Investigations around the world

Introduction

This week on Investigations Around the World: Balkans become a car-smuggling heaven; a Dutch company’s biofuel energy project collapses in Tanzania, leaving farmers and the environment devastated; and in the U.S., the polluted Duwamish River may be affecting the public health.

Cigarette and drug smuggling and human trafficking have been well documented in former Yugoslavian states. Our colleagues from SCOOP found that one of the most lucrative products now traveling smuggling routes in the Balkans are stolen cars from Western Europe. It’s a black market worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Pollution in the Duwamish River, running along Seattle’s major industrial area and its Superfund sites, is the source of serious health threats to people living nearby.

The International Press Service Africa discovered that a biofuel project by a Dutch company in Tanzania fell short of expectations on jobs and delivering clean energy. Instead the project has faltered, leaving farmers without work or compensation for land, and the local environment devastated.