Category: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News

“The communities in Puerto Rico are faced with many challenges due to economic hardships, which create an opportunity for criminal enterprises to flourish. As a direct result of gang violence, these communities live in turmoil and have limited access to services that could improve their quality of life,” said Guillermo Gonzalez, assistant special agent in charge of FBI San Juan’s Criminal Branch. “This is why violent gang investigations and arrest operations such as this have a tremendous positive impact in these neighborhoods. We can directly see an improvement as the violence decreases. The FBI is directly enabling these citizens to contribute to future generations’ development and secure Puerto Rico’s future.”

With the investigation starting during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, investigators were met with many obstacles—but kept those difficulties from affecting the quality of their work.

Agents had to follow leads, find reliable sources, build strong relationships with fellow law enforcement officers, and gather evidence during a time where life was put on hold. Special Agent Robert Maj of FBI San Juan is proud of their team and the number of challenges they overcame and adapted to.

“The pandemic strained already limited police resources in Puerto Rico. Violence and drug trafficking in the area only temporarily declined, then rapidly soared,” said Maj. “Our team put in the work and continued to make arrests and seizures, conduct interviews, and recruit informants and cooperating witnesses.”

FBI San Juan entered this operation with hopes of restoring peace in communities throughout Puerto Rico—and their investigative work was able to do just that. Law enforcement interrupted the work of Los 1,500 and effectively took down gang members, from runners and lookouts to those leading the conspiracy.

And the investigative work of FBI San Juan and its partners not only uncovered a lucrative drug conspiracy spanning across the island of Puerto Rico but an equally destructive relationship with firearms, too. Of the 40 indicted gang members, 29 also face at least one charge of possession of firearms. Six defendants also face charges related to three different murders.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News

She’s even getting to draw upon her own experience as a Teen Academy graduate to optimize future iterations of the program at FBI Portland. This year, for instance, she put a heavy emphasis on “hands-on crime-scene investigation” and interactive activities. “It’s very full circle and it’s very fun to be able to give back to the program that helped change my life and get me into where I am,” she said. 

But her job description isn’t limited to working with youth—she also reaches out to diverse communities to build new or reinforce existing relationships between them and the Bureau. 

So, what should a current or former Teen Academy participant do if they also dream of joining the Bureau? 

First, Bella said, maintain the connections you cultivate during the academy. Those contacts can help vouch for your character and track record of interest in the FBI when you eventually apply for a job at the Bureau, she said. Next, she advised, seize every leadership opportunity you can. 

And if someone aspires to become a community outreach specialist in particular, Bella suggests building a diverse network of community connections. This, she says, can serve as your proverbial portfolio when applying for the position.  

Empathy, openness, and good communication skills are mandatory skill sets for the job, she added. 
 
It’s crucial, she said, to hear out peoples’ stories—even if you don’t share common ground—and assure them that the Bureau is in their corner. “There are people who come from all different places in the world, and so you have to be able to listen to them,” she said. 

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News

In May 2023, Donald Eugene Fields II became the 531st addition to the list. Fields is wanted for the alleged sex trafficking of at least one child in Missouri between approximately 2013 and 2017. 

“There is no question that the growing threat of violent crime concerns both law enforcement and communities all over the country,” said Quesada. “The reward offers of up to $250,000 is a significant increase, representing the FBI’s commitment to getting these disruptive criminals off the street.” 

In addition to traditional media outlets—such as newspapers, magazines, television, and radio—the FBI uses digital and electronic technology to share information on the current Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. Their faces are on digital billboards across the United States, as well as on the FBI’s website and social media accounts. Smartphone users can download a free app, FBI Wanted, to have the latest information at their fingertips.   

If you have information to share about a Ten Most Wanted Fugitive, call 1-800-CALL-FBI, submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov, or contact your local FBI office. If you are outside of the United States, you can contact the nearest American Embassy or Consulate.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News

Director Wray also addressed criticism of FBI leadership. “Today’s FBI leaders reflect the best of this organization,” Director Wray said. “An organization that’s made up of 38,000 men and women who are patriots, professionals, and dedicated public servants.”  

Speaking about the FBI’s leadership team, Director Wray noted that the top eight leaders in the Bureau—none of whom is a political appointee—have worked in 21 different field offices and have a combined 130 years of field experience. Prior to joining the FBI, they have served in the Air Force, the Army, the Marines, as well as in state and local law enforcement. 

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News

Fiona Tuttle, a CAFI who works out of the Sacramento Field Office, works frequently with Preston. The FBI’s CAFIs provide regional coverage. So, when she’s needed, Tuttle flies to Phoenix. She then meets Preston in Flagstaff or drives out to the victim’s tribal community. She said Preston’s rapport with victims and families sets a firm foundation for her interviews.

