Latest news with #DrugEnforcementAgency
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
DEA Houston warns of synthetic opioid hitting Houston and surrounding areas
The Brief DEA Houston warns of the synthetic opioid Nitazene, saying it's 25% more potent than fentanyl. DEA Houston says they have seen a major increase in overdoses and seizures in the last year. A mother who lost her son to fentanyl is advocating for change and shares her message for families. HOUSTON - The Houston field office for the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is putting out a serious and stern warning about a synthetic drug called Nitazene that's leading to seizures and overdoses in teens and adults. What they're saying The DEA says Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery and Brazoria County have all been impacted by Nitazene, which is 25% more potent than fentanyl. Special Agent William Kimbell with the DEA says Nitazene, a killer synthetic drug, has been in our area since 2022. "In the last year, we've become more and more concerned because our number of seizures have gone up in between November and February of this year. We have had a 15% increase of overdoses from Nitazene in Houston," said Special Agent Kimbell. "Nitazene is a typical opioid. It suppresses your breathing, it suppresses your blood pressure, and your body is so suppressed, you can't breathe anymore." Special Agent Kimbell says the drug is impacting people in a wide age range. "We've seen overdoses now from the ages of 17 to 59, so really. If you are buying a pill from someone you don't know, or you are using a pill that you don't know where it came from, it could have Ntazene in it and it's extremely dangerous," said Special Agent Kimbell, "Its synthetic route is very hard to make, and you need lab experience, but we are seeing Nitazene that are made in China, and they are purchased online and smuggled into the US in parcels, and locally, we are seeing drug gangs take fentanyl and Nitazene and pressing it into a what looks like a prescription drug." Why you should care Special Agent Kimbell says Nitazene can be purchased online, using a smartphone. He says, sadly, that's how many kids are getting their hands on it. "We are seeing kids carry that – they can reach a drug dealer that is carrying this type of drug instantly," he said. "Within minutes you can tuck your kids in bed, and they can get on social media, and they can have that stuff delivered to their house." Local perspective Stephanie Roe, who lost her son Tucker at 19 to fentanyl in 2021, has a warning to families and raising awareness through Texas Against Fentanyl. "I watched this come into his life and be introduced as an adolescent, and he couldn't beat it. Ultimately, he used again after his treatment and that resulted in his death," said Roe," Nitazene are incredibly lethal. They have been found to be 20 times stronger than Fentanyl. Roe says it's important for families to talk to their kids and learn more about drug addiction, adding there is a real stigma that needs to be talked about. "The drug demographic is unlike anything we have seen before and these are highly addictive chemicals," Roe said," "You don't think it will happen to our child if you asked me if I would be someone who would lose a child" I would say no way, but the reality is there is no demographic here, its impacting so many people because there is a lack of education and awareness." The Source FOX 26 reporter Leslie DelasBour spoke with Special Agent William Kimbell of the Houston Drug Enforcement Agency and Stephanie Roe, who lost her son to a fentanyl overdose.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Yahoo
SWAT arrests Magna man over alleged ‘clandestine laboratory'
MAGNA, Utah () — A 45-year-old man was arrested Wednesday after police reportedly uncovered a suspected drug laboratory in Magna. Thomas Vu is facing charges of 'operation of a clandestine laboratory' after SWAT executed a search warrant at Vu's house, police say. According to court documents, officers found 43 grams of a 'crystallize substance… consistent with meth.' Police also found glassware, beakers, and chemical liquids in the garage of the house. Remains of Utah woman found a mile away from where her 'original remains' were discovered last year Documents show the Drug Enforcement Agency lab team also responded to the scene. Agents tested the lab equipment at the house. Items tested positive for , and ketamine. The West Jordan Street Crimes Unit had been investigating Vu to be involved in 'distributing various controlled substances' for several weeks prior to executing the search warrant. Charges are allegations only. All arrested persons are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. SCHEDULE | Race day for the Indianapolis 500 Kurt Busch, Ray Hendrick and Harry Gant voted into NASCAR Hall of Fame Class of 2026 Taylorsville man accused of threatening landlord in 'religious rituals,' vandalizing home and church SWAT arrests Magna man over alleged 'clandestine laboratory' Judge blocks Trump layoffs, order to close Education Department Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Yahoo
