NewzIntel.com

Category: Justice

  • MIL-OSI Security: Nigerian citizen, extradited from the U.K., arraigned on indictment for wire fraud involving stolen tax information

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    Tukwila, Washington company had employee tax information stolen in email compromise scheme

    Seattle – A Nigerian citizen who was arrested and extradited from the U.K. on an indictment in the Western District of Washington was arraigned today in U.S. District Court in Seattle, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller. Onomen Uduebor, 38, is charged in a three-count indictment related to a scheme to steal and use income tax data for fraud. The 2019 indictment was unsealed today for Uduebor’s first appearance. Uduebor entered a plea of ‘not guilty’ and trial is scheduled before U.S. District Judge James L. Robart on May 12, 2025.

    “This defendant allegedly participated in a conspiracy that involved tricking companies around the United States, including a Tukwila-based company, into providing W-2 information on their employees. Then the conspirators filed fake tax returns in the employees’ names, claiming large refunds and causing chaos for those whose Social Security numbers had been stolen,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Miller.

    According to the indictment, between February 2016 and April 2017, the conspirators created false emails that appeared to come from a company executive asking the Human Resources Department for the W-2 data. The conspirators manipulated the email so that any reply would go to an email address that they controlled.  The conspirators then used the information from the W-2s to file more than 300 bogus tax returns claiming more than $1 million in tax refunds. The conspirators targeted companies across the U.S. in this scheme.

    Uduebor is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft.

    The wire fraud charges are punishable by up to twenty years in prison. Aggravated Identity Theft is punishable by a mandatory minimum two years in prison to run consecutive to any sentence imposed on the wire fraud counts.

    The charges contained in the indictment are only allegations.  A person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

    The case was investigated by the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI).

    The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Miriam Hinman. Uduebor was arrested in the United Kingdom in September 2023. The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs provided valuable assistance with the extradition process.  

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Registered sex offender going to prison for more than 15 years on new child pornography charge

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    BUFFALO, N.Y. – U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced today that Christopher Rucker, 45, of Cheektowaga, NY, who was convicted of possession of child pornography with a prior sex offense, was sentenced to serve 188 months in prison and lifetime supervised release by U.S. District Judge John L. Sinatra, Jr.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Caitlin M. Higgins, who handled the case, stated that in March 2022, the New York State Police (NYSP) conducted a search warrant at Rucker’s residence, during which they seized a laptop computer and a cell phone. The laptop and cell phone both contained images and videos of child pornography. Subsequent investigation determined that between October 1 and December 28, 2021, Rucker downloaded approximately 1300 images of child pornography. Some of the images depicted prepubescent minors, as well as violence against children and the sexual abuse of an infant or toddler.

    Rucker is a registered Level 2 sex offender, following two convictions in 2002 on Sodomy in the 2nd Degree and Using and Interstate Facility to Persuade/Induce a Child to Engage in Sexual Activity.

    The sentencing is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Matthew Miraglia, the Cheektowaga Police Department, under the direction of Chief Brian Coons, and the New York State Police, under the direction of Major Amie Feroleto.  

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Mexican National Involved in Smuggling and Labor Trafficking Scheme Sentenced to 3 Years in Federal Prison

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    Marc H. Silverman, Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that PORFIRIA MARIBEL RAMOS SANCHEZ, 47, a citizen of Mexico last residing in Vernon, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley in Bridgeport to 36 months of imprisonment for her involvement in a scheme to smuggle aliens into the U.S., harbor them at Hartford area residences, force them to work, and threaten to harm them in various ways if they failed to pay exorbitant fees, interest, and other living expenses.

    According to court documents and statements made in court, beginning in September 2022, the FBI and Hartford Police interviewed several Mexican nationals who disclosed that they were smuggled from Mexico into the U.S. and transported to Hartford.  The investigation revealed that victims typically arranged with Ramos’s mother, Maria Del Carmen Sanchez Potrero, and others in Connecticut and Mexico, to cross the border into the U.S. in exchange for a fee of between $15,000 and $20,000 that each would need to pay once they were in the U.S.  In most cases, the victims were required to turn over a property deed as collateral before leaving Mexico.  They were then smuggled across the border and transported to Hartford area residences, often at a substantial risk of bodily injury or death.

    After the victims arrived in Connecticut, they were told that they would have to pay approximately $30,000, with interest, and that they would have to pay Sanchez, Ramos, and their co-coconspirators for rent, food, gas, and utilities.  The co-conspirators created false documents for the victims, including Permanent Residence cards and Social Security cards, and helped the victims find employment in the Hartford area.  In addition to their own jobs, some victims were required to perform housework and yardwork without compensation and without having their debt reduced.

    Victims were rarely provided with an accounting of their debt.  If victims failed to make regular payments, or in amounts that the co-conspirators expected, they were sometimes threatened, including with threats to harm family members in Mexico, to take property in Mexico that had been secured as collateral, to reveal victims’ immigration status to U.S. authorities, and to raise their interest payments.

    To date, investigators have identified 19 victims of this scheme.  Multiple victims were minors, and at least two were smuggled into the U.S. unaccompanied by a relative or legal guardian.

    Ramos has been detained since her arrest on October 5, 2023.  On October 4, 2024, she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to encourage and induce, bring in, transport, and harbor aliens.

    Judge Dooley ordered Ramos to pay restitution of $574,608.  As a condition of her plea agreement, in partial satisfaction or her restitution obligation, Ramos and her husband agreed to sell a house they owned at 74 Burnside Avenue in East Hartford, which was used to facilitate this criminal offense.  However, in violation of her plea agreement, Ramos did not inform the government of the pending sale and sold the house in November 2024 to a relative of her husband for $75,000 less than its appraised value.

    Ramos faces immigration proceedings when she completes her prison term.

    Sanchez pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing.

    This investigation has been conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Hartford Police Department, U.S. Department of Labor – Office of Inspector General, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.  The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Angel Krull and Shan Patel.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Philadelphia Man Convicted at Trial of Committing Three Armed Carjackings in Less Than an Hour

    Source: United States Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF)

    PHILADELPHIA – Acting United States Attorney Nelson S.T. Thayer, Jr., announced that Symair Carson-Williams, aka “Lil Meer,” 19, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was convicted on Thursday at trial of conspiracy to commit carjacking, three counts of carjacking, and three counts of using a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, for his role in a carjacking spree in the city in early 2024.

    Carson-Williams was charged by indictment with those offenses in May of last year.

    As proven at trial, the defendant was part of a group that conspired to commit three armed carjackings in Philadelphia in less than one hour. Video surveillance footage, cell phone data, forensic evidence, items recovered from one of the stolen vehicles, and victim testimony linked Carson-Williams to the carjackings.

    Carson-Williams and his three co-conspirators first stole a blue 2019 Honda CR-V from the 1800 block of Lansing Street in Philadelphia during the overnight hours of January 27, 2024.

    Approximately 90 minutes later, just before 5 a.m., they drove the stolen CR-V to the Sunoco gas station located on the 5300 block of North 5th Street and pulled up next to a 67-year-old man putting air in his car’s tires. Two of the offenders jumped out of the CR-V, both armed with handguns, wearing black clothing and black balaclava masks, and demanded that the victim give up the keys to his 2011 BMW 328i. One of the offenders put a gun to the back of the man’s head and forced him to the ground. When the victim told the males that the key was in the car, one of the carjackers entered the BMW and the other male returned to the Honda CR-V. Both vehicles fled the scene.

    At approximately 5:15 a.m., a 34-year-old man parked his gray 2013 Chevrolet Equinox on the 3300 block of Shelmire Avenue. Two of the carjackers suddenly ran up to the driver’s side of his car and pointed guns at him. As they held the victim at gunpoint, the stolen Honda CR-V drove up. The gunmen ordered the victim to lay on the ground with his face down, and threatened to shoot him if he got up. The offenders then stole the victim’s vehicle and personal possessions, including his wallet, money, watch, and power tools.

    Finally, at approximately 5:45 a.m., the stolen blue CR-V pulled up next to a 54-year-old man pumping gas at the Conoco station on the 5700 block of Rising Sun Avenue. Two of the offenders, both armed with handguns, approached the victim and pointed the guns at his face. After forcing the victim to the ground at gunpoint, one of the carjackers got behind the wheel of the victim’s Honda Accord, and the other male reentered the CR-V. Both vehicles fled in the same direction.

    The defendant will be sentenced on a date to be determined and faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 21 years in prison.

    “Symair Carson-Williams and his co-conspirators thought nothing of terrorizing three innocent victims who’d just been going about their morning,” said Acting United States Attorney Thayer. “People in this city shouldn’t have to live in fear every time they get behind the wheel. That’s why this office and our partners on the Philadelphia Carjacking Task Force are using every tool we have to prosecute the criminals responsible, get them off the street, and make the community safer.”

    “Carson-Williams and his criminal associates terrorized innocent Philadelphians with this triple-carjacking spree using a stolen car, threatening their victims’ lives with guns to their heads – this young man now faces a mandatory minimum 21 years in federal prison,” said Eric DeGree, Special Agent in Charge of the ATF’s Philadelphia Field Division. “Using ATF’s unique forensic and investigative tools with our Carjacking Task Force partners we are bringing criminals like this to justice and making Philadelphia’s streets safer.”

    This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

    The case was investigated by the ATF and the Philadelphia Police Department and is being prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorneys Branwen McNabb O’Donnell and Brian Doherty.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: St. Francis Men Sentenced to Federal Prison for Arson and Burglary of a Home

    Source: United States Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF)

    PIERRE – United States Attorney Alison J. Ramsdell announced today that U.S. District Judge Eric C. Schulte has sentenced two St. Francis, South Dakota men in a case that involved charges of Arson and Third-Degree Burglary.

    Michael Valandra, Jr., age 28, and Donald Aquallo, Jr., age 26, were indicted by a federal grand jury in April 2024.

    On July 24, 2024, Valandra pleaded guilty to Arson. On October 29, 2024, Valandra was sentenced to three years and one month in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund.

    On December 2, 2024, Aquallo pleaded guilty to Third-Degree Burglary. On March 5, 2025, he was sentenced to one year and six months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crimes Victim Fund.

    On the evening of January 5, 2024, Valandra and Aquallo broke into an unoccupied residence in St. Francis. Valandra intentionally set multiple fires within the residence, with the intent to burn it down.  The two men then fled the scene on foot. The owner of the residence noticed the fire and called 911, but the residence was completely destroyed. Multiple security cameras in the neighborhood recorded Valandra and Aquallo approaching the residence and then running away shortly before the fire was visible. The offense occurred within the Rosebud Indian Reservation.