“She has the face and the language of the people she serves,” Tuttle said. “She really is kind of that bridge connecting me to the parents to trust me to tell their story. If we can build the trust with the parent or the caregiver, that goes such a long way for a child who has to disclose a very terrifying, heinous event, and know that their family, through Blanda, trusts me.”

Albert Nez, a criminal investigator for the Navajo Nation, said the trust has been built over many years and at many crime scenes. “She always answers her phone,” Nez said—a remark that carries a lot of weight from someone with more work than there are hours in the day.

Regina Thompson, assistant director of the Bureau’s Victim Services Division, said the mission’s success relies on relationships like these.

“At the heart of our victim services mission is understanding people and the context in which they live, which is why we have victim specialists stationed across the country, living and working in the communities they serve,” Thompson said.

Preston’s phone rang while she was in Tuba City. It was her father, speaking in Navajo, calling to say a friend noticed his daughter was in town. It was a revealing moment of small-town word-of-mouth. And it crystallized how valuable it is for the FBI to reflect the communities it serves.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News

Among the biggest threats Director Wray emphasized at the event is the counterintelligence threat from the Chinese Communist Party. “I’ve been very vocal since early in my tenure that there is no country—underline no country—that represents a broader, more severe counterintelligence threat to the United States than the People’s Republic of China,” Director Wray said.

Key to the FBI’s ability to continue to keep Americans safe from these threats, including terrorism, espionage, and cyber attacks, Director Wray said, is renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

“702 authority is vital, absolutely vital—not important, not nice-to-have—vital,” Director Wray said, explaining that Section 702 is authority that allows the Intelligence Community to conduct targeted surveillance of non-U.S. persons located abroad in national security investigations.

The government uses the information collected under Section 702 to protect the United States and its allies from hostile foreign adversaries, including terrorists, spies, and malicious foreign nation-state cyber actors.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation FBI Crime News

Whenever someone carries out a cryptocurrency transaction, proof of that transaction is encoded into the currency itself. This digital ledger, known as the blockchain, lets crypto users verify the legitimacy—or lack thereof—of transactions by viewing a record of the cryptocurrency wallets that virtual tokens originated from and moved to. However, the blockchain doesn’t name the owners of the cryptocurrency wallets involved in transactions.

Cryptocurrency mixers like Tornado Cash further enhance the level of anonymity by muddying these transaction histories.

To better understand the way a cryptocurrency mixer works, imagine a bank that’s open 24/7. When you use the bank, instead of getting an account of your own, you’re able to make a deposit into one massive, shared account.  

Because your money isn’t kept separately from everyone else’s, when you deposit funds, you receive a code that can be used to get it back out later. You can keep that code to yourself or share it with someone you know so that they can pick up the money instead. The choice is yours, but, in either case, the transaction can be carried out anonymously.   

The bank tracks how much money enters and leaves the shared account to ensure that no one’s funds get stolen—because the bank would be liable. But it doesn’t track who put in or removed money from the shared account, when they did so, or why.  

This is a dramatized example of how a law-abiding citizen could theoretically use a cryptocurrency mixer—which acts as a shared storage unit for virtual currency—to move their tokens in an anonymous, decentralized way.   

“It kind of breaks that chain in the transaction history, which is really how you trace cryptocurrency within the blockchain as you see how it moves from wallet to wallet to wallet,” explained Assistant Special Agent in Charge Paul Roberts, who leads the FBI New York Field Office’s Complex Financial Crimes Branch.

Know Your Customer (KYC) and Bank Secrecy Act (or BSA) rules enforced by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network require that cryptocurrency mixers know who exactly is using their services and how, Roberts noted. He likened these rules to the identification requirements and mandatory forms associated with opening a new bank account.

However, Tornado Cash ignored these rules, and the company’s posture allowed criminal actors and organizations like the Lazarus Group to launder money through the service.

“Tornado Cash should have been registered as a money services business and should have been requiring people who are using their service to register those forms,” Roberts said. A criminal syndicate wouldn’t likely admit to opening an account with nefarious intentions, but required paperwork could have at least raised a red flag about the account holder’s identity, Roberts added. And, in theory, Storm and Semenov could have stopped the money laundering before it started.

To further complicate matters, even though the Lazarus Group wasn’t required to complete paperwork to use Tornado Cash, Storm and Semenov still knew they were using their service—and allowed them to do so.

“[Storm and Semenov] implemented a change in the service so that they could make a public announcement that they were compliant with sanctions, but in their private chats, they agreed that this change would be ineffective,” the Justice Department wrote. “They then continued to operate the Tornado Cash service and facilitate hundreds of millions of dollars in further sanctions-violating transactions, helping the Lazarus Group to transfer criminal proceeds from a cryptocurrency wallet that had been designated by the Office of Foreign Assets Control as blocked property.”

These actions collectively led to their indictment on charges related to money laundering, defying sanctions, and operating an unlicensed company.