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The goalposts have moved again. Joe Biden’s FBI justified its authorization of the use of deadly force during their Mar-a-Lago raid because of “life-threatening” contraband in the kitchen and gym.

Disgraced Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein has been caught with contraband in jail, accoridng to reports. Weinstein is currently being held in L.A. County jail as he awaits trial for rape. He was caught with contraband Milk Duds in November, prompting a reprimand from L.A. County jail guards, according to prisoner records. The Milk Duds were found during a search on November 10, after Weinstein had a face-to-face meeting with Shawn Burkley, one of his attorneys. Weinstein claimed to the guards that he had brought the Milk Duds with him when he was extradited from New York last July. The...

With a camera hidden in a hollowed-out Bible, peeking through the “O” of the word “Holy,” and a pair of rigged reading glasses, Scott Whitney secretly filmed the world behind bars, inside one of Florida’s notoriously dangerous prisons. For four years, the 34-year-old convicted drug trafficker captured daily life on contraband cameras at the Martin Correctional Institution. He smuggled footage dating back to 2017 out of the prison, and titled the documentary “Behind Tha Barb Wire.” The video — given to the Miami Herald — allows the public to see with their own eyes the violence, rampant drug use and...

A jury convicted a man of 31 offenses Friday for plotting to fly illegal drugs, a cellphone and other contraband aboard a drone into a maximum-security state prison. Thaddeus C. Shortz, 25, of Knoxville, could face more than 50 years in prison for crimes that include contraband, drug, conspiracy and firearm convictions. His sentencing wasn’t scheduled. The Allegany County Circuit Court jury deliberated about two hours and 15 minutes after two days of testimony. The panel of eight men and four women convicted Shortz on all but four of the charged offenses. He was acquitted on two counts each of...

A cabal of corrupt corrections officers and members of the Black Guerrilla Family gang enjoyed nearly free rein inside the Baltimore City Detention Center, federal authorities allege, smuggling drugs and cellphones into the jail and having sexual relationships that left four guards pregnant. An indictment unsealed Tuesday names 25 people — including 13 women working as corrections officers — who face racketeering, drug and money-laundering charges. It alleges that Tavon White, an inmate known as "Bulldog," took control of the prison gang soon after his arrival in 2009 on an attempted-murder charge. He is accused of building a network of...

The teenage suspect in the daring heist of a celebrity chef's Lamborghini and a brazen shooting from a motorcycle is being investigated for a variety of other possible crimes, including a series of recent bank robberies in Northern California by a mysterious masked man, Marin County Sheriff's officials said Wednesday. Besides the stolen Lamborghini, a motorcycle and a .357 revolver believed to be used in the shooting, the search revealed a trove of contraband, including automatic weapons, a police uniform, sophisticated electronic transmitting devices, bugs and other evidence of possible criminal activity beyond what anyone had imagined. Wade, who is...

SNIPPET: "In recent years, U.S. concerns have increased over activities of Hezbollah and the Sunni Muslim Palestinian group Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) in the tri-border area (TBA) of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, which has a large Muslim population. The TBA has long been used for arms and drug trafficking, contraband smuggling, document and currency fraud, money laundering, and the manufacture and movement of pirated goods." SNIPPET: "This article is an edited portion of a longer January 25, 2010 CRS report, Latin America: Terrorism Issues (PDF) prepared by Mark P. Sullivan, Specialist in Latin American Affairs for the Congressional Research Service...

FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Fourteen people have been charged with illegally purchasing 77 million contraband cigarettes from undercover agents in Virginia and smuggling the cigarettes to New York. Two are also accused of paying an agent posing as a hit man to kill a husband and wife whom they believed had stolen from them. The indictments handed up Thursday in federal court in Alexandria are the culmination of a yearlong investigation. Authorities say the smuggling ring paid $8 million plus guns and drugs to the undercover agents for the cigarettes. Cigarette smuggling has increased in recent years as high taxes...

Hopefully you're not the sort to risk things by gunning it when the light turns yellow, pushing your (and our) luck, saving yourself a few seconds on the race to the next intersection, and sneering red light cameras. Maybe if you knew the kind of hardware in there you'd have more respect: Nikon's D2X digital SLR. We had no idea there were pro-level shooters in there, but a New York City couple certainly did, running around the city with a cherry picker and pilfering 22 of the things, all sold at pawn shops for a total of $88,000 $6,600 --...

States across the U.S. have been taking a harder line against an old problem -- cigarette smuggling -- as part of the widening search for solutions to their budget problems. States including Florida, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Rhode Island and Virginia this year have stepped up law-enforcement efforts with the aim of recouping taxes lost to bootleg cigarette sales. Studies indicate states are losing about $5 billion annually in tax revenue because of illegal tobacco sales, said Phil Awe, who heads the tobacco-diversion division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "We do not want to have our...