    This matter was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office because the Major Crimes Act, a federal statute, mandates that certain violent crimes alleged to have occurred in Indian Country be prosecuted in Federal court as opposed to State court.

    This case was investigated by the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Law Enforcement Services and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kirk Albertson prosecuted the case.

    Valandra and Aquallo were immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service at the conclusion of their individual sentencings.

     

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Portsmouth felon sentenced to 15 years in prison for federal drug-trafficking and firearms crimes

    Source: United States Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF)

    NORFOLK, Va. – A Portsmouth man was sentenced today to 15 years in prison for possession with intent to distribute cocaine and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

    According to court documents, Steven Frederick James, 51, was a source of supply of firearms and narcotics in the Hampton Roads area.

    On Jan. 3, 2024, James was the source of two firearms sold from James’ vehicle during a controlled buy in an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). During the investigation, ATF learned that James was using three residences to traffic narcotics.

    In late February 2024, law enforcement used a confidential source to conduct a controlled purchase of an amount of cocaine from James through a third party. In early March 2024, law enforcement used a confidential source to conduct another controlled purchase of cocaine, this time directly from James.

    On March 29, 2024, law enforcement conducted searches of three residences associated with James. During a search of an apartment in Newport News, as well as James’ 2012 BMW, investigators recovered two loaded handguns and two cellphones. At an apartment in Newtown Arch, investigators recovered a safe that belonged to James. From the safe and elsewhere in the apartment, law enforcement recovered a kilogram of cocaine, four bags containing 83.74 grams of cocaine, a bag containing 47 tablets of methamphetamine, a loaded handgun, and three digital scales.

    During a search of an apartment in Portsmouth, where James was staying at the time, investigators recovered two handguns, ammunition, firearms magazines, a digital scale, boxes of Narcan, and a safe containing $5,000. James was interviewed and taken into custody.

    James has previous felony convictions, including, among others, for being a felon in possession of a firearm, drug trafficking related offenses, eluding police, and failing to appear in court.

    Erik S. Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Anthony A. Spotswood, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Washington Field Division; and Ramin Fatehi, Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney, made the announcement after sentencing by Senior U.S. District Judge John A. Gibney Jr. The Chesapeake Police Department, Portsmouth Police Department, Newport News Police Department, Virginia Beach Police Department, and Norfolk Police Department assisted in the investigation.

    Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Graham M. Stolle, an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney with the Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Office, prosecuted the case.

    A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 2:24-cr-118.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Wyden, Merkley Co-Sponsor Legislation to Update Antiquated Mining Law to Protect Public Lands and Taxpayers

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore)
    March 07, 2025
    Bill would modernize Civil War era mining law that has led to significant waste, fraud, and abuse
    Washington, D.C. –U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley today announced they are co-sponsoring legislation that would modernize the 1872 Mining Law that has let mining companies exploit public resources for free, pass environmental costs on to taxpayers, and engage in speculation with minimal government oversight. 
    “This bill makes responsible mining possible, while protecting Oregon’s treasured public lands from irresponsible mining companies and foreign nations with no respect for the environment, human rights and human life,” Wyden said. “If Republicans are truly behind eliminating fraud, waste and abuse, they’ll join us in the 21st Century and support this bill that fixes a broken and antiquated law by addressing modern needs and challenges.”
    “Protecting Oregon’s waterways and preserving our treasured natural areas is essential to the health of our environment, our communities, and our recreation economy,” Merkley said. “For too long, irresponsible mining companies have exploited public resources while leaving behind toxic waste for taxpayers to clean up. It’s time to bring our mining laws into the 21st century to ensure fair compensation for use of public resources and to protect the lands and waters Oregonians cherish.”
    The Mining Waste, Fraud, and Abuse Prevention Act of 2025 would update the Mining Law of 1872, which guarantees broad rights to individuals and corporations, including foreign-owned, to extract minerals from public lands without payment of royalties to the federal government and limits public health and the environmental protections. A modern bill would:

    Require annual rental payments for claimed public land, thereby treating mine operators as other public land users.

    Set a royalty rate of not less than 5% and not greater than 8% based on the gross income of production on federal land but would not apply to mining operations already in commercial production or those with an approved plan of operations.

    Revenues would be deposited into a Hardrock Minerals Reclamation Fund for abandoned mine cleanup. Additionally, the Fund would be infused by an abandoned mine reclamation fee of 1% to 3%.

    Allow the Secretary of the Interior to grant royalty relief to mining operations based on economic factors.

    Require an exploration permit and mining operations permit for non-casual mining operations on federal land, which would be valid for 30 years and continue as long as commercial production occurs.

    Permit states, political subdivisions, and tribes to petition the Secretary of the Interior to have lands withdrawn from mining.

    Require an expedited review of areas that may be inappropriate for mining, and allow specific areas be reviewed for possible withdrawal.

    In addition to Wyden and Merkley, the legislation, led by U.S. Senator Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
    Full text of the legislation is here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Labrador Letter – Trump Admin Halts EMTALA Lawsuit Against Idaho

    Source: US State of Idaho

    Dear Friends,
    I’m pleased to share the Trump Department of Justice dismissed the previous administration’s attack on Idaho’s Defense of Life Act.  I have been fighting against the Biden Administration’s twisted interpretation of federal statutes to keep individual states from enacting pro-life laws for the last two years, and this dismissal is a welcome relief.  It shows we finally have an administration that respects the principles of Federalism and the sovereignty of states to enact their own laws and set their own standards.
    As a quick background, the Biden Administration sued Idaho’s Defense of Life Act in 2023, following the overturn of Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs decision.  Idaho’s law says that abortions were not permitted unless in cases of rape, incest, or where the life of the mother was in jeopardy.  The Idaho Supreme Court went on to clarify our law, saying that the decision to perform an abortion in an emergency situation was left to a doctor’s subjective, good-faith medical judgement, and that a danger to the mother’s life did not need to be either imminent nor did the doctor need to be certain.
    Instead of respecting the SCOTUS decision to put the issue of abortion back under state control, the Biden Administration manipulated a federal statute on the books, known as EMTALA – the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act.  Biden’s DOJ insisted that providing abortions was a mandated function of any emergency room that accepts federal Medicaid payments.   EMTALA was designed to prevent hospitals from turning away patients who could not pay.  In fact, EMTALA language does not mention abortion.  Instead, the federal law refers to providing stabilizing treatment for both a mother and her unborn child – five times, actually.  Undeterred by reality, the Biden Administration pressed forward with a legal challenge to Idaho’s law, leading to the first Supreme Court showdown on abortion laws since the Dobbs decision.
    Last April, we fought the federal government to a standstill at the Supreme Court in Idaho v. United States, leaving Idaho’s law virtually intact.  We maintained there is absolutely no conflict between Idaho’s law and EMTALA, where the goal of both is to save lives.  SCOTUS remanded the case back to the 9th Circuit for more arguments since it was demonstrated there was no actual emergency circumstances claimed by the federal government that would require an abortion to stabilize a patient that would be somehow disallowed by Idaho’s very clear and straightforward law.
    But then November Fifth happened.  President Trump won a decisive victory across the country and pro-abortion activists and their attorneys began to worry that a new Department of Justice might not support the same creative interpretations of federal law that the Biden Administration had hung their hat on.  It turns out they were right.  This Wednesday, under the new leadership of Attorney General Pam Bondi, the DOJ filed for a dismissal of the challenge of Idaho’s Defense of Life Act.  Idaho responded in kind by filing to dismiss our appeal that is sitting at the 9th Circuit.  I wish I could say that’s where the story ends, but in the legal profession, that is rarely the circumstance.
    Those same pro-abortion activists, lawyers and providers saw the writing on the wall.  Six days before President Trump’s inauguration they filed a similar challenge to Idaho’s law, led by St. Luke’s Health System.  St. Luke’s claimed they would suffer irreparable harm by having to instruct their doctors that Idaho’s law directs them to treat patients in emergencies without abortions unless necessary to save a woman’s life, according to a doctor’s subjective, good-faith medical judgement.
    This new suit from St. Luke’s is ongoing and is being heard by the very same Clinton-appointed federal judge that had blocked Idaho’s Defense of Life Act with the first EMTALA challenge from the Biden Administration.  I have every reasonable expectation that we will need to continue this fight via appeal, all the way back to the Supreme Court so we can settle this issue of EMTALA once and for all.
    As your Attorney General, I will always fight to protect the sovereignty of Idaho’s laws, the voice of the people, and for the protection of the unborn.  Through our laws, Idaho has chosen Life and I am proud to defend it, wherever that fight takes us.
    Best regards,

    Not yet subscribed to the Labrador Letter?  Click HERE to get our weekly newsletter and updates.  Miss an issue?  Labrador Letters are archived on the Attorney General website.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Department of State Employee Charged for Conspiracy to Gather, Transmit, or Lose National Defense Information

    Source: US State of North Dakota

    View the complaint affidavit.

    Michael Charles Schena, 42, of Alexandria, Virginia, was arrested on criminal charges related to his alleged participation in a criminal conspiracy to gather, transmit, or lose national defense information.

    According to court documents, Schena is employed by the U.S. Department of State (DOS) working out of DOS Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Schena held a top secret security clearance and had access to information up to the secret level within his DOS workspace. Beginning in or about April 2022, Schena allegedly communicated with people he met online through various communication platforms and provided them with information they were not authorized to receive. In return, Schena received payments. On Feb. 27, Schena allegedly used a cellphone to take images of multiple documents, which were displayed on the monitor of his classified computer and marked as “SECRET.” Schena then allegedly left work and returned to his home in Alexandria, where the cellphone was seized.        

    Schena is charged with conspiracy to gather, transmit, or lose national defense information and faces a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

    The FBI Washington Field Office investigated the case with assistance from the FBI Richmond Field Office, the Department of Justice’s Office of Enforcement Operations, and the Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service Office of Counterintelligence.

    Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Ben’Ary and Gavin R. Tisdale for the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorney Maria Fedor of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

    A criminal complaint is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Texas Man Convicted of Sabotaging his Employer’s Computer Systems and Deleting Data

    Source: US State of North Dakota

    A federal jury in Cleveland convicted a Texas man today for writing and deploying malicious code on his former employer’s network.

