A source knowledgable about US customs processes told Alpha News they figured the smuggling operation might have been orchestrated by a cartel.
More tchotchkes: a menu snatched from lunch with a foreign minister in Hanoi, circa 1985, featuring "steamed crap and flagrant rice"; a set of "Star Trek" nesting dolls; a talking Osama bin Laden action figure, smuggled out of Gaza.
Still, Russian fur is a $1 billion industry by official figures, and if smuggling, poaching and unofficial trade that skirts regulation and tax collection are counted, the estimate reaches $2.5 billion, Mr. Chipurnoi said.
Belmokhtar, a one-eyed veteran of Afghanistan and Algeria's own 1990s Islamist war, was long a major figure in Saharan smuggling, hostage-taking, arms trafficking and insurgencies, including the conflict in Mali.
But since Mr. Gorbenko's election in 1996, foreign investors have fled the territory while organized crime figures who run the smuggling, drugs and prostitution businesses have increased their influence.
A man the authorities have described as a central figure in an immigrant smuggling case in which 19 people died last May has been arrested and charged in Mexico, possibly preventing his prosecution in the United States, officials said.
Latest figures show that the winding smuggling route through Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary and into Austria, the first western European country the migrants and refugees pass through, is significantly more frequented now than the route across the Mediterranean.
Not immune On his way out Yes they can All over the place ReprintsAli Mohsen, as he is known, is a controversial figure with links to jihadists and smuggling rings, but he still commands the loyalty of many soldiers.
During 2008 the reports describe a number of raids on key figures believed to be involved in arms smuggling.
That could include anything from ties to terrorism, weapons proliferation or international drug smuggling to spying on conversations of foreign politicians, business figures or activists.
