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An Iranian tanker from the country's shadow fleet caught fire after being struck by its own naval forces in the Strait of Hormuz. Omani authorities reported that 20 crew members, including 15 Indians, were rescued as the vessel continued to sink. The tanker, part of a network used to bypass international sanctions, was reportedly targeted for "illegally passing" through the strategic waterway. After being hit, fires erupted on board, forcing a rapid evacuation by nearby rescue teams. Shadow fleet strike sparks chaos The vessel, managed by Red Sea Ship Management LLC, had been sanctioned by the US Treasury in December...

It was Christmas 2011, a year after Roman Abramovich had taken delivery of his new superyacht, Eclipse. But it seemed the oligarch would not be using it over the festive period - records show it had been chartered by a company based in the British Virgin Islands. And yet photographs from Christmas Day that year show Mr Abramovich in the Caribbean sunshine, standing on the swim platform at the rear of the yacht, with Eclipse's large letter-E logo behind him. Charter records such as this were part of a decade-long scheme to mislead tax authorities, now uncovered in an investigation...

The U.S. military said it carried out a strike Wednesday on a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea, killing four people, as the Trump administration pushes forward with a monthslong campaign against alleged traffickers in Latin America while waging a war against Iran. The latest attack brings the number of people who have been killed in boat strikes by the U.S. military to at least 163 since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” in early September. As with most of the military’s statements on the dozens of strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean and...

A California-born American citizen is reportedly rising to lead Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel, and his U.S. citizenship could shield him from the intelligence tools that helped take down his predecessor. Juan Carlos Valencia González, 41, began consolidating control of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel shortly after Mexican special forces killed his stepfather, Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, in early March, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Two senior commanders reportedly stood aside rather than contest his takeover, keeping the organization intact, WSJ reported. Valencia González was born in Santa Ana, California. His biological father, Armando Valencia Cornelio, founded the...

ransomnote: According to Fox News, Campo was indicted, arrested, plead not guilty and is in custody.RealRobert@Real_RobNHere it is:The Kenyan administration’s ties to the Mexican cartel.Paul Campo, an Obama-era DEA official, laundered approximately $12,000,000 and participated in narcotics trafficking, aiding and abetting one of the most notorious Mexican cartels, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (also known as Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, or CJNG), responsible for countless deaths through violence and drug trafficking in the United States and Mexico.Campo served during the Kenyan administration as Obama’s Deputy Chief of the DEA’s Office of Financial Operations.

A former longtime Drug Enforcement Administration agent who rose to help oversee the agency’s financial operations has been charged with agreeing to launder millions of dollars in narcotics proceeds for a Mexican drug cartel, according to an indictment unsealed Friday in U.S. District Court in the Manhattan borough of New York City. The former agent, Paul Campo, worked for the DEA for about 25 years, the indictment said, first as a special agent in New York and eventually rising to become a high-level official — the deputy chief of the Office of Financial Operations. He retired in January 2016 and...

As other Asian economies race to conserve energy, China has huge reserves of oil and gas as well as alternative energy sources like wind and solar China, the world’s second-largest economy, appears to be in a very different position to much of the continent. Its energy system has “significant buffers”, Michal Meidan, the head of China energy research at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, an independent research institute, explained in a recent paper – from huge reserves of oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) to a robust domestic supply, including alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar. Iran...

The illicit trade has long thrived in the region but is feeling the knock-on effects of the war which has engulfed the Middle East following US-Israeli strikes on Iran. Supplies coming across the 900-kilometre (560-mile) border between Pakistan and Iran have dropped by nearly half and driven up prices. "Before the war, the rate was good," Hakeem Ullah, a 35-year-old driver, told AFP. "We used to get petrol for 150 rupees ($0.54). But now, after the war, we are getting petrol for 190 rupees per litre." Ullah is one of dozens of young men in the border towns of Balochistan...