    According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Davis Lu, 55, of Houston, was employed as a software developer for the victim company headquartered in Beachwood, Ohio, from November 2007 to October 2019. Following a 2018 corporate realignment that reduced his responsibilities and system access, Lu began sabotaging his employer’s systems. By Aug. 4, 2019, he introduced malicious code that caused system crashes and prevented user logins. Specifically, he created “infinite loops” (in this case, code designed to exhaust Java threads by repeatedly creating new threads without proper termination and resulting in server crashes or hangs), deleted coworker profile files, and implemented a “kill switch” that would lock out all users if his credentials in the company’s active directory were disabled. The “kill switch” code — which Lu named “IsDLEnabledinAD”, abbreviating “Is Davis Lu enabled in Active Directory” — was automatically activated upon his termination on Sept. 9, 2019, and impacted thousands of company users globally. Lu named other code “Hakai,” a Japanese word meaning “destruction,” and “HunShui,” a Chinese word meaning “sleep” or “lethargy.” Additionally, on the day he was directed to turn in his company laptop, Lu deleted encrypted data. His internet search history revealed he had researched methods to escalate privileges, hide processes, and rapidly delete files, indicating an intent to obstruct efforts of his co-workers to resolve the system disruptions. Lu’s employer suffered hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses as a result of Lu’s actions.

    The jury convicted Lu of causing intentional damage to protected computers, for which he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. A sentencing date has not been set. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

    Supervisory Official Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Carol M. Skutnik for the Northern District of Ohio, and Special Agent in Charge Gregory D. Nelsen of the FBI Cleveland Field Office made the announcement.

    The FBI Cleveland Field Office investigated the case.

    Senior Counsel Candina S. Heath of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel J. Riedl and Brian S. Deckert for the Northern District of Ohio are prosecuting the case.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Dominican National Pleads Guilty to Misusing Identity of United States Citizen

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    Defendant has been using stolen personal identifying information for nearly a decade

    BOSTON – A Dominican national residing in Dorchester pleaded guilty yesterday to illegally using the personal identifying information of a United States citizen, which he used to obtain a driver’s license and United States passport.

    Luis Alison Roa Lara, 41, pleaded guilty to one count of making a false statement in a U.S. passport application, one count of aggravated identity theft and one count of misuse of a Social Security number. U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs scheduled sentencing for June 10, 2025. The defendant was arrested and charged in August 2024.

    For nearly a decade, Luis Alison Roa Lara has been using the personal identifying information of a Puerto Rican citizen of the United States. Luis Alison Roa Lara used the misappropriated identifying information to obtain a Massachusetts driver’s license and attempted to use it to obtain a United States passport.

    The charge of false statement in a passport application provides for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. The charge of aggravated identity theft calls for a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison to be served consecutive to any other sentence imposed, up to one year of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. The charge of misuse of a Social Security number provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000. The defendant will also be subject to deportation upon completion of any sentence imposed. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

    United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Matthew O’Brien, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, Boston Field Office made the announcement. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Department of State Diplomatic Security Service, Detroit Resident Office; the United States Postal Inspection Service; and the Lorain (Ohio) Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Sullivan of the Criminal Division is prosecuting the case.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Former Wyoming County corrections officer going to prison for distributing child pornography

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    BUFFALO, N.Y. – U.S. Attorney Michael DiGiacomo announced today that James D. Sutton, 40, of Depew, NY, who was convicted of distribution child pornography, was sentenced to serve 100 months in prison and 30 years supervised release by U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig R. Gestring, who handled the case, stated that in October 2021, Sutton, a former Wyoming County Corrections Officer, used his cellular telephone to upload 22 video files containing child pornography, via the internet, to the social media platform Kik. The videos included prepubescent minors under the age of 12 years old, and depictions of violence.

    The sentencing is the result of an investigation by the New York State Police, under the direction of Major Amie Feroleto, the Federal Bureau of Investigation Child Exploitation Human Trafficking Task Force, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Matthew Miraglia, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.  

    # # # #

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Chesterfield cocaine trafficker sentenced to 10 years in prison

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    RICHMOND, Va. – A Chesterfield man was sentenced today to 10 years in prison for possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

    According to court documents, on May 18, 2023, Urain Alexander Robinson, 52, was contacted by a co-conspirator (CC1), who was seeking to purchase cocaine from Robinson. That night, Robinson transported multiple kilograms of cocaine from his residence to CC1’s house in Hopewell and distributed it to CC1. Shortly after Robinson distributed the cocaine to CC1, another co-conspirator (CC2) arrived at CC1’s house and picked up three kilograms of the cocaine that Robinson had just distributed to CC1. CC2 was stopped by police shortly after leaving CC1’s house.

    The cocaine was recovered by police. Law enforcement also seized $8,381 in drug-trafficking proceeds from Robinson’s residence on May 14, 2024.

    Robinson was convicted in 1992 in Virginia of possession with intent to distribute heroin, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and unlawful wounding; in 1993 in New Jersey of possession with intent to distribute cocaine; and in 2005 in the Eastern District of Virginia of possession with the intent to distribute cocaine hydrochloride.

    Erik S. Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Ibrar A. Mian, Special Agent in Charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Washington Division, made the announcement after sentencing by Senior U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson. The Chesterfield County Police Department assisted in the investigation of this case.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Ellen Hubbard prosecuted the case.

    This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.

    A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 3:24-cr-117.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Department of State Employee Charged for Conspiracy to Gather, Transmit, or Lose National Defense Information

    Source: United States Attorneys General

    View the complaint affidavit.

    Michael Charles Schena, 42, of Alexandria, Virginia, was arrested on criminal charges related to his alleged participation in a criminal conspiracy to gather, transmit, or lose national defense information.

    According to court documents, Schena is employed by the U.S. Department of State (DOS) working out of DOS Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Schena held a top secret security clearance and had access to information up to the secret level within his DOS workspace. Beginning in or about April 2022, Schena allegedly communicated with people he met online through various communication platforms and provided them with information they were not authorized to receive. In return, Schena received payments. On Feb. 27, Schena allegedly used a cellphone to take images of multiple documents, which were displayed on the monitor of his classified computer and marked as “SECRET.” Schena then allegedly left work and returned to his home in Alexandria, where the cellphone was seized.        

    Schena is charged with conspiracy to gather, transmit, or lose national defense information and faces a penalty of up to 10 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

    The FBI Washington Field Office investigated the case with assistance from the FBI Richmond Field Office, the Department of Justice’s Office of Enforcement Operations, and the Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service Office of Counterintelligence.

    Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Ben’Ary and Gavin R. Tisdale for the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorney Maria Fedor of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

    A criminal complaint is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Texas Man Convicted of Sabotaging his Employer’s Computer Systems and Deleting Data

    Source: United States Attorneys General 1

    A federal jury in Cleveland convicted a Texas man today for writing and deploying malicious code on his former employer’s network.

    According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Davis Lu, 55, of Houston, was employed as a software developer for the victim company headquartered in Beachwood, Ohio, from November 2007 to October 2019. Following a 2018 corporate realignment that reduced his responsibilities and system access, Lu began sabotaging his employer’s systems. By Aug. 4, 2019, he introduced malicious code that caused system crashes and prevented user logins. Specifically, he created “infinite loops” (in this case, code designed to exhaust Java threads by repeatedly creating new threads without proper termination and resulting in server crashes or hangs), deleted coworker profile files, and implemented a “kill switch” that would lock out all users if his credentials in the company’s active directory were disabled. The “kill switch” code — which Lu named “IsDLEnabledinAD”, abbreviating “Is Davis Lu enabled in Active Directory” — was automatically activated upon his termination on Sept. 9, 2019, and impacted thousands of company users globally. Lu named other code “Hakai,” a Japanese word meaning “destruction,” and “HunShui,” a Chinese word meaning “sleep” or “lethargy.” Additionally, on the day he was directed to turn in his company laptop, Lu deleted encrypted data. His internet search history revealed he had researched methods to escalate privileges, hide processes, and rapidly delete files, indicating an intent to obstruct efforts of his co-workers to resolve the system disruptions. Lu’s employer suffered hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses as a result of Lu’s actions.

    The jury convicted Lu of causing intentional damage to protected computers, for which he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. A sentencing date has not been set. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

    Supervisory Official Matthew R. Galeotti of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Carol M. Skutnik for the Northern District of Ohio, and Special Agent in Charge Gregory D. Nelsen of the FBI Cleveland Field Office made the announcement.

    The FBI Cleveland Field Office investigated the case.

    Senior Counsel Candina S. Heath of the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Daniel J. Riedl and Brian S. Deckert for the Northern District of Ohio are prosecuting the case.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senator Coons, Representative Hunt, colleagues urge the implementation of reforms aligning with their bipartisan, bicameral Safer Supervision Act

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Delaware Christopher Coons

    WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), Representative Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) and a bipartisan, bicameral group of colleagues in a new letter applauded and urged finalization of a proposal by the United States Sentencing Commission to improve the federal supervised release system in ways that align with their bipartisan, bicameral Safer Supervision Act. In addition to Senator Coons and Rep. Hunt, the letter was signed by bill cosponsors Senators Mike Lee (R-Utah), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), U.S. Representative Barry Moore (R-Ala.), and the late U.S. Representative Sylvester Turner (D-Texas).

    In January, the Commission unanimously proposed reforms to federal supervised release guidelines that would help ensure that scarce supervision resources are allocated in a manner that best promote public safety, that would restore discretion to courts in the imposition, termination, and revocation of supervision, and that would provide individuals with positive incentives to rehabilitate and reintegrate.  These principles align with the Safer Supervision Act introduced in August 2023.  In their letter, the lawmakers wrote that while there is no substitute for enactment of the Safer Supervision Act, the Commission “should finalize an amendment that robustly implements the letter and spirit of the bill to the extent it can do so within its authority.”

    The bill has gained strong support from organizations across the political spectrum, as well as law enforcement groups, faith groups, and civil rights groups. The support demonstrates the widespread acceptance how reform of federal supervision can “improve public safety, support law enforcement, use taxpayer dollars more responsibly, and better position people to succeed after they have served their time in prison.”

    “We would encourage the Commission to consider how it could go further to implement the letter and spirit of the bill,” the lawmakers continued. “Additional guidance, including a presumption along the lines of the bill, could better instruct courts on the interest-of-justice standard and ensure that they use early termination when supervision is no longer necessary for the purposes it was imposed, rather than just in the most extraordinary of cases. With appropriate notice, supervisees will then have actionable positive incentives to rehabilitate and reintegrate, to the benefit of public safety.”

    Senator Coons is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Co-Chair of the Senate Law Enforcement Caucus.

