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The US Department of Justice will investigate claims that the Obama administration shielded the Lebanon-based Shi’ite terrorist group Hezbollah from criminal prosecution for its drug-trafficking and gun-running operations, as part of an effort to curry favor with Hezbollah’s patron, Iran. Last week, Politico released an investigative report citing Drug Enforcement Administration and former Treasury Department officials who claimed that the previous administration blocked the prosecution of Hezbollah officials known to be involved in the smuggling of illegal narcotics and weapons – including chemical weapons – in an effort to bring Hezbollah’s patron state, Iran, to the negotiating table. In 2015,...

California's Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom is no stranger to controversy. He famously gave out gay marriage licenses during his time as Mayor of San Francisco, even as it flouted state law. His time as Mayor was met with serious economic troubles and increasing numbers of middle class residents leaving the city. However, Newsom used that position to become California's Lt. Governor under Jerry Brown. Now after links to disgraced State Senator Leland Yee-- who was found involved in a gun running organization, and recently convicted Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow, Newsom is under increased public scrutiny.

CHICAGO–Fraudulent driver’s licenses, which are used for criminal activity or fraud, continue to be found by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the International Mail Facility (IMF) at Chicago O’Hare International Airport. ID Since the beginning of the year to June 30, CBP officers at the IMF have seized 1,513 shipments with fraudulent documents- a total of 19,888 counterfeit US drivers’ licenses. The majority of these shipments were arriving from China and Hong Kong, with other seized shipments arriving from Great Britain and South Korea. The driver’s licenses were for various people in different states with a vast...

Trump's border wall is forcing traffickers out to sea, so how again is it that it was not supposed to work?

Robert Levinson, a former FBI special agent who disappeared while traveling on Iran’s Kush Island in 2007, has “died while in Iranian custody,” his family announced Wednesday. ---SNIP--- “Those who are responsible for what happened to Bob Levinson, including those in the U.S. government who for many years repeatedly left him behind, will ultimately receive justice for what they have done,” the announcement said. That’s a reference to President Barack Obama’s administration, which did not secure Levinson’s release despite years of negotiating with Tehran in the lead-up to the implementation of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

360 miles completed, 221 miles under construction, 157 miles under pre-construction. (738 Total)

The border wall is well underway in southern New Mexico. And James Johnson couldn’t be happier. The third-generation farmer, wearing sunglasses, blue jeans and dusty work boots, beamed as he talked about the wall that winds alongside the southern edge of his farm, about 12 miles west of Columbus. “It’s beautiful. I mean, we’re ecstatic,” Johnson, the owner of Carzalia farms, told the Journal... Just over a year ago, Johnson told the Journal he was “eager” to see the wall built and even granted the federal government an easement to get the ball rolling. Johnson said that construction began on...

Over the course of a week, law enforcement in Roma, Texas, documented two armed human smuggling incidents. One is particularly raising eyebrows among authorities. Most of Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas, is now under the control of Los Zetas aka Cartel Del Noreste (CDN). This is leading to a shift in smuggling tactics. The first incident of concern took place on September 26, when a camera captured migrants crossing the border illegally. The image identified a red, four-door GMC truck. As law enforcement responded, the driver sped away until a bailout was performed. A search of the vehicle led to the seizure...

LOUISVILLE, Ky—At the Express Consignment Operations hubs in Louisville U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers seized a shipment from China that contained over 10,000 Assault Weapons parts being smuggled into the country.

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/0902/090227la.htm ICE agents seek information on bogus law enforcement badges LOS ANGELES - Special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are seeking information from people who may have received in the mail what appear to be, genuine law enforcement badges and credentials, from a group calling themselves the "International Police Commission (IPC)." These fraudulent police credentials and badges imply that those who use them are police officers with United Nations and Interpol authorities, according to ICE investigators. The fake items, manufactured in the Philippines, have been mailed out to targeted individuals...

Gulftainer is a Middle-Eastern based ports management company that operates Delaware’s Port of Wilmington. The Obama administration brought Gulftainer into the United States with its first lease at Florida’s Port Canaveral, bypassing the required CFIUS National Security Threat Analysis. Gulftainer illegally blocked Wawa from its fuel supplies at the tank farm adjacent to the Port of Wilmington. Wawa is a Pennsylvania-based chain of convenience store gas stations with nearly 900 locations on the East Coast of the United States. Gulftainer attempted to extort $1 million in “fees” in exchange for allowing the Wawa tanker trucks to access their own fuel...

