Christopher Lee Yates

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A former contract security guard who stole guns, ammunition and firearms parts from the ATF and then sold them pleaded guilty Wednesday to crimes related to the thefts.

Christopher Lee Yates, of Martinsburg, W.V., admitted in court that he stole the items from ATF’s National Firearms and Ammunition Destruction Branch facility near Martinsburg, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Bill Powell.

An investigation found that Yates stole the guns, ammunition and firearm parts while serving as a security guard from 2016 to 2019.

Yates, who faces up to 10 years behind bars and a $250,000 fine, pleaded guilty in exchange for prosecutors dismissing two felony counts.

What remains unclear is why the ATF didn’t have safeguards in place to avoid the thefts.

Photo via Border Patrol

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is offering an incentive to retain agents as the agency becomes inundated with an increase in families cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

Every Border Patrol agent who agrees to stay on the job another year will receive a bonus that equates to a 5% pay increase, CBP announced in a news release Wednesday.

“Investing in the men and women of the United States Border Patrol continues to be my top priority,” U.S. Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost said. “Their experience and expertise is critical to successfully accomplishing the border security mission.”

Beginning in June, agents will begin accumulating the bonuses on a daily basis. In September, agents will start receiving the bonuses.

The retention incentive has been branded as part of “a comprehensive recruitment and retention strategy for the U.S. Border Patrol.”

“CBP has aggressively implemented an innovative and multifaceted recruitment and retention strategy, improving the frontline hiring process and related capabilities,” said John P. Sanders, a senior official performing the duties of commissioner. While these efforts have led to considerable progress, CBP continues to strengthen all aspects of its strategy to meet the Executive Order’s mandate.”

Sanders added, “We are facing a humanitarian and border security crisis on the Southwest border, and those who serve on the frontline are vital to that effort. I would like to thank the National Border Patrol Council for their support in moving this initiative forward.”

Chanzie Washington’s arrest was caught on a cop’s body cam.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The FBI arrested a Trenton police officer as part of an excessive force investigation involving several alleged victims.

Officer Drew Inman was arrested at gunpoint at his hime at 6 a.m., “terrorizing” his wife and children, the officer’s attorney Jerome Ballarotto told the Trentonian.

The FBI also is investigating a former and current officer who was involved in the arrest.
This isn’t the first time Inman has been accused of using excessive force. After repeated allegations, he was fired last summer. Three excessive force lawsuits have been filed against him and the department.

Inman and another former officer, Anthony Villanueva, have been charged in a six-count indictment filed in U.S. District Court in Trenton last week. They’ve been chased with deprivation of civil rights under color of law and falsifying police records.

They face up to 20 years behind bars.

One of the cases involves the April 2017 arrest of Chanzie Washington, who was pummeled by cops.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Border Patrol agents found an abandoned, crying 3-year-old migrant alone in a cornfield near the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas on Tuesday morning.

The boy’s phone number and name were written on his shoes when agents found him in the Rio Grand Valley near Brownsville, Texas, officials told NBC News.

Agents aren’t sure why the boy was alone, speculating that he may have been with a large group of migrants who fled approaching Border Patrol agents.

Officials have been unable to reach the boy’s parents so far.

The bot was taken to a nearby border station, where he was given movies to watch.

The discovery comes amid an increasing influx of families with children are crossing the border. Last month, the influx prompted U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin K. McAleenan to declare that border security was “at a breaking point.”

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

The U.S. is offering to help Sri Lanka track down the terrorists behind the string of Easter bombings that killed 321 people.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks on three hotels and three churches, which were carried out by suicide bombers.

The U.S. said it would dispatch FBI agents with expertise in testing for bomb evidence, The Washington Post reports.  Analysts in the U.S. also are reviewing bureau databases for any useful information.

Among those killed were at least four U.S. citizens.

Sri Lankan officials are investigating how local ISIS members planned and coordinated the deadly attack.

