NewzIntel.com

Category: Law

  • MIL-OSI USA: Puerto Rico man arrested for child exploitation after ICE San Juan investigation

    Source: US Immigration and Customs Enforcement

    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations special agents arrested Aneudy Jazzan Pérez-Santiago, a 30-year-old teacher from Carolina, on criminal charges related to child exploitation.

    On July 10, a federal grand jury indicted Pérez-Santiago on charges involving the coercion and enticement of a minor and the transfer of obscene material to a 14-year-old girl.

    According to court documents, from February 2023 to February 2025, Pérez-Santiago used a cellphone, online instant messaging services and social media to knowingly persuade, induce, entice and coerce a 14-year-old girl to engage in sexual activity and transferred obscene material to her.

    “This case demonstrates the importance of adult supervision on digital devices,” said HSI San Juan Special Agent in Charge Rebecca González-Ramos. “A responsible father monitoring social media platforms discovered sexually explicit conversations between a teacher and their student. This individual, who also calls himself a minister of a church, exploited his role as an educator and spiritual guide to approach a minor and engage in sexually explicit conversations. The defendant does not represent the amazing teachers of Puerto Rico’s Department of Education, who day to day, work with us to identify and report these predators. The perfect formula to protect our children is strong parental supervision, engaged personnel from Puerto Rico’s Department of Education, and HSI’s Puerto Rico Crimes Against Children Task Force, whose main mission is to keep our children safe from sexual predators.”

    If convicted for the charges the defendant faces the following penalties: 

    • Coercion and enticement of a minor: A mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 10 years and up to life in prison.
    • Transfer of obscene material to a minor: Up to 10 years in prison.

    All charges of conviction will be followed by a term of supervised release of no less than five years and up to life. A federal district court judge will determine Pérez-Santiago’s sentence after considering the U.S. sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors.

    Members of the public with information can report crimes or suspicious activity by dialing the ICE Tip Line at 866-DHS-2-ICE (866-347-2423) or by completing the online tip form.

    For more information about HSI’s efforts to protect children from sexual predators, visit Know2Protect.gov. To report suspicious activities, call 787-729-6969 or send an email to IntelHSISanJuan@hsi.dhs.gov.

    Learn more about HSI San Juan mission to increase public safety in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands on Instagram at @HSISanJuan, Facebook at @HSISanJuanPR and X at @HSISanJuan.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Iowa Man Indicted for Sex Trafficking Multiple Victims

    Source: US State of North Dakota

    An eight-count indictment in the Northern District of Iowa has been unsealed charging a Des Moines man with four counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and four counts of interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution through coercion and enticement.

    According to the indictment, Marlin Santana Thomas Sr., 49, used force, fraud and coercion to cause four adult women to engage in commercial sex acts in the Northern District of Iowa and elsewhere between 2009 and 2015. The indictment also alleges that Thomas transported women from Iowa to Illinois and North Dakota for the purpose of engaging in prostitution.

    The charge of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion carries a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison. It also carries a minimum of five years of supervised release up to a lifetime of supervised release along with a fine of up to $250,000. Finally, restitution is mandatory upon any conviction for sex trafficking. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence upon any conviction after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

    The FBI and Des Moines Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Nydle for the Northern District of Iowa and Trial Attorney Slava Kuperstein of the Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit are prosecuting the case.

    The FBI is asking that anyone with information about Thomas to contact the Omaha Field Office at (402) 493-8688.

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

    Anyone who has information about human trafficking should report that information to the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free at 1-888-373-7888, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For more information about human trafficking, please visit www.humantraffickinghotline.org. Information on the Justice Department’s efforts to combat human trafficking can be found at www.justice.gov/humantrafficking.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: Teenagers aren’t good at spotting misinformation online – research suggests why

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Yvonne Skipper, Senior Lecturer in Psychology (Education), University of Glasgow

    Body Stock/Shutterstock

    Misinformation is found in every element of our online lives. It ranges from fake products available to buy, fake lifestyle posts on social media accounts and fake news about health and politics.

    Misinformation has an impact not only on our beliefs but also our behaviour: for example, it has affected how people vote in elections and whether people intend to have vaccinations.

    And since anyone can create and share online content, without the kind of verification processes or fact checking typical of more traditional media, misinformation has proliferated.

    This is particularly important as young people increasingly turn to social media for all kinds of information, using it as a source of news and as a search engine. But despite their frequent use of social media, teenagers struggle to evaluate the accuracy of the content they consume.

    A 2022 report from media watchdog Ofcom found that only 11% of 11 to 17 year olds could reliably recognise the signs that indicated a post was genuine.

    My research has explored what teenagers understand about misinformation online. I held focus groups with 37 11- to 14-year-olds, asking them their views on misinformation.

    Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK’s latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences.

    I found that the young people in the study tended to – wrongly – believe that misinformation was only about world events and scams. Because of this, they believed that they personally did not see a lot of misinformation.

    “[My Instagram] isn’t really like ‘this is happening in the world’ or whatever, it’s just kind of like life,” one said. This may make them vulnerable to misinformation as they are only alert for it in these domains.

    There was also wide variation in how confident they felt about spotting misinformation. Some were confident in their skills. “I’m not daft enough to believe it,” as one put it.

    Others admitted to being easily fooled. This was an interesting finding, as previous research has indicated that most people have a high level of confidence in their personal ability to spot misinformation.

    Most did not fact-check information by cross-referencing what they read with other news sources. They relied instead on their intuition – “You just see it, you know” – or looked at what others said in comment sections to spot misinformation. But neither of these strategies is likely to be particularly reliable.

    Relying on gut instinct typically means using cognitive shortcuts such as “I trust her, so I can trust her post” or “the website looks professional, so it is trustworthy”. This makes it easy for people to create believable false information.

    And a study by Ofcom found that only 22% of adults were able to identify signs of a genuine post. This means that relying on other people to help us tell true from false is not likely to be effective.

    Interestingly, the teens in this study saw older adults, particularly grandparents, as especially vulnerable to believing false information. On the other hand, they viewed their parents as more skilled at spotting misinformation than they themselves were. “[Parents] see it as fake news, so they don’t believe it and they don’t need to worry about it,” one said.

    Teens thought their parents would be better than them at spotting misinformation online.
    LightField Studios/Shutterstock

    This was unexpected. We might assume that young people, who are often considered digital natives, would see themselves as more adept than their parents at spotting misinformation.

    Taking responsibility

    We discussed whose role it was to challenge misinformation online. The teens were reluctant to challenge it themselves. They thought it would not make a difference if they did, or they feared being victimised online or even offline.

    Instead, they believed that governments should stop the spread of misinformation “as they know about what wars are happening”. But older participants thought that if the government took a leading role in stopping the spread of misinformation “there would be protests”, as it would be seen as censorship.

    They also felt that platforms should take responsibility to stop the spread of misinformation to protect their reputation, so that people don’t panic about fake news.

    In light of these findings, my colleagues and I have created a project that works with young people to create resources to help them develop their skills in spotting misinformation and staying safe online. We work closely with young people to understand what their concerns are, and how they want to learn about these topics.

    We also partner with organisations such as Police Scotland and Education Scotland to ensure our materials are grounded in real-world challenges and informed by the needs of teachers and other adult professionals as well as young people.

    Yvonne Skipper has received funding from the ESRC, Education Scotland and British Academy.

    – ref. Teenagers aren’t good at spotting misinformation online – research suggests why – https://theconversation.com/teenagers-arent-good-at-spotting-misinformation-online-research-suggests-why-260445

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Analysis: How young people have taken climate justice to the world’s international courts

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Susan Ann Samuel, PhD Candidate, School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds

    Pla2na/Shutterstock, CC BY-NC-ND

    Youth activist organisations including Pacific Islands Students Fighting Climate Change and World Youth for Climate Justice recently coordinated massive online calls across two different time zones. These two global gatherings were in preparation for a coordinated global youth movement around the release of the most anticipated advisory opinion scheduled to be delivered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on July 23 2025.

    An advisory opinion is a legal interpretation provided by a high-level court or tribunal with a special mandate, in response to a specific question of law. Simply put, an advisory opinion is not legally binding in the way a court judgement between two nations would be.

    But it is authoritative. The opinion carries significant legal, moral and political weight: since states often refer to advisory opinions when shaping policies, judges cite them for decisions and they’re used by civil society to hold governments accountable. An advisory opinion can influence shifting governance and principles governing it. I like to think of it as a northern star — it won’t change the reality but can guide potential outcomes and pave the way for future change.

    As one of hundreds of participants attending both the online meetings, plus in my capacity as a researcher investigating the role of youth in climate law and politics, this collective action feels momentous.

    The movement for an advisory opinion to ICJ began in 2019 when a few brave young people from the Pacific Islands stood up for the world. Twenty-seven law students at the Vanuatu campus of the University of South Pacific convinced their nation to champion climate action and accountability to the entire world by bringing climate justice to the world court.

    For these students in the Pacific, the climate crisis means losing their identity, their culture and their homes to the rising sea levels and weather catastrophes. To the young people across the globe — including me — the concern about not being heard by world leaders becomes a shared reality, even though it is our future at stake.

    Four courts, four continents

    It’s not just the ICJ that’s delivering an advisory opinion. The world is at a turning point. For the first time, four world courts or tribunals across four continents are being asked to clarify nations’ legal obligations in the face of the climate crisis. The ICJ’s advisory opinion is the centrepiece: but it sits within a broader push primarily by global youth and developing countries — to clarify what human rights, state responsibility and climate justice mean in law.

    A “quartet” of advisory opinions now spans four judicial bodies: the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the ICJ, and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. See the diagram below to check the timeline of each court proceeding.

    In addition to the advisory opinions, there are currently 3,113 climate cases across the globe. These include many youth-led cases that bolster solidarity for climate action, call for futureproofing environmental governance, and evoke soft power around the legal proceedings.

    These legal proceedings are the result of bold, persistent advocacy. These cases are not abstract. There’s a moral arc here: they primarily stem from advocacy from global youth movements, developing countries, civil society coalitions and frontline communities demanding legal recognition of climate harms and protection of future generations.

    As such, the role of youth in bolstering moral power is massive. Their influence in empowering states across the globe to embody climate leadership is critical to pushing for political action, even amid geopolitical realities.

    Tracing climate litigation patterns suggests that youth are changing the environmental governance space: as youth litigators (both young lawyers and youth-led cases), youth negotiators and youth activists. Youth across these three spheres — law, politics and activism — are mutually reinforcing each other in their advocacy, unlike ever before.

    Themes of climate justice in litigation, negotiation, and social movements are deeply interconnected, rather than isolated from one another. Youth, who are active across all these spheres, often serve as key advocates, thereby reshaping governance dynamics in the process

    The push for justice by youth is palpable, despite growing political concerns across the globe. Youth remains the common face of vulnerability, agency and promise. The call for justice is now.

    Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?

    Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 45,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

    Susan Ann Samuel receives funding from Prof. Viktoria Spaiser’s UKRI FLF Grant MR/V021141/1 and is supported by the University of Leeds – School of Politics and International Studies.

    – ref. How young people have taken climate justice to the world’s international courts – https://theconversation.com/how-young-people-have-taken-climate-justice-to-the-worlds-international-courts-261033

    MIL OSI Analysis –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Iowa Man Indicted for Sex Trafficking Multiple Victims

    Source: United States Attorneys General 2

    An eight-count indictment in the Northern District of Iowa has been unsealed charging a Des Moines man with four counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and four counts of interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution through coercion and enticement.

    According to the indictment, Marlin Santana Thomas Sr., 49, used force, fraud and coercion to cause four adult women to engage in commercial sex acts in the Northern District of Iowa and elsewhere between 2009 and 2015. The indictment also alleges that Thomas transported women from Iowa to Illinois and North Dakota for the purpose of engaging in prostitution.

    The charge of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion carries a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison. It also carries a minimum of five years of supervised release up to a lifetime of supervised release along with a fine of up to $250,000. Finally, restitution is mandatory upon any conviction for sex trafficking. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence upon any conviction after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

    The FBI and Des Moines Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Nydle for the Northern District of Iowa and Trial Attorney Slava Kuperstein of the Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit are prosecuting the case.

    The FBI is asking that anyone with information about Thomas to contact the Omaha Field Office at (402) 493-8688.

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

    Anyone who has information about human trafficking should report that information to the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free at 1-888-373-7888, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For more information about human trafficking, please visit www.humantraffickinghotline.org. Information on the Justice Department’s efforts to combat human trafficking can be found at www.justice.gov/humantrafficking.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Second Criminal Illegal Alien with Lengthy Rap Sheet Arrested for Involvement in Ambush and Shooting CBP Officer in New York City

    Source: US Department of Homeland Security

    Both criminal illegal aliens involved in the attempted armed robbery were released into the country under the Biden Administration and NYC sanctuary politicians ignored detainer

    NEW YORK – Today, the Department of Homeland Security arrested Cristian Aybar Berroa, a criminal illegal alien, and the second suspect involved in the attempted armed robbery of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer who was off duty in New York City in Fort Washington Park under the George Washington Bridge on July 19. The first suspect, Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, also a criminal illegal alien, who shot the CBP officer, was arrested yesterday.