The latest threat assessment prepared for special border enforcement teams says pleasure boats are among the increasingly inventive means used by crafty couriers to slip illicit cargo — including drugs, guns and people — from one country to the other. The marine environment “is viewed as particularly vulnerable and porous to smuggling activity” due to the many challenges in keeping tabs on lakes, waterways and tiny coves, says the August 2007 report, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act. One American criminal group has children carrying bags of tobacco swim across the St. Croix River between...

Cigarette smuggling is generating millions of dollars every year that can be reaching terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda, according to law enforcement sources. In a single case, $100,000 was sent to Hezbollah. A 15-page report congressional report includes intelligence from law enforcement as well as New York State’s Department of Taxation and Finance. Cigarette smuggling is generating millions of dollars every year that can be reaching terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda, according to law enforcement sources. In a single case, $100,000 was sent to Hezbollah. One of the key issues... is a potential flaw...

WASHINGTON — Stolen and sensitive U.S. military equipment, including fighter jet parts wanted by Iran and nuclear biological protective gear, has been available to the highest bidder on popular Internet sales sites, according to congressional investigators. Using undercover identities, investigators purchased a dozen defense-related items on the auction site eBay and the online network Craigslist from January 2007 through last month and received the items "no questions asked." The Defense Department regards much of the stolen equipment to be on the U.S. Munitions List, meaning there are restrictions on their overseas sales, the Government Accountability Office said Thursday. The equipment...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Stolen and sensitive U.S. military equipment, including fighter jet parts wanted by Iran and nuclear biological protective gear, has been available to the highest bidder on popular Internet sales sites, according to congressional investigators. Using undercover identities, investigators purchased a dozen defense-related items on the auction site eBay and the online network Craigslist from January 2007 through last month and received the items "no questions asked." The Defense Department regards much of the stolen equipment to be on the U.S. Munitions List, meaning there are restrictions on their overseas sales, the Government Accountability Office said Thursday. The...

EL PASO — Customs agents found nearly $1.9 million hidden in the doors of a sport utility vehicle at an El Paso port of entry, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced on Tuesday. Agents found the cash, wrapped in bundles and hidden in the doors of a 1992 Ford Expedition, after using a density meter to inspect the vehicle Monday morning, CBP spokesman Roger Maier said. "The driver was a little bit nervous, a little bit shaky," Maier said. "So the agents used ... a density meter. It registered higher than normal, consistent with contraband. They started looking closer at...

Savvy criminals are using some of the country's most credible logos, including FedEx, Wal-Mart, DirecTV and the U.S. Border Patrol, to create fake trucks to smuggle drugs, money and illegal aliens across the border, according to a report by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Termed "cloned" vehicles, the report also warns that terrorists could use the same fake trucks to gain access to secure areas with hidden weapons. The report says criminals have been able to easily obtain the necessary vinyl logo markings and signs for $6,000 or less. Authorities say "cosmetically cloned commercial vehicles are not illegal." In...

AN attempt to arrest federal prison guards in a sex-for-contraband probe erupted in gunfire that killed a US Justice Department agent and one of the guards, the FBI said today. Agents were trying to arrest six guards at the Federal Detention Centre in Tallahassee on charges including giving prisoners alcohol and other contraband in exchange for sex and money, an investigator said. One of the indicted guards opened fire and was shot dead, FBI spokesman Jeff Westcott said. An agent from the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General was also killed, he said. Another prison worker was shot and...

435 cases of smokes, more than $1.3 million in cash, property seized in raids.Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property, cash and contraband cigarettes have been seized as a result of raids this week across Western Quebec and Eastern Ontario. At a press conference at the Quebec provincial police Gatineau detachment, investigators today provided more detail about Project Bleutte, which was first announced Thursday after raids were conducted throughout the region. Police said today the raids netted 435 cases of contraband cigarettes and they seized: 37 vehicles allegedly used for smuggling and distribution of the smokes, $600,000 in real...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - A man has pleaded guilty to conspiring to funnel money, weapons and supplies to the Hezbollah terrorist group and will testify against other defendants, prosecutors said Monday. Said Mohamad Harb, 31, pleaded guilty to conspiracy Feb. 25 and a charge of providing material support to a known terrorist organization was dropped, U.S. Attorney Robert Conrad said. Harb's trial had been scheduled to begin in two weeks. Conrad said the plea was kept secret because Harb agreed to testify against other defendants in exchange for the removal of some of his relatives from Lebanon to the United...

. . . Undercover federal agents, working with confidential informants, posed as black-market suppliers of the cigarettes. They also filled orders for Enfamil infant formula and EBT (food-stamp) cards that were used to buy merchandise that was resold at local convenience stores, according to court records. The sting resulted in the prosecution of nearly two dozen people, most of whom were indicted Wednesday on charges that they participated in a conspiracy that operated in an underground market for cigarettes. The indictment alleges they conspired to receive, transport, possess, sell and distribute about 9.6 million cigarettes [. . .] The arrests...