File photo of pills laced with fentanyl.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Fentanyl is so toxic and lethal that the Department of Homeland Security is considering classifying it as a weapon of mass destruction.

The powerful opioid was responsible for 30,000 overdose deaths in 2017, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The new designation would authorize customs officials and the FBI to inspect more shipments and develop detection tools, The Times reports. Prosecutors also would have more leverage in their fight against the opioid crisis.

Earlier this year, customs officials in Nogales found 254 pounds of fentanyl hidden among cucumbers inside an 18-wheeler. It was the largest fentanyl seizure ever recorded at a port of entry.

Larry Mitchell Hopkins

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The leader of an armed, right-wing militia that was stopping migrants at the southern border was “training” his group to assassinate Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and George Soros, an FBI agent said in court papers.

Larry Mitchell Hopkins, 69, was arrested in New Mexico, where the United Constitutional Patriots is based, and charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The UCP boasted about detaining about 6,500 migrants in New Mexico in the past two months.

FBI Special Agent David S. Gabriel said in an affidavit that the FBI was alerted to Hopkins’ suspicious activities following reports in October 2017 of “alleged militia extremist activity,” the New York Times reports.

A month later, two FBI agents entered Hopkins’ home with his consent and found 10 firearms. Hopkins insisted the guns belonged to his common-law wife, Fay Sanders Murphy.

In the affidavit, the FBI said the UCP “were training to assassinate George Soros, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama because of these individuals’ support of Antifa,” a left-wing activist group that has clashed, sometimes violently, with right-wing groups across the country. No more details were provided.

What remains unclear is why the FBI waited so long to arrest Hopkins after finding the guns. The FBI concluded at the time that the possession of weapons was illegal because Hopkins was a felon.

“My question is, why now?” Hopkins’ attorney, Kelly O’Connell, asked about the arrest.

Hopkins, who has a long rap sheet, faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

O’Connell acknowledged he’s “not a militia specialist,” but said Hopkins and other members of the armed group “believe they are helping to enforce the laws of America on immigration.”

Flie photo

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

President Trump continues to distort the truth about Robert Mueller’s investigation, falsely claiming he was fully exonerated from a report that was drawn up by “highly conflicted” prosecutors.

The Associated Press examined recent claims by Trump to determine whether he was being truthful.

On Saturday, Trump tweeted, The Mueller Report … was written as nastily as possible by 13 (18) Angry Democrats who were true Trump Haters, including highly conflicted Bob Mueller himself.”

Even Trump’s own aides admit this isn’t true. The president’s assertions that Mueller is “highly conflicted” stem from Mueller interviewing for the FBI director position before he was appointed special counsel and Mueller’s dispute over membership fees at a Trump golf course.

According to the special counsel’s report, Trump’s closest aides said the president’s complaints don’t represent “true conflicts.”

Further, Mueller is a lifelong Republican appointed by a member of Trump’s administration, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

On Saturday, Trump also tweeted that “The Mueller Report should not have been authorized in the first place.”

That claim rests on the false assertion that the investigation was prompted by an anti-Trump dossier financed by the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Truth is, as the Mueller report indicates, the FBI’s investigation “began months before it received the dossier,” the AP wrote.

“Within a week of the (WikiLeaks) release, a foreign government informed the FBI about its May 2016 interaction with Papadopoulos,” the report stated. “On July 31, 2016, based on the foreign government reporting, the FBI opened an investigation into potential coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign.”

On Thursday, Trump and several of his aides, including Vice President Mike Pence, claimed the report exonerated the president of any wrongdoing.

The report clearly stated the opposite.

“If we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the President clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state,” Mueller wrote. “Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, however, we are unable to reach that judgment.”

Further, the report cites 10 examples of possible obstruction by the president.

“The evidence does indicate that a thorough FBI investigation would uncover facts about the campaign and the President personally that the President could have understood to be crimes or that would give rise to personal and political concerns,” the report states.