Category: Security

Source: US FBI

A five-count superseding indictment has been unsealed today charging a Venezuelan national and alleged high-ranking member of the designated foreign terrorist organization Tren de Aragua (TdA).  

Jose Enrique Martinez Flores also known as “Chuqui,” 24, is charged in the Southern District of Texas (SDTX) with conspiring to provide and providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization as well as conspiracy and distribution of cocaine in Colombia intended for distribution in the United States.

“TdA is not a street gang – it is a highly structured terrorist organization that put down roots in our country during the prior administration,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Today’s charges represent an inflection point in how this Department of Justice will prosecute and ultimately dismantle this evil organization, which has destroyed American families and poisoned our communities.”

“For the past few years, foreign gangs like TdA have more or less been able to enter our country with impunity, coming here to distribute deadly drugs and terrorize American citizens,” said U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei for the SDTX. “That ends now. This Department of Justice is committed to uprooting this terrorist gang, dismantling its criminal operations, and either imprisoning its members or removing them from the country. SDTX is proud to lead this fight.”

“TdA is a direct threat to our national security, to our communities, and to Americans,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “Together with our law enforcement partners, the FBI continues in our pursuit to eliminate this violent terrorist organization from our streets, and today’s announcement makes it clear that these criminals, especially the leaders of these cartels, have no place in our country.”

“This joint Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)-FBI operation — alongside partners in the United States and Colombia — is further evidence that we must continue to focus our efforts on members of TdA who continue to pump poison into our communities,” said DEA Acting Administrator Derek Maltz. “This is another example of DEA’s tenacity to hunt these networks down, wherever they operate, and crush their evil grip on American lives.”

Colombian authorities arrested Flores in Colombia March 31 pursuant to a provisional arrest warrant the United States had requested. He remains in custody in Colombia pending further proceedings. 

A federal grand jury in Houston returned the superseding indictment April 8. 

According to the allegations, Flores is charged with one count of conspiring to provide material support to TdA in the form of personnel (including himself) and services and one count of providing material support to TdA. The indictment also alleges one count of international drug distribution conspiracy based on his involvement in the distribution of five kilograms of cocaine or more, and two substantive counts of international drug distribution.

The Department of State designated TdA as a foreign terrorist organization and Specially Designated Global Terrorist Feb. 20. 

According to information presented to the court, Flores is a high-ranking TdA leader in Bogota, Colombia, and is part of the inner circle of senior TdA leadership.

Flores also allegedly caused the delivery of approximately five kilograms or more of cocaine for international distribution, proceeds that were used to further TdA’s criminal goals. 

If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $10 million fine. 

The FBI Houston Field Office and DEA conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Houston Police Department, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, Colombian National Police and the Colombian Attorney General’s Office (Fiscalía General de la Nación). The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs and the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section’s Office of Judicial Attaché in Bogotá, Colombia, provided significant assistance. 

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Casey N. MacDonald and Anibal J. Alaniz of the SDTX are prosecuting the case along with Deputy Director David C. Smith from the Department of Justice’s Joint Task Force Vulcan (JTFV). 

JTFV was created in 2019 to eradicate MS-13 and now expanded to target TdA and is comprised of U.S. Attorney’s Offices across the country. Those include SDTX; Southern and Eastern Districts of New York; Northern District of Ohio; Districts of New Jersey, Utah, Massachusetts, Nevada and Alaska; Eastern District of Texas; Southern District of Florida; Eastern District of Virginia; Southern District of California; and the District of Columbia, as well as the Department of Justice’s National Security Division and the Criminal Division. Additionally, the FBI; DEA; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Forearms and Explosives; U.S. Marshals Service; and the Federal Bureau of Prisons have been essential law enforcement partners with JTFV.

This case is also a 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. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and Project Safe Neighborhood.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

 

Source: US FBI

Dale Britt Bendler, 68, of Miami, Florida, pleaded guilty today to, while being a public official at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), acting as a foreign agent required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and removing classified material, classified up to the SECRET//NOFORN level, from authorized locations without authority and with the intent to retain such material at an unauthorized location.

