Category Archives: Drug Cartels

Gangs Use of Emojis in Text Messages

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How gang members could be using emojis photo

In part: “I’ll see a string of pictures, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know what that means,'” she said.

Donna Price said that’s exactly what gang members want to hear.

Price was part of the Street Safe Task Force established by former North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue and worked closely with gang prevention coordinators. Price said gangs are using what look like innocent emojis in social media posts as hidden messages to recruit, communicate with one another and threaten rivals.

“There are about 1,200 emojis out there, and those emojis can each mean four different meanings,” Price said.

Maxwell asked Foston what she thinks the gas pump emoji means.

“They need gas,” Foston answered. “They’re at an old-school gas station and they’re in the middle of nowhere.”

Not always. Some use that emoji as a symbol for gang. They may add the emoji “A” and emoji “NG” to erase any doubt.

Or they’ll use a cluster of emojis, like the one below. It means “Do you have any weed?”

The emoji combo of a man running and scissors is a threat to cut or stab someone.

“This is like taking it to the next level,” Foston said. “That’s scary.”

Detective Al Smith of the Violent Crimes and Gang Unit in Burlington said that the emoji communication code started with gangs in the western and northern parts of the country.

“They like to share everything. It’s a common trend with gangs,” Smith said.

Maxwell looked at the Twitter feed of a well-known Chicago gang member and found the gas pump emojis and others with multiple meanings, along with plenty of threats.

That gang member was killed three years ago.

“The trend is, by the time we find out about it, they have either used it or have moved on to something else,” said Smith.

That’s where things can get complicated. The alternative meanings of the emojis change often, because gangs know that investigators are on to them. Different gangs use the emojis in different ways, so it can be tough for police, and parents, to break the code, which is why Price said parents have to make the effort to know what the pictures mean.

“It’s like music and technology,” said Price. “You have to stay up on it all the time.”

“I have to tell them (my children) all the time, ‘It’s not necessarily you,’” Foston said. “’It’s the people around you. And I don’t know everybody that you communicate with or talk to.’”

*** BTW, as a warning: Parents beware: Kids are using this secret emoji language

How gang members could be using emojis | FOX13

In the secret code of New York gangs, texting two thumbs up doesn’t mean everything is OK.

It means you’re a member of the Harlem Crips, a ruthless band of hoodlums who have terrorized upper Manhattan for decades, according to police.

They say violent city street toughs have turned to cutesy emoji and other digital imagery to communicate with each other, using seemingly innocuous symbols as tools of murder, assault, rape and robbery.

“Social media is something the juveniles and youth are constantly using,” said NYPD Sgt. Leo Nugent of the Bronx Gang Squad, noting that the gas pump has become a universal symbol for “gang.”

“If I’m in a gang mode, I’ll put that up,” he said.

The Crips opt for the two thumbs-up emoji, with the knuckles facing each other, because they resemble the letter “H.”

Their longstanding rivals, the Bloods, signal their affiliation with an image of a magician’s top hat.

They even go after each other with emoji, posting other gangs’ symbols upside down as a sign of disrespect.

And they livestream video from their opponents’ turf on Snapchat, a type of taunting known as “cyberbanging.”

Gangs have learned to avoid Facebook, which police have scoured for years for evidence used to lock up suspected leaders.

“They call Facebook ‘Fedbook’ now, because if you talk on Facebook, the feds will be monitoring,” Nugent said.

Gangbangers now prefer WhatsApp, CoverMe, Kik Messenger and Yubo — a dating app marketed to teens — where their messages quickly disappear, making it harder for cops to track them, according to lawmen.

“They’re pretty smart,” said Detective Belinda Delgado, also with the Bronx Gang unit. “WhatApp — the minute you delete it from your phone, it disappears.”

Messages sent in chat apps are not visible to the public, so there’s no way for cops to monitor conversations.

Nugent said gangs are using emoji to recruit new members and to demand they commit crimes.

He said gangs might order new members to run a credit card or check scam, using digital symbols of a man running, a money bag and a credit card.

“Members we have identified will ask for anyone who is 18 and over and who has a valid ID to private message them,” Delgado said.

Gang activity is also carried out on gaming consoles, according to Nugent.

In one robbery, a Crip set up a purported cellphone sale while chatting via PlayStation. When the victim showed up, someone pulled a gun on him and robbed him, Nugent said.