Two Montana women sentenced to prison in separate federal drug and gun cases
Photo illustration by Getty Images. A Billings woman who admitted to trafficking fentanyl while possessing a firearm was sentenced to 11 years in prison and five years supervised release, according to the U.S. Attorney's Kurt Alme, and in a separate case a Livingston woman was sentenced to three years in prison and 4 years of supervised release for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possessing a firearm. U.S. District Judge Susan P. Watters presided over both cases. Renee Esperanza Arambula, 27, of Billings pleaded guilty in November to possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense. According to a Tuesday U.S Attorney's office press release, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency began investigating Arambula for suspected drug trafficking in 2023. Agents discovered through financial documents that between May 2020 and January 2023, Arambula deposited more than $230,000 of cash into a bank and received thousands more through electronic payments, but was making only a fraction of that through formal employment income. Based on financial analysis, witness interview, surveillance and other investigations, the DEA learned Arambula was trafficking fentanyl and other drugs around Billings, with several individuals admitting to purchasing drugs from her. According to statements made at the sentencing hearing and in court documents, in January 2023, Arambula used a firearm to shoot two unarmed men while trafficking, shooting one in the neck and leaving him a partially paralyzed, and shooting the second in the abdomen. Law enforcement recovered fentanyl pills and a firearm in Arambula's possession. The investigation was conducted by the DEA and Billings Police Department. Livingston resident Jennifer Michelle Hall, 44, pleaded guilty in January 2025 to possession with intent to distribute meth and prohibited possession of a firearm. The government alleged in court documents that Montana law enforcement had identified Hall as someone selling methamphetamine for 'more serious distributors' in the Livingston area. In December 2021, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Hall's residence and recovered methamphetamine, fentanyl pills and a semi-automatic pistol. Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also recovered Halls' phone and iPad. In an interview with law enforcement, Hall admitted to possessing the meth and firearm, but denied she was selling drugs. However, text messages on Hall's electronics, obtained through search warrants, showed Hall was both using and selling drugs. Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Godfrey prosecuted the case. The investigation was conducted by the ATF and Park County Sheriff's Office. Both cases are part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make neighborhoods safer for everyone.
Forbes
13-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Wiretap: DOJ Slams Microsoft Over Failures To Give It Suspect Emails
Microsoft and the Justice Department have had a significant falling out. In a previously-unreported motion filed by the Pennsylvania DOJ office in February, prosecutors accused Microsoft of failing to provide data from unnamed users' email accounts in response to a December search warrant filed by the Drug Enforcement Agency. The DOJ said Microsoft had also failed to offer sufficient excuse for repeated delays in providing the information, other than to blame a 'backlog' of data requests. While the government is yet to disclose what exact data it wanted or the nature of the investigation, it complained, 'Microsoft's unjustified delay continues to hinder the government's ability to identify and apprehend the perpetrators, prevent ongoing harm, and collect and preserve evidence,' DOJ prosecutors wrote. After threatening to ask a judge to declare Microsoft in contempt, the company did eventually provide the data in mid-February–long after its original two-week deadline–thus avoiding any reprimand. But before that, the DOJ had made it clear Microsoft was a repeat offender, writing, 'Unfortunately, Microsoft's non-compliance with the deadline in the search warrant is not an isolated incident. Indeed, in this district, Microsoft regularly and substantially fails to comply with this court's imposed deadlines. These violations of court-imposed deadlines not only evince an unjustified contempt of court but also adversely affect the government's ability to investigate, disrupt, and prosecute crimes.' The DOJ declined to comment. Microsoft