    A witness of the attack stated that she and the victim were sitting on the rocks by the water when two subjects on a scooter drove up to them, dismounted the scooter and approached them with a firearm drawn. The off-duty CBP officer responded by withdrawing his own firearm in self defense. The CBP officer was shot in his right arm and left cheek. Thankfully, the officer is in stable condition at the hospital.

    Cristian Aybar Berroa, a criminal illegal alien from the Dominican Republic, illegally entered the United States on June 19, 2022, and was released into the country on interim parole pending his immigration hearing. New York City ignored his detainer.

    This criminal illegal alien’s rap sheet includes:

    • On May 10, 2023, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) arrested Berroa for 2nd degree reckless endangerment.
    • On March 26, 2024, NYPD arrested Berroa for 4th degree felony grand larceny and petit larceny.
    • On April 5, 2024, NYPD arrested him 4th degree felony grand larceny and petit larceny. Despite an active ICE detainer, the New York City Department of Corrections released Berroa back onto NYC streets.
    • On February 20, 2025, NYPD arrested Berroa for 2nd degree reckless endangerment, reckless driving, and for driving without a license.
    • On June 12, 2025, Berroa pled guilty to petit larceny at the Bronx County Supreme Court. This plea was made in consolidation of all his previous arrests, and he was conditionally discharged and allowed to roam the streets of NYC.

    A judge ordered Berroa a final order of removal on January 3, 2023.

    The other assailant in the attack is Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, a criminal illegal alien from the Dominican Republic. He illegally entered the United States on April 4, 2023, and was released by the Biden Administration into the country.

    This criminal illegal alien’s rap sheet includes:

    • On October 11, 2023, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) arrested and charged Nunez with felony grand larceny, petit larceny, and reckless driving.
    • On October 1, 2024, the NYPD arrested and charged Nunez with 2nd and 3rd degree assault.
    • On November 30, 2024, the NYPD arrested Nunez for criminal contempt. On January 13, 2025, he was again attested for criminal contempt.
    • On February 21, 2025, the Leominster Police Department in Massachusetts issued a criminal warrant for Nunez for armed robbery with a firearm.

    After failing to show up for his immigration hearing a judge issued Nunez a final order of removal on November 6, 2024.

    “These violent thugs had committed a smorgasbord of crimes and been arrested multiple times and yet New York continued to release them, ignore an ICE detainer and allow them to continue to prey on Americans and terrorize our streets. How many people have to die, how many lives have to be changed forever for Mayor Adams and his sanctuary politician ilk to end these performative politics?” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

    # # #

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI: ALRMiner multi-currency mining upgrade: SOL and DOGE support added, AI deployment is more efficient!

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    New York City, NY, July 21, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — As the crypto market gradually recovers, mainstream digital assets such as Solana (SOL) and Dogecoin (DOGE) are becoming increasingly popular. In this wave, ALR Miner, a long-established cloud mining platform from the UK, once again leads the industry trend. It recently announced a comprehensive upgrade of multi-currency cloud mining services and officially launched smart cloud mining contracts for SOL and DOGE. Relying on AI technology empowerment, users can achieve one-click participation, daily income, transparent funds, and a safe and controllable mining experience.

    Leading the trend: SOL and DOGE officially join the ALR Miner smart mining system
    As a compliant platform that has been deeply involved in the cloud mining industry for 7 years, ALR Miner has always kept up with market trends and is committed to providing global users with the most growth potential for currency mining options. The newly added Solana (SOL) and Dogecoin (DOGE) not only have extremely high market activity and community support, but also have shown strong growth potential in the past year.

    SOL (Solana): Known for its high-speed chain performance, suitable for long-term holding and stable growth;

    DOGE (Dogecoin): Strong community drive, high liquidity, suitable for short-term income strategy.

    Through intelligent algorithm scheduling computing power, ALR Miner maximizes the income potential of different currencies, bringing users a truly efficient, diversified, and stable income combination.

    The mining process is simple and clear, and 0 devices can easily earn daily income

    Users do not need to configure any mining machines or technical background, and only need 3 steps to start the cloud mining journey

    Register an account: Visit the official website https://alrminer.com to quickly create an account

    Get $12 bonus: Register and get $12 computing power funds, you can directly participate in mining

    Select a contract to start mining: You can choose different mining contracts according to the currency (SOL, DOGE, BTC, ETH, XRP, etc.) and cycle. The system will AI allocate the optimal computing power path and automatically start income settlement.

    All income is automatically distributed to the account balance every day, and you can withdraw or reinvest to purchase other contracts at any time to achieve rolling compound growth.

    Mining income test display

    The income is clear and transparent, and it is credited daily. It also supports automatic principal refund or reinvestment after the contract expires, so as to achieve steady asset appreciation.

    Legal, safe and transparent, guaranteed by the old British cloud mining platform
    ALR Miner was established in 2017 and is a UK registered entity company (Private Limited Company) with complete company information and compliant SIC business code (62090/63110). The platform fully complies with the UK Company Law, international anti-money laundering regulations (AML), KYC certification process, and has completed the compliance deployment of servers in multiple countries/regions.

    Different from the exaggerated false platforms on the market, ALR Miner always adheres to the following core principles:

    Real computing power + real settlement

    Fixed daily income model

    All income can be checked and withdrawn

    It is precisely with the concept of “compliance, transparency, safety and stability” that ALR Miner can stand in the fiercely competitive market for 7 years and become a cloud mining brand trusted by users.

    Multi-currency income is fully upgraded, and you can enjoy $12 bonus immediately after registration!
    ALR Miner is now promoting a multi-currency smart mining plan, adding support for SOL and DOGE, and will expand to more popular assets in the future. Register now to receive a $12 bonus to experience mining benefits, and you can start without investment!

    Official website address: https://alrminer.com
    New user benefits: Register and get $12 mining power
    Customer service support: 7×24 hours online, no language barriers

    Attachment

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Hickenlooper, Colleagues Introduce Black Women’s Equal Pay Day Resolution

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Colorado John Hickenlooper

    WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper joined 32 of his colleagues to introduce a resolution honoring Black Women’s Equal Pay Day. 

    “Black women face dual and compounding discrimination based upon both their race and gender,” wrote the lawmakers. “Lost wages mean Black women have less money to support themselves and their families, to save and invest for the future, and to spend on goods and services, causing businesses and the economy to suffer as a result.”

    In the U.S., Black women workers are paid just 66 cents for every dollar paid to non-Hispanic White men. The wage gap has only narrowed by 5 cents in the last two decades. If current trends continue, Black women wouldn’t achieve equal pay for over 200 years.

    The resolution is supported by Equal Pay Today, Equal Rights Advocates, Family Values @ Work, National Partnership for Women and Families, Institute for Women’s Policy Research, A Better Balance, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Black Women’s Roundtable, Women Employed, National Women’s Law Center Action Fund, National Council of Jewish Women, Shriver Center on Poverty Law, American Association of University Women, ERA Coalition, Legal Momentum – The Women’s Legal Defense and Education Fund, National Council of Negro Women, National Black Worker Center, Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable, Oxfam America, NAACP, Maine Women’s Lobby & MWL Education Fund, Pro-Choice North Carolina, 9to5, National Urban League.

    The full text of the resolution is available HERE.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Department of Justice Honors Senate Judiciary Committee Request for Information Related to Clinton Email Investigation

    Source: US State of North Dakota

    WASHINGTON – Attorney General Pamela Bondi released the following statement regarding Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley’s request for information related to the FBI’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server and mishandling of classified information during her time as Secretary of State:

    “Today, the Department of Justice honored Chairman Grassley’s request to release information relating to former-FBI Director James Comey’s failed investigation into Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of highly classified information during her tenure as Secretary of State. I commend Chairman Grassley for his unwavering, years-long commitment to exposing the truth and holding those who seek to conceal it accountable. This Department of Justice is fully committed to transparency and will continue to support good-faith efforts in Congress to ensure accountability across the federal government.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Department of Justice Honors Senate Judiciary Committee Request for Information Related to Clinton Email Investigation

    Source: United States Attorneys General

    WASHINGTON – Attorney General Pamela Bondi released the following statement regarding Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley’s request for information related to the FBI’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server and mishandling of classified information during her time as Secretary of State:

    “Today, the Department of Justice honored Chairman Grassley’s request to release information relating to former-FBI Director James Comey’s failed investigation into Hillary Clinton’s mishandling of highly classified information during her tenure as Secretary of State. I commend Chairman Grassley for his unwavering, years-long commitment to exposing the truth and holding those who seek to conceal it accountable. This Department of Justice is fully committed to transparency and will continue to support good-faith efforts in Congress to ensure accountability across the federal government.”

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Man convicted of murder after human remains found in London and Bristol

    Source: United Kingdom London Metropolitan Police

    Following a complex and harrowing Met Police investigation, a man who took suitcases containing the body parts of two men from west London to Bristol has been found guilty of murder.

    Yostin Andres Mosquera, 35 (08.03.90) of Scotts Road, Shepherd’s Bush Green, was convicted by a jury of two counts of murder at Woolwich Crown Court on Monday, 21 July.

    Paul Longworth, aged 71, and Albert Alfonso, aged 62, were brutally murdered at their flat in Shepherd’s Bush on Monday, 8 July last year.

    Detective Chief Inspector Ollie Stride, from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command who led this investigation, said:

    “This has been one of the most harrowing murders my team have ever investigated, a case that will stay with many of us for a long time.

    “Paul and Albert were murdered in the most brutal and callous of ways in their own home.

    “The investigation has been complex and intense and we worked tirelessly to build a catalogue of evidence which would ensure we brought Mosquera to justice.

    “The team have consumed hundreds hours of footage, including some of the utmost disturbing and graphic nature. Those images will stay with all of us for a very long time.

    “We are grateful to all those who helped us build this investigation, including Avon and Somerset Police, who commenced the investigation and arrested Mosquera.

    “As well as the many witnesses who provided detailed accounts of events which must have been extremely hard to share.

    “We have also worked closely with the LGBT+ Independent Advisory Group and I am grateful for their support and the advice they have provided as they helped monitor the investigation.

    “Paul and Albert had known one another for decades. They were in a loving, committed relationship and welcomed Mosquera into their home. They did not deserve to have their lives taken away from them in the most traumatising of circumstances.

    “Our thoughts and prayers remain with Paul and Albert’s family and loved ones and all who knew them, as they continue to process the trauma of what happened.”

    Gathering and examining evidence

    Mosquera booked a van with a driver, and two days after the murders, Mosquera travelled with two suitcases containing body parts to the Mall Pub near the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol.

    He caught a taxi the rest of the way to the bridge and caught the attention of local residents, asking him if he needed help with what would be confirmed as enormously heavy cases, with a red substance leaking out, which Mosquera claimed was oil. One witness filmed Mosquera acting suspiciously before Mosquera attempted to knock the phone out of his hand and ran away.

    The police were alerted to his suspicious behaviour and a murder investigation was launched after officers discovered the body parts inside the cases.

    An address label left on one of the cases led police back to Scotts Road, and on Wednesday, 10 July, Met officers would find crucial evidence in a search of the property, including the decapitated heads of both men in a chest freezer in a hallway of the flat. The murder weapons were found close by.

    Homicide detectives built a case with an abundance of evidence to support the motive that Mosquera murdered both men to obtain their property and their money.

    Detectives would discover Mosquera had researched a freezer online on several occasions, including the one that he later ordered to be delivered to the address.

    Mosquera, who was a Columbian national, had also conducted searches online in Spanish, on topics such as how long it would take for a body to decompose and where on the head would be a fatal blow.

    Examinations of Mosquera’s laptop revealed that in the weeks before the murders he was browsing the internet in an effort to find out the value of the Shepherd’s Bush property, and he accessed information about Paul’s and Albert’s finances.

    He had also attempted to open a bank account using the Scotts Road address. Immediately after the murders, he accessed a spreadsheet which contained their online banking passwords, and attempted to login to a number of their online bank accounts. He unsuccessfully attempted to send £4,000 to his account in Columbia.

    The murders

    Mosquera had got to know both men, who were in a civil partnership, over a number of years, and had been staying with them at their flat for the month prior to their murders. It was a property where the two men had lived happily for many years together.

    Mosquera was involved in a consensual sexual relationship with Albert, one which Paul was aware of and lovingly accepted. The court heard Albert simply had no reason to kill his partner, Paul, despite Mosquera’s defence that the two of them were in a controlling and coercive relationship.

    It was while Albert was at work that Mosquera killed Paul. A neighbour recalls speaking to Paul that morning from one of the windows. This was the last sighting of him alive. Detectives trawled hours of footage from a CCTV camera, located opposite the entrance to the Scotts Road flat, which captured Mosquera standing at the window of the flat and drawing the curtains at around 12:30hrs. It was then that he is believed to have killed Paul.

    The post-mortem revealed Paul had died from multiple severe blunt force traumas to the head with a hammer, with injuries on his hands suggesting he’d try to defend himself. Mosquera hid the body in a divan storage space under the bed in Paul’s room and waited for Albert to come home.

    Albert arrived home early evening. The killing was captured on cameras which had been set up in Albert’s bedroom to record a sex session between him and Mosquera. The footage showed Mosquera performing sex acts on Albert in his bedroom, before repeatedly stabbing him and cutting his throat.

    Mosquera’s arrest and plea

    Mosquera was arrested in Bristol in the early hours of Saturday, 13 July 2024. He was charged with two counts of murder two days later.

