The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "black market" ...
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Crime and Human Organs
Bloomberg Markets magazine shows how impoverished people from Belarus to Nicaragua have been humiliated, maimed, and killed by organ traffickers and the doctors with whom they work. The stories expose the activities of transplant rings that supply wealthy Americans, Europeans, and Israelis with kidneys extracted from the poor.
Tags: Belarus; Nicaragua; Kidney; Organ Donation; Black Market
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Looting the Seas: How Overfishing, Fraud and Negligence Plundered the Majestic Bluefin Tuna
"A groundbreaking, multimedia expose on the $4 billion black market in bluefin tuna, the world's most coveted source of sushi." From professional fisheries to tuna farms in the Mediterranean and N. Africa, the business was "riddled with fraud, negligence, and criminal misconduct."
Tags: environment; fraud; fishing; bluefin tuna; sushi; black market; fisheries; overfishing; commercial fishing
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"Their Crime, Your Dime"
Following several tips on possible "government waste," and schemes that target Seattle taxpayers, KING-TV produced this series of three stories titled "Their Crime, Your Dime." The team exposed how merchants operated a "broad scheme" that allowed citizens to convert their food stamps into cash. Another story revealed how "welfare recipients" were spending millions of "taxpayer cash in the state's casinos."
Tags: food stamps; taxpayer; welfare; State Department of Social and Health Services; ATM; casino; public records; black market
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"Racial disparities in home lending"
A 2008 analysis of more than half a million home loan applications in the Dayton, Ohio, region revealed that blacks with higher incomes were denied home loans, while lower-income whites were not. The report also found that blacks were more likely to receive "high-cost loans" than whites. The real estate market denies redlining practices that were made illegal "in 1977 by the federal Community Reinvestment Act."
Tags: Home Mortgage Disclosure Act; NICAR; GIS; Community Reinvestment Advisory Group; Dean Lovelace; Dayton Human Relations Commission; Federal Housing Authority; home loans; redlining
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"Just Like Us"
Author Helen Thorpe gives an in-depth look at the Mexican immigrant subculture within the U.S. Thorpe follows four Mexican girls, best friends, as they grow up in Denver. Two are legal residents, and two are not. When political arguments "over immigration rage fiercely," the girls struggle with the fate of their futures as the two without legal status learn they "do not possess equal opportunities or rights compared to" the others who do "possess legal status."
Tags: illegal immigration; Mexico; Denver; black market; stolen identity; fake documents; green card; Mexican immigrants
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Brian Ross Investigates: Bodies: The China Connection
The investigation uncovered black market trade that supplies bodies of Chinese executed prisoners for display in Premiere Exhibitions' for-profit "Bodies" show in cities around the world. The shows have been seen by millions and has brought huge profits to the Atlanta-based company.
Tags: China; inmate rights; black market; body factory; skeleton; plastinate; body parts
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Enemies at the Gate
"This hour-long NBC News broadcast is an unprecedented investigation into the international black market in passports. It exposes what the head of Interpol considers a "gaping hole" in global security, especially in terms of terrorism."
Tags: black market; passports; criminal networks; fraudulent identity papers; document brokers;
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Made in China
The author travelled to China undercover to expose how steroids make their way from China to US athletes. The author also developed a faux steroid website in order to sting the largest supplement wholesaler in America, who was also selling illegal designer steroids.
Tags: sports; drugs; steroids; black market; international relations; drug trade; online commerce; undercover; sting operation
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Black Market Infertility
Infertile couples that wish to have a child together are illegally buying medications to increase their chances of having a baby. Without insurance to cover the expenses, couples are taking to the internet to find the medicine they need.
Tags: drugs; sex; fertile; infertile; kids; medical care; medical insurance
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The New Business of Terror
The investigation reveals a transformation underway among terrorist groups worldwide - their growing reliance on organized crime for funding.
Tags: terrorism; organized crime; funding; black market; drug trade; counterterrorism; 9/11