As described in the plea agreement, starting in 2014, Bendler began working as a full-time contractor at the CIA with a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) security clearance. Before he was a CIA contractor, Bendler spent over 30 years working for the CIA as an intelligence officer and retired as a member of the Senior Intelligence Service in 2014. Beginning in July 2017 and continuing through at least July 2020, while a full-time CIA contractor and TS/SCI clearance holder, Bendler worked with a U.S. lobbying firm and engaged in unauthorized and hidden lobbying and public relations activities on behalf of foreign national clients. As described in the plea agreement, Bendler’s undisclosed lobbying activities included an attempt to use his position and access at the CIA to influence a foreign government’s embezzlement investigation of one of Bendler’s foreign national clients and a separate attempt to use his position and access at the CIA to influence the U.S. government’s decision as to whether to grant a U.S. visa to another of Bendler’s clients, who was alleged to be associated with terrorism financing. In exchange for his unauthorized outside activities, Bendler was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars.

During the course of Bendler’s unauthorized lobbying and public relations activities, Bendler also abused his access to CIA resources and personnel by, among other things, searching classified CIA systems for any information related to his private lobbying clients, improperly storing and disclosing non-public, sensitive, and classified U.S. government information to people not authorized to receive such information, and lying to the CIA and the FBI about his status as a foreign agent and his unauthorized lobbying and public relations activities. The CIA terminated Bendler’s contract and access in September 2020.

In addition to pleading guilty, Bendler consented to the forfeiture of $85,000. Bendler faces a maximum penalty of seven years in prison – two years for acting as a foreign agent while being a public official and five years for mishandling classified material. Bendler is scheduled to be sentenced on July 16.

Sue Bai, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, U.S. Attorney Erik S. Siebert for the Eastern District of Virginia, Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division and Assistant Director in Charge Steven J. Jensen of the FBI Washington Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI’s Washington Field Office investigated the case.

Trial Attorney Adam P. Barry and Senior Trial Attorney Heather M. Schmidt of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon D. Kromberg of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case. Chief Jennifer Kennedy Gellie of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section provided substantial assistance in this investigation in her prior role as a trial attorney. 

Source: US FBI

Some families have done their own investigations to flush out clues after feeling rebuffed in their initial encounters with police. A few at the Salt River event gave leads to investigators, hoping they might help them assemble the puzzle.

“This is an opportunity to make it right and to do better,” said Savalas, who was a local victim advocate in the Pima County Attorney’s Office in Tucson, Arizona, before joining the FBI.

Communities tend to be close-knit, said Alane Breland, chief prosecutor of the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community. But open-house attendees seemed eager to meet with representatives of agencies that might be able to help. She worked closely with Savalas to organize the event, and she reiterated the importance of the FBI and other agencies meeting with tribal members where they are.

“If you want people to feel comfortable sharing deeply personal information, the least you can do is come to them,” Breland said. “And this shows the FBI is willing to do that. NamUs is willing to do that. The U.S. Attorney’s Office. I think that says a lot. It really builds a bridge.”

“They feel like their cases are important—that someone will come to them and provide that service,” she continued. “So, I think that sends a positive message.”

Regina Thompson, assistant director of the FBI Victim Services Division, said understanding the needs of the various communities it serves is essential to the mission. 

“This includes our Indigenous communities, which is especially important as they currently face high rates of human trafficking, murder, and violence,” Thompson said. “We commit ourselves every day to understanding, protecting, and servicing this community.” 

Future events in Arizona will be on the Gila River Indian Community, the Navajo Nation, the Tohono O’odham Nation, and Pascua Yaqui’s native lands.

Monica Martinez arrived at the March 1 event with her younger siblings. She’s the oldest of four kids—and a single mother of five. She talked about how she and Hector had to step up after their parents died. She said Hector had his troubles, but he was always the first to lend a hand or stand up to bullies if anyone needed it.

“He took care of my mom. He took care of my kids. He always made sure that everything was done,” Martinez said. “He made mistakes, like we all do. But when he could, he was always there for everybody.”

