Shoshanna Utchenik ticklethewire.com It’s all fun and games til your toy purchases may be supporting international drug cartels. An 18-month investigation of L.A.company, Woody’s Toys Inc., by Homeland Security’s ICE and the DEA’s Southern California Drug Task Force yielded video of employees receiving bricks of cash in fast food chain parking lots, among other incriminating…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com What’s wrong with this picture? El Paso, Texas, County Commissioner Guillermo Gandara Jr., who publicly had taken a hardline against drugs, was arrested by the DEA on drug trafficking charges, UPI reported. The arrest, part of a multi-agency investigation, took place late Wednesday, DEA spokeswoman Diana Apodaca confirmed to the El…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com It’s payday, thanks to a Mexican drug cartel. The bulk of $29.5 million in money seized by federal authorities from a Mexican cartel boss has been handed out in “asset sharing” funds by ICE, DEA, FBI and other federal agencies to law enforcement agencies across the state of Texas to combat…
Update: 12 p.m. Friday: The Los Angeles Times reported that all three ICE agents were supervisors, but the gunman was lower ranking. KTLA TV reported that the gunman opened fire during his disciplinary hearing. By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com One ICE agent was killed and another wounded in a bizarre shootout among agents at a…
By Nick Miroff and William Booth Washington Post. MEXICO CITY — When U.S. special agent Jaime Zapata was shot dead one year ago on a notorious stretch of highway in central Mexico, he was driving a $160,000 armored Chevy Suburban, built to exacting government standards, designed to defeat high-velocity gunfire, fragmentation grenades and land mines….
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Alabama isn’t exactly considered a hotbed of terrorism activity. But on Friday, an Uzbek national living in the U.S. pleaded in Birmingham, Ala., to providing material support to terrorist activities and threatening to kill President Obama — all as part of a federal sting. Ulugbek Kodirov, 22, of Uzbekistan, becomes…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious just looks worse all the time. The latest: Fox News reports that the former head of the DEA in Tucson said some agents in other federal agencies tried unsuccessfully to put an end to the operation. Tony Coulson said many federal field agents knew the ATF…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agent has pleaded guilty to leaking information to relatives involved in drug trafficking, authorities said. Jovana Deas, 33, of Rio Rico, Ariz., pleaded guilty to all 21 counts against her, the FBI said in a statement on Monday. Deas was…
