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organized crime

Toronto is experiencing a car theft epidemic

Business, Finance & Economics

Residents of Toronto, Canada, are scrambling to protect their cars from an epidemic of car theft. Many are simultaneously installing tire clamps, steering locks, burglar alarms and steel bollards in their driveway, but have their cars stolen anyway. Thefts increased by 40% last year as Anita Elash reports from Toronto.

David Remnick on Organized Crime

Arts, Culture & Media
The entrance of a tunnel connected to the Altiplano Federal Penitentiary and used by drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman to escape, is seen in Almoloya de Juarez, on the outskirts of Mexico City, July 12, 2015.

Two guys risk their lives to get an interview with ‘El Chapo’

Conflict
A police officer removes a jacket bearing the name of the Bandidos motorcycle gang from a vehicle at the Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, Texas, where nine members of a motorcycle gang were shot and killed on May 19, 2015.

What’s the reason nine bikers were killed in Texas? A patch.

Justice
Men stand next to the wreckage of a tractor-trailer set ablaze by members of a drug cartel in Guadalajara May 1, 2015.

A heavily armed ‘paramilitary’ cartel unleashes violence in Mexico’s second-biggest city

Conflict
A security official prevents members of the media from approaching a damaged police bus at the site of an explosion in Karachi targeting policemen on February 13, 2014.

How the Taliban took control of organized crime in Pakistan’s largest city

Justice

In Pakistan, the struggle against the local version of the Taliban is spreading, and not just in terms of terrorism. The group has muscled its way into the crime scene in Karachi, Pakistan, a booming city with lucrative opportunities in things like kidnapping and extortion.

New York police detective Joseph Petrosino. He was gunned down while in Sicily investigating a mafia connection to New York.

A casual boast solves a century-old mafia murder in Sicily

Conflict & Justice

It took more than a century, but Italian police think they’ve solved the murder of a New York City detective who was shot in Sicily while investigating the mafia. And it all came down to bragging rights for the murderer’s relative 105 years later.
It took more than a century, but Italian police think they’ve solved the murder of a New York City detective who was shot in Sicily while investigating the mafia. And it all came down to bragging rights for the murderer’s relative 105 years later.

Pope Francis waves to faithful as he arrives to lead an audience with the family members of victims of the mafia at the San Gregorio VII church in Rome. A woman shows a picture of her son with the words, "Where is my son?"

When the pope denounces the mafia, there’s a reason it is news

Lifestyle & Belief

Pope Francis condemned the mafia last week and warned mobsters that they’re going to hell unless they stop their evil ways. Here’s why that came as a surprise to those who know the Vatican’s history.Pope Francis condemned the mafia last week and warned mobsters that they’re going to hell unless they stop their evil ways. Here’s why that came as a surprise to those who know the Vatican’s history.

Colombian newspapers and magazines from December 1993 on the death of druglord Pablo Escobar. Yolanda Perdomo saved them from that time.

In the land of Capone, Colombian immigrants struggle to imagine kingpin Pablo Escobar as a tourist draw

Business, Economics and Jobs

Al Capone is a big tourist attraction in Chicago. He’s on tours, trinkets and t-shirts. So what do Colombian immigrants make of the prospect of their public enemy number one, Pablo Escobar, becoming a tourist industry?

Free hugs? You’ll go to jail for that

Global Scan

You’d think no one could possibly object to something as simple as free hugs. But that’s not the case in Saudi Arabia. Plus, a boy who died 24,000 years ago has given clues to the origin of Native Americans in the US, and the Israeli government is struggling with the mafia. All that and more, in today’s Global Scan.