They have also been accused of abusing their power to settle old grudges, and even colluding with competing criminal syndicates.
Rhinos have already disappeared from several Asian and African countries and 94% of rhino poaching takes place in just two countries – Zimbabwe and South Africa – where it has increased from an estimated 50 animals in 2007, to over 1,000 in 2013, due to the involvement of crime syndicates.
Rhinos are believed to be extinct in Mozambique, but hunters from the country are often armed by transnational crime syndicates to kill rhinos and elephants across the border in South Africa.
Terrorist groups and mafia syndicates aside, I find it hard to think of an organisation with which I feel less affiliated.Timo Hannay London SIR – I'm sure we all wish Pope Francis well as he starts his new job.
Increasingly run by organised-crime syndicates, these use many of the same routes that have been established for trade in narcotics.China is by no means the only big exporter of counterfeits.
When they were younger, these men took to the streets to fight their exploitation by the yakuza, the organised crime syndicates which still run the local labour-broking and gambling rackets.
This involves halting the flow of mostly Iranian, Afghani and Arab asylum seekers who have been shuttling across to Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, by criminal syndicates involved in people-smuggling in Indonesia.
Six warders were murdered at another prison, this one at Matamoros in Tamaulipas.As in Colombia a decade ago, the weakening of the big syndicates in Mexico has merely resulted in them being replaced by scores of smaller, nimbler outfits, which are harder to detect.
According to Gerard Kelly, head of Scottish Enterprise's business investing, "When we started this work in 2003, there were three angel syndicates.
Last week the same jury had reached a similar verdict for several Lloyd's of London syndicates and seven other insurers.
Or consult a report by Europol, the European police agency, which has traced the activities of Balkan-based crime syndicates.
