Violent Venezuelan gang exploits technology to turbocharge its dominance: experts
"Part of their recruitment process is to get individuals with IT backgrounds so that not only are they maintaining a presence on social media to keep their ear to the ground, they're also getting and recruiting and exploiting individuals with IT backgrounds so that they can operate digitally more easily in their marketing and advertising of individuals in the sex trade [and] sex trafficking," said Ali Hopper, a researcher from the nonprofit GUARD Against Trafficking.
Jarrod Sadulski founded GUARD Against Trafficking, and he and Hopper travel to prisons on the southwest border, in Mexico and Central America, where they interview imprisoned former gang and cartel members for research purposes.
"They absorb people into the ranks, sometimes by force," Sadulski said. "For example, if they come across somebody in a Venezuelan community that they've embedded themselves in and that person has IT skills or some specific set of unique skills, they'll draw in that person, even if it's unwillingly, into their enterprise, into their gang, because of that special skill set that they have. So that speaks to their sophistication."
Hopper said that much like organized cartels, TdA uses a specific cloud communication style as a way of avoiding digital surveillance while directing gang activities, unlike typical gangs.
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Part of that style involves using unique imagery. Hopper said the gang sends images back and forth without text and communicates via symbols in the background of the images to avoid digital detection.
Other gangs will simply use email, according to Sadulski and Hopper, exposing themselves to far more risk.
TdA also has its own online language.
"They like to resort to either communicating through a photo background … an item in the background or through emojis," Hopper said. "It's a whole other language where emojis mean different things. And so that doesn't really get flagged by a platform system because it's not being written. It is a language communicated through emojis or communicated through an actual image rather than the text below or the image."
Another part of TdA's operational strategy that allows the organization to rapidly gain a foothold in American communities is a willingness to partner with local street gangs, a mutually beneficial arrangement that allows the local gangs to make more money on the backs of TdA.
"They'll come into a large city, hide themselves within the Venezuelan population but then work with the local gangs in that area, whether it's Blood group, Crips or other gangs that [are] more specific to that community and basically align themselves to make profits through human trafficking, through drug trafficking, through murder-for-hire in conjunction with these other gangs versus warring with them," Sadulski said.
In return, TdA uses these partnerships to closely study local police and criminal justice trends.
"They align themselves with these gangs to understand the market in that area, the trade routes [and] who's who in that community," Hopper said. "So they align themselves with these gangs and work with them at lower levels to start to understand the lay of the land and the area in which they work."
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"On top of that, that allows them the time to study the politics in that area," he said. "They're actually studying the politics of the area. They study the political climate, they study law enforcement, their routes, where they're going, where they patrol, where they don't patrol [and] what crimes are being prosecuted, what crimes are seen as lower level and not worth prosecuting."
Sadulski and Hopper noted that even with their sophistication, the gang is still ultraviolent and willing to impulsively commit heinous crimes without prior planning.
One such crime recently occurred when 11 teen TdA members, including several minors, attacked New York City Police Department officers in Times Square.
"It's horrific enough to be a victim of a crime," New York City Mayor Eric Adams said of the attack. "But when someone openly assaults a police officer, you are attacking our symbol of safety, and it cannot be tolerated.