A Chinese national has been arrested in Kenya's main airport accused of attempting to smuggle more than 2,000 queen garden ants out of the country. Zhang Kequn was intercepted during a security check at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in the capital Nairobi after authorities discovered a large consignment of live ants in his luggage bound for China. He has yet to respond to the accusation but investigators said in court that he was linked to an ant-trafficking network that was broken up in Kenya last year. The ants are protected by international bio-diversity treaties and their trade is highly...

https://x.com/USBPChief/status/2031050259032326558 Chief Michael W. Banks @USBPChief Illegal smuggling routes along the Rio Grande historically used by criminal cartel organizations are being destroyed. This is modern border security, and we are just getting started! @USCG@JointTFSBMarch 9, 2026

Costa Rica authorities handed over a Syrian national to the United States after his arrest last year on charges of running a human smuggling operation. The man, known by the last name Maklad, led a group that moved migrants from Egypt, Venezuela, and Guatemala through New Mexico between 2022 and 2025, according to Osvaldo Ramírez, who heads Interpol operations at the Judicial Investigation Agency. Officers captured the 39-year-old in May 2025 as he crossed into the country from Nicaragua. Ramírez shared details in a video briefing, confirming the transfer went smoothly. Maklad escaped the U.S. after agents there broke up...

Yunqing Jian, 33, first entered the country on a fraudulently obtained F1 student visa, the FBI says Fusarium graminearum creates "head blight," a disease of wheat, barley, maize and rice, and "is responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year," according to the Department of Justice. It is also toxic to humans, and can cause vomiting, liver damage and "reproductive defects in humans and livestock." The affidavit, which said Jian has been attempting to smuggle the pathogen into the U.S. since she began post-doctoral studies funded by China in 2022, also accuses Jian of asking a third...

(The Center Square) – Federal agents continue to pursue visa fraud and forced labor crimes across the U.S. perpetrated by Americans and noncitizens who exploited a border crisis and loopholes in a weak visa system, prosecutors argue. The prosecutions come as Mexican smuggling operations at the northern border continue to be thwarted, The Center Square reported. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington announced this week 61 indictments against six people in the Tri-Cities and Yakima areas for extensive visa fraud, victim tampering, aggravated identity theft, mail and wire fraud, visa fraud and other charges. Two people...

Oil smuggling has been so enormously profitable that no matter how many obstacles Washington and Brussels put up, the barrels kept flowing. With a daily turnover of $1 billion, the black market has been just too attractive. For the first time, however, I see cracks in the illicit business. Millions of barrels of unsold Iranian and Russian crude are accumulating in storage. The reason isn’t just more U.S. and European sanctions and political pressure. Sure, they’ve helped. But the key factor is more mundane: The buyers of sanctioned crude oil have plenty of alternative aboveboard barrels available — at reasonable...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WKRC) - A Kentucky woman was arrested after federal agents intercepted a package from Poland containing what investigators said were OxyContin pills hidden inside Lego pieces. Agents with the Department of Homeland Security contacted local police Feb. 5 after seizing a package at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport, per WLKY. Court records state the package, addressed to Amber Back, 41, contained 100 OxyContin pills concealed inside Lego pieces, reports WAVE. That package was destined for her home in Mount Sterling. Police said an officer delivered the package to Back’s address Feb. 6 before detaining her and taking...

One of the more horrible aspects of the mass illegal immigration that was allowed to fester under the presidency of Joe Biden and whoever was running the autopen was the number of unaccompanied illegal alien children that went missing. Most estimates place the number at 300,000. Until recently, we didn't know what had become of those children. Now, we have nearly half of them back. On Friday, Border Czar Tom "The Hammer" Homan took a few moments off from staring down ICE protestors in Minneapolis to take note of this on his official X account.The dedicated, talented, and compassionate men...

Catholic organizations marched in downtown Miami against immigration enforcement operations. NBC6’s Valerie Ryan

Governor Newscum May Be Involved in Dirty Money Laundering Scheme From Mexican Cartels

FBI Director Kash Patel said on Oct. 15 that the agency is cracking down on espionage by foreign adversaries, with an increase in arrests as high as 50 percent. “We have gone after espionage activities against our main counterparts in China, Russia, and Iran,” he said at a press conference. “In China alone, we’ve had over a 50 percent increase in espionage arrests alone, and prosecutions,” Patel said. “In Iran, we have had a 50 percent increase, again, in espionage cases. And in Russia, we had a 33 percent increase in espionage cases alone.” State Department employee Ashley Tellis, arrested...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued with Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul Wednesday over whether the U.S.’ capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro was an “act of war.” Paul expressed disagreement with Rubio by stating that if any country captured the U.S. president in the same kind of operation carried out in Venezuela, he would declare war. President Donald Trump’s administration, including Rubio, have repeatedly stated that Maduro’s arrest was simply a “law enforcement action” and not an act of war against Venezuela. Trump said that the move brought Maduro to “justice” and that the U.S. acted within its constitutional...