    Although he had admitted killing Albert, he denied the offence of murder, admitting only the lesser offence of manslaughter following what he called, a loss of self-control. He also denied murdering Paul, claiming his long-term partner, Albert, had killed him instead.

    Mosquera will be sentenced at the same court in October.

    Detective Inspector Neil Meade, of Avon and Somerset Police’s Major Crime Investigation Team, said:

    “These crimes were truly horrific and our thoughts are with the families and friends of Albert and Paul.

    “Yostin Mosquera’s actions have had a significant impact on our communities in Avon and Somerset and I’m very grateful for the support we received at the time of the incident and have received since. It was an extremely fast-moving and complex investigation and their understanding, particularly in those early days, was hugely appreciated.

    “Mosquera had no connection to Bristol and during the trial we’ve heard he chose to travel here in an attempt to dispose of Albert and Paul’s remains and hide his despicable crimes.

    “A large number of police officers and members of staff were involved in our investigation and they deserve massive credit, along with colleagues at the Metropolitan Police, in helping ensure he could be brought to justice.

    “I know how concerning this incident was – and still is – for our LGBT communities and that some of the details we’ve heard over the course of the trial will have been deeply distressing. We remain in close contact with community leaders and our partners and are ready to provide any support we can.”

    For help and advice

    If you’ve been affected by this case, please contact Samaritans here or Mind’s support line on 0300 102 1234.

    If you’re looking for advice or specialist support for a particular issue, these organisations may be able to help.

    For anyone in the LGBT+ community affected by this incident, please visit www.galop.org.ukfor information and support provided by the LGBT+ charity Galop.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Man convicted of murder after human remains found in London and Bristol

    Source: United Kingdom London Metropolitan Police

    Following a complex and harrowing Met Police investigation, a man who took suitcases containing the body parts of two men from west London to Bristol has been found guilty of murder.

    Yostin Andres Mosquera, 35 (08.03.90) of Scotts Road, Shepherd’s Bush Green, was convicted by a jury of two counts of murder at Woolwich Crown Court on Monday, 21 July.

    Paul Longworth, aged 71, and Albert Alfonso, aged 62, were brutally murdered at their flat in Shepherd’s Bush on Monday, 8 July last year.

    Detective Chief Inspector Ollie Stride, from the Met’s Specialist Crime Command who led this investigation, said:

    “This has been one of the most harrowing murders my team have ever investigated, a case that will stay with many of us for a long time.

    “Paul and Albert were murdered in the most brutal and callous of ways in their own home.

    “The investigation has been complex and intense and we worked tirelessly to build a catalogue of evidence which would ensure we brought Mosquera to justice.

    “The team have consumed hundreds hours of footage, including some of the utmost disturbing and graphic nature. Those images will stay with all of us for a very long time.

    “We are grateful to all those who helped us build this investigation, including Avon and Somerset Police, who commenced the investigation and arrested Mosquera.

    “As well as the many witnesses who provided detailed accounts of events which must have been extremely hard to share.

    “We have also worked closely with the LGBT+ Independent Advisory Group and I am grateful for their support and the advice they have provided as they helped monitor the investigation.

    “Paul and Albert had known one another for decades. They were in a loving, committed relationship and welcomed Mosquera into their home. They did not deserve to have their lives taken away from them in the most traumatising of circumstances.

    “Our thoughts and prayers remain with Paul and Albert’s family and loved ones and all who knew them, as they continue to process the trauma of what happened.”

    Gathering and examining evidence

    Mosquera booked a van with a driver, and two days after the murders, Mosquera travelled with two suitcases containing body parts to the Mall Pub near the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol.

    He caught a taxi the rest of the way to the bridge and caught the attention of local residents, asking him if he needed help with what would be confirmed as enormously heavy cases, with a red substance leaking out, which Mosquera claimed was oil. One witness filmed Mosquera acting suspiciously before Mosquera attempted to knock the phone out of his hand and ran away.

    The police were alerted to his suspicious behaviour and a murder investigation was launched after officers discovered the body parts inside the cases.

    An address label left on one of the cases led police back to Scotts Road, and on Wednesday, 10 July, Met officers would find crucial evidence in a search of the property, including the decapitated heads of both men in a chest freezer in a hallway of the flat. The murder weapons were found close by.

    Homicide detectives built a case with an abundance of evidence to support the motive that Mosquera murdered both men to obtain their property and their money.

    Detectives would discover Mosquera had researched a freezer online on several occasions, including the one that he later ordered to be delivered to the address.

    Mosquera, who was a Columbian national, had also conducted searches online in Spanish, on topics such as how long it would take for a body to decompose and where on the head would be a fatal blow.

    Examinations of Mosquera’s laptop revealed that in the weeks before the murders he was browsing the internet in an effort to find out the value of the Shepherd’s Bush property, and he accessed information about Paul’s and Albert’s finances.

    He had also attempted to open a bank account using the Scotts Road address. Immediately after the murders, he accessed a spreadsheet which contained their online banking passwords, and attempted to login to a number of their online bank accounts. He unsuccessfully attempted to send £4,000 to his account in Columbia.

    The murders

    Mosquera had got to know both men, who were in a civil partnership, over a number of years, and had been staying with them at their flat for the month prior to their murders. It was a property where the two men had lived happily for many years together.

    Mosquera was involved in a consensual sexual relationship with Albert, one which Paul was aware of and lovingly accepted. The court heard Albert simply had no reason to kill his partner, Paul, despite Mosquera’s defence that the two of them were in a controlling and coercive relationship.

    It was while Albert was at work that Mosquera killed Paul. A neighbour recalls speaking to Paul that morning from one of the windows. This was the last sighting of him alive. Detectives trawled hours of footage from a CCTV camera, located opposite the entrance to the Scotts Road flat, which captured Mosquera standing at the window of the flat and drawing the curtains at around 12:30hrs. It was then that he is believed to have killed Paul.

    The post-mortem revealed Paul had died from multiple severe blunt force traumas to the head with a hammer, with injuries on his hands suggesting he’d try to defend himself. Mosquera hid the body in a divan storage space under the bed in Paul’s room and waited for Albert to come home.

    Albert arrived home early evening. The killing was captured on cameras which had been set up in Albert’s bedroom to record a sex session between him and Mosquera. The footage showed Mosquera performing sex acts on Albert in his bedroom, before repeatedly stabbing him and cutting his throat.

    Mosquera’s arrest and plea

    Mosquera was arrested in Bristol in the early hours of Saturday, 13 July 2024. He was charged with two counts of murder two days later.

    Although he had admitted killing Albert, he denied the offence of murder, admitting only the lesser offence of manslaughter following what he called, a loss of self-control. He also denied murdering Paul, claiming his long-term partner, Albert, had killed him instead.

    Mosquera will be sentenced at the same court in October.

    Detective Inspector Neil Meade, of Avon and Somerset Police’s Major Crime Investigation Team, said:

    “These crimes were truly horrific and our thoughts are with the families and friends of Albert and Paul.

    “Yostin Mosquera’s actions have had a significant impact on our communities in Avon and Somerset and I’m very grateful for the support we received at the time of the incident and have received since. It was an extremely fast-moving and complex investigation and their understanding, particularly in those early days, was hugely appreciated.

    “Mosquera had no connection to Bristol and during the trial we’ve heard he chose to travel here in an attempt to dispose of Albert and Paul’s remains and hide his despicable crimes.

    “A large number of police officers and members of staff were involved in our investigation and they deserve massive credit, along with colleagues at the Metropolitan Police, in helping ensure he could be brought to justice.

    “I know how concerning this incident was – and still is – for our LGBT communities and that some of the details we’ve heard over the course of the trial will have been deeply distressing. We remain in close contact with community leaders and our partners and are ready to provide any support we can.”

    For help and advice

    If you’ve been affected by this case, please contact Samaritans here or Mind’s support line on 0300 102 1234.

    If you’re looking for advice or specialist support for a particular issue, these organisations may be able to help.

    For anyone in the LGBT+ community affected by this incident, please visit www.galop.org.ukfor information and support provided by the LGBT+ charity Galop.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senator Marshall: America is Now the Hottest Country in the World

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Kansas Roger Marshall

    Senator Marshall Joins Newsmax to Discuss the First Six Months of President Trump’s Second Term & the Booming Economy
    Washington – On Monday, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-Kansas), joined Marc Lotter and Sharla McBride on Newmax’s Wake Up America to discuss the first six months of President Trump’s second term, future spending cuts in Congress, DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s recent report, and the MAHA legislative package he is introducing.

    Click HERE or on the image above to watch Senator Marshall’s full interview.
    On the first six months of President Trump’s second term:
    “Exactly. I told my wife this morning, you know, we’re part of the Trump chain gang. Let’s get to work up here. Congress doesn’t have any idea what it’s like out in the real world, where, as a physician, I worked every weekend. I didn’t take days off for years at a time. So, I’m used to this pace. I’m used to Trump Time.
    “But I’m calling this economy the Lazarus Economy. A year ago, as President Trump said, the economy was dead, and now we’re the hottest country in the world. Trillions of dollars are being invested, jobs are growing, inflation is down, the price of gasoline is down, and the border is secure. And our military is being taken care of. We just passed the largest tax cut in American history and the largest cut in federal government spending as well. This was a bill that’s going to help middle-income Americans and small businesses. Very proud of the work we’ve done these last six months.”
    On future spending cuts from the Senate:
    “Well, we certainly need to prioritize them, and Congress needs to develop this memory. This is the first time… since President Bush, the first, we’ve actually done a rescissions package. So, this was a good start to learn. You know, the backdrop of this $37 trillion of national debt right now. We’re going to spend a trillion dollars on interest this year. This is the number one threat to my grandchildren’s future: this national debt.
    “Look, I think what your listeners need to understand is the Government Accounting Office, the Office of Inspector General, has been saying for over a decade now that there is systemic risk for fraud, waste, and abuse in USAID. And that’s why I asked Elon to burn it to the ground and start over.
    “Just give you a few more examples here… in Tanzania, Zambia … $50 million of medical equipment theft. In New Guinea, $100 million of scandals are going on. More recently, $500 million here in the United States, where people were skimming and taking bribes back; all USAID programs. Go back to an earthquake in Haiti. We gave them a billion dollars decades ago. They never did anything with it. They did not build the energy plant they were supposed to. So, we have a president standing up identifying fraud. Now Congress needs to do her job with 50 votes. We can continue this on the Senate side.”
    On DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s report about Russia misinformation:
    “Well, look, this is absolutely believable. This is new information that in the Oval Office, with the highest members of the FBI and the Intelligence Agency under Obama, they cooked up a plan to continue this ‘Russia, Russia, Russia’ hoax. You know, this is kind of the second chapter of the FISA court abuse that was done under the Obama administration as well. Those people never paid the price they should have paid as well. Judges should have been fired, and people within the FBI should have been fired over that. Maybe one person held accountable.
    “So, this is the next chapter. We need total transparency. I think that’s what, you know, the beauty of President Trump’s cabinet is, they’re going to show America the whole truth here, nothing but the truth, and let the Justice Department do its job. And by the way, you’ll see Congress probably having more hearings on this as well.”
    On the Make America Healthy Again package:
    “Well, look, what I believe is that healthy soil meets healthy food, meets healthy people. That when agriculture can focus on soil health by growing more with less, by using less pesticides, using less water, and using modern-day agriculture, precision agriculture practices, we can make the soil healthier. That’s going to make the food more nutrient-rich, and that’s going to lead to healthier people.
    “Look, 90% of the money spent on health care in this country is spent on seven chronic diseases, including hypertension, diabetes, obesity, Alzheimer’s, those types of things. So, we need to focus in on those chronic diseases, try to prevent them with healthy food, and then treat them with healthy food as well. And I’m so proud to work with Secretary Kennedy and Secretary Rollins to get this job done.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Durbin Urges U.S. Sentencing Commission To Consider Impacts Of Chronic Underfunding And Understaffing At BOP

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Illinois Dick Durbin

    CHICAGO – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to the U.S. Sentencing Commission in response to its proposed priorities for the 2025-2026 amendment cycle. In the letter, Durbin urged the Commission to consider the impact that the Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) resources and staffing levels have on BOP’s ability to adequately discharge its mission.

    “For years, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has faced significant challenges in the performance of its mandate, undermining the Commission’s intent to tailor recommended sentences to anticipated outcomes for incarcerated individuals. I therefore urge the Commission to prioritize ‘[a]ssessing the degree to which certain practices of the Bureau of Prisons are effective in meeting the purposes of sentencing as set forth in 18 U.S.C. 3553(a)(2) and considering any appropriate responses, including possible consideration of recommendations or amendments’ in the upcoming amendment cycle,” Durbin wrote.

    As Durbin notes in his letter, BOP has been chronically underfunded and understaffed, resulting in longstanding issues related to physical infrastructure of facilities, inadequate medical care for inmates, and concerns about the agency’s ability to ensure the safety and security of inmates and BOP employees, among other challenges.

    “Inadequate funding and staffing levels affect all aspects of BOP’s ability to discharge its mission. We have asked the agency to do far too much with far too little for far too long—and the ripple effects of severe BOP under resourcing are apparent across facilities nationwide,” Durbin wrote.

    Despite BOP’s limitations in carrying out its own mission, the Trump Administration has saddled the agency with additional responsibilities in accepting and processing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) detainees. Durbin denounced this effort by the Trump Administration, emphasizing that this move further hampers BOP’s ability to address its own shortfalls.

