Category: MIL-OSI

Source: United States Department of Justice

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan this week granted Enbridge Energy Limited Partnership (Enbridge)’s motion for summary judgment and stopped the State of Michigan from shutting down a critical international pipeline called Line 5. In September, the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) and Civil Division filed a statement of interest in the case.

“This ruling by the court reaffirms the federal government’s unique responsibilities in regulating interstate pipelines and enforcing international treaties,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). “If a state exceeds its authority to disrupt the flow of energy, we will step in to re-assert the federal government’s prerogative. President Trump has set America on a strong, winning path toward securing energy dominance. This ruling undergirds that effort.”

In 2020, Michigan tried to shut down the pipeline by moving to stop Enbridge from using an easement, which had allowed the pipeline to run underneath the Straits of Mackinac between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron for decades. The court held that federal law preempts Michigan’s efforts to shut down the pipeline, for two reasons.

First, the Pipeline Safety Act provides exclusive authority to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to set nationwide safety standards for interstate pipelines and related infrastructure. The Act prevents a state from imposing its own safety standards on an interstate (and an international) pipeline. The court concluded that Michigan “unlawfully” attempted to “regulate the safety of Line 5 by attempting to shut it down” and by “‘continuing in force’ numerous state safety standards found” in the easement.

Second, the pipeline is subject to a treaty between the United States and Canada, and the United States has an express policy preference in favor of the uninterrupted flow of oil through international pipelines. And, as the court recognized, a “compelled shutdown of an international pipeline blatantly defies” that federal foreign policy. 

Chief of Staff and Senior General Counsel John Adams of ENRD filed the statement of interest.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Baltimore, Maryland – Three men received life sentences, today, for federal conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise involving murders, attempted murders, and drug trafficking, as well as murder in aid of racketeering charges. Wilson Arturo “Humilde” “Marco Saravia” Constanza-Galdomez, 26, of El Salvador; Edis Omar “Little Felon” Valenzuela-Rodriguez, 24, of Honduras; and Jonathan “Truney” Pesquera-Puerto, 24, all received the mandatory sentence.  

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Today, the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in the case of Davis et al. v. Hanna Holdings Inc. The lawsuit, brought by homebuyers, alleges that real-estate brokerages and their trade association, the National Association of Realtors, entered into anticompetitive agreements that inflated broker commissions and raised home prices for Americans. The statement of interest explains that competition among real-estate brokerages is critical for protecting American homebuyers and that trade association rules are subject to antitrust scrutiny in a number of ways.

“Purchasing a home is the single biggest purchase most Americans make in a lifetime,” said Assistant Attorney General Abigail Slater of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “Today’s soaring housing prices make competition in real estate brokerage more important than ever. Antitrust laws are key to safeguarding competition, which reduces prices and improves services for homebuyers.”

Americans spend about a third of their budgets on housing and housing-related costs. Yet real-estate broker commissions in the United States have remained at 5% to 6% for decades — two to three times more than that in other developed economies. Trade association rules that artificially inflate broker commissions and increase the burden on American consumers must be closely scrutinized by antitrust laws.

U.S. courts have long recognized that trade associations violate the antitrust laws when they unreasonably restrict competition among their members. While taking no position on the ultimate disposition of the case, the statement of interest explains that competition among real-estate brokerages is critical for protecting American homebuyers and that the antitrust laws provide a remedy when real-estate brokers agree to stop competing with one another — whatever form that agreement takes. When plaintiffs challenge trade association rules that embody an agreement among competitors, the rules are subject to a challenge under Section 1 of the Sherman Act. In addition, the statement of interest explains that association rules are not automatically exempt from the per se rule prohibiting horizontal price fixing.

The Antitrust Division routinely files statements of interest and amicus briefs in federal court where doing so helps protect competition and consumers, including by encouraging the sound development of the antitrust laws.

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

Today a federal jury in Brooklyn returned guilty verdicts against national MS-13 leaders Edenilson Velasquez Larin, also known as “Agresor,” Saturno,” “Tiny,” and “Paco,”; Hugo Diaz Amaya, also known as “21”; Fulton Locos Salvatruchas (Fulton) clique leader Jose Espinoza Sanchez, also known as “Cable,” “Bleca,” and “Fantasma”; and Fulton member Jose Arevalao Iraheta, also known as “Splinter,” “Inesperado,” and “Daniel.”  The four defendants were convicted on 24 counts of a third superseding indictment. 

