istock photo

The FBI is investigating hackers affiliated with the group Anonymous that obtained the personal information of some West Virginia police officers and posted the information online, in what the hackers called a warning against police brutality, reports ABC.

The group of hackers, referred to as the CabinCr3w by the West Virginia Chiefs of Police Association’s President William Roper, obtained the personal information of more than 150 police officers, according to ABC. The police association has a new website, but the hackers were able to access databases kept on an old association site which still had the information stored.

In an online message, the CabinCr3w wrote:

“We are here to remind you that we the taxpayers pay your exorbitant salaries, and those salaries of your officers. Your job is to protect and serve, not brutalize the very people that pay your wages. Muzzle your dogs of war, or we will expose more of your sensative (sic) information.”

To read more click here.

Secret Service agent Daniel Valencia’s drunken driving ordeal in Iowa has come to an end.

The WCF Courier reports that Vaencia, who had gone to Decorah, Iowa ahead of President Obama’s visit last year, was sentenced Friday to two days in jail, but credited with time served. He was off-duty when arrested.

Valencia, 40, of D.C., was sentenced Friday in Winneshiek County District Court  in Iowa.

The paper reported that he had entered an Alford plea, which means he did not admit guilt but admitted there was sufficient evidence for a conviction.

He was arrested Aug. 13 at about 1:30 a.m. after he ran a red light.

He must also pay a $1,250 fine and surcharge of $437, the paper reported. But the court will waive those costs if he produces a temporary restricted driver’s license to the court within 30 days, the paper reported.

The Muslim civil rights group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR),  is none too happy with the Portland FBI.

The Associated Press reports that the group wants the Justice Department to investigate the behavior of the Portland FBI, which has barred two Libyan-Americans from returning to the U.S.

AP reports that the two men — Jamal Tarhuni, 55, of Tigard, Or., and Mustafa Elogbi, 60, of Portland — both traveled at different times to Libya after Moammar Gadhafi was removed from power.

AP reported that Tarhuni delivered humanitarian supplies with the group Medical Teams International and Elogbi visited family.

To read more click here.

John Hinckley Jr. -abc news photo

The man who tried to assassinate president Ronald Reagan “would not pose a significant risk” if given more freedom from the mental hospital he resides at, a forensic psychologist testified Tuesday in federal court in D.C.

The psychologist, Paul Montalbano. testified during the 11th day of proceedings which sought to determine how much time John Hinckley Jr.–the would-be assassin–can spend visiting his mother in Virginia and whether he might eventually be released as an outpatient permanently, CNN reports.

After the 1981 shootings of President Ronald Reagan, press secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Timothy McCarthy and D.C. cop Thomas Delahanty, Hinckley was found guilty by reason of insanity.

To read more click here.

By Will Grant 

Twenty seven years ago, the kidnap, torture and murder of a US Drug Enforcement Administration agent by Mexican drug traffickers sparked one of the biggest manhunts the US government has ever launched in North America. It also offered an ominous warning of things to come.

The picturesque Mexican city of Guadalajara is bustling with life. By day, its busy plazas are filled with street vendors and shoeshine boys. At night, the mariachis line up to play for the tourists.

The country’s drug violence feels very far from here and, most of the time, it is. But that was not always the case.

“In 1985, Guadalajara was the base of operations for most of the major narcotics traffickers in North America,” says James Kuykendall, then-head of the Guadalajara office of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

To read more click here.

OTHER STORIES OF INTEREST:

• FBI, Texas Rangers Question County DA Staff (West University Examiner)
• FBI, State Get Audit of Police Unit (Commercial Appeal)
• Should Recent Grads Consider a Career in Public Service (Washington Post)
• Phone Scammers Claim to be DEA Agents (Houston Chronicle)
• FBI Investigating Two NOPD Officers (FOX)
• Victim: FBI Saw Bank Robbers Steal My Truck (WoodTV)
• FBI Steps Up Murdoch Inquiry (the Telegraph)
• DEA: Oxycodone Orders by Pharmacies 20 Times Average (USA Today)

By Danny Fenster

A US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agent has pleaded guilty to leaking information to relatives involved in drug trafficking, authorities said.

