r/OrganizedCrime • u/Strongbow85 • 3h ago
r/OrganizedCrime • u/OCCRP • Nov 04 '24
We're some of the investigative journalists behind The Crime Messenger project. Ask Us Anything!
Hi! We are OCCRP, an international network of investigative journalists who expose organized crime and corruption around the world.
We’re here to talk about our recent investigation, The Crime Messenger, revealing how Sky ECC encrypted phones became a go-to tool used by criminals to coordinate logistics for drug trafficking, murders, and more.
Alongside 12 media partners across Europe and Canada, we learned that Sky Global didn’t just end up in the hands of criminals — criminals themselves were selling the phones.
We’re joined today by three colleagues who investigated Sky Global in their own countries: Stevan Dojcinović, an OCCRP editor who also leads the investigative newsroom KRIK in Serbia, where horrifically brutal gangs were some of Sky’s biggest fans; Hakan Tanriverdi, a German journalist with Paper Trail Media, which is releasing a multi-part podcast on Sky; and Frédéric Zalac, a Canadian reporter with CBC/Radio-Canada who dug into the roots of the Vancouver-based company and its distributors. We welcome your questions — Ask Us Anything!
Thank you to for hosting this live event, scheduled for Wednesday, November 6 at 1:30 p.m. Toronto + NYC + Washington D.C. / 7:30 p.m. Amsterdam + Berlin + Belgrade.
You may also submit questions in advance.
The Crime Messenger is built on leaked investigative files from a Paris court case involving Sky Global’s founder and others. With help from 12 media partners across Europe and North America, we found evidence that executives looked the other way as convicted criminals became trusted distributors of their tech. (The company has denied any wrongdoing, and its founder has maintained his innocence.)
Check out the project here: https://www.occrp.org/en/project/the-crime-messenger.
You’ll find an interactive map showing cases where decrypted messages exposed the inner workings of criminal schemes, leading to charges and convictions.
Plus, don’t miss our 20-minute documentary, which shows how Serbia’s notorious Principi gang used encrypted Sky phones to plan murders, share gory photos, and taunt rivals.
With phones considered uncrackable and the backing of Serbian officials, they killed like no one was watching.
Looking forward to your questions!

Thank you to everyone who submitted questions.
r/OrganizedCrime • u/ICIJ • Apr 29 '26
State Sponsored ‘Escalating efforts’: A year after China Targets, Beijing’s global campaign against dissenters continues
icij.orgr/OrganizedCrime • u/Strongbow85 • 1d ago
Cartels - Mexico Cartel boss Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada gets life in U.S. prison 2 years after he says he was kidnapped, flown to Texas
cbsnews.comr/OrganizedCrime • u/ICIJ • 1d ago
Fraud/Financial Canadian intelligence flags crypto-to-cash services as ‘knowingly facilitating money laundering,’ document shows
icij.orgr/OrganizedCrime • u/ICIJ • 2d ago
Fraud/Financial Swedbank fined $50 million by New York authorities over Panama Papers revelations
icij.orgr/OrganizedCrime • u/stalino2023 • 3d ago
Forgiveness Sunday (Indonesian Police find the Remains of Igor Komarov)
galleryRecommend to read the last post before about Igor Komarov girlfriend
On February 26, 2026 fragments of a human body were discovered on the popular beach shores of Ketewel in Bali, local resident noticed them during his morning jog, the police suspect they may belong to an Ukrainian citizen who was kidnapped 11 days ago - Igor Komarov.
One of the body parts is a part of an hand, and on it is a tattoo in the form of a clock with Roman numerals, the drawing was compared with the photograph of Igor Komarov, the tattoo is very similar to the one he has.
In addition to the hand they found the right leg, a piece of the chest, thighs, and a head, however it is impossible to visually identify the deceased due to the condition of the remains, with high humidity and a temperature of 30°, everything decomposed badly, a DNA test is needed to confirm that it is Komarov or rule it out.