“In these chats sometimes people sell items, sneakers, headphones or cellphones, etc.,” Nugent said. “The gamers can pull up pictures of each other, so they know who they are communicating with.”

Police rely heavily on confidential informants (CIs) to fill them in on gang methods, according to Delgado.

“A CI who says, ‘Hey, our set uses Snapchat, and we communicate there when we have meetings’ . . . when we have a problem he gets us the screenshots.

“Without a court order, we can not monitor in real-time.”

The NYPD has enlisted parents to monitor potential gang activity on social media, and teaches them what to look for at gang-awareness seminars.

“I can’t go to every kid and look through his phone, but the parent can,” Nugent said.

Police said teens with big social-media followings should be a red flag for parents.

“If your kid has 3,000-5,000 friends — that could be a problem if you live in a certain neighborhood,” Nugent said.

 

Waivers? China Pharmaceuticals Killing Americans

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Primer:

Image result for chinese pharmaceuticals
In part from Reuters: “My friend President Xi said that he would stop the sale of fentanyl to the United States – this never happened and many Americans continue to die,” Trump said in a tweet.

“We’re losing thousands of people to fentanyl,” he later told reporters.

The Chinese embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Fentanyl is an opioid painkiller 50 times more potent than heroin, and has a central role in the devastating U.S. opioid crisis. In the United States, fentanyl and all of its analogues are controlled substances subject to strict regulation.

More than 28,000 synthetic opioid-related overdose deaths, mostly from fentanyl related substances, were recorded in 2017, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Image result for chinese pharmaceuticals

Added from Bloomberg:

China has become the world’s largest supplier of active pharmaceutical ingredients, or API, providing key components to drugmakers worldwide. But a yearlong recall of tainted heart drugs taken by millions of Americans is prompting U.S. national security officials to ask whether China’s growing role in the pharmaceutical supply chain could pose a threat to the health of military personnel.

“The national security risks of increased Chinese dominance of the global API market cannot be overstated,” Christopher Priest, the acting deputy assistant director for health care operations and Tricare for the Defense Health Agency, told a U.S.-China advisory panel last week in Washington.

The Defense Health Agency manages much of the health care of military members, including prescription drugs.

Concerns about the safety and efficacy of Chinese-made drugs are rising at a time of heightened trade tensions between Washington and Beijing. Last week, Trump unveiled plans for new tariffs on Chinese goods; China plans to halt imports of U.S. crops in response. The yuan sank on Monday against the dollar.

The National Security Council is looking into Chinese drug manufacturing and trying to identify the most at-risk medications, Priest told the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission in Washington, without elaborating. The National Security Council declined to comment.

The Defense Health Agency is supposed to use drugs that comply with the Trade Agreements Act, a 1979 law that requires many federal purchases to be made in the U.S. or another compliant country. China isn’t on the approved list, but the agency has waivers for almost 150 drugs they otherwise wouldn’t be able to procure, Priest said. The TAA covers only finished products, not their components.

Many drugs taken by military members and civilians have active ingredients made in China. While drugmakers typically don’t disclose where every molecule in a pill comes from, the recall of contaminated blood-pressure drugs has shown that many of their active components originated in Chinese factories.

Rocket Fuel

Larry Wortzel, a member of the U.S.-China commission and a military retiree, said four of his blood-pressure medications were recalled in three months. Wortzel’s pills, versions of a drug called valsartan, were manufactured in India but had active ingredients from China.

“They were contaminated with rocket fuel,” Wortzel said. “I imagine active people have the same problem. This affects the readiness of our troops.”

The recalled valsartan contained a probable carcinogen known as NDMA, a manufacturing byproduct once used to make rocket fuel and also found in grilled and cured meats.

Priest called the recalls “a never-ending saga” and a “wake-up call.”

The recalls began in July 2018 with valsartan made by China’s Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical Co. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has largely blamed the company’s manufacturing process for creating the NDMA, which went undetected for as long as four years. Drugmakers in other countries who used similar processes have also had to recall blood-pressure pills.

Some valsartan purchased by the Defense Logistics Agency and later recalled was TAA-compliant, said Patrick Mackin, a spokesman for the DLA. The agency manages the supply chain for the U.S. military, including ensuring pharmaceuticals make their way to military treatment facilities. With valsartan in shortage, according to the FDA, the agency sought a TAA waiver for valsartan on July 15, Mackin said.