Jovana Deas, 33, of Rio Rico, Ariz., pleaded guilty to all 21 counts against her, the FBI said in a statement on Monday. Deas was an agent with the HSI Nogales office.

Deas admitted to using her credentials to illegally obtain and disseminate government documents classified as Official Use Only, said the FBI. Some of the documents were later found on the laptop of her former brother-in-law–who is associated with drug trafficking groups in Mexico–by Brazilian law enforcement. Deas further admitted to illegally accessing, stealing, and transferring sensitive U.S. government documents, and to obstructing HSI investigations. She pled guilty to seven felony violations–punishable by up to five years each–and 14 misdemeanors, punishable by up to one year each.

Deas’s sister, Dana Maria Samaniego Montes, was also charged with violations of federal law. Montes is a former Mexican law enforcement official with alleged ties to drug trafficking organizations, but is a fugitive believed to be at large in Mexico.

Deas’s sentencing is set for April 11.

A Chicago cab driver pled guilty on Monday to giving money to a long-time acquaintance after learning that acquaintance was working for al Qaeda, the FBI said in a statement.

Raja Lahrasib Khan, Pakistani-born but naturalized as a US citizen in 1988, was arrested in March of 2010. On Monday he pled guilty to one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.  He remains in federal custody until sentencing, which has been set for May 30, 2011.

Khan, 58, of Chicago’s north side, never posed any imminent domestic danger, law enforcement officials said at the time of his arrest. He remains in federal custody while awaiting sentencing, which U.S. District Judge James Zagel scheduled for 2 p.m. on May 30. The plea deal calls for a sentence of between five and eight years, along with Khan’s future cooperation with the FBI.

Khan admitted to meeting with Ilyas Kashmiri, a leader of the Kashmir independence movement, twice within the last decade. On the second meeting, in 2008, Khan, having reason to believe Kashmiri was working with al Qaeda, gave Kashmiri between $200 and $250 worth of Pakistani rupees in his fight against India.

Khan then sent about $930 worth of rupees from Chicago to a person in Pakistan on on Nov. 23, 2009, via Western Union, according to the FBI. He told the recipient to give Kashmiri about $300 of it. “Although Khan intended the funds to be used by Kashmiri to support attacks against India, he was also aware that Kashmiri was working with al Qaeda,” the FBI said in a statement.

Undercover agents contacted Khan seeking to send money to Kashmiri, “but only if Kashmiri was working with al Qaeda.” Khan agreed to send the $1,000 agents offered to Kashmiri, giving it to his son who was traveling to the UK, where he would later retrieve it. His son was searched and arrested at a UK airport upon arrival, where seven of the ten bills were found on him. Khan, hearing about his son, tried to plea with one of the undercover agents to let him out of the scheme, offering $800 back.

By Danny Fenster

Some DEA agents in the Caribbean are not too happy with the way things are.

Ten Puerto Rican agents filed suit against the agency claiming they receive less pay and riskier assignments than agents sent to the island from the US, the Huffington Post reports.

Attorney Bamily Lopez Ortiz said on Monday that the agents were reluctant to file charges but felt deprived of bonuses and incentives given to agents hired on the mainland. The ten agents were all hired in Puerto Rico.

Because Puerto Rico is considered a high-intensity drug trafficking area, agents hired in the US to work in Puerto Rico are eligible for bonuses equal to a quarter of their base pay, meaning some Puerto Rican agents may be owed more than $100,000 in lost pay and damages, Lopez said.

To rea more click here.

A Brooklyn cop caught up in an FBI sting pleaded guilty Monday in a smuggling case involving guns, cigarettes and slot machines, the Associated Press reported.

Officer William Masso was among five NYPD cops charged in the smuggling case. Others included three retired NYPD officers and a New Jersey correction officer, AP reported.

AP reported that authorities used an undercover agent who dished out more than $100,000 for the cops to moonlight as gun runners while under FBI surveillance.