By Steve Neavling

The DEA is searching for hundreds of new agents as synthetic drugs such as fentanyl are killing Americans at an alarming rate.  

“We need to hire the next generation of the best and brightest to help us combat this drug threat that’s going to be ever-changing,” Rob Murphy, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Atlanta office, said, according to WGCL/Gray News. “I can’t even imagine what the next 20 years is going to look like.”

The goal is to reach full capacity of about 5,000 agents. 

The role of the DEA is changing as drugs evolve. 

“I think we’re going to see an end of the plant-based drug threat and we’re going to see more of the synthetics, which is much more dangerous, it’s obviously more addictive,” he said. “Obviously we’re seeing the outcome with fentanyl, easy to make and way more profitable for the cartels and I think that’s where we’re headed in the future.”

Getting a job at the DEA is not easy. Only one of 20 applicants land a job at the agency. 

“It’s the number one vital moment in the agent hiring process to pass the assessment because if you can’t pass the physical task assessment, you can’t move on through the hiring process,” Special Agent Geoff Furman, the recruiter for the DEA Atlanta Division, said. “The division covers Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

By Steve Neavling

Federal agents on Wednesday searched the Virginia home of former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who is accused of pressuring top prosecutors to challenge the 2020 election results, The New York Times reports.

The focus of the search wasn’t immediately clear. But it came one day after the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol focused on former President Trump’s role in strong-arming the Justice Department to overturn the election results. 

On Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Thursday, Clark claimed the investigation was “highly politicized.”

“We’re living in an era I don’t recognize,” he said.

At one point, Trump had considered firing acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen and replacing him with Clark.

Also this week, the Justice Department subpoenaed Trump supporters who were involved in a fraudulent elector scheme aimed at overturning the election.

By Steve Neavling

An autopsy revealed that a CBP agent fatally stabbed a Mexican man twice in the chest during a confrontation in Douglas, Ariz., on May 24. 

Abigail Roman Aguilar, 32, was stabbed twice and had blunt force injuries, The Arizona Republic reports.

The cause of death was “sharp forced injuries of the trunk,” according to the autopsy report, which lists homicide as the manner of death. 

The incident happened near the border with Mexico at about 12:43 a.m. on May 24. 

Border Patrol agents apprehended Roman Aguilar and took him to the hospital after he had injured himself on barb wire while running from agents. After he was discharged, he was “reportedly involved in an altercation with a United States Border Patrol agent, during which time he was stabbed with a knife,” according to the autopsy. 

The FBI is investigating the death. 

By Steve Neavling

The Justice Department’s investigation of a fraudulent elector scheme aimed at trying to overturn the election picked up steam as federal agents delivered grand jury subpoenas Wednesday to four supporters of former President Donald Trump. 

The Justice Department is investigating Republicans in several battleground states for posing as presidential electors and falsely declaring that Trump won the election. 

The fake electors are accused of using fraudulent documents to subvert the outcome of the election. 

Those who were received a subpoena was Brad Carver, an attorney and official of the Georgia Republican Party; Thomas Lane, who worked on Trump’s campaign in Arizona and New Mexico; Shawn Flynn, a Trump campaign aide in Michigan; and David Shafer, chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, The New York Times reports.

The subpoenas come amid the House Jan. 6 committee hearings into Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. 

By Steve Neavling

More than 60 years after three men escaped from the notorious Alcatraz prison, the U.S. Marshals Service is not giving up on capturing them. 

The U.S. Marshals on Wednesday released age-progressed renderings of Frank Morris and brothers Clarence and John Anglin.

The men, who would now be in their 90s, broke out of the now-closed island prison in San Francisco Bay on June 11, 1962. 

They were in prison for committing bank robberies.  

“The ongoing U.S. Marshals investigation of the 1962 escape from Alcatraz federal prison serves as a warning to fugitives,” the agency said in a statement. “That regardless of time, we will continue to look for you and bring you to justice.”

By Steve Neavling

Tim Kolonick had a long career in law enforcement, including more than 20 years as an FBI agent and stints as a Cleveland police officer and Secret Service agent. 

But nothing compares to his time volunteering to help make schools safer. 

“This would be more rewarding that anything I’ve done in my career, just to give back,” Kolonick told News 5 Cleveland.

At no cost, Kolonick has offered his security expertise to Northeast Ohio schools that can’t afford it. 

“It’s completely free. At no time are we going to charge them for anything, and it’s really just walk around their school and just kind of like an eyes and ears and just point out things maybe they can improve,” Kolonick said.

Kolonick encouraged other retired federal agents and offers to help him. 

“I wasn’t surprised, it was almost expected both here and nationally. There’s agents and officers who have called from all over the country and said what can we do? I said reach out to your local school and just be a point of contact for them,” Kolonick said.

By Steve Neavling

A majority of Americans believe former President Trump should be charged for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to a new poll. 

The ABC News/Ipsos poll found that 58% of the nation supports charging Trump, whose rhetoric and speech before the riot incited a mob that breached the U.S. Capitol.

Not unsurprisingly, people’s opinions are shaped by their ideology. About 91% of Democrats believe Trump should be charged, compared to 19% of Republicans. 

The poll comes after the Jan. 6 House committee aired its findings following months of investigating the insurrection. 

By Steve Neavling

Netflix is set to premier a docuseries this summer about the mystery behind the 1971 skyjacker case of D.B. Cooper. 

The true crime mini-series, “D.B. Cooper: Where Are You,” focuses on the FBI investigation and “citizen sleuths” who have been trying to solve the mystery.  

The series debuts on July 13. 

The case has baffled the FBI, which never determined the identify of D.B. Cooper, making the case the only unsolved skyjacking in U.S. history. 

A man who went by Dan Cooper boarded Northwest Orient Flight 305 in Portland, Ore., on Nov. 24 and claimed to have a bomb. He forced the plane to fly to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where he got $200,000 in ransom money. He subsequently parachuted from the plane and was never found.

The FBI said it had ended its investigation in 2016, saying the suspect may have died during the treacherous jump. But a year later, the bureau said it may resume the search after a team of private investigators coordinated by a filmmaker found “an odd piece of buried foam” that they believed may be material from Cooper’s parachute backpack.

On the 56th anniversary of the hijacking in 2017, the FBI publicized a letter that someone claiming to be the suspect sent to newspapers.

Ralph Himmelsbach, the lead FBI agent in the case, died in October 2019.

After his retirement, Himmelsbach wrote the book “Norjak: The Investigation of D.B. Cooper” and “The Secrets of the FBI.”

Here is the trailer: