Law Enforcement Agencies Still Failing To Report Shootings To FBI

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  (11/7, Silver, Jacobs) reports that “nearly two-thirds of the country’s roughly 18,000 law enforcement agencies are still not turning over details about violent encounters that national experts had hoped could lead to improved training and ultimately save lives. Near the bottom of the list: Pennsylvania – where just 1% of police agencies have sent their use-of-force statistics to the FBI during the first three months of the year, a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette analysis shows.” The Post-Gazette adds, “Despite support from the White House, top members of Congress, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the program’s lack of participation has created gaps in a system that was created during one of the most tumultuous periods in the nation’s history.”

WSJournal Analysis: Texas Border Arrests Overwhelm Courts, Result In Few Convictions

The Wall Street Journal  (11/8, Findell, Caldwell, Subscription Publication) reports that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s use of state law enforcement to enforce immigration laws by arresting migrants for trespassing is overwhelming Texas courts and resulting in few convictions. According to the Journal, court records show that only three percent of the approximately 1,500 migrants arrested on misdemeanor trespassing charges since July in what Abbott dubbed Operation Lone Star have been convicted, all through guilty pleas.

Criminal Groups Profiting From Trafficking In Plastic Waste

The Los Angeles Times  (11/8, Phillips) reports, “Americans like to think they are recycling their plastic takeout food containers, cutlery and flimsy grocery bags when they toss them into those green or blue bins. But, too often, that waste is shipped overseas, sometimes with the help of organized crime groups, where it litters cities, clogs waterways or is burned, filling the air with toxic chemicals.” According to the Times, “A report published Monday by the independent Swiss research group Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, whose members include current and former law-enforcement officials, sheds new light on how this waste winds up in poorer countries that had agreed not to accept it. Building on a previous investigation by Interpol, the new report maps the web of brokers, middlemen, legitimate recycling companies and organized crime groups that move millions of tons of discarded plastic from the United States, Europe and Australia to countries in Southeast Asia and Africa.”

Missing North Carolina Teen Found After Using Hand Sign Alerting She Was In Danger

NBC News  (11/6, Acevedo) reports, “Authorities were able to find a missing 16-year-old girl after she caught the attention of a driver by using hand gestures popularized on the social media platform TikTok.” NBC News adds, “According to the Laurel County Sheriff’s Office in Kentucky, the girl was inside a silver-colored Toyota car when the driver saw her using hand signals known on TikTok ‘to represent violence at home – I need help – domestic violence.’ After recognizing what the signals meant and seeing that the teen ‘appeared to be in distress,’ the driver called 911, the sheriff’s office said in a statement. The alert led to the arrest of 61-year-old James Herbert Brick of Cherokee, North Carolina, Thursday afternoon while driving near a Kentucky interstate.”

Oil Stolen In Colombia Used In Illegal Drug Trade

Reuters  (11/8, Griffin) reports, “Theft from oil pipelines in Colombia is booming as criminal gangs look to replace dwindling supplies of smuggled Venezuelan gasoline for use in” the illegal drug trade, according to data that comes from tax authorities and the oil pipeline operation company Cenit. Gasoline “is a key component in making cocaine but there have been shortages of the fuel in Venezuela during that country’s social and economic crisis.” So, members of “criminal groups in Colombia are tapping pipelines for ever more crude, which they must later refine.”

Federal Agents Seize 100 Kilos Of Cocaine In Chicago

The AP  (11/9) reports from Chicago, “Federal agents have seized 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of cocaine in Chicago. Three people were arrested, and a private plane was seized as part of last Wednesday’s operation, the US Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Illinois said Monday in a release.” The cocaine “was part of a suspected Mexico-to-Chicago drug pipeline. Eighty kilograms (176 pounds) were found in a vehicle in the city’s River North neighborhood, while another 20 kilograms (44 pounds) were taken from a hotel room along Chicago’s Gold Coast, according to criminal complaints filed in federal court. The drugs allegedly had been flown into an airport in Gary, Indiana, earlier Wednesday from Houston. The flight originated southwest of Mexico City in Toluca, Mexico.”

