Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Investigators have struggled for two years to stop an online, underground marketplace from selling more than $1 billion in cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and other illicit drugs in exchange for a virtual currency called Bitcoin, The Verge reports. But now it appears the FBI has snagged the mastermind, Ross Ulbricht, who is being…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Border Patrol authorities seized marijuana, heroin and a loaded gun from the tour bus of Grammy-winning rapper Nelly at a checkpoint in West Texas, Reuters reports. Nelly and the rest of his crew were released after a member of his entourage took the blame, according to Reuters. “It is my understanding a…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Two inmates in Indiana are accused of running a drug enterprise out of prison with the help of cellphones smuggled in by guards, the Associated Press reports. The pair, Oscar Perez and Justin Addler, who are housed at different prisons, sold methamphetamine and heroin to inmates, according to a federal indictment that…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A Philadelphia police officer is accused of selling heroin to a confidential informant working for the FBI, Philly.com reports. Jonathan Garcia, 23, was charged Wednesday with four counts of distributing heroin and two counts of carrying a firearm during drug trafficking. Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said he plans to suspend Garcia for…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com An Afghan national with ties to the Taliban who authorities described as “one of the largest heroin traffickers in the world” was convicted Tuesday in fed court in D.C. on drug and narco-terrrorism charges, the Justice Department said. Haji Bagcho, who hailed from Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan, was investigated by the DEA….
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Under the category of “bad luck for criminals” comes this story from Chicago. The Chicago Sun-Times reports that a bandit put a gun to the head of an undercover ATF agent last Thursday and tried to rob him while the agent was trying to make a heroin purchase. The paper reports…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Suspected drug couriers from the east coast and Panama apparently used some innovation, smuggling cocaine and heroin in small pockets sewn into Lycra shorts and in their hair weaves and wigs, according to the website Government News Service. GNS reports that 12 individuals were charged in a 20-count indictment, the results…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com The tentacles of the Mexican cartels can be found throughout the U.S. The latest: 20 defendants — five of them suspected members of a Chicago cell of the violent Zetas Mexican drug cartel — were charged in major drug indictment in Chicago following a joint FBI-DEA investigation, Chicago’s US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s…
