ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s Interior Ministry has launched a probe into six more municipalities in connection with an alleged human smuggling scheme where Turkish citizens wanting to migrate to Europe were, in exchange for a fee, issued special state passports allowing them visa-free travel.

The scandal first surfaced last week after it emerged that 43 out 45 people who had traveled to Hannover, Germany, in September to attend an environmental workshop never returned home.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Sioux City man has pleaded guilty to smuggling gun silencers into the United States, federal prosecutors said.

Lloyd Clark, 72, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of smuggling goods into the United States. He could be sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Customs and Border Protection officials in October seized parcels from China addressed to Clark's Sioux City home, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A Tucson man has been sentenced to 6 ½ years in federal prison for smuggling firearms and ammunition into Mexico.

Prosecutors said 31-year-old Ruben Arnulfo Chavarin also was fined more than $10,000.

On 14 occasions between December 2010 and February 2011, prosecutors said Chavarin purchased eight firearms and over 21,000 rounds of ammunition in Tucson.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House panel opens ethics probe of Rep. Matt Gaetz amid federal investigation into sex trafficking allegations.

PARIS (AP) — Interpol says police in Africa and Europe arrested 195 people and rescued nearly 500 victims of human trafficking in a vast crackdown on criminal networks led by the France-based international law enforcement agency.

Interpol said in a statement Friday that Morocco hosted the March 28-April 2 operation, which involved 24 countries exchanging intelligence and support from the International Organization for Migration and other international groups.

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A Vermont man is facing charges of smuggling 272 pounds (123 kilograms) marijuana into the United States from Canada, court documents say.

Jack Cohen, of Stowe, was arrested Wednesday night after he was apprehended by Border Patrol agents in the town of Canaan with four duffel bags containing marijuana in the back of his pickup truck, the documents said.

MIAMI (AP) — Federal agents have arrested four men in a scheme to smuggle migrants from Cuba to the Florida Keys, authorities said.

MADRID (AP) — Police in Spain have arrested 12 people and seized about 600 kilograms of cocaine in an operation that dismantled what investigators describe as the largest drug distribution network in the country’s capital, authorities said Sunday.

The alleged drug trafficking gang funded the smuggling of Colombian cocaine and Moroccan hashish by selling in the Netherlands and central Europe large crops of marijuana purchased from growers across Spain, the National Police said.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A former U.S. Marine found guilty of conspiracy to illegally export and smuggle firearms and controlled equipment from the U.S. to Haiti has been sentenced to more than five years in prison, federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.

A news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Raleigh said Jacques Yves Sebastien Duroseau, 34, was sentenced by a U.S. District Court judge in Raleigh.

BOSTON (AP) — A medical researcher accused of trying to smuggle vials of cancer research material out of the U.S. to his native China by hiding it in a sock inside his luggage pleaded guilty to a related charge Thursday, federal prosecutors in Boston said.

Zaosong Zheng, 31, pleaded guilty to making false statements and will be deported under terms of a plea agreement, according to the office of Andrew Lelling, U.S. attorney for Boston.

MADRID (AP) — Spanish authorities announced Monday that they had dismantled a criminal network that smuggled some 2,500 tonnes of waste, including discarded and hazardous electronic equipment, from Spain's Canary Islands to several countries in Africa.

Spain's Civil Guard arrested 34 people, including a 62-year-old Italian woman who owned a trading business and allegedly forged custom clearance documents for the arrival and departure of the cargo from the port of Santa Cruz, in Tenerife.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysian authorities detained 269 Rohingya refugees and found a body on board a suspected smuggling boat they said had been intentionally damaged so it couldn't be turned back to sea.

TIRANA, Albania (AP) — Albanian police have arrested 24 people involved in an alleged criminal organization who produced false documents to illegally smuggle people into the United States, Canada and Britain.

A statement Tuesday said a joint operation with the U.S. embassy’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) arrested two dozen Albanians on Monday and charged them with illegal people smuggling, producing false documents and belonging to a criminal group.

PHOENIX (AP) — The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has appointed the former county flood control director as a temporary replacement for suspended Assessor Paul Petersen.

Bill Wiley will be paid more than $72 per hour as the acting administrator of the assessor's office. That's nearly double what Peterson made.

The board voted unanimously Monday to suspend Petersen without pay for 120 days.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southern California man who smuggled five monitor lizards into the U.S. — two of which died — will spend six months under house arrest.

City News Service says Gayle Simpson was sentenced Thursday in Los Angeles federal court.

The 34-year-old Inglewood resident pleaded guilty in September to smuggling monitor lizards that were shipped from the Philippines.