Month: June 2022

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Security News: United States Army National Guardsman and Former Rockville, Maryland Police Officer Admits to Possessing Over 12,000 Depictions of Child Pornography

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Defendant Discarded Computer and Factory Reset Smartphone in Anticipation of an Interview with Federal Law Enforcement

Baltimore, Maryland – Daniel Morozewicz, age 38, of Frederick, Maryland, pleaded guilty yesterday to possession of child pornography.

The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron; Acting Special Agent in Charge Selwyn Smith of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Baltimore; Frederick County State’s Attorney J. Charles Smith; and Frederick County Sheriff Charles A. “Chuck” Jenkins.

According to his guilty plea, from September 2020 to January 2021, while employed as a Rockville Police Officer and an Army National Guardsman, Morozewicz received, possessed, and distributed child pornography on the BitTorrent file sharing network.  Morozewicz also used multiple electronic devices to download and distribute child pornography involving prepubescent minors.

During that time, Morozewicz repeatedly distributed child pornography to undercover law enforcement officers.  On at least four instances in 2020, investigators determined that the devices associated with Morozewicz’s IP address downloaded and shared child pornographic files on the BitTorrent; including eight packages of child pornography.

As stated in his guilty plea, on March 4, 2021, Morozewicz received a tip that federal law enforcement wished to conduct an in-person interview with him.  The next day, on March 5, 2021, law enforcement executed a series of search and seizure warrants on Morozewicz’s residence, vehicle, and his person.  As a result of the search of Morozewicz’s person, law enforcement seized a smartphone which had been recently factory reset and erased in light of the impending visit from federal law enforcement.  He also admitted that he discarded his computer in anticipation of a visit from law enforcement.  Morozewicz’s actions were viewed as an attempt to impede the investigation and prosecution of his child pornography offenses.

Multiple electronic devices were seized in connection the warrants executed at Morozewicz’s residence and in his vehicle.  A forensic examination of Morozewicz’s devices revealed that he possessed over 12,300 depictions of child pornography and erotica, including over 200 depicts involving the sexual abuse of infants and toddlers, and over 90 child pornographic images involving sado-masochistic conduct.

Morozewicz faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison followed by up to lifetime of supervised release for possession of child pornography.   U.S. District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher has scheduled sentencing for September 8, 2022, at 11:00 a.m.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.  For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the “Resources” tab on the left of the page.       

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron commended HSI, the Frederick County State’s Attorney’s Office, and the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul A. Riley and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Joyce King, Chief Counsel with the Frederick County State’s Attorney’s Office, who prosecuted the federal case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md/project-safe-childhood and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

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Defense News: U.S. Navy Announces 28th RIMPAC Exercise

Source: United States Navy

RIMPAC 2022 is the 28th exercise in the series that began in 1971.

As the world’s largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC provides a unique training opportunity designed to foster and sustain cooperative relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security on the world’s interconnected oceans.

The theme of RIMPAC 2022 is “Capable, Adaptive, Partners.” Participating nations and forces will exercise a wide range of capabilities and demonstrate the inherent flexibility of maritime forces. These capabilities range from disaster relief and maritime security operations to sea control and complex warfighting. The relevant, realistic training program includes amphibious operations, gunnery, missile, anti-submarine and air defense exercises, as well as counter-piracy operations, mine clearance operations, explosive ordnance disposal, and diving and salvage operations.

This year’s exercise includes forces from Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of the Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tonga, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Hosted by Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, RIMPAC 2022 will be led by Commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet, who will serve as Combined Task Force (CTF) commander. Royal Canadian Navy Rear Adm. Christopher Robinson will serve as deputy commander of the CTF, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force Rear Adm. Toshiyuki Hirata as the vice commander, and Fleet Marine Force will be led by U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Joseph Clearfield. Other key leaders of the multinational force will include Commodore Paul O’Grady of the Royal Australian Navy, who will command the maritime component, and Brig. Gen. Mark Goulden of the Royal Canadian Air Force, who will command the air component.

During RIMPAC, a network of capable, adaptive partners train and operate together in order to strengthen their collective forces and promote a free and open Indo-Pacific. RIMPAC 2022 contributes to the increased interoperability, resiliency and agility needed by the Joint and Combined Force to deter and defeat aggression by major powers across all domains and levels of conflict.

Media interested in covering the exercise should contact the C3F Public Affairs Office at (619) 524-9868 or rimpac.news@gmail.com. Contact information for the RIMPAC Combined Information Bureau will be made available prior to the beginning of the exercise.

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Defense News: Filipino American Admiral dedicates Virginia historical marker

Source: United States Navy

“On behalf of the CNO and our entire Navy, I’d like to thank the state of Virginia for recognizing the contributions of Filipino Americans to our great Navy and to our great nation for over 120 years, since President William McKinley signed an executive order in 1901 allowing the Navy to enlist 500 Filipinos,” said Reyes. “I’d also like to personally recognize the many Filipino Americans, Navy veterans, retirees, currently serving Sailors and their families who are joining us on this wonderful day here in Virginia Beach. You are truly the embodiment of why we are here today.”

