Latest news with #DouglasWilliams
New York Post
08-07-2025
- New York Post
China-sponsored hacker stole COVID data from top US universities, labs: feds
A Chinese national hacked into the computers of major US universities and research labs to steal COVID-19 data as part of a government-sponsored cyberattack during the pandemic, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. 'While the world was reeling from a virus that originated in China, the Chinese government plotted to steal US research critical to vaccine development,' FBI Houston Special Agent in Charge Douglas Williams said in a statement released Tuesday. Suspect Zewei Xu, 33, infiltrated American research facilities as an agent for China's Ministry of State Security and the Shanghai State Security Bureau to pilfer the information on the virus and vaccines over nearly two years, prosecutors in the District Attorneys Office in the Southern District of Texas said in the release. 3 Federal prosecutors said the alleged Chinese hacker was part of the Hafnium hack identified by Microsft in 2021. Montri – Xu, who was on the run since 2023, was recently nabbed by the FBI and international authorities in Milan, Italy, after getting off a plane from China and is facing extradition to the US, prosecutors said. '[Xu's] landmark arrest by FBI Houston agents in Italy proves that we will scour the ends of the Earth to hold criminal foreign adversaries accountable,' Williams said. According to a newly unsealed indictment, Xu and accused 44-year-old cohort Yu Zhang, who remains on the run, were part of a Chinese-sponsored covert plot to steal US data on COVID-19 research between February 2020 and June 2021. 3 Federal prosecutors in Texas said a Chinese-government sponsored hacker stole US COVID vaccine data. Getty Images The pair were part of a coordinated Chinese cyberattack on various US industries that was identified and exposed by Microsoft in 2021 and is publicly known as 'Hafnium.' In early 2020, Xu and his accomplice allegedly targeted universities in Texas and elsewhere, as well as leading immunologists and virologists who were working on COVID vaccines. On Feb. 19, 2020, he allegedly contacted his Chinese handlers to report that he had compromised the network of one Texas facility. He was told to 'access specific email accounts belonging to virologists and immunologists engaged in COVID-19 research,' prosecutors said. On Feb. 28, 2021, the feds said Xu informed the Shanghai State Security Bureau about his 'successful intrusions' into the school's database and was told to get data on other operations, too. 3 Xu Zewei, 33, was nabbed by the FBI in Italy and charged with hacking into US COVID research databanks. Bloomberg via Getty Images Xu and Zhang were indicted on wire fraud conspiracy and related federal hacking charges in November 2023, with the charges remaining sealed until Xu's arrest in Italy. 'The Southern District of Texas has been waiting years to bring Xu to justice, and that day is nearly at hand,' district US Attorney Nicholas Ganjei said in a statement. 'As this case shows, even if it takes years we will track hackers down and make them answer for their crimes. 'The United States does not forget.'
Fox News
02-07-2025
- Fox News
FBI takes down Anti-Tren gang members in largest bust yet in violent migrant turf war
Federal officials on Monday arrested 16 members of the Anti-Tren gang, a rival of the violent Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua (TdA), in Texas in what is being described as the largest Anti-Tren crackdown yet. Of those 16 gang members, 14 are charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than 5 kilograms of cocaine, and two are charged separately with various weapons offenses based on their alleged possession and sale of firearms, according to the Justice Department. "These arrests are the largest takedown of suspected Anti-Tren members and associates by the FBI, so far, and they happened right here in Houston," FBI Houston Special Agent in Charge Douglas Williams said in a Monday statement. "These individuals are accused of engaging in a turf war with TdA members and carrying out numerous violent crimes throughout our city, including a mass shooting at a local sports bar that left six people wounded." Charges alleged that Anti-Tren is a criminal organization mostly composed of former TdA members known for its deadly turf wars, as well as gun and drug trafficking. "The Southern District's twin priorities are securing our border and the eradication of violent crime. This case implicates both," U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei said in a Monday statement. "Operation Take Back America means going on the offensive against transnational criminal organizations to ensure that they cannot take root in our community and endanger public safety. SDTX is going to be unapologetic in carrying out that mission." If convicted on the drug charges, the suspects face up to life in prison and a possible $10 million fine. Those charged separately with firearms offenses could receive up to 15 years in prison. Jose Miguel Briceno, a 25-year-old illegal immigrant from Venezuela living in Houston, is also charged separately with unlawful possession of ammunition by an alien after he was allegedly involved in a mass shooting in March at the Latinas Sports Bar club in Houston, where six people were wounded, including four in critical condition. Briceno is accused of using a firearm to shoot inside the doorway of the bar and then discarding the gun. Officials were unable to locate the weapon. He faces up to 15 years in prison and a maximum $250,000 fine if convicted. The U.S. Attorney's Office is prosecuting the case with the Department of Justice's Joint Task Force Vulcan (JTFV), which was created to combat MS-13 and expanded to include TdA under Attorney General Pam Bondi. The 16 arrests come as part of Operation Take Back America, "a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime," according to the DOJ.
