Hello Saturday! It’s January 25, and we’re tracking top stories to take you through the weekend: Cocaine Violence Driven by Marxist Guerrillas Rocks Colombia, Bitcoin Donations Are Pouring In for Ross Ulbricht, Oreo’s Backtrack on Russia Prompts Transparency Concern, How a Top Chinese AI Model Overcame U.S. Sanctions, and Much More…

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Cocaine Violence Driven by Marxist Guerrillas Rocks Colombia.  The mountains of Catatumbo in eastern Colombia are so dangerous that the police and army generally don’t stray far from their barracks for fear of snipers. Bloomberg

🎙️ How smartphones fuel the drug trade Illicit Edge

🔥 TOP STORIES

Bitcoin Donations Are Pouring In for Ross Ulbricht – Who Might Already Be Sitting on $47M in Old Wallets Decrypt

🎙️ The crazy arrest of Dread Pirate Roberts Illicit Edge

Oreo-Maker Mondelez’s Backtrack on Russia Prompts Transparency Concern Bloomberg

How a top Chinese AI model overcame U.S. sanctions MIT

TD Bank Names New Head of Financial Crime Risk Management Canadian Press

🎙️ How TD Bank Laundered $670M Illicit Edge

Trump Issues Crypto Executive Order to Pave U.S. Digital Assets Path CNBC

Corporate Transparency Act still on hold after Supreme Court lifts injunction AP

Trump airs conservative complaints that Bank of America, JPM deny services Reuters

Mastercard, Visa failed to stop OnlyFans payments for child abuse content CBS

UnitedHealth says hack at tech unit impacted 190M people Reuters

Seven Charged in Nation’s Largest COVID-19 Tax Credit Scheme DOJ

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💥 RUSSIA & CHINA

Trump will unleash economic pressure on Russia in bid to end Ukraine conflict NYP

Russian Oil Ships Hunt for New Flags to Hide From Sanctions Bloomberg

EU Set to Play for Time in Economic Coercion Case Against China Bloomberg

Orbán’s new threat: I’ll end Russia sanctions unless Ukraine pumps Putin’s gas Politico

💸 CORRUPTION & FINANCIAL CRIME

Adam Schiff, Obama Bros Raise Wildfire Relief Funds Through Charity That's Funneled Millions to Liberal Dark Money Groups Free Beacon

Payroll platform Deel denies charges that it enabled money laundering, blames competitor for lawsuit Semafor

Trump DOJ drops case against Texas doctor who blew whistle on transgender medicine for minors Texas Tribune

Corruption trial of Chicago’s ‘Velvet Hammer’ draws to dramatic close CST

🚚 TRAFFICKING

Canada Is Becoming a Fentanyl Exporter, and a Target for Trump WSJ

🎙️ The speed China pays drug cartels in Mexico Illicit Edge

European cocaine kingpin Jos Leijdekkers residing in Sierra Leone Reuters

4 charged in major NYC ketamine drug trafficking bust dubbed ‘Operation Frostbite’ NYP

🔐 CRYPTO & CYBER

Crypto Exchange Phemex Investigating Hack Reports as $29M Drained From Hot Wallets CoinDesk

Is $TRUMP a Scam? Free Press

Former CEO of S.F. AI company and wife indicted on fraud charges SFC

Annual Payment Fraud Intelligence Report: 2024 Recorded Future

🚩 SANCTIONS & MORE

‘Maximum pressure’ sanctions on Venezuela help US adversaries, hurt Venezuelans Atlantic Council

🎙️ How Venezuela became so corrupt Illicit Edge

U.S. shared secret intelligence with Syria’s new leaders WaPo

U.S. lawmakers find UAE provides weapons to Sudan RSF Reuters

Treasury terminates sanctions on Israeli settlers in West Bank Politico

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

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