By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Things did not go the way Gerardo Castillo-Chavez and Armado Garcia had hoped in Laredo, Texas, on Wednesday. Both men saw guilty verdicts returned on all charges against them, U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced. Castillo-Chavez, a 25-year-old from Tamaulipas, Mexico, was convicted of “conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com It’s good to have an entrepreneurial spirit, but not if it involves thievery. Timothy Nathan Todd, 41, of Huntington, W. Va. pleaded guilty this week in federal court to selling an ATF badge to an informant working for the local ATF task force last October, according to the Huntington News. He…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com The relationship between the FBI and the San Francisco Police Department is coming under some scrutiny by civil rights advocates and local legislators, reports the San Francisco Examiner. Supervisor Jane Kim introduced an ordinance Tuesday to prohibit police that work with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force from collecting information about…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com A series of “suspicious letters” with white powder have been turning up at several Israeli consulates over the past few days, reports the Atlanta Journal Constitution. “There’s a lot of white powder letters that are going to Israeli consulates around the country,” Chris Allen of the FBI said late Tuesday. “There…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com The US government’s determination to prosecute copyright infringers continues to strengthen. After being arrested in New Zealand on behalf of the US, the man behind the file-sharing website Megaupload.com Kim Dotcom was denied bail, reports the Sydney Morning Herald, and US authorities are now seeking his extradition. Dotcom’s company is said…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com The first rule about homegrown terrorist plots: don’t talk about homegrown terrorist plots. Or so goes the code of a North Carolina prisoner recently sentenced on terrorism charges; federal court documents now allege the man plotted to kill witnesses that testified against him, including by decapitation, reports the Associated Press. An…
James Cavanaugh was an ATF agent and supervisor for 33 years before retiring in 2010. By James Cavanaugh For ticklethewire.com Law-enforcement, security and intelligence professionals must have a forward-looking approach in the current climate of world events. Now is the time for police and intelligence personnel to think critically about the year ahead. While…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Ex-DEA official and ex-presidential appointee Grayling Williams has been hired to head up internal investigations for the Baltimore Police Department, the Baltimore Sun reported. The paper reports that Williams spent 22 years with the DEA including a stint in Baltimore. He was also assigned at one point to DEA Headquarters where…