    “Despite these limitations, the Administration has now asked BOP to add an additional mission by accepting and processing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) detainees. As I have previously written to the Attorney General, this decision further threatens the safety and well-being of incarcerated individuals,” Durbin wrote.

    Durbin concluded his letter by calling on the Sentencing Commission to focus on recommendations and amendments that will support BOP in remedying its deficiencies.

    “Given the myriad difficulties facing our federal prison system, I respectfully urge the Commission to consider possible recommendations or amendments in the upcoming amendment cycle that account for the limited ‘nature and capacity of . . . facilities and services available’ to incarcerated individuals,” Durbin concluded his letter.

     

    A copy of the letter can be found here and below:

     

    July 18, 2025

     

    Dear Chair Reeves:

     

    I write in response to the Sentencing Commission’s request for comment on its Proposed 2025-2026 Priorities.

     

    Proposed Priority: Bureau of Prisons practices and effectiveness in meeting the purposes of sentencing.

     

    In the federal criminal justice system, district courts must seek to achieve the purposes of sentencing—retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation—when deciding upon a defendant’s sentence,[1] by imposing one that is “sufficient, but not greater than necessary” to:

     

    (A) reflect the seriousness of the offense, to promote respect for the law, and to provide just punishment for the offense; (B) to afford adequate deterrence to criminal conduct; (C) to protect the public from further crimes of the defendant; and (D) to provide the defendant with needed educational or vocational training, medical care, or other correctional treatment in the most effective manner.[[2]]

     

    The United States Sentencing Commission, too, must strive to ensure the Sentencing Guidelines meet these purposes.[3] Though no longer binding, the Sentencing Guidelines nevertheless “serve an important role” by providing courts with “‘a meaningful benchmark’ in the initial determination of a sentence” and guidance “throughout the sentencing process.”[4] Indeed, in Fiscal Year 2024, 28,038 sentences—or 45.7 percent—were imposed within the recommended range, not including cases where a departure applied, evidencing the central role that the Guidelines play in guiding thousands of federal criminal justice outcomes annually.[5]

     

    Of course, the relevance to the goals of sentencing of the type and length of a recommended sentence under the Guidelines will necessarily vary depending on how that sentence is executed. For years, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has faced significant challenges in the performance of its mandate, undermining the Commission’s intent to tailor recommended sentences to anticipated outcomes for incarcerated individuals. I therefore urge the Commission to prioritize “[a]ssessing the degree to which certain practices of the Bureau of Prisons are effective in meeting the purposes of sentencing as set forth in 18 U.S.C. 3553(a)(2) and considering any appropriate responses including possible consideration of recommendations or amendments” in the upcoming amendment cycle.[6]

     

    Chronically underfunded and understaffed, BOP has struggled to maintain safe and effective carceral settings for nearly 156,000 federal inmates, over 143,000 of whom are in BOP custody.[7]Currently, BOP is authorized to have 14,900 correctional officer positions, with 12,766 active officers in pay status.[8] Authorized “other” full time positions were recently reduced from 27,498 to 23,949, and there are 23,896 active employees in pay status.[9] The resulting challenges BOP faces are both longstanding and pervasive:

     

    • Infrastructure. In May 2023, the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released the results of an audit of BOP’s “aging and failing infrastructure,” finding issues such as buckling concrete, crumbling façades, water leaks, poor ventilation, and energy inefficiencies.[10] Late last year, BOP announced plans to permanently close one facility and idle six others due in part to “crumbling infrastructure.”[11] That BOP would need to close facilities as a result of unsustainable cost is not new—just three years prior, BOP closed Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) New York “after an in-depth conditions assessment found that substantial building deficiencies jeopardized the safety and security of the staff and inmates who occupied the building.”[12] As of February 2024, then-BOP Director Colette Peters estimated that BOP had a maintenance and repair backlog of approximately $3 billion.[13]
    • Medical Care. In 2023, NPR reported on severely inadequate medical care within BOP facilities.[14] One common complaint among sources was the agency’s failure to timely screen and treat inmates with serious illnesses, and the report found “[m]ore than a dozen waited months or even years for treatment, including inmates with obviously concerning symptoms: unexplained bleeding, a suspicious lump, intense pain.”[15] Many suffered worsened conditions; some lost their lives.[16] These problems persist.[17] In a series of unannounced site inspections, OIG has identified several concerning medical practices and failures across various institutions.[18] Most recently, OIG released an inspection last December of Federal Medical Center (FMC) Devens, finding “serious issues with . . . provision of healthcare” even at this dedicated medical facility, including “potentially dangerous medication distribution, lack of preventive healthcare screening, inappropriate placement of inmates in the Memory Disorder Unit (MDU), and inconsistent processes for requesting and accessing care.”[19] Like other BOP institutions across the nation, FMC Devens suffers from a substantial employee shortage, “substantially affect[ing] the health, welfare, and safety of . . . inmates.”[20] It is perhaps unsurprising that in Fiscal Year 2024, district court judges granted compassionate release requests under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A) on the basis, at least in part, of medical-related concerns in a notable number of cases.[21] In one recent order granting compassionate release, a district court judge found BOP’s failure to provide necessary and “relatively straightforward” treatment to the petitioner “incomprehensible and very far below the standards that I expect for anyone held in custody.”[22]
    • Safety and Security. Several factors undermine BOP’s ability to ensure the safety of those in its custody. For example, in 2022, the union representing BOP employees condemned a deadly fight at United States Penitentiary (USP) Beaumont, decrying the “chronic understaffing” that “is jeopardizing the lives of both workers and inmates.”[23] Indeed, in a February 2024 OIG report evaluating issues surrounding inmate deaths, “BOP specifically identified insufficient staffing as an issue in at least 30 of the inmate deaths in [OIG’s] scope.”[24] Correctional staff shortages hinder efforts to prevent and respond to immediate threats, while medical staff shortages limit the ability to provide risk-mitigation treatments and programming.[25] In addition to other challenges, BOP also faces longstanding obstacles to effective interdiction of contraband drugs and weapons, overreliance on mandated staff overtime and augmentation, and “fundamentally ineffective” staff discipline processes—each compounding the serious risk to institutional safety.[26]

     

    While these concerns significantly limit BOP’s ability to effectively meet the purposes of sentencing, they are by no means exhaustive. Inadequate funding and staffing levels affect all aspects of BOP’s ability to discharge its mission. We have asked the agency to do far too much with far too little for far too long—and the ripple effects of severe BOP under resourcing are apparent across facilities nationwide.[27] Despite these limitations, the Administration has now asked BOP to add an additional mission by accepting and processing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) detainees.[28] As I have previously written to the Attorney General, this decision further threatens the safety and well-being of incarcerated individuals.[29]

     

    Given the myriad difficulties facing our federal prison system, I respectfully urge the Commission to consider possible recommendations or amendments in the upcoming amendment cycle that account for the limited “nature and capacity of . . . facilities and services available”[30] to incarcerated individuals.

     

    Sincerely,

    -30-

    [1] Tapia v. United States, 564 U.S. 319, 325 (2011). The Supreme Court explained in Tapia, however, that “a particular purpose may apply differently, or even not at all, depending on the kind of sentence under consideration.” Id. at 326. Retribution, § 3553(a)(2)(A), for example, cannot be considered for imposing supervised release terms, id., and rehabilitative needs, § 3553(a)(2)(D), cannot be used to impose or lengthen a prison term, id. at 335.

    [2] 18 U.S.C. 3553(a)(2).

    [3] 28 U.S.C. § 994(g).

    [4] Rosales-Mireles v. United States, 585 U.S. 129, 133 (2018) (quoting Peugh v. United States, 569 U.S. 530, 541, (2013)).

    [5] U.S. Sent’g Comm’n, Datafile (2024), https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/annual-reports-and-sourcebooks/2024/Table29.pdf.

    [6] Federal Register Notice of Proposed 2025-2026 Priorities, U.S. Sent’g Comm’n,

    https://www.ussc.gov/policymaking/federal-register-notices/federal-register-notice-proposed-2025-2026-priorities (last visited July 9, 2025).

    [7] Statistics, Fed. Bureau of Prisons, https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/population_statistics.jsp#:~:text=155%2C933%20Total%20Federal%20Inmates&text=Last%20Updated%20July%203%2C%202025,Thursday%20at%2012%3A00%20A.M(last visited July 9, 2025). An additional nearly 12,800 federal inmates are reported to be in “other types of facilities.” Id.

    [8] Fed. Bureau of Prisons, Fed. Bureau of Prisons Fact Sheet (2025), https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/docs/fbop_fact_sheet.pdf.

    [9] Id.; Fed. Bureau of Prisons, Fed. Bureau of Prisons Fact Sheet (2024), https://web.archive.org/web/20250226151445/https://www.bop.gov/about/statistics/docs/fbop_fact_sheet.pdf.

    [10] U.S. Dep’t of Just., Off. of the Inspector Gen., No. 23-064, Audit of the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Efforts to Maintain and Construct Institutions 6 (2023), https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/23-064_1.pdf.

    [11] Michael R. Sisak & Michael Balsamo, The US government is closing a women’s prison and other facilities after years of abuse and decay, Associated Press (Dec. 5, 2024), https://apnews.com/article/federal-prisons-closing-ap-investigation-abuse-decay-c02c96b6f6a3c5535cc3e3025d5d2585.

    [12] U.S. Dep’t of Just., supra note 10 at 5.

    [13] Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, Examining and Preventing Deaths of Incarcerated Individuals in Federal

    Prisons (Feb. 28, 2024), at 00:30:45.

    [14] Meg Anderson, 1 in 4 inmate deaths happens in the same federal prison. Why?, NPR (Sept. 23, 2023),

    https://www.npr.org/2023/09/23/1200626103/federal-prison-deaths-butner-medical-center-sick-inmates.

    [15] Id.

    [16] Id.

    [17] See Walter Pavlo, Cases Show Medical Care Under Scrutiny At Federal Bureau Of Prisons, Forbes (Mar. 13, 2025), https://www.forbes.com/sites/walterpavlo/2025/03/13/cases-show-medical-care-under-scrutiny-at-federal-bureau-of-prisons/.

    [18] To date, OIG has released the results of five inspections. In the first four inspections, OIG found, in part: at FCI Waseca, inmates with higher care levels than the institutions at which they were housed, significant delays in nonemergency medical care, and limited ability to provide psychology services beyond “crisis focused” care, U.S. Dep’t of Just., Off. of the Inspector Gen., 23-068, Inspection of the Fed. Bureau of Prisons’ Fed. Corr. Inst. Waseca 1, 26–29 (2023),https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/23-068.pdf; at FCI Tallahassee, suboptimal timing of medication dispensation, such as insulin and psychiatric medication, which can negatively affect drug efficacy, insufficient availability of bilingual staff to communicate with patients, and incomplete health care screenings at intake, U.S. Dep’t of Just., Off. of the Inspector Gen., 24-005, Inspection of the Fed. Bureau of Prisons’ Fed. Corr. Inst. Tallahassee 1, 34–35 (2023),https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/24-005.pdf; at FCI Sheridan, a longstanding phlebotomist vacancy that, while eventually filled, led to a backlog at one point of over 700 laboratory orders, barriers to inmates requesting and accessing care for routine conditions, delays in medical and dental care due to lack of medical equipment and supplies, a backlog of outside medical visits, and potentially dangerous medication distribution practices, U.S. Dep’t of Just., Off. of the Inspector Gen., 24-070, Inspection of the Fed. Bureau of Prisons’ Fed. Corr. Inst. Sheridan 1, 8–13 (2024), https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/24-070_0.pdf; and at FCI Lewisburg, intake screening errors, certain prescription medication discontinuation decisions made without speaking with or examining the patients in advance and without tapering as recommended by BOP clinical guidance, colorectal cancer screenings provided to less than half of inmates within the recommended risk range and significant delays in providing colonoscopies to those for whom it was ordered, and failure to provide A1C tests to the majority of qualifying inmates within recommended time frames, U.S. Dep’t of Just., Off. of the Inspector Gen., 24-113, Inspection of the Fed. Bureau of Prisons’ Fed. Corr. Inst. Lewisburg 1, 10–14 (2024), https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/24-113.pdf.

    [19] U.S. Dep’t of Just., Off. of the Inspector Gen., 25-009, Inspection of the Fed. Bureau of Prisons’ Fed. Corr. Inst. Devens i (2024), https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/25-009.pdf.

    [20] Id.

    [21] Sentencing courts listed serious physical or medical condition in 12.5 percent of cases, ongoing COVID-19 pandemic concerns unable to be timely mitigated in 3.3 percent of cases, and BOP failure to provide treatment in 1.7 percent of cases, among other reasons. U.S. Sent’g Comm’n, Compassionate Release Data Report 1, 17 (2025), https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/research-and-publications/federal-sentencing-statistics/compassionate-release/FY24-Compassionate-Release.pdf.

    [22] Order for Immediate Release of Defendant Bovis, United States v. Bovis, No. 20-cr-00204, Dkt. 100 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 6, 2025); see also United States v. Diggs, No. 02-CR-1129, 2025 WL 1371367, at *8 (N.D. Ill. May 12, 2025) (granting compassionate release after finding “BOP has shown no intention and/or ability to provide the necessary care [to the petitioner], despite its doctors’ recommendations”).

