Supported projects

BELGRADE - Cocaine production and trafficking has reached record levels, with organised crime groups from the Western Balkans playing a major role in the EU market, working with Dutch groups. The recent hacking of the encrypted messaging platform Sky ECC has revealed the inner workings of criminal organisations. A team of journalists from Serbia and the Netherlands investigated the impact of the violent cocaine business linking their countries.

TALINN - AMSTERDAM- A new and powerful type of drugs is rapidly emerging in Europe: nitazenes. In this joint investigation with Bellingcat and Postimees, the team looked at where these drugs are coming from and who they’re affecting. 

WARSAW/BUCHAREST/CULIACÁN - Europe is facing a fentanyl crisis. In 2023, victims of this deadly substance have already been reported in a few countries. The team of journalists traces the path of fentanyl from Mexico to Romania and Poland, showing the complexity of the problem.

ZURICH - Baby number 12 is a global investigation into an adoption scheme that began in Switzerland in the ‘50s, and the trauma that haunt the victims today. The investigation aims to expose the responsibilities of the Swiss authorities and will ask for their action.

TIRANA / DURRES / BELGRADE / PRISTINA - Across the Balkans, particularly in Albania, a disturbing trend is emerging among organised crime figures and influencers: the ownership of exotic pets like lion and tiger cubs.

DAMASCUS - Trapped in the dusty cells of northeastern Syria are thousands of foreign IS fighters, all having come with one goal: to establish an Islamic caliphate. They come from 50 countries such as Iraq and Lebanon, as well as France, Britain and Belgium. Five years after the fall of IS, they are prisoners in a legal no-man's land, often without charge or trial, written off by their home countries.

MARTISSANT - "This is where I realise my days are numbered" Joselia, an old lady, confides. In her neighbourhood, one of Port-au-Prince's slums, gangs are fighting for control of the few economic assets the city still has to offer. Haiti, the eternal worry child of the Caribbean, is now truly a "failed state".

SOBIBOR - After Auschwitz, Sobibor is the largest Dutch mass grave with more than 34,000 Dutch victims. Starting in 1942, more than 170,000 Jews were gassed here in a year and a half immediately upon arrival. Yet few people know about this death camp. After a successful prisoner uprising in October 1943, the Nazis closed Sobibor, erasing as many traces as possible.

EUROPE - Elite European football has been overrun with advertisements for Asian betting brands in recent years, despite many of these companies being connected to major organised crime figures.

TUNIS - In this story, a team of journalists based in Italy, Tunisia, and Germany highlights how waste gets illegally trafficked to countries with more competitive rates and lower environmental standards through mislabelling, fake documentation, corruption, and taking advantage of control loopholes.