    You can read the full letter here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Murphy: Six Weeks In, This White House Is On Its Way To Being The Most Corrupt In U.S. History

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Connecticut – Chris Murphy

    [embedded content]

    WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Thursday spoke on the U.S. Senate floor to expose the unprecedented corruption of the Trump administration’s first six weeks in office. Murphy condemned Trump’s normalization of pay-to-play politics, where billionaire donors dictate policy and taxpayer money is funneled into the pockets of the president, Elon Musk, and the corporate elite.

    “In the first six weeks of the Trump presidency, Trump and Elon Musk and their billionaire friends have engaged in a stunning rampage of open public corruption,” Murphy said. “It’s not fundamentally different than what happened in Russia. These are efforts to steal from the American people to enrich themselves. And their strategy is to do it all out in the open, to do it at such a dizzying pace that the country just gets overwhelmed or anesthetized or dulled into a sense that we just all have to accept the corruption – or, maybe more charitably, that this is just how government works, that government is just corrupt, and so the fact that it’s happening out in the open instead of happening secretly, well, it’s really nothing new.”

    Murphy laid out more than 20 examples of blatant corruption from just the first six weeks of the Trump presidency, including:

    1. The launch of Trump’s meme coin, enabling anyone seeking to influence the administration to privately funnel money directly to the president.
    2. The gutting and manipulation of watchdog agencies like the NLRB, CFPB, and OSHA to benefit Elon Musk, the billionaires in Trump’s cabinet, and other elites.
    3. The Eric Adams quid pro quo and the weaponization of the DOJ to reinforce a system of political retribution and favoritism.
    4. The use of government contracts and stock deals to reward Trump’s allies, enriching them through taxpayer-funded opportunities and further consolidating political power.

    “This is how democracies die,” Murphy continued. “Democracies die when the very powerful people steal from us so regularly, so openly, so unapologetically, that we come to believe that it’s normal. And listen, I understand that many Americans may think that all of this stuff just used to happen quietly, and the only difference is that Trump and Musk are just putting it all out in the open. And I’m not saying that there haven’t been instances of corruption. Democrats and Republicans in this body have been accused of, and convicted of, acts of corruption. It has been a fact of life in American politics for a long time. But never before has the corruption happened this openly or this frequently. And so I lay it all out for you this afternoon in the hopes that it is not too late for us to decide to stand up, as a body and as a nation, to say that this isn’t okay.”

    He concluded: “The Trump meme coin is not okay. It’s not okay for people who have interest before the federal government to be able to anonymously funnel money to the president of the United States. It’s not okay for Elon Musk to have access to Department of Labor enforcement data, against him or his competitors, that nobody else gets access to. It’s not okay to just cancel contracts that were going to Musk’s competitors and substitute in his own business, just because he has the ability to do it as a friend of Donald Trump. The rule of law matters. Doing things by the rules matter. This level of corruption was not occurring behind the scenes prior. It is not just that the cover got pulled off of it all. And it’s our decision, as a body and as a country, to decide not to normalize this scale of corruption.”

    A full transcript of his remarks can be found below:

    MURPHY: “Mr. President, I’m a big Boston Red Sox fan. One of the most famous players in Red Sox recent history is Manny Ramirez. Manny Ramirez was a good baseball player, but he had a habit of doing some pretty ridiculous things on the field and off the field that were really detrimental to the team, some really bizarre on-field behavior – cutting off throws from other outfielders before they got to the infield – bizarre off-the-field behavior that disrupted the team. It became so regular that a phrase was adopted among the Red Sox fans: ‘That’s just Manny being Manny.’ Over the years it just was accepted that every year Manny Ramirez was going to do a whole bunch of stuff that was really detrimental to the team. And over time, it just kind of became accepted, that that was a fact of life, a way of life with Manny Ramirez. And as time went on, people reacted less hostilely. It barely got noticed in some cases when he was engaged in these detrimental forms of conduct. 

    “And I tell that story because it stands for kind of a universal concept: when bad behavior gets normalized, it no longer feels like bad behavior. Even if that behavior is hurting people. Today, the world is littered with corrupt governments, governments where the leaders and the really rich men who surround the leaders – the oligarchs – steal from people. That’s what they do, the leaders and the leaders’ friends just keep a hand constantly in the government treasury and they steal taxpayer dollars. They rig the rules of the economy in order to make themselves fabulously rich. They hurt the citizens of those countries. 

    “Vladimir Putin, for instance, has never had a job outside of government, but he’s reportedly worth $200 billion. One of his many houses cost $1.4 billion to build, supposedly the landscaping costs on an annual basis for that house are $2 million alone. That $1.4 billion house was paid for by money he stole from the Russian treasury. In other words, he stole it from the Russian people. Putin and his friends have been doing it for so long and doing it so openly and brazenly – Putin, for instance, wears a watch that retails for half a million dollars, even though his official salary is only $140,000. They’ve been doing this so openly and brazenly, they’re so public in their corruption in Russia, that it’s just accepted. It’s just mainstream, the fact that Putin and his cronies steal from the Russian people. 

    “That’s what’s happening in America today. And it’s heartbreaking for me to say this, but in the first six weeks of the Trump presidency, Trump and Elon Musk and their billionaire friends have engaged in a stunning rampage of open public corruption. It’s not fundamentally different than what happened in Russia. These are efforts to steal from the American people to enrich themselves. And their strategy is to do it all out in the open, to do it at such a dizzying pace that the country just gets overwhelmed or anesthetized or dulled into a sense that we just all have to accept the corruption – or, maybe more charitably, that this is just how government works, that government is just corrupt, and so the fact that it’s happening out in the open instead of happening secretly, well, it’s really nothing new. 

    “But this is not how government works. The things that have happened over the last six weeks are unprecedented. The president and his billionaire friends are not supposed to steal from us. They are not supposed to use their power and their access to power – their access to government levers – to rig the rules to enrich themselves. That has always been wrong. It is still wrong. And we do not have to accept this. 

    “And so in the next few minutes, I want to try out an exercise. I want to try to lay out for you as quickly as I can just some of the most significant instances of blatantly corrupt activity that’s happened in just the first six weeks of Trump’s presidency. When you see it all together, there is no way to avoid a simple conclusion. This White House is on its way to being the most corrupt in the history of the country. And just because they are doing it out in the open for everybody to see doesn’t mean that it’s not corrupt. 

    “My hope is that if you see it all in one place, the gravity of this moment may hit you. My hope is that my colleagues and the public choose not to normalize a president or his advisors using the Oval Office as a blunt mechanism to make themselves even wealthier. It is our decision – our decision – to have zero tolerance for corruption. It’s also our decision to just decide to become a place like Russia where our leaders are allowed to routinely steal from us. 

    “This is a heartbreakingly long list. This is just 20 or so examples of corrupt behavior in the first six weeks of the Trump presidency. So here it goes. We’re going to start on January 17. 

    “On January 17, Trump launches the meme coin. This is maybe the most corrupt of all of the acts, because what is the meme coin? The meme coin is essentially a mechanism by which Russian oligarchs or corporate CEO’s can literally send money privately directly to Donald Trump. Nobody knows who buys the meme coin, but Trump makes money when people buy it. And so it is just an open sewer valve that allows for anybody who is trying to influence the Trump administration to be able to secretly funnel money to Donald Trump. He reserves 80% of the coin. He waits to release that coin until the price jumps back up again, which essentially means he’s waiting for people who want favors from him to buy a bunch of the coin to inflate the value so that he releases more and makes more money. It’s a disgusting kind of corruption because this is essentially Trump just posting his Venmo for anybody secretly to wire him as much money as they want. We’ve never seen something like this before where anybody who has anything to gain from the Trump administration, through a manipulation of the value of Trump’s meme coin, can funnel money directly to the president, whisper in his ear, ‘That was me. That was me that purchased all that coin, that jumped up the value that allowed you to release new coin. Hey, take care of me on the back end.’

    “On January 20, when he’s sworn in, he institutes his new energy agenda. Now, open reporting suggested that during the campaign he met with the oil and gas industry and they cut a deal in which the oil and gas industry would give him a billion dollars of campaign contributions in order to receive favorable treatment when Trump was sworn in. And guess what happens on January 20? Trump unveils his energy strategy, and what does it do? It preferences oil and gas and it punishes oil and gas’ competitors. It, for instance, freezes all permits on wind projects, both for the land and the sea. It undercuts permitting processes, not for oil and gas but for oil and gas’ competitors. Oil and gas got exactly what they asked for. They gave a campaign contribution and they got the favorable treatment. Five days later, Trump fires 17 inspectors general. What do inspectors general do? They look for corruption inside of these agencies. What do you do if you are trying to engage in corruption, if you are trying to steal from the American people? You fire the inspectors general. 

    “Two days later, on January 27, Trump fires Gwynne Wilcox from the NLRB, the National Labor Relations Board. When she’s fired, the National Labor Relations Board cannot function any longer? Why does this matter? Because the person that’s been put in charge of reviewing the hirings and firings of these agencies is Elon Musk, who, by the way, has lots of cases before the NLRB. So do the people that are standing behind Trump during the inauguration. Almost all of them have active cases before the NLRB. The billionaires supporting Donald Trump now don’t have to worry about the NLRB because on January 27, the NLRB is rendered powerless. 

    “Three days later, on January 30, Trump awards more than $800,000 worth of stock to several of the board members of the Trump Media and Technology Group. This is the publicly traded company behind his social media platform. So now his Cabinet members – people like Kash Patel and Linda Mcmahon – are owning equity in Trump’s media platform; equity that can be cashed out, sold to people who want to buy them out of their interest at any time. Those people who might want to buy them out, Cabinet members, could be individuals with issues before the Department of Education, before the FBI. Yet another avenue in which people who have influence, who want to gain influence inside the Trump administration, have a conduit to be able to move cash from their pocketbooks, from their treasury, from their bank accounts, into the bank accounts of Trump cabinet members. 

    “Shortly thereafter, we start to see the weaponization of the DOJ. On February 23, a civil complaint from DOJ that had been pending against SpaceX– Elon Musk’s signature company – is dropped. Eight days later, the DOJ drops a case against a Republican Congressman. On February 19, two or three weeks later, the DOJ opens up something called Operation Whirlwind, which threatens anyone who dares to criticize the work of Elon Musk and DOGE. Over the course of the next three weeks, the DOJ is turned into an entity that drops cases against those who are loyal to Donald Trump and pursues aggressively investigations against those who are trying to criticize Donald Trump. 