    [23] Angel San Juan, Prison Pay: Low Pay Rates for Correctional Officers is Creating a Staffing Crisis, 6KFDM (May 19, 2023), https://kfdm.com/news/local/prison-pay-low-pay-rates-for-correctional-officers-is-creating-a-staffing-crisis.

    [24] U.S. Dep’t of Just., Off. of the Inspector Gen., 24-041, Evaluation of Issues Surrounding Inmate deaths in Fed. Bureau of Prisons Inst. 1, 65 (2024), https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/24-041.pdf.

    [25] Id.

    [26] Id. at 54, 67, 70.

    [27] Though Congress recently provided $5 billion in additional funding to BOP, see Act of July 4, 2025, Pub. L. No. 119-21, this appropriation represents just the first small step needed to begin to correct the institutional problems caused by underfunding BOP. Commission consideration in this area remains imminently necessary given the longstanding and ongoing impacts of BOP challenges on effectuating the purposes of sentencing.

    [28] Letter from Richard J. Durbin, U.S. Senator, Adam B. Schiff, U.S. Senator, Sheldon Whitehouse, U.S. Senator, Mazie K. Hirono, U.S. Senator, Cory A. Booker, U.S. Senator, Alex Padilla, U.S. Senator, and Peter Welch, U.S. Senator, to Pam Bondi, U.S. Att’y Gen. (Feb. 25, 2025), https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Letter%20to%20AG%20Bondi%20re%20BOP%20facilities%20for%20ICE.pdf.

    [29] Id.

    [30] 28 U.S.C. § 994(g).

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Gosar Secures Reauthorization and Expansion of RECA for Mohave County, Arizona, Votes in Favor of the One Big Beautiful Bill

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Paul A Gosar DDS (AZ-04)

    Washington, D.C. — Congressman Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S. (AZ-09), issued the following statement after voting in favor of passage of H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act: 

    “I am very pleased to have once again voted in favor of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, legislation that provides historic tax relief to middle-class Americans, reigns in wasteful spending, restores fiscal sanity and slashes the deficit by more than $2 trillion by enacting policies that will fuel America’s economic growth.

    Importantly, the One Big Beautiful Bill delivers for all Arizonans.  

    First and foremost, I am especially pleased that the One Big Beautiful Bill includes my legislation reauthorizing the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) and corrects an administrative oversight in the RECA Act of 1990 that arbitrarily excluded areas of Mohave County, Arizona.  Atomic weapons testing conducted during the Cold War came with a heavy cost to Americans living in Arizona, Nevada and within tribal communities.  Since first being elected to Congress, I have worked tirelessly to ensure that RECA not only be reauthorized but also expanded so that every person, known as a “downwinder,” who developed cancer or other related illnesses after being exposed to radiation from atomic weapons testing at the Nevada Test Site deserves to be compensated for being poisoned by a negligent federal government.  

    Second, the One Big Beautiful Bill includes my legislation boosting solar and wind power on publiclands to help lower energy prices, unlock energy production and meet our nation’s growing energy demand.  It also ensures revenue from their development is shared with the states and counties while also supporting conservation programs where these projects are located.  

    Third, a typical Arizona family with two children will see their take-home pay increase between $7,500 and $12,800.  Without this legislation, families across my district were on track to face a massive tax hike on December 31, 2025. The bill also eliminates taxes on tips and overtime and slashes taxes on Social Security for seniors.  The bill also raises the child tax credit, increases childcare tax credits and establishes $1,000 savings accounts for newborn babies to support growth and advancement while helping ease the burden on families.

    Next, the bill provides historic investments to strengthen our nation’s border security by fully funding President Trump’s border wall and giving Border Patrol and ICE agents the resources, technology, and personnel they need to swiftly detain and deport the millions of illegal aliens welcomed into our country by Joe Biden.  As a border state, Arizonans have felt firsthand the destruction caused by Biden’s open border policies. Crime has ravaged our neighborhoods, deadly drugs, including fentanyl, have ruined our families, and our communities are withering under the economic strain on public resources needed to combat Biden’s border invasion.

    The One Big Beautiful Bill delivers for Arizonans, upholds the promise to secure the border, locks in permanent tax relief, unleashes American energy and reverses course on out-of-control spending by securing the largest spending reductions in American history. These are transformational policies that support all Americans for generations and were delivered by a Republican majority in Congress that listened.  I look forward to President Trump signing the One Big Beautiful Bill into law,” concluded Congressman Paul Gosar.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Honduran Citizen Sentenced to Prison for Illegal Reentry; Faces Deportation

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    WILLIAMSPORT -The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Elio Yoel Cardona-Torres, age 43, a citizen of Honduras, was sentenced on July 17, 2025, to time-served (five months in prison) by Chief United States District Judge Matthew W. Brann for illegally reentering the country after having previously been removed.  Cardona-Torres had pleaded guilty to the charge. 

    According to Acting United States Attorney John Gurganus, Cardona-Torres was arrested during targeted enforcement in Sayre, Pennsylvania, on February 22, 2025.  Cardona-Torres had previously been removed from the United States pursuant to court order in 2006, 2008 and 2010.  Cardona-Torres again faces deportation proceedings.

    The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Removal Operations. Assistant United States Attorney Robin Zenzinger prosecuted the case.

    This case is part of Operation Take Back America (https://www.justice.gov/dag/media/1393746/dl?inline) a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).    

    # # #

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Grand Juries Charge Three Mexican Nationals with Illegal Reentry

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    TOLEDO, Ohio – The United States Attorney’s Office (USAO) has announced that federal grand juries in the Northern District of Ohio have returned indictments charging three Mexican nationals with violating Title 8 U.S. Code (USC) 1326, illegal reentry. Additionally, one defendant was charged with using fraudulent documents. These are separate cases and not related.

    Raul Samano-Fuerte, 49, has been charged with one count of illegal reentry. He has been previously removed from the United States four times with the most recent being March 10, 2009. On June 23, 2025, he was found in Norwalk, Ohio, without the consent of the U.S. Attorney General or the Secretary for Homeland Security for readmission.

    Gonzalo Diaz-Resendiz, 29, has been charged with one count of illegal reentry. He has been previously removed from the United States on at least one occasion with the most recent being Sept. 6, 2013. On June 30, 2025, he was found in Ottawa, Ohio, without the consent of the U.S. Attorney General or the Secretary for Homeland Security for readmission.

    Cesar Ramirez-Velazquez, aka Cesar Ramirez-Rincon, 44, has been charged with one count of illegal reentry. He has two previous removals from the United States with the most recent being June 7, 2009. He was again found in the country on March 19, 2024, in Norwalk, Ohio without the consent of the U.S. Attorney General or the Secretary for Homeland Security to be readmitted. He was also charged with two counts of possession of a fraudulent identification document for possessing a fraudulent permanent resident card and a fraudulent Social Security card in violation of Title 18 USC 1546 (a). Additionally, the defendant is charged with misuse of a Social Security Number, in violation of Title 42, USC 408 (a)(7)(B).

    The investigations preceding the indictments were conducted by the U.S. Border Patrol-Sandusky Bay Station.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Ava Rotell Dustin is leading the prosecution.

    An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt.  Each defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

    If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be determined by the Court after a review of factors unique to this case, including the defendant’s prior criminal records, if any, the defendant’s role in the offense and the characteristics of the violations.

    These cases are part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and protect communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Carbon County Man Sentenced To 188 Months’ Imprisonment For Drug Trafficking Offense

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    SCRANTON – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that Jason Mika, age 44, of Lansford, Pennsylvania, was sentenced on July 17, 2025, to 188 months’ imprisonment and four years of supervised release by United States District Judge Karoline Mehalchick for one count of possess with intent to distribute 50 grams and more of methamphetamine.

    According to Acting United States Attorney John Gurganus, Mika previously pled guilty to possessing with the intent to distribute over 50 grams of a mixture or substance containing methamphetamine.  As part of his guilty plea, Mika also admitted to possessing over 400 grams of methamphetamine, other controlled substances, and a revolver–all of which were found in his Lansford, PA, home during the execution of a search warrant by members of the Nesquehoning Police Department, and other investigators.

    The matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Office of the Attorney General of Pennsylvania, the Lehighton Borough Police Department, the Nesquehoning Police Department, the Lansford Police Department, the Franklin Township Police Department, and the Carbon County District Attorney’s Office.  United States Attorney James Buchanan prosecuted the case.

    This case is part of Operation Take Back America (https://www.justice.gov/dag/media/1393746/dl?inline) a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).   

    # # #

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Four Foreign Nationals Plead Guilty, Two Others Awaiting Trial in a Multi-State ATM and Retail Skimming Conspiracy

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    PROVIDENCE – Four foreign nationals illegally present in the United States have admitted to a federal judge in Rhode Island that they participated in a scheme that compromised more than 15,000  credit, debit, and Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards and that they made hundreds of thousands of dollars in unauthorized bank withdrawals and retail purchases, announced Acting United States Attorney Sara Miron Bloom.

    The defendants admitted that they used credit card “skimming” devices to steal debit and credit card users’ personal financial account information, which they then appropriated for their own use. Skimming devices were placed on retail outlet point-of-sale terminals and on ATMs at various financial institutions

    An investigation revealed that from May 2023 through February 2024, the defendants compromised more than 15,000 bank cards and gained users’ personal financial account information by placing card skimming devices on point-of-sale terminals at various locations of major retailers and on ATMs of various financial institutions in Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.

    In Rhode Island, more than 200 debit cards were compromised at two Rhode Island financial institutions, resulting in over $280,000 of unauthorized ATM withdrawals from 67 customer accounts.

    Robby Vicson Codreanu, 21, a citizen of the United Kingdom; Isabela Ignat Codreanu, 24, a citizen of Romania; and Armando Ion Codreanu, 24, and Nicolas Longin Codreanu, 23, citizens of Ireland, each pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit access device fraud; producing, using and trafficking in counterfeit access devices; accessing fifteen or more counterfeit and unauthorized access devices; and access device making equipment. Nicolas and Armando Codreanu also pleaded guilty to a charge of access devices issued to another person.

    Nicolas Codreanu will be sentenced on October 14, 2025. Isabella, Armando, and Robby Codreanu will be sentenced on October 21, 2025. The sentences imposed will be determined by a federal district judge after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

    Two other defendants, Ionut Zamfir, 38, and Mila Ciuciu, 21, both citizens of Romania, are awaiting trial.

    The cases are being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ronald R. Gendron 

    The matter was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Bristol Police Department, with the assistance of the Warwick Police Department, Coventry Police Department, Westerly Police Department, Johnston Police Department, Seekonk Police Department, United States Secret Service, and Homeland Security Investigations agents in Lafayette, LA, New York, NY, and Los Angeles, CA.

    ###

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  • MIL-OSI Security: Jacksonville Convicted Child Sex Traveler Sentenced To More Than 17 Years In Prison For Attempting To Entice And Meet A 13-Year-Old Child To Engage In Sexual Activity

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    Jacksonville, Florida – Chief United States District Judge Marcia Morales Howard has sentenced Jeremy Wayne Leggett (37, Jacksonville) to 17 years and 6 months in federal prison for using the internet to attempt to entice and meet a 13-year-old child to engage in sexual activity. Leggett was arrested on June 19, 2023, and has remained been in federal custody. Leggett pleaded guilty on January 15, 2025.

    According to court records, Leggett is a registered child sex offender, having been previously convicted in Florida in 2020 of traveling to meet a minor to commit an unlawful sexual offense and transmitting harmful materials to a minor. 

    On June 16, 2023, an undercover FBI agent (UC) in the Jacksonville area, posing as a child, was working online in a social media application (app) to identify individuals seeking to meet children for sexual activity. The UC engaged in online conversation with an app user “dAddi” who posted a notice in a public chat room that read “Lookingfor [under 18 emoji] wannaspoiladaughter.” During this online conversation, user “dAddi,” who was identified as Leggett, was advised that the “child” was 13 years old. Leggett asked if the “child” “[l]ike[d] older men,” and sent the “child” a photo of himself. Leggett denied being a murderer or a kidnapper, telling the “child” that he was “just a pedophile.” He suggested that that they meet so he could perform oral sex on “her” in his vehicle. After more conversation, Leggett sent the “child” explicit photos of himself. On June 17, 18, and 19, 2023, Leggett initiated text messages with the UC and continued attempting to persuade the “child” to meet for sex.

    On June 19, 2023, Leggett and the “child” arranged through text messages to meet at a retail shopping center in Jacksonville. That evening, Leggett drove his vehicle to this location to meet the “child” and circled the parking lot. When law enforcement officers attempted to stop Leggett’s vehicle, he quickly reversed his vehicle and fled the scene. A short time later, officers with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and FBI agents located Leggett at a residence in Jacksonville and he was arrested. 

    This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.

    It is another case brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue child victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. 

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  • MIL-OSI Security: José Adolfo “Fito” Macías Villamar, Leader of Los Choneros Transnational Criminal Organization Extradited to Brooklyn Federal Court to Face International Drug and Gun Charges

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    BROOKLYN, NY – José Adolfo Macías Villamar, also known as “Fito,” a citizen of Ecuador, will be arraigned today at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn for crimes committed as the leader of Los Choneros, a transnational criminal organization based in Ecuador that is responsible for significant drug trafficking into the United States, firearms trafficking from the United States, and acts of extreme violence.  Macías Villamar will be arraigned on a seven-count superseding indictment charging him with international cocaine distribution conspiracy; international cocaine distribution; using firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking; smuggling firearms from the United States; and straw purchasing of firearms conspiracy.  Macías Villamar will be arraigned before United States Chief Magistrate Judge Vera M. Scanlon after being extradited yesterday from Ecuador to the Eastern District of New York.