A Bloomberg investigation this year detailed doubts among U.S. health officials about the data generic-drug companies, including Zhejiang Huahai and others involved in the valsartan recalls, use to prove their products are safe and effective.

“We wouldn’t have our aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines built in China, and for very important medications, we really should look at what it takes to purchase based on value not just price,” Rosemary Gibson, the author of the book “China Rx,” told the commission. “We want cheap, we can buy cheap. But what’s missing from the whole equation is quality.”

Shortage Fears

Quality isn’t the only concern. Shortages could also arise from attempts by the Chinese to cut off supply, particularly amid the U.S.-China trade standoff.

“If China shut the door on exports, our hospitals would cease to function, so this has tremendous urgency,” Gibson said.

Priest said pharmaceutical companies should be compelled, using the buying power of the entire federal government, to maintain the infrastructure to make drugs without relying on countries like China.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is investigating the FDA’s ability to police foreign manufacturing. The committee’s leaders asked the agency for more information on the valsartan recall in June, including about a dispute between senior officials and an agency inspector who raised red flags at Zhejiang Huahai more than a year before the NDMA was detected. The panel also asked the Government Accountability Office to look at the FDA’s oversight of foreign drug manufacturing.

“Shame on us for not paying attention to something so critical and assuming, which has been the orthodoxy for a long time, that the industry would regulate itself,” Benjamin Shobert, senior associate for international health at The National Bureau of Asian Research, told the commission.

 

Venezuelan Shipwreck Defines Drug Route

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Written by
Venezuela Investigative Unit

The sinking of a small boat heading from Venezuela to Curaçao and the disappearance of all the migrants aboard suggest that drug trafficking groups are also controlling human smuggling routes in the region.

On June 7, the group of 32 migrants, along with three crew members, set sail from Punta de Aguide in Venezuela’s Falcón state, on the Caribbean coast. On June 11, the boat was was declared missing, and a month later, the whereabouts of it and its passengers remain unknown.

The disappearance was reported as a shipwreck, an increasingly common disaster in the Caribbean as Venezuelans resort to desperate measures to flee the country. So far this year, three shipwrecks involving over 80 migrants have been reported.

After the latest shipwreck, family members reported that all the migrants had been wearing life-jackets. Yet only one body has been recovered to date — that of Elio Ramones, identified in Curaçao on June 12. To the surprise of authorities, his corpse seemed fresh, suggesting that the man had died several days after the supposed shipwreck.

Oswaldo Rodríguez León, Falcon’s security secretary who is coordinating the search for the missing, said that “it is not possible for no trace to be found of the 32 people who disappeared in that shipwreck; the bodies should be floating if they were drowned. We must investigate [the fact] that pirates could have taken them.”

On July 11, two men were arrested for recruiting the migrants in their hometown of Vela de Coro, along Venezuela’s northern coast.

But the arrests have brought authorities no closer to finding the disappeared.
In June, survivors of a previous shipwreck exposed a human trafficking route used to transport vulnerable women and children from Venezuela to Trinidad and Tobago, where they were sold into the sex trade.

After the latest shipwreck, residents in Falcón told InSight Crime that human smuggling is used as a front for drug shipments to the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao, which are between 15 to 50 miles off the coast of Venezuela.

According to local sources, both cocaine and marijuana arrive overland and are stored in huts along the beaches of Falcón. It is then loaded onto small boats by night and shipped to neighboring islands under the guise of migrant transports, in quantities of up to 8,000 kilograms per day.

Although not officially corroborated, the locals’ claims are supported by recent large drug seizures on the Lara-Falcón highway, headed for the Falcón coast.

Mapa mostrando as ilhas ABC - Aruba, Bonaire e Curaçao e ...

Migrants are lured into the scheme by the low rates charged. The 32 missing people had reportedly paid $400 for the journey, compared to the standard rate of between $650 and $700.
In Vela de Coro, InSight Crime spoke to three families whose loved ones were aboard the shipwrecked boat and who are now missing. They said that following the disappearance they have begun their own investigations, including making inquiries with relatives on Curaçao. They claim that the missing boat was carrying a drug shipment to Curaçao and that the shipment did arrive, but 500 kilograms lighter than expected, giving rise to their belief that the migrants were kidnapped because the captain did not deliver the full drug shipment.

Full circle - Drugs trafficking in the Caribbean

The families have also begun searching hills near Punta de Aguide, where they believe the migrants were held before boarding the boats. Helicopters, however, are needed to comb over the mountainous territory largely controlled by drug traffickers.