    “On February 1, Trump fires the director of the CFPB and announces plans to shut down – to shutter – the Consumer Financial Protection Board. Again, very much like the NLRB, this is an agency that was, at the moment that it was rendered powerless, investigating Elon Musk and many of the biggest financial backers of Donald Trump. So once again, those that have access to Donald Trump, the billionaires that are close to him, now don’t have to worry about labor violations being investigated by the NLRB, now they don’t have to worry about consumer protection actions being taken against them by the CFPB.

    “On February 4, there is the first of two extraordinary meetings in the White House in which Donald Trump convenes his business partners – his business patterns – the Saudi Golf League and the PGA to try to negotiate a solution to the dispute between those two golf leagues. Why? Because Trump has a business interest in that dispute being resolved. The Saudi Golf League plays tournaments at Trump’s courses in the United States, so if the White House, using its official power, can try to negotiate a settlement between those two groups, Trump stands to make money. 

    “On February 6, something absolutely stunning happens. Pam Bondi, the AG, issues a memorandum in which she proposes to dull the criminal enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

    If you are representing a foreign government before the United States, you have to register so that we know if you are acting on behalf of American interests or you are acting on behalf of foreign interests. In the prior Trump administration, Trump officials got in big trouble for secretly working for, and getting paid by, foreign governments without registering. Well, what does Trump announce? That they are going to limit the applicability of the enforcement of that statute, making it much easier for Trump’s friends – for his MAGA crowd, for the people who show up to Mar-a-Lago – to get paid quietly by foreign governments in order to influence Donald Trump.

    “On February 10, maybe aside from the meme coin, the most stunning act of corruption: the Eric Adams quid pro quo, in which Eric Adams, indicted for corruption, is let off the hook. His charges are dismissed in exchange for the mayor’s pledge of political loyalty to Donald Trump. They literally went on TV and announced the deal that we’re getting rid of the charges against Eric Adams, as long as the mayor pledges political loyalty to the President. That was so corrupt that six or seven DOJ officials resigned, because they refused to withdraw those charges, but the deal went through because the seventh, or the eighth, or the ninth official finally filed the withdrawal. 

    “And now in America, it is 100% clear that if you want to get away with corruption, if you want to steal from your constituents and you’re an elected official in this country, all you have to do is just sign up for political loyalty with Donald Trump, and he will instruct the Department of Justice to let you get away with it.

    “On February 10, Donald Trump directs the DOJ to pause enforcement of U.S. laws that prohibit companies from paying bribes overseas. Come on! Like, come on! He instructs the DOJ to pause enforcement of U.S. laws that prohibit companies to pay bribes overseas. Here’s an example: Goldman Sachs was engaged in outright bribery–they were paying bribes to Malaysian officials, so that they could get a contract to manage the resources of the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund. 

    “American companies should not be overseas bribing foreign governments. That compromises America’s reputation and America’s national security. But now, we are going to pause enforcement of the laws that stop American companies from bribing foreign governments, because corruption is now being normalized. This is what you do if you want to normalize corruption, is that you make it legal for American companies to engage in corruption overseas. That makes it easier for Trump to get away with corruption here.

    “Two days later, on February 12, the announcement comes out that the State Department is going to buy $400 million of armored Teslas. Okay, so now it’s getting even more blatant. It’s getting even more brazen. The State Department is just going to buy a whole bunch of product from Elon Musk, product they were not previously scheduled to buy. It is true that the Biden administration had a blueprint that was going to buy some electric vehicles, but it was around $483,000-worth of vehicles. Trump revises that blueprint of spending so that now the federal government is going to spend $400 million on armored Teslas from Elon Musk.

    “Let’s see: that’s February 12. That same day, Elon Musk’s people infiltrate the Department of Labor. And reporting suggests that during that infiltration, Elon Musk’s personal representatives get access to enforcement information at OSHA, not only against Elon Musk’s companies–and by the way, SpaceX has an employee injury rate that is nine times higher than the industry average–but also workplace safety violations against Elon Musk’s competitors. Here’s the message: if you are close to Donald Trump personally, if you support him politically, you can get secret access to enforcement data against your companies and your companies’ competitors. That’s what happens on February 12. 

    “Three days later, there’s some suspicious firings at the FDA. Again, related to Elon Musk’s personal financial interests. Elon Musk owns a medical device company called Neuralink. It is currently being reviewed by the FDA. And guess what? On February 15 and 16, all over a weekend, there are 20 people fired from the FDA’s Office of Neurological and Physical Medicine Devices. Fired by DOGE, run by Elon Musk. Clear message: you’re going to get fired if you aren’t on the right side of Elon Musk’s application. Now, whether that was explicit or not, if the guy who is firing you has a pending application before your department, aren’t you going to think twice? Aren’t you going to think twice about ruling against his interests? This is why this is all unprecedented. Again, this feels normal because it’s been happening every day. But never before in American history have we allowed someone who has a pending application for approval of a medicine or a medical device to be able to personally decide who gets hired and who gets fired at the regulatory agency making the decision over that medical device.

    “But now, this stuff is happening every day. Because on February 15 as well, that same weekend, there’s an announcement that the FDA cuts are going to be even deeper, perhaps as big as 50%. That means that hundreds of drugs and devices won’t get approved at the FDA. And you know who benefits from that? The folks that are selling the snake oil products. And guess who’s selling the snake oil products? The people who work for Donald Trump, selling vita-gummy scams. The Director of the FBI is selling vaccine reversal pills. When the FDA gets gutted, it’s the people who sell those unregulated products who stand to gain.

    “On February 19, four days later, we find out that the IRS is going to be cut by 7,000 people. And the biggest chunk of the folks who are going to be laid off are the people who do the audits of the billionaires, and the millionaires, and the corporations. And so once again, Elon Musk and the people standing behind Donald Trump on Inauguration Day are going to get off, because the IRS just had its enforcement powers–its audit powers–absolutely gutted.”

    “That same day, on February 19, you start to receive word that advertising on Elon Musk’s platform is starting to grow again. And the reporting on February 19 indicates that American companies have come to the collective decision that they need to keep advertising on Elon Musk’s platform, because Elon Musk has so much regulatory power inside the federal government. That they need to make sure they’re paying Musk through Twitter and through X, so that if they ultimately need something from the federal government, they can get it. This, again, is why we have never, ever in the history of this country, allowed for the richest man in the world, somebody who controls major companies, to also have an official position inside the government. Because, of course, of course, it opens up these clear avenues where people are going to do business with him privately to try to curry favor with him publicly.

    “I’m not done. It just keeps going. The next day, on February 20, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’s monthly meeting is canceled and not rescheduled. And so we were very worried that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who makes money off of his attacks on vaccines, would continue those attacks when he took over HHS. Because if faith in vaccines continues to plummet, it is very likely that RFK Jr. will make money. Why? Because the not-for-profit that he will likely return to, the company that he will return to after he leaves, makes money as vaccine misinformation spreads, and he also continues to collect fees for referring cases to a company that handles claims of personal injury due to vaccines. And so when the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is canceled, it is a clear indication that yes, this campaign of assault on vaccines is going to continue, which, not surprisingly, is likely to make RFK Jr. even more money.

    “On February 26, we see Trump’s MAGA hats, that are for sale on his website, displayed in the Oval Office. And it’s just a reminder that so many people inside Trump’s universe continue to sell merchandise on the side in order to make money. Donald Trump has always done this, and we’ve just accepted it, even though it is a kind of corruption in and of itself. But Kash Patel, the Director of the FBI, is still selling Kash-branded merchandise even while he’s going to run the FBI. Elon Musk and others are selling DOGE merchandise. So as they trumpet their brand inside the government, they’re making money off their brand outside of the government.

    “On February 26, maybe the third-most significant [instance] of brazen corruption happens. News breaks that Elon Musk is just going to have the FAA cancel a contract with Verizon that has been in the works for years, and instead just substitute in Starlink for Verizon. Just extraordinary that this is happening in plain view of everybody. Elon Musk takes his private company, uses his access to government to just shove out of the way his competitors, and instead insert himself and his company. Again, we’ve never seen this ever before in American history, and now it’s happening on a daily basis.

    “And now we get to this week. This week, Wired reports that guests are paying millions of dollars to dine with Donald Trump at Mar-A-Lago, and business leaders are being targeted with advertisements that sell access to a one-on-one meeting with the President of the United States for $5 million. Come on! Like, seriously! There’s advertisements that say if you’re a business CEO and you pay $5 million to Donald Trump, you can get a meeting with him. This isn’t okay! And yet, because it happens every single day, every single day they’re asking for us to pretend that this is normal. This is just six weeks. It’s just six weeks. And the last thing on the list is an offer to meet with the president for $1 million or $5 million. If any previous president had sent out an advertisement suggesting that you can meet with them for a payment to them of $1 million to $5 million, in and of itself we would deem that to be unacceptable. But Donald Trump and Elon Musk believe that because they have arranged this dizzying pace of corruption, in which not a day goes by in which something doesn’t happen inside our government in which Elon Musk or Donald Trump use their power in order to rig the rules to enrich themselves, that we are all going to feel that it’s normal.

    “This is how democracies die. Democracies die when the very powerful people steal from us so regularly, so openly, so unapologetically, that we come to believe that it’s normal. And listen, I understand that many Americans may think that all of this stuff just used to happen quietly, and the only difference is that Trump and Musk are just putting it all out in the open. And I’m not saying that there haven’t been instances of corruption. Democrats and Republicans in this body have been accused of, and convicted of, acts of corruption. It has been a fact of life in American politics for a long time. But never before has the corruption happened this openly or this frequently. And so I lay it all out for you this afternoon in the hopes that it is not too late for us to decide to stand up, as a body and as a nation, to say that this isn’t okay.

    “The Trump meme coin is not okay. It’s not okay for people who have interest before the federal government to be able to anonymously funnel money to the president of the United States. It’s not okay for Elon Musk to have access to Department of Labor enforcement data, against him or his competitors, that nobody else gets access to. It’s not okay to just cancel contracts that were going to Musk’s competitors and substitute in his own business, just because he has the ability to do it as a friend of Donald Trump. The rule of law matters. Doing things by the rules matter. This level of corruption was not occurring behind the scenes prior. It is not just that the cover got pulled off of it all. And it’s our decision, as a body and as a country, to decide not to normalize this scale of corruption. I yield the floor.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: DOJ, HHS, ED, and GSA Announce Initial Cancelation of Grants and Contracts to Columbia University Worth $400 Million

    Source: US Justice – Antitrust Division

    Headline: DOJ, HHS, ED, and GSA Announce Initial Cancelation of Grants and Contracts to Columbia University Worth $400 Million

    WASHINGTON — Today, the Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Department of Education (ED), and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced the immediate cancellation of approximately $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University due to the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students. These cancellations represent the first round of action and additional cancellations are expected to follow. The Task Force is continuing to review and coordinate across federal agencies to identify additional cancellations that could be made swiftly. DOJ, HHS, ED, and GSA are taking this action as members of the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. Columbia University currently holds more than $5 billion in federal grant commitments.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Wood County man sentenced for trafficking methamphetamine in East Texas

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    TYLER, Texas – A Mineola man has been sentenced to federal prison for drug trafficking violations in the Eastern District of Texas, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Abe McGlothin, Jr.