    Joseph Nocella, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Robert Murphy, Acting Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); L.C. Cheeks, Jr., Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Newark Field Division (ATF); and Jonathan Carson, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Export Enforcement, New York Field Office (OEE), announced the extradition and arraignment.

    “As alleged, the defendant served for years as the principal leader of Los Choneros, a notoriously violent transnational criminal organization, and was a ruthless and infamous drug and firearms trafficker.  The defendant and his co-conspirators flooded the United States and other countries with drugs and used extreme measures of violence in their quest for power and control,” stated United States Attorney Nocella.  “This case demonstrates our Office’s commitment to identifying and targeting the leadership of such organizations, wherever they may be located, and bringing them to face justice here in the United States.”

    “José ‘Fito’ Macias thought he could traffic poison into our country, smuggle American weapons back to his killers, and further his criminal enterprise using chaos and bloodshed. He was wrong,” stated DEA Acting Administrator Robert Murphy.  “Today, the kingpin of Los Choneros faces justice on U.S. soil for his crimes.”

    “ATF remains dedicated to working with our local, state, and federal partners to disrupt the shooting cycle by focusing on those individuals and criminal organizations responsible for the gun violence that plagues our neighborhoods,” stated ATF Special Agent in Charge Cheeks.  “ATF will continue to collaborate with our law enforcement partners to address violent gang and drug-related activity that endangers the safety of our communities.  Our joint efforts are essential in bringing accountability to violent offenders, combatting threats to the public, and reducing violent crime.”

    As alleged in the indictment and other public filings, from at least 2020 to 2025, Macías Villamar was the principal leader of Los Choneros, the most violent and powerful transnational criminal organization in Ecuador.  As the principal leader of Los Choneros, Macías Villamar employed members of the organization to carry out serious acts of violence on the organization’s behalf. At Macías Villamar’s direction, Los Choneros committed violent acts toward Ecuadorean law enforcement, Ecuadorian politicians, attorneys, prosecutors, and civilians.  Los Choneros obtained many of its firearms and weapons by illegally trafficking and exporting them from the United States to Ecuador.  As alleged, the defendant specifically employed individuals who purchased firearms, firearms components, and ammunition in the United States and then illegally smuggled them to Ecuador for use by Los Choneros.

    In 2011, Macías Villamar went to prison in Ecuador on murder, robbery, weapons possession, and drug trafficking charges.  He escaped in 2013 before being recaptured months later.  During his second imprisonment in Ecuador, Macías Villamar used contraband cell phones and the internet to continue to direct the activities of Los Choneros and publish external communications and threats on Los Choneros’ behalf.  In January 2024, he escaped from Ecuadorian prison a second time—just two days ahead of his planned move to a maximum-security facility. In response to his escape, Ecuador erupted in violence—including prison riots, gang attacks, kidnappings, and bombings—and the government of Ecuador declared a state of emergency.  Ecuadorian authorities recaptured Macías Villamar on June 25, 2025, and he was extradited from Ecuador yesterday.

    Macías Villamar and members and associates of his organization used firearms in furtherance of their weapon and drug trafficking activities, including machine guns, AK-47 assault rifles, and grenades.  Macías Villamar and the Los Choneros organization have also been sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

    The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and Ecuadorian authorities provided substantial assistance to secure the extradition of Macías Villamar.  This marks Ecuador’s first extradition of an Ecuadorian national since an April 2024 popular referendum amended Ecuador’s constitution to allow for the extradition of Ecuadorian nationals.

    This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.

    The charges in the superseding indictment are allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.  If convicted, the defendant faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and up to life.

    The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s International Narcotics and Money Laundering Section, and as part of the work of the Office’s Transnational Criminal Organizations Strike Force.  Assistant United States Attorneys Chand Edwards-Balfour, Lorena Michelen, and David Berman are in charge of the prosecution.

    The Defendant:

    JOSÉ ADOLFO MACÍAS VILLAMAR (also known as “Fito”)
    Age:  45
    Ecuador

    E.D.N.Y. Docket No.: 25-CR-114 (FB)

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Strategy will boost steps to create safer, healthier communities

    Source: City of Wolverhampton

    The Safer Wolverhampton Partnership Strategy sets out a clear and ambitious vision to create safer, healthier communities where people feel empowered and protected.

    It features strategic priorities across 5 themes agreed by key stakeholders from across the city. They are:

    • Public Place Violence: Using intelligence to identify hot spot areas, deliver targeted interventions and reduce repeat offending
    • Anti Social Behaviour: Expanding prevention measures, strengthening reporting channels and pursuing robust enforcement where necessary
    • Safety of Women and Girls: Improving public spaces, educating young people on healthy behaviours, and simplifying pathways for reporting harassment or violence
    • Alcohol and Substance Related Crime: Disrupting supply chains, enhancing support services, and enforcing public protection measures
    • Neighbourhood Crime: Addressing robbery, burglary and theft through community vigilance, education, and coordinated policing

    The strategy will be delivered through a monitored action plan which will be refreshed annually to ensure it adapts to any new crime trends and emerging local challenges.

    As well as identifying the key priorities for the year ahead, the draft strategy also reflects on achievements made through the previous strategy.

    In the past year alone, reported crime has fallen by 9.5%, with marked declines in serious youth violence, domestic abuse, theft, robbery and burglary, anti social behaviour and adult reoffending rates. There has also been significant work to prevent serious youth violence by investing in programmes in schools and the community, with a significant reduction in the number of young people entering the youth justice system.

    Meanwhile, the establishment of a new Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) in the city centre last summer has helped bring about a 16% reduction in recorded crime within its perimeter, including a 50% drop in the number of robberies.

    Councillor Obaida Ahmed, the City of Wolverhampton Council’s Cabinet Member for Health, Wellbeing and Community, said: “Preventing and tackling crime and promoting community safety are very complex and require an integrated partnership response. Working alongside the West Midlands Police and Crime Plan, this strategy sets out our plans for the next 4 years – to ensure residents feel safe and can live healthy lives in their community.

    “We’re proud of the partnership’s achievements over the last few years and remain fully committed to early intervention, community empowerment, and collective responsibility. This strategy is not just a plan – it’s a promise to our residents that Wolverhampton will continue to be a safe, thriving place to live, work, and grow.”

    The draft strategy will be presented to members of the council’s Cabinet on Wednesday (23 July).

    The Safer Wolverhampton Partnership is the statutory Community Safety Partnership and Local Police and Crime Board in Wolverhampton.

    It not only develops and delivers strategic plans for the city, but also works to implement section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act, which places a duty on all statutory partners to consider issues of community safety at the centre of their delivery.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Africa’s minerals are being bartered for security: why it’s a bad idea

    Source: The Conversation – Africa (2) – By Hanri Mostert, SARChI Chair for Mineral Law in Africa, University of Cape Town

    A US-brokered peace deal between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda binds the two African nations to a worrying arrangement: one where a country signs away its mineral resources to a superpower in return for opaque assurances of security.

    The peace deal, signed in June 2025, aims to end three decades of conflict between the DRC and Rwanda.

    A key part of the agreement binds both nations to developing a regional economic integration framework. This arrangement would expand cooperation between the two states, the US government and American investors on “transparent, formalized end-to-end mineral chains”.

    Despite its immense mineral wealth, the DRC is among the five poorest countries in the world. It has been seeking US investment in its mineral sector.

    The US has in turn touted a potential multi-billion-dollar investment programme to anchor its mineral supply chains in the traumatised and poor territory.

    The peace that the June 2025 deal promises, therefore, hinges on chaining mineral supply to the US in exchange for Washington’s powerful – but vaguely formulated – military oversight.

    The peace agreement further establishes a joint oversight committee – with representatives from the African Union, Qatar and the US – to receive complaints and resolve disputes between the DRC and Rwanda.

    But beyond the joint oversight committee, the peace deal creates no specific security obligations for the US.

    The relationship between the DRC and Rwanda has been marred by war and tension since the bloody First (1996-1997) and Second (1998-2003) Congo wars. At the heart of much of this conflict is the DRC’s mineral wealth. It has fuelled competition, exploitation and armed violence.

    This latest peace deal introduces a resources-for-security arrangement. Such deals aren’t new in Africa. They first emerged in the early 2000s as resources-for-infrastructure transactions. Here, a foreign state would agree to build economic and social infrastructure (roads, ports, airports, hospitals) in an African state. In exchange, it would get a major stake in a government-owned mining company. Or gain preferential access to the host country’s minerals.

    We have studied mineral law and governance in Africa for more than 20 years. The question that emerges now is whether a US-brokered resources-for-security agreement will help the DRC benefit from its resources.

    Based on our research on mining, development and sustainability, we believe this is unlikely.

    This is because resources-for-security is the latest version of a resource-bartering approach that China and Russia pioneered in countries such as Angola, the Central African Republic and the DRC.

    Resource bartering in Africa has eroded the sovereignty and bargaining power of mineral-rich nations such as the DRC and Angola.

    Further, resources-for-security deals are less transparent and more complicated than prior resource bartering agreements.

    DRC’s security gaps

    The DRC is endowed with major deposits of critical minerals like cobalt, copper, lithium, manganese and tantalum. These are the building blocks for 21st century technologies: artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, wind energy and military security hardware. Rwanda has less mineral wealth than its neighbour, but is the world’s third-largest producer of tantalum, used in electronics, aerospace and medical devices.

    For almost 30 years, minerals have fuelled conflict and severe violence, especially in eastern DRC. Tungsten, tantalum and gold (referred to as 3TG) finance and drive conflict as government forces and an estimated 130 armed groups vie for control over lucrative mining sites. Several reports and studies have implicated the DRC’s neighbours – Rwanda and Uganda – in supporting the illegal extraction of 3TG in this region.

    The DRC government has failed to extend security over its vast (2.3 million square kilometres) and diverse territory (109 million people, representing 250 ethnic groups). Limited resources, logistical challenges and corruption have weakened its armed forces.

    This context makes the United States’ military backing enormously attractive. But our research shows there are traps.

    What states risk losing

    Resources-for-infrastructure and resources-for-security deals generally offer African nations short-term stability, financing or global goodwill. However, the costs are often long-term because of an erosion of sovereign control.

    Here’s how this happens:

    Examples of loss or near-loss of sovereignty from these sorts of deals abound in Africa.

    For instance, Angola’s US$2 billion oil-backed loan from China Eximbank in 2004. This was repayable in monthly deliveries of oil, with revenues directed to Chinese-controlled accounts. The loan’s design deprived Angolan authorities of decision-making power over that income stream even before the oil was extracted.

    These deals also fragment accountability. They often span multiple ministries (such as defence, mining and trade), avoiding robust oversight or accountability. Fragmentation makes resource sectors vulnerable to elite capture. Powerful insiders can manipulate agreements for private gain.

    In the DRC, this has created a violent kleptocracy, where resource wealth is systematically diverted away from popular benefit.

    Finally, there is the risk of re-entrenching extractive trauma. Communities displaced for mining and environmental degradation in many countries across Africa illustrate the long-standing harm to livelihoods, health and social cohesion.

    These are not new problems. But where extraction is tied to security or infrastructure, such damage risks becoming permanent features, not temporary costs.

    What needs to change

    Critical minerals are “critical” because they’re hard to mine or substitute. Additionally, their supply chains are strategically vulnerable and politically exposed. Whoever controls these minerals controls the future. Africa must make sure it doesn’t trade that future away.

    In a world being reshaped by global interests in critical minerals, African states must not underestimate the strategic value of their mineral resources. They hold considerable leverage.

    But leverage only works if it is wielded strategically. This means:

    • investing in institutional strength and legal capacity to negotiate better deals

    • demanding local value creation and addition

    • requiring transparency and parliamentary oversight for minerals-related agreements

    • refusing deals that bypass human rights, environmental or sovereignty standards.

    Africa has the resources. It must hold on to the power they wield.

    Hanri Mostert receives funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa. She is a member of the Expropriation Expert Group and a steering committee member of the International Bar Association’s (IBA) Academic Advisory Group (AAG) in the Sector for Energy, Environmental, Resources and Infrastructure Law (SEERIL).

    Tracy-Lynn Field receives funding from the Claude Leon Foundation. She is a non-executive director of the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa.

    – ref. Africa’s minerals are being bartered for security: why it’s a bad idea – https://theconversation.com/africas-minerals-are-being-bartered-for-security-why-its-a-bad-idea-260594

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Africa: Africa’s minerals are being bartered for security: why it’s a bad idea

    Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Hanri Mostert, SARChI Chair for Mineral Law in Africa, University of Cape Town

    A US-brokered peace deal between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda binds the two African nations to a worrying arrangement: one where a country signs away its mineral resources to a superpower in return for opaque assurances of security.

    The peace deal, signed in June 2025, aims to end three decades of conflict between the DRC and Rwanda.

    A key part of the agreement binds both nations to developing a regional economic integration framework. This arrangement would expand cooperation between the two states, the US government and American investors on “transparent, formalized end-to-end mineral chains”.

    Despite its immense mineral wealth, the DRC is among the five poorest countries in the world. It has been seeking US investment in its mineral sector.

