By Steve Neavling

Authorities have captured one of the U.S. Marshals’ 15 most wanted fugitives in El Salvador after he was on the run for six years. 

Raymond McLeod, a 37-year-old former Marine, was wanted for the 2016 murder of his girlfriend Krystal Mitchell, who was found strangled to death in an apartment in San Diego. 

In April 2021, the Marshals placed McLeod on their “Most Wanted” list of top 15 fugitives and issued a reward of $50,000 for information leading to his arrest. 

At the time, U.S. Marshals and the San Diego Police Department believed McLeod had fled through Mexico to Central America following Mitchel’s death. 

El Salvadoran law enforcement arrested McLeod without incident on Monday. 

“I am extremely gratified to hear the news of Raymond McLeod’s arrest without incident,” said U.S. Marshals Director Ronald Davis. “It is our sincere hope that his capture brings some sense of relief to Krystal Mitchell’s family, especially her mother, Josephine Wentzel, who has worked so diligently with law enforcement these past years to see this day of justice arrive.”

By Steve Neavling

Stacey Moy has been named special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Diego Field Office. 

Moy, who most recently served as special agent in charge of the Intelligence and Incident Response Division at the Washington Field Office, joined the bureau as a special agent in 2004 in the Washington Field Office, where he investigated foreign counterintelligence and espionage cases. Moy investigated penetrations of the U.S. intelligence community, media leaks, and economic espionage, and also served on the SWAT team.

In 2009, he was promoted to supervisory special agent in the Counterintelligence Division at headquarters, dealing with cases involving the targeting and acquisition of U.S. trade secrets by foreign adversaries.

In 2011, Moy became field supervisor of a counterproliferation squad in the Oakland Resident Agency of the San Francisco Field Office.

In 2014, he served as unit chief of the Counterproliferation Center in the Counterintelligence Division at headquarters. The center is tasked with leading the bureau’s efforts to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and other technologies that threaten national security. In 2015, Moy was promoted to assistant section chief of the center.

In 2016, he moved to the San Francisco Field Office to serve as the assistant special agent in charge of the criminal branch in charge of investigating financial crimes, public corruption, civil rights, and violent crimes against children. In 2017, Moy was named a Counterintelligence Division section chief, and in 2019, was promoted to deputy assistant director.

In June 2020, May was named special agent in charge of the Counterintelligence Division of the Washington Field Office. 

Moy graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy. He earned a master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College and was a senior executive fellow at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government for Executive Education.

By Steve Neavling

An off-duty Border Patrol was leaving a restaurant with his girlfriend in downtown San Diego this month when he spotted a man slashing a knife through the air while approaching bystanders. 

The quick-acting agent urged people to retreat and asked his girlfriend to call 911. He pulled out his personally owned firearm and identified himself as a law enforcement officer, but the man ignored him. 

After another off-duty law enforcement officer stepped in to help, the man dropped the knife. The officers detained the man until police arrived. 

“As sworn public servants, Border Patrol agents are never really off-duty,” Chief Patrol Agent Aaron Heitke said in a news release Monday.  “This agent’s actions embody CBP core values – Vigilance, Integrity, and Service to Country.  I am proud of his bravery and composure under pressure.”

No one was injured in the incident.  

By Steve Neavling

A 37-year-old Arizona man wanted in connection with the 2016 murder of his girlfriend has been added to the U.S. Marshals 15 Most Wanted List, the agency announced Monday.

Raymond “RJ” McLeod is the first fugitive to debut on the list with a $15,000 reward for information leading to his arrest. 

McLeod is wanted by the San Diego Police Department for the murder of 30-year-old Krystal Mitchell. 

Authorities believe he fled the country and may be hiding out in Mexico or Central America. He was last spotted in Belize in 2018 and Guatemala in 2017. 

“McLeod poses a significant threat to the public and must be brought to justice,” U.S. Marshal Service Director Donald Washington said in a statement. 

The San Diego District Attorney’s Office charged McLeod with murder after Mitchell was found dead in June 2016 at an apartment in San Diego, where the couple was visiting friends. McLeod was the last known person to see Mitchell alive, authorities said. 

“The passage of time will never deter the Marshals’ fugitive investigation for McLeod,” U.S. Marshal Steve Stafford of the Southern District of California said. “If anything, it fuels our determination. We will leave no stone unturned until he is brought to justice.”