On February 27 the Indonesian police reported that they had identified the car and two motorcycles on which the kidnappers were traveling, the vehicles were rented through a front man.
The movement of the vehicles was tracked and led to a villa in the Tabanan area in Bali, the Vila is full of traces of blood, this mean Igor was tortured here and filmed here too.
Igor last video was from February 22 that what he have said "Today is forgiveness Sunday, I want to ask everyone for forgiveness, for every person who has suffered from our activities, every mother, every grandmother, every father and every grandfather, every child, if this happened, forgive me please, I am very sorry, I am very sad of what I have done"
He says the last words with tears in his eyes and asks again from everyone who sees and hears "Help my family to raise the required amount"
According to Bali Police, a report of the kidnapping of Igor Komarov was received on the evening of February 15, Komarov friend Roman Sallin was the motorcyclist who pulled ahead, left behind were Igor and his other friend and business partner Yermak Petrovsky, When Sallin returned for his friends they weren't there, on the road were laying their motorcycles, later on Yermak reappeared while Igor didn't...
r/OrganizedCrime • u/Strongbow85 • 4d ago
Cyber Crime Russian trio indicted for allegedly running bulletproof hosting providers that spurred cybercrime
cyberscoop.comr/OrganizedCrime • u/ICIJ • 5d ago
Narcotics Trade/Finance How offshore firms helped a mafia-linked Italian druglord hide a $230m fortune
icij.orgr/OrganizedCrime • u/bloomberg • 6d ago
Narcotics Trade A Cocaine Bust in Spain Leads All the Way to Wall Street
bloomberg.comr/OrganizedCrime • u/stalino2023 • 9d ago
What Happens When you Scam the Wrong People? (Who is Igor Komarov Father?)
Recommend to read the last post before about the kidnapping of Igor Komarov
On February 15 Igor Komarov was Kidnapped, Four days later on February 19, a video appears online, showing Igor with bruises on his eyes, addressing his parents "Mom, Dad, I beg you please help me".
The video shows Igor with a bare torso, his face is bruised, he looks exhausted, his voice is plaintive, Igor asks his parents to pay a ransom, otherwise they will not leave him alive, the ransom amount is an impressive $10 Million dollars.
In the video Igor says: "You stole the 10 Million that they asked you for, please return these 10 Million, please"
Igor very often repeats, literally every other word: "please, I beg you, I ask you", he complains that he feels bad, that his legs and ribs are broken, and that he is being threatened with death if they don't get the money "Please Pay them back, I swear I return it all".
Where does this rather large figure of 10 Million come from? And why did the criminals decided that they could get so much for Igor's life? Komarov’s father Sergey Komarov, is a well-known person in criminal circles, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he became the leader of an organized criminal group (OCG/OPG), his area of activity was extortion, protection of Markets, Stalls and Gas stations.
Sergey Komarov operated in the Donetsk Oblast, as he himself was originally from there, specifically from the city of Kramatorsk, his son Igor was also bron there, In 1997.
Sergey Komarov have a criminal nickname Kamar - Mosquito, Kamar went from being a racketeer in the 90s to becoming a regional criminal authority.
Since 2014 he been involved in organizing offices, primarily in the city of Dnipropetrovsk, which now called Dnipro, offices is the nickname for fraudulent call centers that steal money, most of those kinda of offices in Ukraine located in Kyiv and Dnipro.
Experts estimate that the network of fraudulent call centers earns up to 1 Million dollars per month, income depends on the scale of the organization, how many offices are under the same criminal network, how many employers and such.
So 10 Million dollars might not be such an abstract number? could be the offices connected to the Komarov Family hit the jackpot, but they ended up calling the wrong people, now those people want their money back, and they ready to kill for it.
r/OrganizedCrime • u/Strongbow85 • 9d ago
Narcotics Trade The Chinese graduate accused of becoming Mexico's 'fentanyl king'
bbc.comr/OrganizedCrime • u/PilarDeLaVerdad • 9d ago
General O.C. - International 8 Corpses With Narco Message Threatening Meth Dealers Found in El Bosque, Chiapas
borderlandbeat.comr/OrganizedCrime • u/oftherock13 • 10d ago
How do organized‑crime groups typically respond to deception?