hadn't provided comment at the time of publication. What's apparent from the filing, and the emails between the DOJ and Microsoft the Justice Department attached to its motion, is that the tech giant is finding it difficult to respond to the mass of data demands made not only by the U.S. government, but also nations across the world. According to Microsoft's own data it receives between 26,000 and 28,000 law enforcement requests every six months. That's nothing compared to Google, which has been dealing with over 200,000 requests every six months. As Forbes previously reported, that's helped generate a significant backlog at Google too. It has tried to get AI to help process orders, with limited success. Why companies sitting on such huge cash piles aren't willing to expand teams responsible for handling police requests remains a mystery. Got a tip on surveillance or cybercrime? Message the reporter Thomas Brewster on Signal at +1 929-512-7964. AI Tutors For Kids Gave Fentanyl Recipes And Dangerous Diet Advice AI chatbots like SchoolGPT and CourseHero can be pressed to give potentially harmful advice, whether that's showing how to cook up fentanyl or date rape drugs. In tests done by Forbes, one chatbot suggested that those looking to lose weight should have a daily caloric intake of only 967 calories per day — less than half what's recommended for a healthy teen. It could also be prompted to talk about how 'pickup artists' employ 'playful insults' and 'the 'accidental' touch'' to get girls to spend time with them. After research from crypto tracing company Elliptic was published, Telegram has taken down a market called Xinbi Guarantee, which had facilitated $8.4 billion in trades for illicit goods. Elliptic says those goods included personal data, money laundering services, 'intimidation-as-a-service' and even access to child-bearing surrogates and egg donors. A Venezuelan man whose family said he had been 'disappeared' turned up on a list of deportees to El Salvador that had been stolen by a hacker from ICE-contracted airline GlobalX, 404 Media reports. Ricardo Prada Vásquez had not previously been listed by ICE as being a deportee to El Salvador. NSO Group has been ordered to pay more than $167 million in damages to WhatsApp, which was targeted by exploits developed by the Israeli spyware company in 2019. The hacks hit more than 1,400 users. Four men in Côte d'Ivoire have been arrested and charged for their roles in an international 'sextortion' scheme that, according to the Justice Department, led to the death of Ryan Last, a 17-year-old high school senior from San Jose, California. Last committed suicide shortly after being sextorted online by someone pretending to be a 20-year-old woman. There were a number of successes for law enforcement in the cyber realm over the last week, including the dismantling of a 'DDoS-for-hire empire,' Europol announced. The operation targeted a number of sites offering to help carry out distributed denial of service attacks, which flood web servers with traffic to take them out of action. Polish police arrested four individuals who allegedly ran the sites, which 'facilitated widespread attacks on schools, government services, businesses and gaming platforms between 2022 and 2025,' Europol said. Meanwhile, the DOJ announced it had dismantled a botnet comprised of hacked routers that was being used by criminals as proxies to hide their IP addresses. Four foreign national hackers have been charged for running the services, which earned them more than $46 million since 2004, according to investigators. California resident Ryan Mitchell Kramer has admitted to hacking a Disney employee to access and leak company data. The pilfered information included 44 million messages from Disney's Slack channels, 18,800 spreadsheets and 13,000 PDFs, amounting to a wealth of sensitive financial and strategy data.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AGs in both Carolinas target Chinese app linked to international fentanyl trade
Attorney General Alan Wilson speaks at a news conference on Monday, May 12, 2025, in Charlotte, N.C., about an effort to hold WeChat, a Chinese messaging app, accountable for its role in the fentanyl trade. He's accompanied by North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Lt. Robert Sprague. (Photo courtesy of Attorney General Alan Wilson's Office) Attorneys general from six states, including both Carolinas, say they're demanding accountability from WeChat, a Chinese messaging and payment platform being used by fentanyl traffickers. The bipartisan group is giving WeChat, what's become known as a super app, a month to detail what steps it's taking, if any, to combat its use as a money launderer for the international drug trade. 