groups exercise unchallenged authority over prisoners, extracting money from them to buy protection or basic necessities, like food.

"The prisons also act as a safe haven of sorts for incarcerated criminal leaders to remotely run their criminal enterprises on the outside, ordering killings, orchestrating the smuggling of drugs to the United States and Europe and directing kidnappings and extortion of local businesses.

"When officials attempt to curtail the power criminal groups exercise from behind bars, their leaders often deploy members on the outside to push back.

“The principal center of gravity, the nexus of control of organized crime, lies within the prison compounds,” said Mario Pazmiño, a retired colonel and former director of intelligence for Ecuador’s Army, and an analyst on security matters.

“That’s where let’s say the management positions are, the command positions,” he added. “It is where they give the orders and dispensations for gangs to terrorize the country.”

##########

I wrote a related post in November (see below) about a Brazilian prison gang, and received an illuminating email from Professor David Skarbek of Brown University, saying

"I enjoyed your blog post about the PPC Brazilian prison gang. I thought that you might be interested to know that the same phenomenon exists in the US as well. I'm attaching a piece I published in the American Political Science Review on the Mexican Mafia in Southern California."

Here's the link to that article:

Skarbek, David. "Governance and prison gangs." American Political Science Review 105, no. 4 (2011): 702-716.

Abstract: How can people who lack access to effective government institutions establish property rights and facilitate exchange? The illegal narcotics trade in Los Angeles has flourished despite its inability to rely on state-based formal institutions of governance. An alternative system of governance has emerged from an unexpected source—behind bars. The Mexican Mafia prison gang can extort drug dealers on the street because they wield substantial control over inmates in the county jail system and because drug dealers anticipate future incarceration. The gang's ability to extract resources creates incentives for them to provide governance institutions that mitigate market failures among Hispanic drug-dealing street gangs, including enforcing deals, protecting property rights, and adjudicating disputes. Evidence collected from federal indictments and other legal documents related to the Mexican Mafia prison gang and numerous street gangs supports this claim.

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Earlier

Tuesday, November 21, 2023

Balance of violence: prison-based criminal cartels, the case of Brazil's PCC.

Marijuana black market persists in CA (despite the beginning of a legal market)

 The LA Times has the story, about how legalization of marijuana in California so far failed to end the black market, complete with violence in the Southern California desert.

A massacre that killed 6 reveals the treacherous world of illegal pot in SoCal deserts, by SUMMER LIN, SALVADOR HERNANDEZ, KAREN GARCIA

"A Times investigation last year uncovered the proliferation of illegal cannabis in California after the passage of Proposition 64, which legalized the recreational use of marijuana in the state. Although the 2016 legislation promised voters that the legal market would hobble illegal trade and its associated violence, there has been a surge in the black market.

"Growers at illegal sites can avoid the expensive licensing fees and regulatory costs associated with legal farms. Violence is a looming threat at these operations, authorities said, because illicit harvests yield huge quantities of cash to operators who can’t use banks or law enforcement for protection.

...

"In 2019, an audit by the United Cannabis Business Assn. found nearly 3,000 unlicensed dispensaries and delivery services were operating in the state — at least three times more than legal, regulated businesses.

...

"Warrick wouldn’t comment on whether the slayings were cartel-related but said there were “certain things at the scene that show a level of violence that obviously raises some interesting questions for us.”

The war on drugs is a war

The war on drugs doesn't begin at U.S. borders.

Here's a dispatch from Ecuador, in the WSJ:

Ecuador Is at War With Drug Gangs, President Says. Troops patrolled the country’s largest city a day after a series of attacks against the new government  By Kejal Vyas and Ryan Dubé

"Ecuador is at war with drug gangs, President Daniel Noboa said Wednesday, as troops patrolled the country’s largest city, Guayaquil, a day after gunmen took over a TV studio and launched a series of attacks against the Andean nation’s new government.

“We are in a noninternational armed conflict,” Noboa said in a radio interview. “We are in a state of war. We cannot give in to those terrorist groups.”

"The armed forces and national police scrambled to bring order to Guayaquil, and shops and schools were closed after a series of coordinated attacks Tuesday on shopping centers, hospitals and a university left at least 11 people dead.

"Drug-trafficking gangs in recent years have turned Ecuador into one of the world’s most violence-plagued nations as they battled over the cocaine trade.

...

" Once relatively peaceful, Ecuador has seen the homicide rate shoot up from less than six per 100,000 in 2018 to more than 40 in 2023, said police."

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And here's one from Belgium, in the Washington Post:

A Belgian port seized tons of cocaine. Criminals tried to take it back.

Belgian customs officers seized three times as much cocaine in the port of Antwerp last year as U.S. customs and border officials seized in all of the United States.  By Gerrit De Vynck

"The head of Belgium’s customs service said in an interview that especially big seizures in the fall appeared to have prompted a violent backlash, along with a new issue: Authorities haven’t always been able to destroy what they’ve confiscated before drug gangs try to steal it back.

“Attacking the police, attacking the customs, this is not something you see in Europe,” said Kristian Vanderwaeren, director general of Belgium’s customs agency. “I was really afraid that my people would be killed if this would continue.”

...

"“The criminal organization was not afraid to come to a facility and capture their cocaine, even if it meant they would kill a customs officer,” Vanderwaeren said.

...

"According to Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, Ecuador and its main port of Guayaquil have been the biggest sources of cocaine destined for Europe, reflecting how Mexican and Albanian gangs have infiltrated the country. This month, the president of Ecuador declared a “state of war” against drug gangs, after a series of assassinations, prison breaks and bombings there."

AEA's lockbox: recording allegations while reserving the right to report them

The American Economic Association has announced that they have initiated a Reporting Lockbox – Now Available to Members, meant to allow members to record transgressions such as sexual harassment while reserving and preserving the right to report them later, if the same individual is named as an offender by someone else. The idea is to allow repeat offenders to be identified, even if each offense might be too ambiguous to justify an immediate complaint.

"The Reporting Lockbox enables AEA members who are not yet ready to file a formal complaint to log circumstances or conduct by other members that may violate the AEA’s policy against harassment, discrimination, and retaliation. If two or more AEA members log alleged incidents of harassment, discrimination, or retaliation perpetrated by the same person by making entries in this digital archive and indicating a willingness to communicate with other alleged victims, each member who logged an incident will be contacted separately to determine if each would consider communicating with the other members, or to otherwise keep the submission active or withdraw it. A mutual decision to contact the other members who logged an incident about the same alleged perpetrator could lead to their filing a formal complaint with the AEA Ethics Committee or pursuing other options outside of the AEA.

"The AEA will not have access to the Reporting Lockbox, and therefore will not know the identities of members or persons of interest unless action is taken by the members through the filing of a formal complaint to the AEA. Users of the Lockbox can edit or remove entries at any time."
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Earlier related post:

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Callisto: Designing a reporting system for sexual assault