Relatives of the missing migrants point to the inadequate official response as evidence of criminal complicity. Although the authorities were notified within a day of the disappearance, a search was not initiated until June 11, four days later.

Furthermore, authorities are alleged to have known of the voyage before the boat set sail. The family members who spoke with InSight Crime said that the migrants had intended to depart on June 6, but were intercepted by officials from the country’s criminal investigation unit (Cuerpo de Investigaciones Científicas, Penales y Criminalísticas – CICPC) who stole some of their belongings, including mobile phones, and took $1,000 from the captain. The migrants spent the night hiding in the woods before setting sail the following evening.

CICPC officials have also allegedly been involved in previous cases of predation on migrants, including the sex trafficking route to Trinidad and Tobago exposed in June.

This is not the first boatload of Venezuelan migrants to disappear. A boat vanished on May 16 in route to Trinidad and Tobago, and no corpses, wreckage or surviving passengers have been found. Hat tip to InSight for continued stellar investigations/reporting.

More ‘Narco-Subs’ Still Out There

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The clip, which appears to have been recorded via helmet cam, ends with the narco sub crew opening the hatch, and emerging with their hands in the air.

The footage is from just one of 14 similar drug interdictions that the Munro and two other Coast Guard cutters pulled off between May and July 2019 along the coasts of Mexico and Central and South America, according to a July 11 statement from the U.S. Coast Guard Pacific Area.

***

The NarcoSub: A Cutaway Illustration | Earthly Mission

InsightCrime: The operation, which took place on June 18, ended with the arrest of five smugglers and the seizure of the cocaine valued at $232 million.

The US Coast Guard has seen an uptick in these vessels recently. In a span of two months in 2017, the Coast Guard stopped seven “low-profile drug smuggling vessels,” according to a news release, seizing around 10,300 kilograms of cocaine worth more than $306 million.

Authorities in Colombia are also seeing an increase in this trafficking method.

In August of 2018, for example, Colombia’s navy intercepted two semi-submersible vessels, one of which was carrying more than two tons of drugs valued at $66 million, and the other which was carrying more than 1,700 kilograms of cocaine. By September of the same year, the Colombian navy had captured 14 semi-submersibles in the Pacific Ocean, more than three times the prior year, Business Insider reported.

Drug submarines largely depart from Colombia’s Pacific coast, where mangroves provide the perfect cover for submarine builders.

The increasing use of so-called narco-submarines to smuggle drugs between Colombia and the United States reflects two realities of the cocaine trade: coca production is at an all-time high in Colombia, and traffickers still see the high seas as one of the most effective ways to move drugs.

In 2018, coca cultivation in Colombia stood at 208,000 hectares, just a fraction less than the record 209,000 hectares seen in 2017. Such a bonanza has led traffickers to turn to all types of maritime transport.

The longtime smuggling method of concealing cocaine within cargo ships docking at US ports has been employed by traffickers recently, evidenced by massive drug seizures at ports in New York and Philadelphia.

Traffickers also clearly see semi-submersible vessels — first used by Colombian drug smugglers in the early 1990s — as an effective method of delivery. These vessels are largely employed to skirt improved radar technology and authorities’ use of high-speed boats.

Sitting below the waterline, semi-submersible vessels usually just have their exhaust pipes above the surface. As far back as 2009, such vessels could be constructed for as little as $50,000 and assembled in less than 90 days. Since then, they have only become faster, more sophisticated and likely cheaper to build.

Traffickers have also used fully submersible versions, which cost millions of dollars to build but have enough room for a few crew members and massive drug hauls.

The uptick in interdictions of semi-submersible vessels shows that the Coast Guard’s tripling of resources in the Pacific has been effective. Yet traffickers’ continued use of submarines likely indicates that a portion still manage to get through.

Even when stopped, these submarines can prove frustrating for authorities. They are built to be easily sunk, and their crews are difficult to prosecute, once the drug cargo and vessel sit at the bottom of the ocean.

***

A 2008 U.S. military Southern Command report predicted that semi-submersible vessels would soon be able carry 330 tons north each year or close to half of all cocaine moving north.