Gov. J.B. Pritzker defended his decision Wednesday to arrange for two charter flights to transport millions of masks and gloves from China to Illinois to bolster the state's limited supply of personal protective equipment as it responds to the COVID-19 pandemic. The flights, which cost about $1.7 million, were listed in a new state comptroller portal that tracks state spending on the public health crisis. Details of the fights are being kept secret out of fear President Donald Trump's administration might seize the cargo, Pritzker said. “It is true that the federal government seems to be interrupting supplies that are...

Maria was terrified when her 23-year-old daughter, Daniela, fled their small Guatemalan village for the United States. The young woman had taken out a 70,000-quetzales, or $9,000, loan to pay coyotes to smuggle her north. She used as collateral the only thing of value her family had: the house that had been in the family for generations. She made it to Los Angeles, where she spent the past year cleaning houses to send money home to Maria and her two children. But now that the novel coronavirus pandemic has locked down the city, and much of the country, she’s out...

“It changes everything,” CBP Chief Rodney Scott said of the 135 miles of new wall, roadways, and high-tech spyware. “There is a huge return on investment,” Scott said at a press briefing. Scott said that the new wall system has essentially ended illegal crossings of humans and cars in the San Diego area. The new wall system, Scott said, is especially good at stopping trucks and cars... “It shut down that entire threat. Anywhere we built the border wall system, the first thing it does is shut off those drive-throughs. The second thing is, it shuts off massive amounts of...

They discovered Picasso's 'Head of a Young Woman', a 1906 painting valued at £22million, stowed away on the vessel by the ship's captain. Prosecutors argued Botin had been attempting to sell it abroad, in breach of rules over paintings of cultural significance to Spain. But Botin denied the charges and claimed he was simply taking it to Switzerland for safe-keeping.

SAN DIEGO -- A federal judge ruled Monday that the Trump administration is operating within its authority when separating families stopped at the Mexican border, rejecting arguments that it was quietly returning to widespread practices that drew international condemnation. The American Civil Liberties Union argued that the administration was splitting families over dubious allegations and minor transgressions including traffic offenses. It asked the judge in July to rule on whether the government was justified in separating 911 children during the first year after the judge halted the general practice in June 2018.

Florida Highway Patrol troopers only meant to write a simple citation, but it quickly turned into a felony arrest after they found $1.2 million worth of cocaine. Troopers pulled over 27-year-old Elizabeth Espinoza on Tuesday afternoon after observing illegal window tint on her vehicle on Interstate 75 southbound. Troopers noticed she was acting exceedingly nervous, which stood out because of the innocuous nature of the stop.

TEL AVIV: Five days ago, an undisclosed intelligence agency intercepted a telephone call made by the head of Iran’s Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in which he was heard ordering his proxies in Iraq to attack the U.S embassy in Baghdad, as well as other Israeli and American targets, with the aim of taking hostages, Israeli sources say. It’s unclear whether this was a lapse in tradecraft on the part of the usually savvy Soleimani or whether the notorious Iranian military leader’s phone calls were being routinely intercepted. Nor is it clear whether it was the US or another...

RIO BRAVO, Texas — Chaos erupted in a small Texas border town as Los Zetas smugglers launched a complex smuggling operation. Border Patrol agents responded to an illegal crossing that quickly tied up agency resources in the area, enabling smugglers to move higher-value cargo elsewhere. What had only moments earlier been a quiet neighborhood became a scene of chaos as Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents and a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine Operations (AMO) helicopter aircrew leaped into action following the illegal crossing of a few migrants. Agents captured at least one in the presence of...

U.S. custom officials recently seized nearly 3,000 fake driver’s licenses—including one shipment going to a convicted child rapist —all of which were sent from China. The six intercepted shipments, heading to different individuals in the New York area, contained 2,909 counterfeit driver’s licenses and 3,123 blank card stocks used to make fake licenses, according to a Nov. 25 U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) press release. One of the shipments was bound for a convicted child rapist in the New York area, who officials suspect “entices minors with alcohol and counterfeit IDs before engaging in illicit activity,” CBP said. The...