    Bobby Wayne Land, 48, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and was sentenced to 210 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Jeremy Kernodle on March 7, 2025.

    According to information presented in court, on February 28, 2023, law enforcement officers executed a search of Land’s residence in Van Zandt County which resulted in the discovery of approximately 205 grams of methamphetamine.  Land admitted that the methamphetamine was his and possessed if for the purpose of distributing to others.  Co-defendant, Preston Mitchell Wilson, was sentenced on January 17, 2025, to 120 months in federal prison.  Danny Lynn Nabors was also sentenced on January 17, 2025, to 96 months in federal prison.

    This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the Grand Saline Police Department; the Canton Police Department; and the Van Zandt County Sheriff’s Office.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Jackson.

    ###

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Defendants Sentenced After Pleading Guilty to Violating Big Cat Public Safety Act

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

          LITTLE ROCK—Jonathan D. Ross, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, announced that Keidrick Damond Usifo and Deon Johnson, were sentenced to probation on Thursday, March 6, 2025, by United States District Judge James M. Moody, Jr. for violation of the Big Cat Public Safety Act.

          Judge Moody sentenced Usifo, 30, of Conway, Arkansas, to five years’ probation and a $5,000.00 fine, and Johnson, 29, of Little Rock, Arkansas, to 18 months’ probation, and a $1,000.00 fine. Usifo and Johnson were indicted by a federal grand jury on March 5, 2024. Usifo was indicted on one count of violation of the Big Cat Public Safety Act and Johnson was indicted on one count of misprision of a felony, which related to Johnson’s affirmative concealment of Usifo’s crime. On October 22, 2024, both Usifo and Johnson pled guilty to their counts in the indictment.

          An investigation revealed that Usifo purchased and transported a tiger cub around March 16-18, 2023, from a tiger broker in Dallas, Texas. On April 7, 2023, the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission (AGFC) notified USFWS that they received a complaint of a tiger cub sighting in a residential neighborhood in Conway. On April 17, 2023, an agent with AGFC was notified that there was a man with a tiger in the backyard of a residence in Conway. There was also an anonymous tip posted on AGFC’s page about a tiger cub for sale in Conway. The Big Cat Public Safety Act makes it illegal to privately possess or breed big cats.

          A further investigation revealed that on April 19, 2023, a second complaint was made to AGFC about a tiger at a residence in Conway. On April 21, 2023, a traffic stop was conducted and Usifo was arrested on a felony state warrant. The Conway Police Department executed a search warrant at Usifo’s residence and although they did not locate the tiger, there was evidence in the residence indicating the presence of a tiger, as well as matching rooms from Usifo’s Instagram posts that displayed a tiger cub.

          While in the Pulaski County Detention Facility (PCDF), Usifo made several calls to Johnson. The investigation revealed that Johnson had knowledge of when Usifo was going to travel to Dallas to get the tiger and of Usifo’s possession of the tiger. Johnson also fed the tiger for Usifo during Usifo’s incarceration at PCDF. Johnson concealed any knowledge of the tiger when questioned by agents.

          The Big Cat Public Safety Act was enacted on December 20, 2022, to protect the public by putting an end to the private ownership of big cats, such as tigers and lions, as pets and by prohibiting exhibitors from allowing public contact with big cats, including tiger cubs. It has placed new restrictions on the commerce, breeding, possession, and use of certain big cat species. In order to legally possess privately owned big cats, the Act required individuals or entities to register any big cats before the date of enactment, that were in their possession with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).

          The case was investigated by the USFWS, with assistance from AGFC, Conway Police Department, and the Little Rock Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Edward Walker with assistance from the United States Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.

    # # #

    Additional information about the office of the

    United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, is available online at

    https://www.justice.gov/edar

    X (formerly known as Twitter):

    @USAO_EDAR 

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Nigerian National Extradited for Multi-Million Dollar Mortgage Fraud Scheme

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    MIAMI – A resident of Abuja, Nigeria made his initial appearance in a federal court in Miami, where he is accused of playing a key role in a fraud scheme in which he fraudulently obtained loans in connection with the fraudulent purchases of approximately 20 residential properties in Florida. This plot resulted in the loss of about $8 million to U.S. financial institutions, the Justice Department announced today.

    Okechukwu Josiah Odunna, 60, faces charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution. Odunna was arrested on Sept. 24, 2024, by Nigerian authorities pursuant to a U.S. extradition request. Nigerian authorities extradited Odunna to the Southern District of Florida on March 6, after he waived extradition. He has remained incarcerated since his arrest. Odunna is scheduled to appear at his pretrial detention and arraignment hearings on March 11 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman.

    According to the indictment, between December 2005 to approximately May 2008, Odunna and his co-conspirators devised a scheme to defraud and to obtain money by making false representations and material omissions to U.S. banking institutions. As part of the scheme, Odunna and his co-conspirators would, among other things: submit false and fraudulent loan applications and documents to financial institutions relating to purchases of residential properties, resulting in lenders loaning out more money than they otherwise would. These false statements to the lenders included false names of the persons who would be borrowing the money to purchase the properties, falsely inflated sale prices that were much higher than the true prices and false details regarding the receipt and disbursement of funds in connection with the purchases of the properties.

    Odunna, who was a licensed attorney at the time, was also one of the directors of Direct Title and Escrow Services, Inc. (DTES). Odunna was the settlement agent in approximately 20 fraudulent closings of property purchases. To disguise the fraud, Odunna and his co-conspirators provided sellers and lenders with two different settlement statements, which included false information and omitted information regarding the sale price, the identity of the purchaser, and the receipt and the disbursement of funds.

    Odunna’s co-conspirators, charged in the same indictment, included Karl Oreste, Marie Lucie Tondreau and Kelly Augustin. Oreste pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 100 months in prison. Tondreau, who was the former Mayor of North Miami, was convicted at trial. She was sentenced to 65 months in prison. Augustin remains a fugitive.

    If convicted, Odunna faces up to 30 years in prison on the conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution charge and up to 30 years in prison on the wire fraud affecting a financial institution charge. Each count also carries the possibility of a fine and supervised release upon completion of any prison sentence. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

    U.S. Attorney Hayden P. O’Byrne for the Southern District of Florida, Acting Special Agent in Charge Brett Skiles of the FBI Miami Field Office, and Commissioner Russell C. Weigel, III, of the Florida Office of Financial Regulation (OFR), made the announcement.

    The FBI Miami and OFR are investigating the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided significant assistance in securing the arrest and extradition of Odunna. The United States also thanks the FBI International Operations Division, Africa Unit Legal Attaché Office, Abuja, Nigeria, Ministry of Justice, Central Authority Unit, Nigeria, and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Nigeria for their valuable assistance.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Ana Maria Martinez is prosecuting the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daren Grove is handling asset forfeiture.

    An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

    Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 14-cr-20349.

    ###

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Multiple Members of Transnational Criminal Organization ‘18th Street’ Sentenced for Roles in Various Violent Crimes Committed During Their Gang Involvement

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

                WASHINGTON – Elvis Mauricio Maradiaga, 23, of Bladensburg, Maryland, was sentenced today to 108 months in federal prison for his participation in a violent, transnational criminal enterprise known as the 18th Street gang.  Maradiaga was one of the last of 11 other defendants sentenced for crimes related to their involvement in 18th Street. His sentencing marks the conclusion of a sprawling, multi-year investigation into the gang’s criminal activities throughout DMV-area and abroad.

                In sum, in February 2023, a grand jury returned an indictment against 12 of the 18th Street members, charging them with participating in a years’ long racketeering conspiracy as well as with murders, attempted murders, and kidnapping.  Of the 12 charged defendants, six proceeded to trial in April and May 2024 before the Honorable Trevor N. McFadden, were found guilty by a jury of nearly every offense with which they were charged, and were each sentenced to life imprisonment. Five defendants pleaded guilty and received sentences ranging from 96 to 480 months in prison.

                The sentences were announced by U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr., FBI Special Agent in Charge Sean Ryan of the Washington Field Office Criminal and Cyber Division, ICE Deputy Director Russ Hott of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Division of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ICE-ERO), and Chief Pamela Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).

                The 18th Street organization engages in a variety of criminal activities abroad and throughout the United States, including in Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland. Its activities include acts of murder, kidnapping, assault, robbery, witness intimidation, and firearms and narcotics trafficking to fuel the gang’s violent operations. The gang is active throughout Central and South America, particularly in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. It uses violence to maintain control over specific geographical areas.

                “The sentencing of these violent criminals should send a clear message: transnational gangs like 18th Street have no place in our communities and we will not tolerate the brutality, fear, and lawlessness they spread,” said U.S. Attorney Edward R. Martin, Jr. “Through relentless cooperation between federal, state, and local law enforcement, we are dismantling these dangerous organizations piece by piece. Our commitment to public safety is unwavering, and we will continue to pursue and prosecute those who threaten our neighborhoods with violence and crime.”

                According to court documents, members of 18th Street are required to commit acts of violence to further the interests of the gang and to maintain or increase their status within it. These violent acts are often directed against rival gang members, 18th Street members who violate gang rules or otherwise disrespect the gang, and persons who are suspected of cooperating with law enforcement. Additionally, 18th Street members sell and transport narcotics, weapons, and other contraband to generate money to support the gang and its criminal activities. Some of the proceeds of this criminal activity are wired to members of the gang’s leadership in other countries. 18th Street members control geographical areas and use violence to maintain their control.

                18th Street – which was founded in Los Angeles and now includes up to 50,000 members – is organized into “cliques,” or smaller groups operating within specific cities or regions under the umbrella rules of 18th Street. Such cliques include the Tiny Locos Sureños (TLS), Los Crazy Brothers (LCB), and the Revolucionarios. 