There is some evidence this may already be the case. A 2010 United Nations report on The Globalization of Crime said that in 2008, 46 percent of all cocaine seized by Colombia in the Pacific was found on semi-submersibles. With the U.S. estimating that 69 percent of cocaine entering the country in 2007 left Colombia via the Pacific, semi-submersibles have in the last few years been responsible for a very sizeable proportion of the global cocaine trade. More here.

2008 documentary on drug subs.

 

How About Consulting FBI and SOCOM on Immigration

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Homeland Security and Homeland Defense cannot be divided, one relies on the other.

For starters, the FBI has had a long term operation in Central America. The FBI declares the gang operations for instance in El Salvador does affect public safety in America.

“Many of the gang members committing these homicides are 13-, 14-, and 15-year-olds,” he explained, “and every day there are new members coming in.”

“We aren’t facing a group of youths who are rebelling, but a very structured organization conducting criminal activities,” said Luis Martinez, El Salvador’s attorney general and the country’s highest ranking law enforcement officer. “They are using military-grade weapons, and they are using them against the police, military, and prosecutors.”

MS-13 and 18th Street gang members have gained a foothold in numerous U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Boston, Houston, Charlotte, Newark, and the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. They commit a variety of crimes—mainly trafficking drugs and extorting individuals and business owners—and they maintain strong ties to Central America.

The program is called Central American Law Enforcement Exchange (CALEE).

The success of the Central American Law Enforcement Exchange (CALEE) program hinges on bringing together U.S. and Central American law enforcement officers who share a common cause in the fight against violent transnational gangs. During the most recent CALEE, an important new partner was added to the group—prosecutors.

“We have seen that when prosecutors and investigators work together from the outset, cases tend to have more successful outcomes,” said Special Agent Grant Mann, who helped plan and administer CALEE 2015, the sixth session since the program began in 2009.

In the U.S, it is typical for FBI agents and prosecutors to sit down at the beginning of an investigation to discuss possible charges and investigative strategies. Historically, that collaborative process is less common in Central America—but thanks to programs such as CALEE, it is gaining acceptance.

***

At Joint Task Force-Bravo which is located at Soto Cano Air Base, Hondura, the task force supports training engagements, counterdrug missions and humanitarian and disaster relief efforts in Central America.

Southern Command continues support for Guatemala’s counter trafficking efforts, human rights efforts and future U.S. military engagement activities. Guatemalan police unit and an interagency task force – both focused on countering illicit traffickers in the nation in cooperation with the U.S. military.

Additionally, in El Salvador we have partnerships that provides key support to regional counter illicit trafficking efforts. The U.S. military has a Cooperative Security Location hosted at Comalapa International Airport where U.S. aircraft fly missions to detect, monitor and track aircraft or vessels engaged in illicit drug trafficking in the region.

File photo of the Curacao/Aruba Cooperative Security Location. (U.S. Air Force photo)

The CSLs are not bases.  They are tenant activities on existing airfields whose purpose is to support CTOC missions (see more on SOUTHCOM’s role in Countering Transnational Criminal Organizations).

U.S. Southern Command oversees the operations from the CSLs.  The Key West, Fla.-based Joint Interagency Task Force South coordinates U.S. aircraft usage and operations.

From these locations, U.S. detection and monitoring aircraft fly missions to detect, monitor and track aircraft or vessels engaged in illicit drug trafficking. The unarmed aircraft offer unique surveillance capabilities that support and compliment the counter-drug efforts of partner nation law enforcement agencies. (Note: Host nation officials are responsible for decisions to interdict suspected traffickers within their borders/airspace, and U.S. law enforcement agencies lead interdiction efforts in international waters.)

U.S. military, Drug Enforcement Agency, U.S. Coast Guard and U.S Customs personnel operate from the CSLs to support the U.S. aircraft and to coordinate communications and information.   More here.

The House Armed Services Committee is chaired by Democrat Adam Smith. Back in May of 2019, Chairman Smith admitted several crisis conditions in Central America, the Southern border and Latin America. This included the flow of migrants and the flaws of the asylum laws. However, Congressman Adam Smith still blames the Trump White House for the cause of the crisis.

There continues to be particular focus and resource attention on Venezuela which does affect other neighboring countries. Southern Command leader Adm. Faller declares that Iran, China and Russia exacerbate the problems not only in Venezuela but also in Central America. This rogue foreign actor declaration was also validated by other national security experts in the hearing, noting Kathryn Wheelbarger, acting assistant defense secretary for international security affairs and Kenneth Rapuano, assistant secretary for homeland defense and global security.