'We need answers; we need them now,' Republican Alan Wilson, South Carolina's attorney general since 2011, said at a news conference Monday in Charlotte, North Carolina. Standing beside him was North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson, a Democrat. A letter dated Monday instructs WeChat to send answers by June 11 to the attorneys general in North Carolina and New Jersey, two states where 'knowingly facilitating, or aiding and abetting, money laundering' is a crime. 'WeChat's contribution to the devastating fentanyl crisis endangers the life and health of our people,' they wrote in the letter, also signed by attorneys general from Colorado, Mississippi, and New Hampshire. If WeChat fails to respond, lawsuits from the states' chief prosecutors could follow, as well as advocacy for laws and regulations, Wilson and Jakson said. WeChat is one of the world's most popular messaging apps with more than a billion users globally, including a million-plus in the United States. The app created by the company Tencent allows encrypted messaging and payments to be made within it — two features that have made it incredibly popular for criminal activity, according to prosecutors. The app has been linked to major drug operations. In October 2023, the Drug Enforcement Agency announced indictments against eight Chinese companies and 12 people in a bust dubbed Operation Chem Capture. They were accused of importing the chemicals used to make fentanyl — called fentanyl precursors — as well as other drugs such as xylazine that are mixed with fentanyl to increase cartels' profits. The multi-agency operation seized enough synthetic chemicals to make more than 48 million potentially lethal doses, the agency's administrator, Anne Milgram, said in a statement submitted to the U.S. House last May. 'Operation Chem Capture once again showed that these synthetic chemicals are cheap — a deadly dose costs mere cents — and sold online on public websites and through encrypted applications like WhatsApp, WeChat, and Wickr,' the statement read. Jackson illustrated a three-step process for how Chinese brokers and drug cartels use WeChat to partner for fentanyl dealing. Chinese companies sell the chemical ingredients to the cartels, who make the fentanyl. The drug is then smuggled into the country and sold for cash. In the final step, the cash is given to Chinese brokers who use WeChat to give the money back to the cartel, he said. 'We estimate that we are talking about billions of dollars per year,' Jackson said. The joint letter, which uses Jackson's letterhead, is addressed to 'whom it may concern' at WeChat's registered agent in Delaware. People 'are using the internet to evolve how they launder money, to evolve how they evade detection by law enforcement, to evolve how they promote this type of illicit activity,' Wilson said. 'So, we have to evolve with them.' Wilson told reporters the fentanyl epidemic is the top issue that keeps him up at night. In South Carolina, overdose deaths have soared from 613 in 2013 to 2,296 in 2022, according to the most recent statistics from the state Department of Public Health. That represents a near-quadrupling over that decade. Fentanyl accounted for more than 70% of those 2022 deaths, or 1,660 overdoses, representing a near-quadrupling over just five years, according to the 2024 report. 'Everybody knows someone, either personally or within one or two degrees of separation, where a family has lost a young person or someone has died as an overdose as a result of the illicit fentanyl trafficking going on in our respective states,' Wilson said. Last month, three men — two from Sumter and one from Georgia — were indicted in South Carolina in what federal prosecutors called one of the largest international, drug-related money laundering operations the Palmetto State's ever seen. They're accused by the U.S. Department of Justice of laundering more than $30 million in the trafficking of fentanyl and other drugs, as well as taking cash from two Mexican cartels and using it to purchase and ship electronics to Hong Kong, China and the United Arab Emirates to be sold for profit. SC men indicted in $30M money laundering scheme tied to Mexican drug traffickers WeChat played a crucial role in the alleged criminal dealings, Wilson's office noted in a news release Monday. 'WeChat has become a digital safe haven for fentanyl traffickers and money launderers, and they know it,' said Wilson. Last week, the Legislature passed a law creating the charge of fentanyl induced homicide. Following Gov. Henry McMaster's expected signature, anyone who provides the fentanyl that causes a fatal overdose can be charged with homicide and sent to prison for up to 30 years. That came two years after a law threatened fentanyl trackers with up to 40 years in prison. Wilson said he's working on 'getting the most stringent and aggressive laws passed that we possibly can go after fentanyl trafficking and illicit money laundering that supports it.'