Police Arrest Man Suspected In Series Of Random Shootings In Missouri

The New York Times  (11/8, Robles) reports law enforcement authorities in Missouri have arrested Perez D. Reed, who is “suspected of killing six people and injuring two others in what appeared to be a series of random attacks.” Reed, “who turns 26 on Wednesday, was charged with four counts of first-degree murder after the police tracked his cellphone and arrested him carrying a weapon that had been linked to all six shootings in Missouri.”

Coroner Worried That Illicit Fentanyl May Be Found In Marijuana

In online coverage, Fox News  (11/8) reports that it interviewed Dr. William Clark, who said he is concerned that illicit fentanyl may be found in marijuana. Clark, who is the coroner for East Baton Rouge Parish in Louisiana, said, “We’re already seeing” that other drugs have been laced with illicit fentanyl, “so the next iteration of this would be that it ends up in marijuana.” The Fox News coverage links to a video clip of the Clark interview segment. That segment briefly highlights the DEA’s effort to prevent fentanyl-related problems in the US.

AP Report: Frustration Rising As Mexican Army Doesn’t Combat Cartels

The AP  (11/8, Stevenson) runs an extensive piece highlighting how the Mexican army is no longer actively fighting drug cartels in some parts of the country. In one region, the army “has largely stopped fighting drug cartels here, instead ordering soldiers to guard the dividing lines between gang territories so they won’t invade each other’s turf — and turn a blind eye to the cartels’ illegal activities just a few hundred yards away.” The piece highlights the frustration of Mexicans with the military and its failure to fight the cartels under President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s policy of “hugs, not bullets.”

US Indicts Two Congolese Nationals Indicted For Trafficking Ivory, Rhinoceros Horn

Reuters  (11/8, Singh) reports the Justice Department on Monday announced “two people from the Democratic Republic of Congo have been arrested in the United States and indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly trafficking elephant ivory and white rhinoceros horn from DRC to Seattle.” Reuters adds that according to the indictment, they “also sold 55 pounds of pangolin scales to a U.S. buyer but ultimately did not ship them.”

International Crackdown Results In Indictment Of REvil Ransomware Hackers

The Washington Post  (11/8, Nakashima, Bennett) reports the DOJ on Monday “announced arrests and charges against hackers allegedly affiliated with the REvil ransomware group, which officials said has been involved in thousands of attacks.” The actions “include the arrest of a Ukrainian national in Poland last month, and the announcement of charges against him and a Russian national, Yevgeniy Polyanin, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a briefing at the department.” The DOJ “also announced that authorities seized at least $6.1 million in funds allegedly linked to ransom payments received by Polyanin.” The AP (11/8, Tucker, Suderman) reports Garland said, “The Justice Department is sparing no resource to identify and bring to justice anyone, anywhere who targets the United States with a ransomware attack.”

Reuters  (11/8, Hosenball, Singh) reports that in a statement on Monday, President Biden said his Administration has taken “important steps to harden” critical infrastructure against cyberattacks. The President added, “When I met with President Putin in June, I made clear that the United States would take action to hold cybercriminals accountable. That’s what we have done today.”

The New York Times  (11/8, Benner, Perlroth) reports Polyanin is “accused of conducting ransomware attacks against American government entities and businesses, including one that temporarily shut down the meat supply giant JBS.” Yaroslav Vasinskyi, who was arrested in Poland last month, is accused of “multiple ransomware attacks, including the July 2021 assault on the technology company Kaseya. The attack on Kaseya, which manages internet technology infrastructure for other companies, allowed hackers to infect the systems of Kaseya’s hundreds of customers.” The Wall Street Journal  (11/8, Volz, McMillan, Subscription Publication) also covers this story.