ICE official, via ICE.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

President Trump praised ICE agents for getting into fist fights while apprehending members of MS-13, a notoriously violent gang.

Trump’s remarks came at a campaign rally Tuesday in Wildwood New Jersey

“These ICE people, they love our country,” Trump said. “They’re proud and they’re tough people. They’ll go right into a pack, they call it a pack, and they start swinging and everyone’s swinging, and they end up standing up and that’s the end of that. You know what they do is they bring the MS-13 and many other gang members back to El Salvador, back to Honduras, back to Guatemala, back to Mexico.”
Trump said ICE agents for the “incredible abuse they take and the incredible job they do.”

Trump also accused Democrats of supporting “deadly sanctuary cities.”

“What the hell is going on?” Trump asked. “And once set loose, these criminal aliens are free to continue their crime spree against innocent Americans.”

.Ronnell Watson, via Instagram

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Moments after FBI special agent Christopher Harper was shot while on an undercover stakeout in Brooklyn, he’s heard telling an NYPD officer, “I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die.”

The dramatic action in December 2018 was caught on a body cam, which was played during the trial of reputed Crips gang member, Ronnell Watson, who is accused of pulling the trigger, The New York Post reports.

“I’m not doing well,” the agent said. “No exit, the bullet’s in me.”

The shooting was captured on surveillance footage.

Harper survived the shooting after suffering a collapsed lung, a broken rib and fractured shoulder blade. He’s expected to testify.

U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue said the shooting was an “attempted execution.”

But Watson’s defense attorney Benjamin Yaster claims his client panicked when he saw a strange car with tinted windows quickly approaching him.

“Does it make sense that Ronell Watson would attempt to murder someone in front of his home, which was decorated for Christmas and outfitted with his mother’s security cameras?” Yaster asked.

By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com

A sweeping federal indictment alleges a DEA agent began working with a gang a decade ago while he was a police officer in Illinois and continued the work while at the drug agency’s Chicago field office.

According to the indictment, Fernando Gomez, 41, was affiliated with the Organizacion de Narcotraficantes Unidos, a Puerto Rico-based group that imported vast amounts of cocaine into the U.S. and was involved in at least eight drug-related killings.

He was arrested at the DEA’s field office Tuesday morning, The Chicago Tribune reports. 

When Gomez was a detective for Evanston police, prosecutors said he began working with the gang, obtaining guns from drug dealers and giving them to gang leader Jose Martinez-Diaz, AKA “Tony Zinc.”

The indictment alleges Gomez became a DEA agent to provide protection for the gang.

By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com

An ATF FBI agent was in critical condition this morning after being shot while working undercover in a joint operation with Chicago police on the city’s South Side.

The agent was shot by an unknown gunman around 3:15 a.m. and rushed to Stroger Hospital

ATF agents have partnered with Chicago police to crack down on the proliferation of gang-related rifle shootings in that part of the city.

Gang members with rifles have shot more than 14o people – 50 of them fatally, between the fall of 2016 and the end of 2017, according to the Chicago Tribune.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Friday’s shooting involved a rifle.

The identity of the ATF agent was not disclosed as of 8 a.m. on Friday.

James “Whitey” Bulger’s “Psycho Killer Skull” ring was for sale at the auction.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

A framed photo of a car. A “Psycho Killer Skull” ring. Rolling shopping carts.

These were among the items sold on Saturday at an auction of James “Whitey” Bulger and his girlfriend Catherine Greig’s belongings, the New York Times reports. 

The auction raised a modest $109,295 for the families of Bulger’s victims.

A friend of Greig’s family bought several photos of cats for $110 and plans to give them back to Grieg when she finishes serving her prison sentence in 2020.

The most expensive item was Bulger’s claddagh ring, which went for $23,000.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The FBI wants Apple to unlock another iPhone.

The phones were seized from an accused Boston gang member, who is facing federal charges of racketeering, committing a violent crime in aid of racketeering, using a firearm during a crime of violence and being a felon in possession of a firearm, the Boston Herald reports. 

Agents have been unable to unlock the phone after intercepting phone conversations in which Crawford discusses in March 2015 shooting a rival gang member.

In an affidavit, which was signed off by a federal judge, the FBI wrote that it suspects information about the gang is on the phone and could lead them to “substantial evidence” about the sources of guns, accomplices and drugs.

A federal judge signed

This is the latest example of the FBI and a court ordering Apple to unlock an iPhone.

By Editorial Board
Inforum

The establishment of an FBI office in Williston, N.D., is a tangible, if somewhat unsettling, sign of changing times. The fact it’s the first “resident agency” the FBI has opened in 20 years confirms that crime associated with North Dakota’s oil boom is a real phenomenon that demands intensified attention. In this case, “changing times” does not necessarily mean change is good.