By Ross Parker ticklethewire.com Counterfeiting brings to the public mind a rare fake $20 bill, knockoff handbags (spelled “Gucchi”), and a bootleg Tom Cruise DVD. The typical consumer attitude about product counterfeiting ranges from tolerance to apathy, nothing threatening or particularly sinister. But the reality today is more sobering. Not only does counterfeiting and product…
By Selim Algar New York Post They’re real-life Rambos gone bad. A squadron of former elite military personnel from the US and Germany plotted to assassinate a DEA agent and an informant — both undercover agents – who were interfering with a cocaine distribution ring, according to a Manhattan federal court indictment released Friday. Led…
By Ross Parker ticklethewire.com Congress has modified the Miranda rights: You have a right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, an attorney will be appointed to represent you, that is, if he or she is not furloughed, laid off or too busy to pay any attention to you. The initial reaction…
By Greg Stejskal ticklethewire.com In 1982, legendary Michigan football coach Bo Schembechler asked the Ann Arbor, Mich., FBI office to talk to his team about the perils of illegal sports gambling. The senior resident agent, Tom Love, agreed to make the presentation. Love, knowing I had played college football at Nebraska (read: mostly practiced),…
By Ross Parker ticklethewire.com Both the U. S. and Mexican governments face some difficult policy questions in light of the surprise release from jail last week of one of the murderers of iconic hero DEA Special Agent Enrique Camarena. With no advance warning and under highly questionable circumstances, an intermediate Mexican court overturned the conviction…
By Ross Parker ticklethewire.com Among the many varieties of weeds on my father’s Southwest Iowa farm in the 1950s and 60s was the hemp weed. Dad called it “ditch weed’ because that was where it mainly grew, along with in fence rows and sometimes in our cornfields. My brothers and I hated ditch weed…
By Ross Parker ticklethewire.com Recent studies have shown that, because of the barrage of technology like the social media, our attention spans are about half what they were ten years ago. For computer users, like ticklethewire readers, this attention span has been calculated to be 8 seconds, about the same as a goldfish. For those…
By Ross Parker ticklethewire.com The opening next week of the Enrique S. Camarena Elementary School in Chula Vista, California celebrates the legacy of a courageous DEA agent who was murdered by Mexican drug cartel members in February 1985. No doubt Special Agent Camarena’s family, especially his son Enrique S. Camarena, Jr., will pause this week,…