"People who prey on innocent people must be held accountable. They must be brought to justice."Original article source: Violent Venezuelan gang exploits technology to turbocharge its dominance: experts
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Meanwhile, from the first days of Tice's disappearance, there had been strenuous efforts by his family, the U.S. government, McClatchy and The Post to try to secure his release, often working through intermediaries because of the isolation of the Syrian regime. 'We thought it was going to be days at most, then weeks at most,' said Griff Witte, a former editor at The Post. 'No one goes into these things thinking it's going to be 13 years.' 'Hope,' Witte said he had learned, 'can be a dangerous thing.' One moment of raised hopes came in early 2013, when an unofficial back-channel effort to release Tice appeared close to fruition. Witte asked Ryan Crocker, a former U.S. ambassador to Syria, to reach out to Faisal Mekdad, then the country's deputy foreign minister. Crocker agreed to try. The two men spoke on the phone on March 17, Crocker said in an interview. Mekdad said that 'he has instructions from 'the highest levels' to do everything possible,' Crocker recounted in an email to Witte and a senior State Department official. But Mekdad repeated that 'the government knows nothing about the case' and added that 'the important thing is Austin's safety and that nothing be done to jeopardize it.' Mekdad, communicating recently through a family member, emphasized that the Syrian Foreign Ministry in that period relied on the country's security agencies for information on Tice, and their 'consistent response was that these agencies had no information about his whereabouts.' Four days later, Crocker received an email from Witte, who was coordinating The Post's efforts to find Tice. 'The Syrians now say the release will be next week,' Witte wrote. 'No exact date.' Witte was not directly in touch with Syrian officials and was working through a contact at the Liechtenstein Foundation for State Governance, an organization that offers mediation among countries in conflict. Then came delays and excuses, relayed via the foundation's intermediaries. Tice had a fever and needed rest and medical treatment; after he recovered, there would be a lengthy interrogation. Only then would he be released, according to an email Crocker received from Witte. The days and months stretched on without Tice being released. 'We were very hopeful,' Marc Tice recalled. But as time went by, they came to understand that it was 'misplaced hope,' he said. Tice's abduction came at a time when kidnappings of American and European reporters and aid workers were on the rise. In 2014, three Americans held by the Islamic State - including journalist James Foley - were beheaded, their executions videotaped. The perceived failures in how those cases were handled led Obama to launch a policy review, which culminated in an overhaul of the government's approach to hostage situations. Meanwhile, for the Tice family, it was the beginning of what would become more than a decade of desperate advocacy in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. 'Our government has not been a good advocate for Austin,' Debra Tice said. Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post In 2014, Debra Tice traveled to Damascus, where she stayed at a small hotel in the center of the city. She handed out fliers about her son and tried to meet with the authorities, largely without success. Sometimes she went to the Czech Embassy to see Filipi, the ambassador. The two women would have lunch and pray together. As the weeks went on, Filipi said, people began approaching Debra Tice with tips about her son and asking for money in exchange. 'They were saying, 'He was in Aleppo, he was in Homs,'' Filipi recalled. She told Debra Tice the information was worthless. 'I said to Debi, it's time to leave.' Filipi continued to press. She met with Assad at least twice, she said in an interview, raising the fate of Tice and several other Americans, dual citizens whose cases have largely not been made public. Assad's response was courteous but noncommittal, Filipi said: He asked where to convey any information he might gather. Debra Tice would return to Damascus in 2015, part of her unrelenting search to find her son. A devout Catholic, she had raised seven children. 'I make amazing chicken soup, and no matter what happens in those baby's diapers, I can make them absolutely white again,' she said. 'That's who I am.' But her son's disappearance also turned her into someone else. Someone who knew the intricacies of the Syrian regime as well as any expert, someone who pounded on any door if she thought it could help. 'My mom, really she should have been a reporter,' Austin Tice wrote in an email to an editor in July 2012. 