McLeod is 5 feet 11 inches tall and has brown hair and hazel eyes. At the time he fled, McLeod weighed 245 pounds and had “a tattooed muscular physique.”

By Steve Neavling

CBP officers made the second-largest methamphetamine bust ever along the Southwest border, seizing more than 3,100 pounds of the drug, along with 64 pounds heroin, 29 pounds of fentanyl powder and 37 pounds of pills. 

The drugs were found in a tractor-trailer on Oct. 9 at the Otay Mesa Port Entry in San Diego. 

A CBP officer ordered the driver of the truck to pull over for an inspection. Using the port’s imaging system, which is similar to an x-ray, CBP officers grew suspicious and sent the conveyance to a dock, where a canine alerted authorities to boxes inside the trailer. 

The drugs were co-mingled with medical supplies. 

The estimated value of the drugs is $7.2 million, CBP said.  

“Smugglers will try every way possible to try and get their product across the border and because of the partnership between CBP, Homeland Security investigations and DEA this significant seizure occurred and we stopped them,” Anne Maricich, acting CBP director of field operations in San Diego, said in a statement. “I’m proud of the CBP officers’ dedication to our mission; they continue to stop dangerous drugs from entering our communities.”

The driver, a 47-year-old Mexican resident, was arrested and turned over to ICE, Homeland Security Investigations and the DEA for further investigation. 

“This massive seizure is testament of what law enforcement agencies can do when we combine forces – prevent over $7 million worth of deadly drugs from entering our country; thus saving countless lives from addiction and overdose deaths,” DEA Special Agent in Charge John W. Callery said. “DEA cherishes our great law enforcement partners in San Diego, especially those who work tirelessly to protect our nation’s borders.  We will continue to work together to disrupt drug trafficking organizations at every opportunity we are given.” 

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

They built the walls, but they’re not working as planned.

Soldiers managed to destroy walls in San Diego. Smugglers are doing the same.

Now Border Patrol is asking contractors for ways to “leapfrog current technology to dramatically improve efficacy,” Arizona Public Media reports.

Could paint make it easier to see people breaching walls? What about sensors? They’re among the questions being barnstormed to make the walls more effective.

By the end of the year, the U.S. government has a goal of building 450 miles of walls. So far, it has built about 182 miles.

But the walls are being breached almost as quickly as they’re being built.

Border Patrol declined to comment.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

The first ICE detainee to die from the coronavirus was a 57-year-old El Salvador man who had become ill at the Otay Messa Detention Center in San Diego.

“He contracted (Covid-19) at the facility,” the senior immigration official told CNN. “As soon as he tested positive he was sent to the hospital. He died there.”

Immigration rights groups have filed lawsuits against ICE, arguing the facilities are not adequately protecting detainees from the deadly coronavirus.

“The heartbreaking tragedy at Otay Mesa could have been prevented had US immigration officials heeded the recommendations of medical experts and acted in time,” Dr. Ranit Mishori, a senior medical adviser for Physicians for Human Rights, said in a statement Wednesday. “Thousands of doctors, advocates, and even the former acting head of ICE have been sounding the alarm for months about the grave risks of immigration detention amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The government cannot say it did not know this would happen.”

Six weeks ago, ICE announced its first detainee to test positive for COVID-19.

Nearly half of the ICE detainees tested so far – 705 – have a confirmed infection, according to ICE.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Federal agents seized thousands of pounds of drugs in a “sophisticated” smuggling tunnel that extends from a warehouse in Mexico to another warehouse in San Diego.

Inside the half-mile tunnel were 1,300 pounds of cocaine, 86 pounds of methamphetamine, 17 pounds of heroin, 3,000 pounds of marijuana and more than two pounds of fentanyl worth nearly $30 million, ICE announced in a news release.

The tunnel included reinforced walls, ventilation, lighting and an underground rail system.

“I’m proud of the excellent work performed by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents, as well as U.S. Border Patrol and Drug Enforcement Administration agents as integrated partners of the San Diego Tunnel Task Force. Their tenacity made the difference in shutting down this tunnel,” said Cardell T. Morant, acting special agent in charge of HSI San Diego. “I hope this sends a clear message that despite the ongoing public health crisis, HSI and our law enforcement partners will remain resilient and continue to pursue criminal organizations responsible for the cross-border smuggling of narcotics into the United States.”