    The US has in turn touted a potential multi-billion-dollar investment programme to anchor its mineral supply chains in the traumatised and poor territory.

    The peace that the June 2025 deal promises, therefore, hinges on chaining mineral supply to the US in exchange for Washington’s powerful – but vaguely formulated – military oversight.

    The peace agreement further establishes a joint oversight committee – with representatives from the African Union, Qatar and the US – to receive complaints and resolve disputes between the DRC and Rwanda.

    But beyond the joint oversight committee, the peace deal creates no specific security obligations for the US.

    The relationship between the DRC and Rwanda has been marred by war and tension since the bloody First (1996-1997) and Second (1998-2003) Congo wars. At the heart of much of this conflict is the DRC’s mineral wealth. It has fuelled competition, exploitation and armed violence.

    This latest peace deal introduces a resources-for-security arrangement. Such deals aren’t new in Africa. They first emerged in the early 2000s as resources-for-infrastructure transactions. Here, a foreign state would agree to build economic and social infrastructure (roads, ports, airports, hospitals) in an African state. In exchange, it would get a major stake in a government-owned mining company. Or gain preferential access to the host country’s minerals.

    We have studied mineral law and governance in Africa for more than 20 years. The question that emerges now is whether a US-brokered resources-for-security agreement will help the DRC benefit from its resources.

    Based on our research on mining, development and sustainability, we believe this is unlikely.

    This is because resources-for-security is the latest version of a resource-bartering approach that China and Russia pioneered in countries such as Angola, the Central African Republic and the DRC.

    Resource bartering in Africa has eroded the sovereignty and bargaining power of mineral-rich nations such as the DRC and Angola.

    Further, resources-for-security deals are less transparent and more complicated than prior resource bartering agreements.

    DRC’s security gaps

    The DRC is endowed with major deposits of critical minerals like cobalt, copper, lithium, manganese and tantalum. These are the building blocks for 21st century technologies: artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, wind energy and military security hardware. Rwanda has less mineral wealth than its neighbour, but is the world’s third-largest producer of tantalum, used in electronics, aerospace and medical devices.

    For almost 30 years, minerals have fuelled conflict and severe violence, especially in eastern DRC. Tungsten, tantalum and gold (referred to as 3TG) finance and drive conflict as government forces and an estimated 130 armed groups vie for control over lucrative mining sites. Several reports and studies have implicated the DRC’s neighbours – Rwanda and Uganda – in supporting the illegal extraction of 3TG in this region.

    The DRC government has failed to extend security over its vast (2.3 million square kilometres) and diverse territory (109 million people, representing 250 ethnic groups). Limited resources, logistical challenges and corruption have weakened its armed forces.

    This context makes the United States’ military backing enormously attractive. But our research shows there are traps.

    What states risk losing

    Resources-for-infrastructure and resources-for-security deals generally offer African nations short-term stability, financing or global goodwill. However, the costs are often long-term because of an erosion of sovereign control.

    Here’s how this happens:

    Examples of loss or near-loss of sovereignty from these sorts of deals abound in Africa.

    For instance, Angola’s US$2 billion oil-backed loan from China Eximbank in 2004. This was repayable in monthly deliveries of oil, with revenues directed to Chinese-controlled accounts. The loan’s design deprived Angolan authorities of decision-making power over that income stream even before the oil was extracted.

    These deals also fragment accountability. They often span multiple ministries (such as defence, mining and trade), avoiding robust oversight or accountability. Fragmentation makes resource sectors vulnerable to elite capture. Powerful insiders can manipulate agreements for private gain.

    In the DRC, this has created a violent kleptocracy, where resource wealth is systematically diverted away from popular benefit.

    Finally, there is the risk of re-entrenching extractive trauma. Communities displaced for mining and environmental degradation in many countries across Africa illustrate the long-standing harm to livelihoods, health and social cohesion.

    These are not new problems. But where extraction is tied to security or infrastructure, such damage risks becoming permanent features, not temporary costs.

    What needs to change

    Critical minerals are “critical” because they’re hard to mine or substitute. Additionally, their supply chains are strategically vulnerable and politically exposed. Whoever controls these minerals controls the future. Africa must make sure it doesn’t trade that future away.

    In a world being reshaped by global interests in critical minerals, African states must not underestimate the strategic value of their mineral resources. They hold considerable leverage.

    But leverage only works if it is wielded strategically. This means:

    • investing in institutional strength and legal capacity to negotiate better deals

    • demanding local value creation and addition

    • requiring transparency and parliamentary oversight for minerals-related agreements

    • refusing deals that bypass human rights, environmental or sovereignty standards.

    Africa has the resources. It must hold on to the power they wield.

    – Africa’s minerals are being bartered for security: why it’s a bad idea
    – https://theconversation.com/africas-minerals-are-being-bartered-for-security-why-its-a-bad-idea-260594

    MIL OSI Africa –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: British Muslim Trust appointed as new partner to monitor and tackle anti-Muslim hatred

    Source: United Kingdom – Government Statements

    News story

    British Muslim Trust appointed as new partner to monitor and tackle anti-Muslim hatred

    The Combatting Hate Against Muslims Fund was established this year to tackle the record levels of anti-Muslim hate.

    • British Muslim Trust will receive funding as part of a new government drive against record levels of anti-Muslim hate.
    • Funding will boost victim support and strengthen hate crime reporting nationwide.
    • The Trust unites decades of expertise from Aziz Foundation and Randeree Charitable Trust.

    The British Muslim Trust (BMT) has been selected as the recipient of the government’s new Combatting Hate Against Muslims Fund, a key initiative to address the rise in anti-Muslim hatred across England.

    The fund was established this year to respond to the evolving nature of religious intolerance and targeted hate incidents faced by Muslim communities, which are at the highest level on record.

    BMT will use the funding to develop a robust reporting system that captures both online and offline incidents of anti-Muslim hatred, including those that may go unreported to the police.

    It will also enable the organisation to provide direct support to victims, raise awareness of what constitutes a hate crime, and encourage greater reporting from affected communities.

    Lord Khan, Minister for Faith, said:

    The rise of anti-Muslim hatred in this county is alarming and deeply concerning.

    That’s why we established this new fund: to ensure we’re doing everything we can to deeply understand the situation our Muslim communities are facing, provide them with the support they need and give us the tools needed to tackle this unacceptable hatred.

    I look forward to working with the British Muslim Trust on our shared ambition to create a safer, more tolerant society for everyone as part of our Plan for Change.

    By analysing the data collected, the BMT will help identify the trends and drivers behind these incidents, providing the government with the evidence needed to shape effective policy and inform action to tackle anti-Muslim hate moving forward, helping to deliver on our Safer Streets mission as part of our Plan for Change.

    The BMT brings together the Aziz Foundation and Randeree Charitable Trust to form a comprehensive organisation, combining their expertise and strong community foundations, gained from over twenty-years of work, to meet the demands of today’s landscape.

    Shabir Randeree, CBE, will serve as the Chair of the Board of Directors, bringing with him a wealth of cross-sector experience, knowledge and a firm commitment to championing the welfare of ethnic minorities in Britain.

    Shabir Randeree, Chair of the Board of Directors at the British Muslim Trust, said:

    Tackling anti-Muslim hatred is essential to building safer, more inclusive communities – and we are proud to have been appointed to deliver this important work.

    The British Muslim Trust will work closely with partners across the country to support victims, listen to communities, and help ensure that every person can live free from fear and hatred.

    Notes to Editors:

    • The British Muslim Trust will begin receiving reports and monitoring incidents from early autumn.
    • In establishing the BMT, The Aziz Foundation and Randeree Charitable Trust have also worked closely with Akeela Ahmed MBE, who they intend to appoint as CEO, drawing on her decades of experience in working with grassroots organisations and policy-level anti-hate work.
    • Incidents of hate crime directed towards Muslims is at a record high in England and Wales – as set out in recent government statistics: Hate crime, England and Wales, year ending March 2024 – GOV.UK
    • The window to bid for this funding under the Combatting Hate Against Muslims Fund ran from 7 April for six weeks. More information about the assessment criteria used to select the grant partner can be found in the fund’s prospectus, linked here: Combatting Hate Against Muslims fund: prospectus – GOV.UK
    • The Randeree Charitable Trust has spent decades supporting and funding organisations which work to empower young people, support interfaith dialogue, religious understanding and community cohesion. Through this work, the Trust has built a deep and widespread network which will support in establishing the British Muslim Trust’s within communities across the country.

    • The Aziz Foundation supports individuals from British Muslim communities by empowering them to advance their careers and make valuable contributions to society through providing Master’s scholarships and other resources. The foundation has spent a decade nurturing confident leaders of Muslim background to address social challenges and promote positive change within their communities and beyond.

    • NPCC’s National Police Advisor for Hate Crime Paul Giannasi said:

    “The Crime Survey for England and Wales demonstrates that hate crime has a greater impact on victims when compared to non-targeted crime. It damages our society, creating fear and division in communities that are targeted. 

    “We also know that hate crime has traditionally been underreported and have seen evidence that this is a particular challenge with those affected by anti-Muslim hatred.

    “The police will not tolerate hate crime and would encourage all victims to report crimes, whether direct to the police or through third-party facilities provided by community groups. 

    “We welcome the funding that government has committed to address this issue and any initiative that helps victims to seek and receive the services they deserve.”

    • Imam Qasim, Exec. Chairman & Founder, Al-Khair Foundation, said:

    “Al Khair Foundation welcomes the establishment of the British Muslim Trust as a dedicated platform through which members of the public may report hate crimes. 

    “This timely and much-needed initiative constitutes a significant milestone in the advancement of community cohesion and the restoration of trust and confidence among affected communities.”

    Updates to this page

    Published 21 July 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Smithfield man sentenced to over two years in prison for illegally possessing a firearm

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

    NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – A Smithfield man was sentenced yesterday to two years and four months in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

    According to court documents, on May 25, 2024, law enforcement conducted a traffic stop on Ahmod Keshawn Finney, 24, and placed him in custody pursuant to outstanding state arrest warrants. While Finney was being detained, officers observed and recovered a loaded handgun from the vehicle. The handgun was stolen and was equipped with an extended magazine and a machinegun conversion device.

    As a previously convicted felon, Finney cannot legally possess firearms or ammunition.

    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; Col. Matthew D. Hanley, Superintendent of Virginia State Police; and Steve R. Drew, Chief of Newport News Police, made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Jamar K. Walker.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter G. Osyf prosecuted the case.

    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.

    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. 4:24-cr-86.

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  • MIL-OSI Security: Pierre Man Sentenced to More Than 12 Years in Federal Prison for Distributing Methamphetamine in Central South Dakota

    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 a Pierre, South Dakota, man convicted of Conspiracy to Distribute a Controlled Substance and Possession of a Firearm by a Prohibited Person. The sentencing took place on July 14, 2025.

    Scott Reiners, age 37, was sentenced to 12 years and four months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $200 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund. Reiners was further ordered to pay a $1,000 fine.

    Reiners was indicted by a federal grand jury in July 2024 . He pleaded guilty on April 3, 2025.

    The conviction stemmed from a drug conspiracy between September 2022 and April 2023 in which Reiners and several other individuals conspired to distribute methamphetamine in and around the central South Dakota area, including within the Crow Creek and Lower Brule Sioux Indian Reservations. As part of the conspiracy, Reiners was involved in distributing between 5 kilograms and 15 kilograms of methamphetamine. Reiners was also involved in a traffic stop where law enforcement seized 254 grams of 97% pure methamphetamine and a handgun. Reiners is prohibited from possessing firearms due to three prior felony convictions.

    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.

    This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Assistant U.S. Attorney Meghan Dilges prosecuted the case.

    Reiners was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. 

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Inquiry to uncover truth of Orgreave

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    News story

    Inquiry to uncover truth of Orgreave

    Inquiry into violent confrontation at Orgreave to be established this year, with the Rt Revd Dr Pete Wilcox, Bishop of Sheffield, appointed as chair.

    The Home Secretary visiting the site alongside campaigners and the National Union of Mineworkers

    An inquiry into the violent confrontation between police, picketers and subsequent protesters at Orgreave 41 years ago will be established as the government delivers its manifesto commitment to uncover the truth.

    The inquiry, expected to launch in the autumn, will investigate the events surrounding clashes at the Orgreave Coking Plant in 1984, causing 120 injuries. In total, 95 picketers were arrested and initially charged with riot and violent disorder, but all charges were later dropped after evidence was discredited.

    The inquiry will be statutory, with the appropriate powers to compel people to provide information where necessary.

    The Rt Revd Dr Pete Wilcox, the Bishop of Sheffield, has agreed to chair the inquiry, which is intended to aid the public’s understanding of how the events on the day, and immediately after, came to pass.

    The event has left a lasting impact on those present that day and their families, as well as undermining the wider mining community’s confidence in policing for decades.

    That is why, as the government looks to rebuild public confidence in policing as part of its Plan for Change, it is delivering on this manifesto commitment to bring to light what happened at Orgreave, with the Home Secretary visiting the site alongside the campaigners and the National Union of Mineworkers who have fought for years for answers.

    Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: 

    Every community should have confidence in their police, but we know what happened at Orgreave cast a shadow over communities in Yorkshire and other mining areas.

    The violent scenes and subsequent prosecutions raised concerns that have been left unanswered for decades, and we must now establish what happened.