               This investigation began in 2019 and covered the full breadth of criminal activity 18th Street was involved in within the greater D.C. metropolitan area. Ultimately, numerous 18th Street gang members were arrested as part of the investigation and either pled guilty or were found guilty at trial in May 2024.  Regarding these sentences in particular, the charges focused on the shooting and attempted murder of C.H. on May 21, 2021, within the 5700 block of 14th Street NW, Washington, DC; the kidnapping and execution of Carlos Ramos Martinez on July 14, 2021, in a wooded area off the side of I-95 in Elkton, MD; and the murder of Danis Alcides Salgado Mata on December 19, 2021, in Rockville, MD as well as the attempted murders of his mother and stepfather.  The sentences also included defendants who pled guilty to participating in a racketeer influenced and corrupt organization (RICO) related to their involvement and knowledge of kidnappings, robberies, weapons trafficking, and narcotic trafficking committed at the behest of the gang.

                A final defendant, Milton Benjamin Guevara-Villatoro, has been extradited from El Salvador and is pending trial on two indictments related to his alleged involvement in a shooting at the Petworth Metro Station on September 17, 2019, and the murder of Carlos Ramos Martinez.

                This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

                The case was investigated by the Northern Virginia Safe Streets Task Force, the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement – Enforcement Removal Operations, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), and the Montgomery County, Maryland Police Department. The District of Columbia Department of Forensic Sciences, Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, and the Montgomery County, Maryland State’s Attorney’s Office provided valuable assistance.

                The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jack F. Korba, Will Hart, and Sitara Witanachchi and former Assistant U.S. Attorneys Gilead Light and Christopher Marin.     

    18th STREET DEFENDANTS

     

    NAME

    AGE

    AKA

    CLIQUE

    CHARGES/SENTENCES

    Jose Santos Alvarado-Velasquez,

    Takoma Park, MD

     

     

    24

     

    “Vago”

     

    Los Crazy Brothers

    		 Sentenced November 21, 2024, to life in prison for conspiracy to participate in a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO-Conspiracy), Violent Crimes in Aid of Racketeering (VICAR)- Murder, conspiracy to commit kidnapping resulting in death, kidnapping resulting in death; and sentenced to 120 months for discharge of a firearm – crime of violence, and unlawful possession of a firearm – illegal alien

    Gerlin Neptali Diaz-Lopez

    Washington, D.C.

    23

    “Sicario”

    Tiny Locos Sureños

    		 Sentenced October 11, 2024, to life in prison Imprisonment for RICO-conspiracy, VICAR-Murder, conspiracy to commit kidnapping resulting in death, kidnapping resulting in death; and sentenced to 120 months for discharge of a firearm – crime of violence, and unlawful possession of a firearm – illegal alien

    Jose Anselmo Ibarra-Cristales

    Beltsville, MD

    24

    “Chemo”

    		 Los Crazy Brothers Sentenced September 27, 2024, to 20 years in prison for RICO-conspiracy; and life in prison for VICAR-murder, conspiracy to commit kidnapping resulting in death, kidnapping resulting in death

    Carlos Rolando Martinez-Mora

    Hyattsville, MD

    25

    “Crosty”

    		 Los Crazy Brothers Sentenced November 14, 2024, to two consecutive life sentences for RICO-conspiracy, VICAR-murder x2, conspiracy to commit kidnapping resulting in death, and kidnapping resulting in death

    Bradley Andree Martinez-Mora

    Hyattsville, MD

    22

    “Joker”

    		 Los Crazy Brothers Sentenced December 23, 2024, to 20 years in prison for RICO-conspiracy; and a life sentence for conspiracy to commit kidnapping resulting in death

    Jexon Madrid-Flores

    Boston, MA

    23

    “Spooky”

    		 Tiny Locos Sureños

    Sentenced October 11, 2024, to 20 years in prison for RICO-conspiracy; and life in prison for conspiracy to commit kidnapping resulting in death; also sentenced to 20 years for

    VICAR-assault with a dangerous weapon (ADW); 204 months for discharging a firearm during a crime of violence; 120 months for VICAR-attempted murder; and 80 months for aggravated assault while armed

    Bryan Delfino Vasquez-Izara

    Washington, DC

    22

    “Smokey”

    		 Tiny Locos Sureños Sentenced October 4, 2024, to 96 months for RICO-conspiracy; and 12 months for carrying a pistol without a license

    Elvis Mauricio Maradiaga

    Bladensburg, MD

    23

    “Smokey”

    		 Los Crazy Brothers Sentenced March 7, 2024, to 108 months for RICO-Conspiracy

    Carlos Giovani Linares Boteo

    Hyattsville, MD

    		 28

    “Tiny”

    		 Los Crazy Brothers Sentenced August 1, 2024, to 216 months imprisonment for RICO-conspiracy

    Cesar De la O Rodriguez

    Washington, DC

    		 21

    “Lunatico”

    		 Tiny Locos Sureños Sentenced January 21, 2025, to 40 years in prison for RICO-conspiracy; and 10 years for conspiracy to commit VICAR-murder

    Emerson Aguirre-Morales[1]

    Washington, DC

    		 21

    “Mota”

    		 Tiny Locos Sureños Sentenced February 3, 2025, to 102 months for VICAR-attempted murder

    [1] Aguirre-Morales was initially charged by Information in 22-cr-218 as a juvenile.  As part of his guilty plea, he agreed to be charged as an adult.

    ###

    23cr43

    22cr190

    22cr218
     

    [1] Aguirre-Morales was initially charged by Information in 22-cr-218 as a juvenile.  As part of his guilty plea, he agreed to be charged as an adult.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Marlborough Man Arrested for Possession of Four Kilograms of Cocaine

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    BOSTON – A Marlborough man has been arrested on cocaine trafficking charges.  

    Ricardo Guzman, a/k/a “Killin” 38, was charged by criminal complaint with one count of distribution and possession with intent to distribute cocaine and one count of possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine. Guzman was arrested on March 5, 2025 and appeared in federal court on March 6, 2025.

    According to the charging documents, on Jan. 6, 20205, a source allegedly purchased 499 grams of cocaine from Guzman in Marlborough, Mass. This purchase was audio and video recorded.  

    On March 5, 2025, the source allegedly arranged to purchase three kilograms of cocaine from Guzman in exchange for $75,000. It is alleged that Guzman was observed leaving the building where he resided with an unknown male carrying two large approximately five-gallon plaster buckets and placing them in a truck bed. The two men drove the truck a short distance when Guzman was observed getting out and entering his own vehicle, a red Volkswagen. Allegedly Guzman, alone in his vehicle, drove to a parking lot near the location where he planned to meet the source in Marlborough, Mass. Guzman’s vehicle was followed to this location by the truck. Once at the parking lot, Guzman was taken into custody and approximately half of a kilogram (500 grams) of suspected cocaine was found on his person. According to court documents, a search of the truck resulted in the seizure of approximately three and a half kilograms of suspected cocaine in the buckets in the truck bed.  

    The charge of distribution and possession with intent to distribute cocaine provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, at least three years of supervised release and up to life and a fine of up to $1,000,000. The charge of possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine provides for a mandatory minimum of five years and up to 40 years in prison, at least four of supervised release and up to life and a fine of up to $5,000,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

    United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s Boston Division and the Hudson, Marlborough and Stoneham Police Departments. Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Mackenzie Duane of the Narcotics and Money Laundering Unit is prosecuting the case.

    This case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/ocdetf.

    The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
     

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Former refugee admits to supporting ISIS

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    HOUSTON – A 28-year-old former Iraqi refugee and legal permanent resident of Richmond has entered a guilty plea to conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, announced U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei.

    Abdulrahman Mohammed Hafedh Alqaysi admitted to providing material support and resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).

    From 2015 to 2020, Alqaysi provided his computer expertise to develop and post logos for a media arm of the ISIS group known as the Kalachnikov team. He further sent hacking videos and instructions to ISIS members in addition to stolen credit card information and fraudulently created identity documents.

    “The Department of Justice and the Southern District of Texas are committed to rooting out terror elements in our communities, wherever they may be,” said Ganjei. “If you’re working to subvert the United States through violence, you will be found and you will be punished.”

    U.S. District Judge Alfred Bennett accepted the plea and has set sentencing for June 5. At that time, Alqaysi faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a possible $250,000 maximum fine.

    He has been and will remain in custody pending that hearing.

    The FBI Houston Joint Terrorism Task Force conducted the investigation with the assistance of Homeland Security Investigations. Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Winter is prosecuting the case along with NSD Trial Attorney Michael Dittoe.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: DOJ, HHS, ED, and GSA Announce Initial Cancelation of Grants and Contracts to Columbia University Worth $400 Million

    Source: United States Attorneys General 1

    Members Of the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism Take Swift Action to Protect Jewish Students in Response to Inaction By Columbia University

    WASHINGTON — Today, the Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Department of Education (ED), and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced the immediate cancellation of approximately $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University due to the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students. These cancellations represent the first round of action and additional cancellations are expected to follow. The Task Force is continuing to review and coordinate across federal agencies to identify additional cancellations that could be made swiftly. DOJ, HHS, ED, and GSA are taking this action as members of the Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. Columbia University currently holds more than $5 billion in federal grant commitments.

    On March 3rd, the Task Force notified the Acting President of Columbia University that it would conduct a comprehensive review of the university’s federal contracts and grants  in light of ongoing investigations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Chaos and anti-Semitic harassment have continued on and near campus in the days since. Columbia has not responded to the Task Force.

    “After the horrors of October 7th, Jewish students were shamefully targeted on American college campuses—including at Columbia University,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Any university which fails to account for the discrimination of its students will not be tolerated. Comply with federal anti-discrimination laws and take action to protect students or expect consequences.”

    “Since October 7, Jewish students have faced relentless violence, intimidation, and anti-Semitic harassment on their campuses – only to be ignored by those who are supposed to protect them,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Universities must comply with all federal antidiscrimination laws if they are going to receive federal funding. For too long, Columbia has abandoned that obligation to Jewish students studying on its campus. Today, we demonstrate to Columbia and other universities that we will not tolerate their appalling inaction any longer.”

    President Trump has been clear that any college or university that allows illegal protests and repeatedly fails to protect students from anti-Semitic harassment on campus will be subject to the loss of federal funding.

    “Freezing the funds is one of the tools we are using to respond to this spike in anti-Semitism. This is only the beginning,” said Leo Terrell, Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights and head of the DOJ Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. “Cancelling these taxpayer funds is our strongest signal yet that the Federal Government is not going to be party to an educational institution like Columbia that does not protect Jewish students and staff.”

    The decisive action by the DOJ, HHS, ED, and GSA to cancel Columbia’s grants and contracts serves as a notice to every school and university that receives federal dollars that this Administration will use all the tools at its disposal to protect Jewish students and end anti-Semitism on college campuses.