'Or a detective.' Part Three: A refusal to engage The U.S. government's search for Tice now stretches across four administrations. Three presidents - Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden - have tried to bring him home. Efforts have included meetings between CIA officers and Syrian intelligence officials in Oman and Damascus, previously unreported contacts that occurred even as the CIA was covertly training and equipping Syrian rebels. They also involved attempts to influence Assad and people close to him by offering incentives such as access to advanced medical equipment affected by sanctions. U.S. officials say they repeatedly offered the Assad regime what they believed was a face-saving off-ramp: free Tice and no more questions asked. If Assad wanted to stick to the story suggested by the 2012 video, namely that Tice had been held by Islamist militants, the U.S. would publicly accept it, diplomats said. In 2015 and 2016, according to two former U.S. intelligence officials, a senior CIA officer traveled to Muscat, the Omani capital, for meetings with Mohammed Dib Zaitoun, then the second-highest-ranking civilian intelligence official in Syria. The officer and his team met with the Syrian official in a government compound near the beach and drank tea in a private room with silk carpets on the floor. The Americans conveyed their concerns about Tice and the anguish of his family. The Syrians didn't want to discuss Tice. When the Americans pressed, the Syrians were adamant: They had no knowledge of Tice's whereabouts. In the end, one of the former intelligence officials said, 'it amounted to a hill of beans.' In 2016, James C. O'Brien, a career diplomat appointed by Obama to the new role of special envoy for hostage affairs, met twice with a senior Syrian intelligence official in a third country. O'Brien said he signaled that the U.S. was ready for the possibility that Tice had died. 'I was very clear that I wanted his safe return, but if there was a different story to be told, it was time to tell it,' O'Brien recalled. 'They had a number of ways to let it be known that he was not alive, and they chose not to take those.' In the fall of 2017, another senior CIA officer traveled to Damascus, the first visit to the Syrian capital by an American official since the U.S. had shuttered its embassy there in early 2012, according to four former U.S. officials. The officer flew from Oman to Beirut, then rode the 70 miles to Damascus in an armored SUV, where he met with Zaitoun, the senior civilian intelligence official, to discuss issues such as sanctions and counterterrorism. But he also raised Tice as a subject of concern to the U.S., according to the former officials. He took back to his superiors in Washington a list of items of interest to Damascus, but for reasons that are unclear, the Trump administration did not pursue the opening, said two former officials. During Trump's first term as president, he showed a keen interest in the plight of American hostages. In 2018, Robert O'Brien became the special envoy for hostage affairs and met early on with the Tice family in a room at the State Department. Debra Tice asked to start with a prayer. O'Brien, who is Mormon, agreed. They all bowed their heads. O'Brien used back channels to communicate with the Syrian regime. In late 2018, the Vatican arranged a dinner in Rome for O'Brien with prominent businesspeople, priests and cardinals. Among them was Suleiman Antoine Frangieh, a Christian politician in Lebanon who had grown up with Assad. At O'Brien's request, Frangieh reached out to Assad, but the Syrian president responded that he did not know where Tice was. Assad added that 'if the Americans want assistance in searching for him, they should make the request openly and not in secret,' Frangieh recalled in a statement to The Post. That same year, CIA Director Gina Haspel created a cell dedicated to determining Tice's status, according to several people familiar with the matter. The team consisted of eight to 10 people - a significant commitment of resources to an intelligence puzzle 'with only cold leads,' recalled one former official. Meanwhile, Debra Tice continued to challenge U.S. officials. If she had gone to Damascus, why couldn't they? In late 2019, two senior White House counterterrorism officials, Christopher Miller and Kash Patel, tried, but once they landed in Beirut, the trip was scuttled because of clashes in Lebanon. By 2020, O'Brien had been elevated to Trump's national security adviser and the moment appeared ripe for a new attempt at high-level diplomacy. U.S. officials believed they had several carrots to offer the Syrians, O'Brien said in an interview. First, Trump was considering withdrawing some troops from Syria. Second, the U.S. was prepared to explore ways to assist Assad's British-born wife, Asma, who was suffering from cancer, by facilitating access to medical equipment that might be difficult to import because of sanctions. Meanwhile, some Persian Gulf Arab countries were starting to restore relations with Damascus. The U.S. asked those countries to make the reopening of their embassies in Syria contingent on Tice's return. In August 2020, U.S. officials made another push on Damascus. Patel and Roger Carstens, a former Special Forces officer who a few months before had been appointed envoy for hostage affairs, flew to Beirut in a second attempt to reach the Syrian capital. They were greeted by Abbas Ibrahim, Lebanon's intelligence chief. The following morning, they rode in Ibrahim's armored BMW, accompanied by several security vehicles, in a convoy to Damascus. There they met with Mamlouk, Assad's national intelligence chief and one of his closest advisers, for roughly two hours at Mamlouk's office on the outskirts of the city. At one point, Carstens said in an interview, Mamlouk made clear that the regime had three priorities: withdrawal of U.S. troops, lifting of sanctions and reestablishment of diplomatic relations. That gave Carstens an opening. He explained that those were significant requests that could take time and might involve seeking approval from Congress. But there might be a way to speed things up. Mamlouk was intrigued: How? By providing information about Tice and several other Americans believed to be held by the regime, Carstens said. They included Majd Kamalmaz, a psychotherapist who traveled to Syria in 2017 and was later confirmed killed. Carstens and Patel asked Mamlouk for proof that Tice was still alive. The Syrians stonewalled, saying their own demands would need to be met first. Carstens and Patel returned to Washington empty-handed. The FBI, which Patel now leads, declined to comment about the meeting. The following month, Trump called into 'Fox & Friends.' Early in his term, Trump said, he had wanted to assassinate Assad, but Defense Secretary Jim Mattis opposed the step. 