Martinez said her heart jumped when Savalas called from the FBI. She thought there was news of her brother. But the invitation to talk to investigators about his case was the next best thing, she said. She marked it on her calendar weeks in advance and told her siblings to do the same.

“When I heard about the FBI and the community, it felt somebody really cared who was going to really be helpful,” she said. “Today made me feel like something was going to happen, that maybe I’ll get some results. Maybe I’ll get some closure to find out if my brother’s still alive. Today made me feel like there was some resolve. Like something was actually going to get done.”

Source: US FBI

On October 12, 2017, Ignatova was charged in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and a federal warrant was issued for her arrest. Investigators believe Ignatova may have been tipped off that she was under investigation by U.S. and international authorities. She traveled from Sofia, Bulgaria, to Athens, Greece, on October 25, 2017, and has not been seen since.

On February 6, 2018, a superseding indictment was issued charging Ignatova with one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and securities fraud.

Shimko hopes that the publicity of the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list will bring more awareness to the case. “There are so many victims all over the world who were financially devastated by this,” Shimko said. “We want to bring her to justice.”

Source: US FBI

As part of our ongoing efforts to address violent crime nationally, the FBI and our partners conducted several law enforcement actions around the country recently, taking suspected violent criminals off the streets.

Twenty two subjects, including many Lindo Park Crips gang members, were charged in a 70-count indictment for their alleged involvement in the sale of numerous Glock conversion devices, 17 firearms, transferring or possessing a machine gun, as well as trafficking narcotics, such as fentanyl, cocaine, and MDMA. The extensive investigation also included the execution of several search warrants leading to the seizure of another 62 firearms, ammunition, and additional narcotics. The FBI’s Violent Street Gang Task Force and the Arizona Department of Public Safety conducted investigations, along with FBI SWAT teams from Phoenix, Los Angeles, Albuquerque, Las Vegas, and the Phoenix Police Department who assisted during the operations. Other partner agencies included the ATF, DEA, HSI, and the USMS.

​Three Sonoma County Hells Angels were convicted in the Northern California of racketeering conspiracy and related crimes, including murder, assault, robbery, extortion, drug trafficking, witness intimidation, and illegal firearms possession. The Hells Angels are a transnational violent outlaw motorcycle gang with numerous chapters across the country who work cooperatively with other Hells Angels chapters to engage in extensive criminal activity.

​Sixteen subjects in Kansas and Missouri were indicted on federal conspiracy to distribute cocaine, meth, and fentanyl. The subjects allegedly conspired to distribute at least five kilograms of cocaine, and one subject was also charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, a Springfield .40-caliber handgun.

Five members of the Gangster Disciples were indicted in Georgia for allegedly murdering three people. Additionally, an operation in the South Lake Tahoe area recovered “ghost” pistols and assault rifles (firearms that are hard for law enforcement to track due to lack of serial numbers) and a multi-agency investigation in Waco, Texas, disrupted a meth distribution ring.

Learn more about the FBI’s work in investigating violent crime at fbi.gov/violentcrime. Report tips to tips.fbi.gov; you can remain anonymous.

Source: US FBI

Source: US FBI

Source: US FBI

Source: US FBI

Source: US FBI

Whether it be an email, financial transaction, or key witness, when you finally find that key piece of evidence, it is truly an “a-ha” moment. Late one night I was sitting at my desk, pouring through documents, and I discovered a pattern of ATM withdrawals and cash deposits that revealed a long-term member of Congress had been stealing from a charity she publicly endorsed. She was later convicted, and the success of this investigation is one of my proudest career moments.

Share the thing you’re most proud of from your FBI career.

I am thrilled that my career has now sparked desire in my two daughters to become FBI special agents, a path that never crossed my mind when I was their age. They have witnessed my hard work and dedication and have seen my love for the job. They have even come to watch me at trial.

My mom jokes that I use my “FBI voice” from time-to-time—confident and inquisitive, but courteous. As young women, I also want my girls to have an “FBI voice” and be strong and speak with purpose.