    I pay tribute to the campaigners who never stopped in their search for truth and justice, and I look forward to continuing to work with them as we build an inquiry that gets the answers they and their communities deserve.

    The Rt Revd Dr Pete Wilcox said:

    I am extremely grateful to the Home Secretary for the opportunity to chair this inquiry and for the support I shall be given in doing so. I do not underestimate the weight of expectation or the significance of the task. 

    I look forward to engaging with stakeholders in the coming weeks over the draft terms of reference, and to working with the government to identify experts to support me on the independent panel.

    I expect the panel to begin its work in the autumn, and we will endeavour to deliver an inquiry which is thorough and fair, and which will uncover what happened at Orgreave as swiftly as possible.

    The government has engaged with campaign groups throughout the process of designing the inquiry to ensure their concerns and experiences are considered.

    Formal consultation between the Home Secretary and the Rt Revd Dr Pete Wilcox on the inquiry’s terms of reference has already begun, and further engagement with key stakeholders will be an important part of that process. The inquiry will aim to deliver swiftly to ensure the wellbeing of those searching for answers is not unduly impacted.

    A final copy of the terms of reference will then be published at the earliest opportunity.

    Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign Secretary, Kate Flannery, said: 

    We have waited a long time for this day and this is really positive news. All these years of hard work by the OTJC and our many supporters has helped to influence this constructive announcement. We appreciate the Home Secretary’s commitment to holding some kind of Orgreave inquiry. 

    We now need to be satisfied that the inquiry is given the necessary powers to fully investigate all the aspects of the orchestrated policing at Orgreave, and have unrestricted access to all relevant information including government, police and media documents, photos and films.

    The National Union of Mineworkers General Secretary, Chris Kitchen, said:

    The NUM welcome the announcement the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, has made to hold a statutory inquiry into the policing at Orgreave and subsequent court case abandoned after police evidence was discredited.

    It is hugely welcome to see this government fulfil its pledge made in the Labour Party Manifesto to the mining community. The events at Orgreave, and throughout the strike, destroyed the trust between the police and mining communities even now, 41 years later. It is vital that this trust is won back and the NUM believe this inquiry will go some way to rebuilding that trust.

    The NUM will offer the Rt Revd Dr Pete Wilcox, Bishop of Sheffield, any assistance that he requires to ensure that the inquiry uncovers the truth about who orchestrated the events at Orgreave and the failed court case so that precautions can be put in place, so it never happens again.

    South Yorkshire’s Mayor, Oliver Coppard, said:

    What happened at Orgreave remains one of the most controversial episodes in policing history. The violent clashes, the arrest of 95 miners, the collapse of the subsequent trial after revelations about police conduct, and the absence of any investigation or accountability scarred those involved, and people across our entire community.

    So, the announcement of a public inquiry into the events at Orgreave is a landmark moment for justice and accountability. We wouldn’t have got this without the sheer determination of the campaigners and a government and Home Secretary who have listened to the long-held concerns.

    The inquiry represents an opportunity to examine not only the actions of South Yorkshire Police and other forces on that day, but also the broader role of government at the time. It’s a step towards setting the historical record straight, ensuring lessons are learned, and restoring public trust.

    We owe it to the miners, their families, and our communities to ensure that the events of Orgreave are finally understood. My hope is that the public inquiry is completed at pace and that at the end of the process it brings closure and a sense of justice for those involved and their families in particular, and that we are finally able to turn the page on the events of that moment in our history.

    Updates to this page

    Published 21 July 2025

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Submissions: Comparing ICE to the Gestapo reveals people’s fears for the US – a Holocaust scholar explains why Nazi analogies remain common, yet risky

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Daniel H. Magilow, Professor of German, University of Tennessee

    U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers gather for a briefing before an enforcement operation on Jan. 27, 2025, in Silver Spring, Md. Associated Press

    Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz recently sparked controversy by comparing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to Nazi Germany’s notorious secret police, the Gestapo.

    “Donald Trump’s modern-day Gestapo is scooping folks up off the streets,” Walz said during a May 2025 speech at the University of Minnesota Law School’s commencement ceremony.

    “They’re in unmarked vans, wearing masks, being shipped off to foreign torture dungeons, no chance to mount a defense, not even a chance to kiss a loved one goodbye, just grabbed up by masked agents, shoved into those vans, and disappeared,” Walz added.

    ICE, tasked with enforcing immigration policies, has dramatically increased the number of nationwide arrests of immigrants since President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025. ICE’s arrests of immigrants have more than doubled in 38 states since then.

    In recent months, other Democratic politicians, including U.S Rep. Dan Goldman of New York, have also compared ICE to the Gestapo, or Adolf Hitler’s “secret police,” as Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts said in April.

    But do ICE’s tactics actually resemble those of the Gestapo?

    Because I am a scholar of modern Germany and the Holocaust, people regularly ask me if this analogy is accurate. The answer is complicated.

    The Gestapo arrests a group of Jewish men hiding in a cellar in Poland in 1939, in what was possibly a staged German propaganda photo.
    Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

    Understanding the Gestapo

    The Nazi regime established the Gestapo, short for the German phrase Geheime Staatspolizei, meaning secret state police, soon after Hitler became chancellor of Germany in January 1933. Among other responsibilities, the Gestapo was tasked with investigating political crimes and monitoring opposition activity. It later enforced racial laws in Germany and across occupied Europe.

    As part of its daily work, the Gestapo identified and monitored the regime’s political enemies. It arrested, interrogated, detained and tortured suspects and sent others to concentration camps. To identify suspects, it often relied on anonymous denunciations that came not only from zealous Nazis, but also from disgruntled neighbors or business competitors who tipped off the Gestapo to Jews and other people.

    While the Gestapo was relatively small in terms of personnel, it projected an image of being, as one scholar wrote, “omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.”

    It enforced the regime’s will and suppressed dissent not through sheer manpower but by creating a pervasive sense of fear. This aura of menace and terror has long outlived the Nazi regime itself.

    ICE’s operations

    ICE, with around 21,000 officers and staff operating in a country of more than 340 million, is smaller both in absolute terms and on a per capita basis. At its height between 1943 and 1945, the Gestapo had between 40,000 and 50,000 personnel in a country of 79 million.

    ICE is set to expand its work in the next few years with an additional US$75 billion in funding that Congress appropriated in July as part of Trump’s tax and spending bill.

    And while ICE focuses on immigration, the Gestapo had a more expansive role. It was responsible for suppressing all forms of political dissent, not just violations of immigration law.

    ICE operates with vastly more advanced technologies that did not exist in the 1940s, including facial recognition and social media monitoring.

    There is technically more transparency around ICE’s work than the Gestapo’s, since ICE is a federal agency that is subject to its work and information being reviewed by politicians and the public alike. But in June 2020, the first Trump administration reclassified ICE, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, as a “security/sensitive agency.” This designation makes it harder for people to request and receive information about ICE’s work through Freedom of Information Act records requests.

    Like the Gestapo, ICE can seem performative in its work, like when it carried out a dramatic July raid of a cannabis farm in California in which balaclava-wearing officers used tear gas against protesters.

    The Gestapo in today’s world

    Since World War II and the fall of the Nazi regime, the term Gestapo has become shorthand in the United States to describe police repression.

    Using the word Gestapo to describe the worst possible authoritarian oppression has been popularized in popular movies in everything from the 1943 film “Casablanca” and “The Black Gestapo” in 1975 to “Inglourious Basterds” in 2009 and “Jojo Rabbit” in 2019.

    Walz’s remarks in May, though provocative, were also far from isolated in politics. Politicians from both sides of the aisle, as well as political observers, regularly use Gestapo and Nazi metaphors to attack their opponents.

    In 2022, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia famously confused the term Gestapo with gazpacho soup in a gaffe that went viral. “Now we have Nancy Pelosi’s gazpacho police spying on members of Congress,” she said.

    In 2024, Trump accused President Joe Biden of running a “Gestapo administration” as the Justice Department prosecuted Trump for attempting to overturn the 2020 election.

    Overall, mentions of the word Gestapo in social media increased by 184% between 2017 and 2024, according to the nonprofit group Foundation to Combat Antisemitism.

    The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum is among the organizations that have condemned making comparisons to the Holocaust and the Nazis for many reasons, including their historical inaccuracy and because they are insulting to people whose families remain scarred by the Holocaust.

    A Paraguayan woman whose relative was detained by ICE agents scuffles with officers in the halls of an immigration court in New York City on July 16, 2025.
    Spencer Platt/Getty Images

    What historical comparisons really say

    Analogies can be useful for clarifying complex ideas. But especially when they stretch across decades and vastly different political contexts, they risk oversimplifying and trivializing history.

    I believe that comparing ICE to the Gestapo is less a historical judgment than a reflection of modern anxiety – a fear that the U.S. is veering toward authoritarianism reminiscent of 1930s Germany.

    If politicians and other public figures are looking for historical comparisons to modern law enforcement agencies that use severe tactics, there is, unfortunately, no shortage of options: the Soviet Union’s secret police agencies NKVD and KGB, Iran’s former secret police and intelligence agency SAVAK or East Germany’s Stasi, to name just a few.
    All of those organizations denied suspects due process and grossly violated human rights in order to protect political regimes – but they don’t necessarily easily compare to ICE, either.

    Still, politicians and political observers alike most often turn to the Gestapo and other Nazi references instead.

    Ultimately, the Gestapo, Nazi Germany and the Holocaust serve as a powerful, shared cultural reference point. The catastrophes of World War II epitomize the worst possible outcomes of evil left unchecked.

    They have become the master moral paradigm and an ethical compass for the world today. In an age of polarization, World War II and the Holocaust remain the mirror in which Americans examine their present.

    Daniel H. Magilow received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (although DOGE cancelled the grant in April 2025).

    He serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, the journal of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies

    – ref. Comparing ICE to the Gestapo reveals people’s fears for the US – a Holocaust scholar explains why Nazi analogies remain common, yet risky – https://theconversation.com/comparing-ice-to-the-gestapo-reveals-peoples-fears-for-the-us-a-holocaust-scholar-explains-why-nazi-analogies-remain-common-yet-risky-260767

    MIL OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Foreign National Sentenced for Conspiring to Export U.S.-Made Drill Rigs to Iran in Violation of U.S. Sanctions Laws

    Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

    Brian Assi, also known as Brahim Assi, 63, of Beirut, Lebanon, was sentenced to 44 months in prison for conspiring to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations (ITSR), attempted unlawful export of goods from the United States to Iran without a license, attempted smuggling goods from the United States, submitting false or misleading export information, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

    “The defendant conspired to export millions of dollars of U.S.-made heavy machinery to Iran, a leading state sponsor of terrorism,” said John A. Eisenberg, Assistant Attorney General for National Security. “The National Security Division will find and prosecute those who illegally sell American products to our adversaries.”

    “The defendant threatened U.S. economic and national security by conspiring and concealing his efforts to circumvent our export controls to provide heavy machinery to Iran, a designated state sponsor of terrorism for the past 40 years,” said U.S. Attorney John P. Heckin for the Northern District of Florida. “My office will continue to aggressively pursue anyone who violates our laws and offers material support to America’s enemies.”

    Assi was convicted of the charges in October 2024. According to evidence presented at trial, Assi was a Middle East-based salesman of a multinational heavy machinery manufacturer with a U.S.-based subsidiary and production plant located in Alachua, Florida. Assi conspired with individuals affiliated with Sakht Abzar Pars Co. (SAP-Iran), based in Tehran, Iran, to export U.S.-made heavy machinery indirectly to Iran without first obtaining the required licenses from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

    Assi and his Iranian co-conspirators orchestrated the scheme by locating an Iraq-based distributor to serve as the forward-facing purchaser of two U.S.-origin blasthole drills from the U.S. subsidiary of Assi’s employer. The drills are a type of heavy machinery used to create holes in the ground that are then filled with controlled explosives for mining.

    Assi facilitated the sale of the drills and attempted export them to Iran and used freight forwarding companies to ship the heavy equipment from the U.S. to Turkey. In doing so, Assi concealed any Iranian involvement in the transaction from his employer, claiming the drills were ultimately destined for use in Iraq. But in truth, Assi intended for his Iranian co-conspirators to transship or reexport those items from Turkey to Iran, in circumvention of the U.S. export control and sanction laws.

    In furtherance of the conspiracy, Assi concealed his activities with his Iranian co-conspirators by causing false information to be entered into the Automated Export System (AES), a U.S.-government database containing information about exports from the United States. The U.S.-based plant hired a U.S. freight forwarder to arrange the drill’s export from the U.S. to Iraq. As part of the shipping process, the freight forwarder submitted information to AES about the shipment, including the ultimate consignee’s name and the ultimate delivery destination. Assi misled his employer by claiming that the Iraqi distributor was the ultimate consignee, and that the ultimate delivery destination was Iraq. In fact, Assi knew that his co-conspirators in Iran were the true intended recipients, and Iran was the ultimate intended delivery destination.

    In furtherance of the illicit transaction, Assi and his co-conspirators caused the transfer of approximately $2.7 million from Turkey to pass through the United States.

    The Commerce Department Bureau of Industry and Security’s Office of Export Enforcement investigated the case.

    Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew J. Grogan and Harley W. Ferguson for the Northern District of Florida and Trial Attorney Ahmed Almudallal of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section prosecuted the case.

    MIL Security OSI –