'I would have rather taken him out, I had him all set,' Trump said on the show. Assad considered the comments an insult, Ibrahim said, and with Trump focused on his reelection campaign, further talks would have to wait for outreach by a new administration. In May 2022, Biden met with Debra and Marc Tice at the White House, two days after their son's plight was highlighted at a White House Correspondents' Association dinner where Biden was in attendance. During the meeting in the Oval Office, Biden told the Tices that the administration would do everything it could, including making a push for direct meetings with the Syrians, recalled a former U.S. official familiar with the meeting. But Biden was also careful to add that the family had to be prepared for the possibility that Tice might ''no longer be with us,' the former official recalled. By then, the U.S. government, led by the FBI, had interviewed witnesses, pursued leads, surged intelligence efforts and pressed for direct talks, but had not been able, officials say, to obtain confirmed evidence of Tice's status. That gap made Tice's case different from those of dozens of Americans whom the U.S. had successfully freed around the world. In February 2023, two senior Biden officials, Joshua Geltzer and Brett McGurk, traveled to Oman for talks with the Syrians. They made clear in advance that the goal was to find out what had happened to Tice, having set the agenda with the sultan of Oman, who brokered the talks, according to two former U.S. officials familiar with the matter. On the other side of the table was Imad Moustapha, an urbane veteran diplomat who was formerly Syria's ambassador to the U.S. and China, and three other Syrian officials. Before the meeting in Muscat, Moustapha had met with Assad, a former Syrian official said. The president was categorical about the message to be conveyed: We don't know where Tice is and don't have him. During the meeting, Geltzer pushed a copy of a document across the table, according to the former U.S. officials. It was the 'Wanted' bulletin issued by the government when Tice escaped from detention in late October 2012. Moustapha, genial but disciplined, made clear he did not have a mandate to engage. 'It was like pushing a wet noodle across the table,' said one of the former officials. There was one small opening. The Syrians were interested in visiting oil and gas fields in rebel-held areas. Geltzer and McGurk agreed to raise the idea with Washington and report back in exchange for the Syrians helping with information about Tice's status. Assad, meanwhile, was furious that Moustapha had even discussed Tice, the former Syrian official said. 'Who gave you the mandate to discuss anything?'' Assad asked, according to the official. Deep down, the former Syrian official suspected there was a simple reason for Assad's obstinacy: He knew what had happened to Tice. 'This is why he is categorically refusing to engage,' the official said. The teams returned to Oman three months later. The Americans offered to facilitate access to the energy facilities but met a brick wall about Tice. The meeting ended quickly. Inside the U.S. government, the agencies trying to find Tice could reach no definitive conclusion on his fate. Since at least 2016, the intelligence community had assessed that Tice was alive, although with low confidence. However, after Assad was toppled in late 2024 and weeks went by with no breakthroughs - despite the government offering a $10 million reward for information - the CIA changed its assessment, saying Tice was probably dead, but again, with low confidence. None of the alleged sightings of Tice after the 2012 video were ever verified by U.S. officials. Neither, however, were the reports of his death. As recently as last year, the leader of a Syrian rebel group approached Mouaz Moustafa, executive director of the Syrian Emergency Task Force, a Washington-based advocacy group, to tell him that he had found the spot in Damascus where Tice was buried. The rebel leader smuggled a decaying foot from the grave to the Tanf U.S. military base in Syria, Moustafa and another person familiar with the matter said. The FBI tested the sample. It wasn't Tice. Part Four: A shocking account The interrogation took place over several days in April in Beirut. Hassan, the Syrian official who had held Tice not long after his capture, spoke with CIA officers and FBI agents, who questioned him about the Assad regime, its ties to Iran and Tice's fate. Hassan said that Assad ordered him to have Tice killed in 2013 and that he tried to dissuade Assad, according to U.S. officials and another person familiar with the matter. Hassan said he had Tice killed by a subordinate, the U.S. officials and other people familiar with the interview said. Attempts to reach Hassan by phone, email and through a close relative were unsuccessful. The Post reached the subordinate, an officer who reported to Hassan and left Syria after the fall of the Assad regime. He agreed to speak on the condition that this name and whereabouts not be published. 