I’m asking in a general criminology context: how do organized‑crime groups usually react when someone lies to them to gain sympathy and underpays them for a job? I’m looking for broad behavioural patterns, not information about any specific group, country, or event.
r/OrganizedCrime • u/Strongbow85 • 11d ago
Financial/Fraud The currency of global crime: How crypto is reshaping illicit economies
globalinitiative.netr/OrganizedCrime • u/Strongbow85 • 11d ago
Beyond boundaries: The Chinese party-state and geocriminality in South East Asia
globalinitiative.netr/OrganizedCrime • u/crazythegreat5 • 12d ago
Boston organized crime
Wrote a thesis of an overview of Boston's organized crime and thinking of writing a book, but first need a few opinions on the matter.
https://dk.um.si/Dokument.php?id=207150&lang=eng
The paper is published in slovene language, so maybe an AI could help with that.
Thanks!!
r/OrganizedCrime • u/Strongbow85 • 13d ago
Cartels - Mexico Cartel violence hits Mexico during World Cup despite warnings: "Some are celebrating goals, others are getting massacred"
cbsnews.comr/OrganizedCrime • u/stalino2023 • 14d ago
Ukrainian Mafia Boss's Son who was Kidnapped, Killed and Dismembered in Bali put to Eternal Rest
galleryIn Dnipro, last weekend, the remains of the body of 28-year-old local resident Igor Komarov, who was connected to the activities of the so-called "offices - scam call centers," were buried. The man was abducted on the island of Bali at the end of February this year, after which he was brutally murdered and dismembered.
The investigation into this high-profile case is currently being handled by the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI)), which has taken over the case from the National Police of Ukraine. The official reason for the transfer of jurisdiction is the emergence of a so-called special subject - Subject X among those involved in the case—a person who, after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, regularly traveled abroad and established a life in European countries.
The Ukrainian authorities now investigating about a possible link between the Brutal murderer of Igor Komarov - to the recent Monaco bombing on June 29, in which Three people were injured including two adults, left in critical condition, and a 13-year-old child - the target of this booming was a Ukrainian oligarch Vadym Iermolaiev - In 2022, Forbes (Ukraine) ranked him as the 12th most wealthy person of independent means and estimated the revenue from his real estate as US$960–980M.
The hunt for the group of killers wanted by the Interpol is still ongoing - 29-year-old Russian Mykola Petryk (Nikolai Petrik), 27-year-old Kazakh Vladyslav Akhanov, as well as three Ukrainians - 34-year-old Denys Halushko, 28-year-old Roman Melnyk, and 42-year-old Vasyl Nemesh.
Those five individuals have manged to do what is almost impossible in our time, to go completely offline, no photos, no videos, no digital footprint, no witnesses, like all those individuals disappeared and never been seen since their "Operation in Bali" .
It's good to remember who is Igor Komarov Father and who his friends are, the five individuals who have hunted Igor Komarov down has now switched roles, they are the one being hunted down by no less professional killers who if successful will enjoy the bounty that the Komarov Family have placed on the killers of their son.
The authorities are now waiting for one of them to make a mistake and pop out somewhere around the globe - but where they could hide? the investigation continues...
r/OrganizedCrime • u/ICIJ • 14d ago
Crypto giant Circle rebuffed efforts to help scam victims, police say
icij.orgr/OrganizedCrime • u/ICIJ • 15d ago
Taiwanese authorities charge executives who helped China’s cyber spies target ICIJ network
icij.orgr/OrganizedCrime • u/Strongbow85 • 17d ago
Narcotics Trade Mexico’s surge in cocaine busts likely connected to World Cup demand, experts say
the-independent.comr/OrganizedCrime • u/Strongbow85 • 18d ago