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

A San Antonio-based member of the Nihilistic Violent Extremist (NVE) group 764 pleaded guilty today to racketeering activity and multiple acts relating to the sexual exploitation of children.

“The FBI will not rest when it comes to identifying and holding accountable those who prey on children and other vulnerable individuals,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “The court documents show the defendant coerced minors to commit heinous and cruel acts of self-harm. Today’s guilty plea is a major step in seeing justice served in this case and demonstrates the FBI’s commitment to protecting the nation’s youth.”

“Chavez led a group of online predators whose ultimate purpose is to destroy our society.  They tried to achieve that heinous goal by desensitizing innocent children to violence—coercing them to perform gruesome and harmful acts against themselves and animals—with the hope of encouraging further violence and spreading chaos,” said Sue J. Bai, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for National Security. “The National Security Division will continue to relentlessly investigate and prosecute predators who seek to terrorize our society by targeting our most vulnerable.”

“764 members, like the defendant, use the Internet to prey on vulnerable minors, coercing them to mutilate themselves, produce child exploitation images of themselves, and attempt suicide,” said U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons for the Western District of Texas. “My office will do everything legally possible to prosecute and imprison members of this group for as long as the law allows.”

According to court documents, Alexis Aldair Chavez, also known as Zack and Zack8884, 19, was an administrator and online leader of the ‘8884’ network, which is a network related to 764. Both 8884 and 764 are NVEs who engage in criminal conduct within the United States and engage with other extremists abroad. These NVEs share accelerationist goals that include social unrest and the downfall of the current world order, including the U.S. Government. Members of 8884 work in concert with one another towards a common purpose of destroying civilized society through the corruption and exploitation of vulnerable populations, including minors. NVEs engage in criminal conduct within the United States and abroad, in furtherance of political, social, or religious goals that derive primarily from a hatred of society at large and a desire to bring about its collapse by sowing indiscriminate chaos, destruction, and social instability. NVEs demand, coerce, and extort victims to engage in variety of violent conduct, including self-mutilation, online and in-person sexual acts, harm to animals, sexual exploitation of siblings and others, acts of violence, threats of violence, suicide, and murder.

In or about October 2023, Chavez and a co-conspirator attempted to have a minor female kill herself in a video chat by overdosing on pills. The two conspirators recorded the attempted suicide to obtain “content” that would allow them to maintain and increase their status in the 8884 enterprise. Approximately two months later, Chavez and the minor female victim worked together to coerce a female located overseas to get naked on camera, cut herself, and engage in sexual acts. They also extorted another female by forcing the victim to cut the name “Zack” into herself.

On or about Dec. 29, 2023, Chavez and a co-conspirator coerced another minor female to cut her tongue as well as torture and kill a cat on a live video call. That same month, Chavez and another co-conspirator worked together to groom and extort several other minor females. In one instance, the two conspirators coerced a female victim to light her arm on fire and have the fire burn through her skin and deeper into her body, while on a recorded video chat within the ‘8884’ channel. They groomed another minor female victim, forcing her to drink her own urine and attempt to overdose on unknown pills.

On or about Jan. 23, 2024, Chavez and a co-conspirator threatened and coerced a minor female victim to engage in sexually obscene activities and other egregious acts.

Chavez pleaded guilty to one count of racketeering, one count of distribution of child pornography, and one count of possession of child pornography. He faces up to 20 years in prison for each count, with a minimum of five years in prison for the distribution charge. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The FBI San Antonio Field Office is investigating the case with assistance from FBI Washington Field Office, Homeland Security Investigations, and the San Antonio Police Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark Roomberg and Bill Harris for the Western District of Texas, and Trial Attorneys Justin Sher and James Donnelly of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section are prosecuting the case.

The Justice Department remains vigilant against the threat of Nihilistic Violent Extremist (NVE) networks, like 764, that operate within the United States and around the globe. NVEs often target vulnerable individuals, including minors, using social media platforms to share CSAM and gore material, and groom victims toward committing acts of violence. Victims are often extorted, coerced, compelled, and blackmailed into complying with NVE demands, including self-mutilation, online and in-person sexual acts, harm to animals, sexual exploitation of siblings and others, acts of violence, threats of violence, suicide, and murder. For more information on how to protect children and others, read about the online risks here: Parents, Caregivers, Teachers — FBI and the FBI’s March 2025 public service announcement.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.