'I have never met Austin Tice, and I did not kill Austin Tice,' he said. U.S. officials have not corroborated Hassan's story. Their counterparts in the new Syrian government don't believe his account. A senior Syrian security official noted that Hassan went to Iran after the Assad regime fell and that the Iranian government facilitated his travel to Lebanon, raising the prospect that his story could be disinformation. Hassan described to U.S. officials a place where Tice's remains could be found. But months later, the location remains unsearched by U.S. or Syrian officials. The Tices say U.S. officials told them they needed time to determine the equipment necessary to properly excavate it. Privately , U.S. officials also cite security concerns. The Syrian security official said there had been delays in coordinating a visit to the site. The FBI declined to comment, saying the investigation 'remains ongoing.' Some of those involved in the search for Tice say it is possible there will never be definitive proof of his fate. They likened it to the quest to find Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent who vanished in Iran in 2007. It was not until 13 years later that the U.S. government concluded Levinson was dead. His family is still seeking his remains. Trump, for his part, has sounded a cautionary tone. 'There's been virtually no sign … of Austin,' he said in late March. 'It's been a long time. It's been many, many years. … So, you know, a lot of bad things happen, but we will never - until we find out something definitive one way or the other - we will never stop looking for him.'' Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, said this week that while the Trump administration has 'no new details to share, our search for Austin will not end until his case is resolved.' The new Syrian government, led by former militant Ahmed al-Sharaa - formerly known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani - is cooperating with U.S. efforts to locate Tice. A senior Syrian security official said investigators are pursuing a new lead based on recent interviews with two of Hassan's associates. His former office manager and a close friend told them that in 2013 Tice was taken from Hassan's compound by a high-level operative of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia allied with Assad and Iran. Then the trail goes cold, the official said. The U.S. government has no corroboration of that account. In April, the Trump administration allowed Debra and Marc Tice to review declassified secret intelligence collected in the search for their son, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, in an email to The Post, called it a 'special and unprecedented briefing' and said the records were not cleared for public release. But for the Tices, access to the information only deepened their disillusionment with U.S. efforts. 'It's been a charade,' Debra Tice said. 'Our government has not been a good advocate for Austin.' Earlier this year, Debra Tice returned to Damascus, where she met for more than an hour with Sharaa in a formal reception room. Sharaa, whom she had met before, once told her a story. Back when he was a young militant imprisoned in Iraq, he was reported dead. His mother refused to believe it. Even when others questioned her mental state, Sharaa's mother bought clothes for her son and insisted he was alive. 'That's very, very inspirational to me,' Debra Tice said. 'My son's not dead. He's walking around somewhere.' Nakashima and Schaffer reported from Washington, and Slater from Williamstown, Massachusetts. Karen DeYoung in Washington, Mohamad El Chamaa and Suzan Haidamous in Beirut, and Fakhr Al Ayoubi in Syria contributed to this report.
USA Today
3 hours ago
- USA Today
Rumors fly surrounding Oklahoma QB John Mateer and 2022 UCLA-USC football game
There's a new, strange sports betting rumor swirling around the internet, with Oklahoma Sooners quarterback John Mateer being placed under review for any gambling activity. ESPN's Pete Thamel reported that Oklahoma is aware of the situation and is reviewing Mateer for any possible gambling activity. Mateer is entering his first season with the Sooners after playing with the Washington State Cougars the past three years. College Sports Wire writer Riley Donald explained on Tuesday why Mateer is unlikely to be the last player caught in this sort of entanglement. 'While college sports feature ads for different gambling sites every other commercial, the act of collegiate athletes gambling is still strictly prohibited and often a fast-track ticket to suspensions or worse. The latest saga around gambling activity in the college football world has the spotlight shining squarely on the Oklahoma Sooners and their new transfer quarterback John Mateer, just before the 2025 season is set to begin.' Donald wrote. The rumors began after Mateer's Venmo transaction history was posted online, with Mateer having some suspicious payments that allude to sports betting. Perhaps allude isn't a strong enough word, as Mateer had one payment titled simply 'Sports gambling (UCLA vs USC).' Mateer claimed that his transactions were an "inside joke" and that no illegal activity had occured. Mateer shouldn't be viewed as guilty simply off his Venmo transaction history, but the date of Mateer's transaction referring to USC and UCLA came just one day after the Bruins lost to the Trojans 48-45 back in 2022, which only makes it more likely that he had a wager on the game. Three days later, Mateer had another Venmo payment, receiving a payment titled 'Ultra sports gambling fifa World Cup' that was completed three days after the start of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. These sorts of scandals, it will be argued by some, will continue with the continued acceptance of sports betting in American society, with professional and collegiate programs signing deals with sports betting companies while holding the expectation for players, both pro and collegiate, to not participate.