    “Anti-Semitism is clearly inconsistent with the fundamental values that should inform liberal education,” said Sean Keveney, HHS Acting General Counsel and Task Force member. “Columbia University’s complacency is unacceptable.”

    GSA will assist HHS and ED in issuing stop-work orders on grants and contracts that Columbia holds with those agencies. These stop-work orders will immediately freeze the university’s access to these funds. Additionally, GSA will be assisting all agencies in issuing stop work orders and terminations for contracts held by Columbia University.

    “Doing business with the Federal Government is a privilege,” said Josh Gruenbaum, FAS Commissioner and Task Force member. “Columbia University, through their continued and shameful inaction to stop radical protestors from taking over buildings on campus and lack of response to the safety issues for Jewish students, and for that matter – all students – are not upholding the ideals of this Administration or the American people. Columbia cannot expect to retain the privilege of receiving federal taxpayer dollars if they will not fulfill their civil rights responsibilities to protect Jewish students from harassment and anti-Semitism.”

    For more information, read the HHS, ED, and GSA joint press release from Monday, March 3rd.

    # # #

     

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Australia: Man charged over media light theft

    Source: South Australia Police

    Police horses (and riders) have arrested a man in Adelaide after allegedly stealing a cameraman’s light last week.

    About 5am on Monday 3 March a media crew were reporting live from Rundle Mall, Adelaide, when an unknown man stole a camera light at battery before walking away.

    Just after 10pm Friday 7 March a police Mounted patrol located a man walking on King William Street and identified him as the man wanted for questioning in relation to the theft matter.

    The 49-year-old man of NFPA was arrested and charged with theft. He was refused bail and will appear in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

    The camera light and battery has not been located. Anyone with information that may assist is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at www.crimestopeprssa.com.au or phone 1800 333 000 – you can remain anonymous.

    Please quote reference number 24-228M.

    MIL OSI News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Fayetteville Man Sentenced to 130 Months in Prison for Possessing a Firearm as a Convicted Felon

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    RALEIGH, N.C. – Chadiez White (24) was sentenced on Thursday to 130 months in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm. White pled guilty to the offense on November 26, 2024.  

    According to court records and evidence presented at sentencing, White was stopped by the Fayetteville Police Department for a traffic infraction. Officers detected an odor of marijuana coming from the car and saw marijuana residue and paraphernalia in the lap of a passenger. White admitted to officers that there was marijuana and a firearm in the car. White’s vehicle was seized and searched, and the officers located a semiautomatic pistol with a large capacity magazine under the driver’s seat, ammunition in the center console, 77 grams of marijuana and a digital scale in backpack located behind the driver’s seat, and six empty marijuana graphic baggies from the passenger side. White claimed ownership of everything found in the vehicle. 

    White’s criminal history includes convictions for common law robbery, breaking and entering, and an unrelated prior conviction for possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.

    This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.

    Daniel P. Bubar, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III. Agencies involved in the investigation include the Fayetteville Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jaren E. Kelly and Jermaine Sellers prosecuted the case.

    Related court documents and information can be found on the website of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina or on PACER by searching for the case number.

    ###

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Man Sentenced After Kicking in Door and Shooting at Ex

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    TULSA, Okla. – Today, U.S. District Judge John D. Russell sentenced Bryce Tyler Pyle, 36, for First Degree Burglary in Indian Country and Carrying, Using, and Brandishing a Firearm During and in Relation to a Crime of Violence. Judge Russell ordered Pyle to 168 months imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release.

    In July 2024, Pyle drove to his former girlfriend’s home with their child in the car. At some point, Pyle kicked open the former girlfriend’s door and pointed a handgun at her and another person in the home. The former girlfriend demanded that Pyle leave. When Pyle returned to his car, he intentionally fired his gun toward the house before leaving. The former girlfriend noticed their child crying in the backseat of the car when Pyle drove off.

    The former girlfriend called Pyle and convinced him to return their child. Pyle then entered the home a second time and began destroying property. While Pyle was in the home, police officers intercepted and detained him.

    Pyle is a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and will remain in custody pending transfer to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

    The FBI and Tulsa Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney John W. Dowdell prosecuted the case.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Clinton, Indiana, Woman Pleads Guilty to Murder-for-Hire

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    URBANA, Ill. – A Clinton, Indiana, woman, Davetta Cox, 32, pleaded guilty on March 7, 2025, to using facilities of interstate commerce in a murder-for-hire scheme. Sentencing for Cox has been set for July 18, 2025, at the U.S. Courthouse in Urbana, Illinois.

    At the hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Eric I. Long, Cox admitted to seeking to hire someone she believed to be a hitman to kill another individual. During the hearing, the government provided information that Cox had offered the supposed hitman $6,000 to murder another individual.

    Cox was arrested in January 2024 and remains in the custody of the United States Marshals Service, pending sentencing. Cox faces up to 20 years’ imprisonment; up to a $500,000 fine; and up to a six-year term of supervised release.

    The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Springfield Field Office, Champaign Resident Agency, and the Illinois State Police investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachel Ritzer is representing the government in the prosecution. 

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  • MIL-OSI Security: Decatur Siblings Sentenced to Multiple Decades in Prison for Kidnapping Local Businessman

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – Two Decatur siblings, Ademeko Maclin-Carney, 26, and Ausarian Carney, 23, were sentenced on March 5, 2025, to thirty and twenty-four years in federal prison, respectively, to be followed by multi-year terms of supervised release, for kidnapping and seeking ransom for a Decatur businessman on March 24, 2022.

    During a five-day jury trial from October 7-11, 2024, the government presented evidence that Maclin-Carney lured a local businessman to an abandoned house in Decatur under the pretense of seeking a flooring estimate for the home. When the victim arrived to provide the flooring estimate, Maclin-Carney greeted him using an alias and led him inside, where she pepper-sprayed him in the eyes as he stood up from taking a measurement. As this was happening, her brother, Carney, entered from another room, pressed a firearm into the victim, and told him it was going to be a “very bad day” for him. After ordering the victim to the ground while holding him at gunpoint, Carney then zip-tied the victim’s hands, duct-taped his face, and put a bag over his head. The siblings instructed the victim that they wanted $400,000 for his release, otherwise they would kill him.

    The kidnappers moved the victim to various locations, at one point instructing him to make a ransom call to his wife at their family business. Though the victim instructed his wife not to call the police, she nonetheless called 911 and the Decatur Police Department responded and began their investigation. Maclin-Carney went to the victim’s business and saw members of the Decatur Police Department there, which spurred her and Carney to again move the victim and to eventually dump him, zip-tied with a bag over his head, in the back of an abandoned van. The victim, left alone on a bed of broken glass in the rain, eventually pried a hand free and escaped his zip ties. He ran to a local business, where the authorities were contacted and came to his aid.

    Meanwhile, the Decatur Police Department was conducting an extensive investigation and had located the victim’s car, which the defendants had dumped in an alleyway in Decatur. The defendants also had placed the victim’s belongings in the car, along with a notebook that listed the address of the home from which he had been abducted, the alias that had been used by Maclin-Carney, and traces of pepper spray that had been used against the victim. Ultimately, law enforcement discovered that the notebook contained the fingerprints of both defendants. Using this information, the Decatur Police were able to locate and search the home where the victim had been abducted and find more evidence implicating the two defendants.

    The victim identified Maclin-Carney before and during the trial as the kidnapper who lured him to the home for the flooring estimate. A variety of forensic evidence, including fingerprints, DNA, business video footage, trace fiber evidence, and cellular location data all demonstrated that the siblings perpetrated the kidnapping. The jury convicted both siblings of kidnapping on October 11, 2024.

    At the sentencing hearings before U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn on March 5, 2025, Judge McGlynn noted that the victim and his family would suffer long-lasting psychological trauma from the incident. Judge McGlynn also noted that neither defendant expressed remorse for the crime.

    In imposing the thirty-year sentence for Maclin-Carney, Judge McGlynn highlighted that she was the leader of the kidnapping, specifically noting her research about the victim, his family, and his business before the crime. The court also noted that Maclin-Carney had researched the penalty for “third-degree murder” in the leadup to the kidnapping. After her arrest, Maclin-Carney also took steps while in pretrial detention both to prevent the victims from testifying against her, and to manufacture an alibi through false testimony about her own and her brother’s whereabouts during the kidnapping. Maclin-Carney had two prior violent felony convictions, both for aggravated battery, prior to committing this kidnapping.

    In imposing the twenty-four-year sentence for Carney, Judge McGlynn noted that although Maclin-Carney was the mastermind of the operation and had a more serious criminal history, Carney was still the gunman and the muscle. Carney had been, in every way, a partner to his sister’s crime, had pressed the firearm into the victim multiple times to force his compliance, and like his sister, never expressed regret or remorse for his actions.

    “The defendants’ violent kidnapping of the victim in this case shows their avarice for ill-gotten gains at any cost, including the terror they inflicted on the victim and his family,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Gregory M. Gilmore. “The significant sentences here reflect the gravity of the defendants’ crimes. I want to thank our law enforcement partners – the Decatur Police Department, the FBI, and the U.S. Marshal’s Service – who all did excellent work investigating this crime.”

    “Kidnapping cases are incredibly traumatic, and this one was no different,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Bryan D. Freres. “The husband and wife victims of this offense showed immense courage throughout this ordeal, including testifying at the trial. Throughout, I was deeply moved by their strength and faith. I am also deeply appreciative for all the hard work of law enforcement in investigating this case.”

    “This case is a testament to the outstanding dedication and collaboration between the Decatur Police Department, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in bringing these suspects to justice,” said Decatur Police Chief Shane Brandel. “The investigators worked tirelessly on this complex case, demonstrating exceptional skill and commitment to ensuring public safety. We are grateful for our strong partnerships and the unwavering pursuit of justice by the prosecutors who brought this case to a successful conclusion. Most importantly, our thoughts remain with the victim, and we hope this resolution brings them a measure of healing and justice.”

    “Quite often, successful investigative outcomes require resources from a variety of law enforcement partners,” said FBI Springfield Field Office Acting Special Agent in Charge Karen Marinos. “The Decatur Police Department, the U.S. Marshals Service, and FBI Springfield brought their best to the table. Those efforts held the offenders accountable and led to justice for the victim.”

    The statutory penalty for kidnapping is up to life imprisonment, followed by up to five years of supervised release.

    The Decatur Police Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation, Springfield Field Office, investigated the case, with assistance from the U.S. Marshal’s Service. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bryan D. Freres and Douglas F. McMeyer represented the United States in the prosecution.

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