According to the Council of United Filipino Organizations of Tidewater, Virginia, the majority of the estimated 45,000 Filipino-Americans living in Hampton Roads can trace their lineage directly to a Filipino ancestor who served in the U.S. Navy. This historical marker was selected as a result of Governor Ralph Northam announcing five new historical markers highlighting Asian-American and Pacific Islander history in Virginia in August 2021.

“Our supply enlisted community has many Filipino Americans in their ranks, particularly after a decades-long agreement between the US and the Philippines to allow Philippine citizens to enlist in our Navy and gain citizenship,” Reyes reflected. “My dad, a retired Navy chief warrant officer, is among those who earned US citizenship in this way, and it’s a big reason I joined the Navy myself.”

Filipinos played a heroic role during World War II in resisting and delaying Japan’s efforts to take the Philippines. Up to 80,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war were forced to march 70 miles by their Japanese captors during the Bataan Death March in 1942.

Because of this shared sacrifice and ultimately victory in the Pacific, the US and the Philippines agreed to permit Filipino citizens to enlist in the U.S. Navy for decades after World War II, allowing generations of Filipino American Sailors to make immeasurable contributions to the security of our nation, including a Medal of Honor recipient, Fireman 2nd Class Telesforo de la Cruz Trinidad. He earned the Medal of Honor for extraordinary heroism in saving lives of his fellow Sailors in the aftermath of a boiler explosion on board USS San Diego in January 1915. Trinidad was himself burned about the face by the blast from the explosion. The Secretary of the Navy, Carlos Del Toro, recently announced that a future Arleigh-Burke class guided missile destroyer will be named USS Telesforo Trinidad (DDG 139).

“As we say in the Sailor’s Creed, ‘I represent the fighting spirit of the Navy and those who have gone before me to defend freedom and democracy around the world,’ I know that my own service in the Navy, especially as a flag officer, would not be possible without the courageous service of those who have served before me,” Reyes continued. “That includes many in the audience today, including my father and my mother, a 30-year active duty Sailor and a Navy spouse, with me here today.

“My parents both left their homes and families in the Philippines to build lives here in the US to raise a family and make a better life for us all. That adventure took our family across the globe but also created great challenges of separation and stress for us. This is not an easy life. But it is a life we Sailors, from Filipino American and all backgrounds, gladly live to serve our county, to defend the Constitution, and to make this a safer world.”

The dedication event was co-chaired by the Filipino American National Historical Society Hampton Roads Chapter and the Council of United Filipino Organizations of Tidewater, Virginia. Virginia Beach Mayor Robert Dyer and Congressional District Representative Elaine Luria also attended the ceremony.

“We all have stood on the shoulders of men and women like my mom and dad, like the rest of our veterans and retirees and spouses here today, and we do so proudly and humbly,” said Reyes. “I look forward to the next generation of Filipino American Sailors to continue this proud legacy of service and to stand on our shoulders to attain even greater levels of responsibility and contribution to our Navy and to our Nation.

“Today, in the first quarter of the 21st century, our nation needs a strong Navy to fight and win against adversaries, and we need all Sailors whether Filipino American or any other heritage, to provide that sea power that maritime superiority to be ready to fight and win in this Maritime century,” Reyes concluded. “I humbly submit that our Filipino American Sailors of yesterday today and tomorrow are and will be a vital part of our Navy’s ability to fight and win.”

Reyes is a Supply Corps officer and serves as deputy commander for NAVSUP headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, which employs a diverse, worldwide workforce of more than 25,000 military and civilian personnel. NAVSUP and the Navy Supply Corps conduct and enable supply chain, acquisition, operational logistics and Sailor & family care activities with our mission partners to generate readiness and sustain naval forces worldwide to prevent and decisively win wars. Learn more at www.navsup.navy.mil, www.facebook.com/navsup and https://twitter.com/navsupsyscom.

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Security News: Vancouver Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Child Sex Trafficking

Source: United States Department of Justice News

PORTLAND, Ore.—A Vancouver, Washington man was sentenced to federal prison today for facilitating and benefitting from the sex trafficking of multiple children.

Keonte Desmond Scott, 24, was sentenced to 97 months in federal prison and five years’ supervised release.

According to court documents and trial testimony, in 2016, after he was released from prison, Scott met and befriended Johnl Jackson, 34, also of Vancouver. Jackson sold Scott cocaine and began coaching him in commercial sex trafficking. In late 2016, Scott met and began a relationship with another Vancouver resident, Diana Petrovic, 23. Jackson helped Scott traffic Petrovic and they began using her to recruit and traffic other minor females.

By early 2019, several minors reported to law enforcement that they had been trafficked by Scott and Petrovic. During the ensuing investigation, authorities learned of two teen girls, then 14- and 15-years-old, respectively, who together had run away from their homes in Lane County, Oregon and were introduced to Scott and Petrovic at a mall in Vancouver. Petrovic took the girls to a home the girls believed was Jackson’s and gave them drugs and alcohol. Scott and Petrovic told the girls they would take them to an upscale party, but, instead, took them to a location in Portland where they were sold for sex. Eventually, the girls separated themselves from Scott and Petrovic, spent the night elsewhere, and were driven back home by one of the girl’s mothers the next day. 

Throughout the summer of 2018, after Scott had returned to prison, Petrovic worked closely with Jackson to traffic minors, including of the girls from Lane County.

On May 8, 2019, a federal grand jury in Portland returned a six-count indictment charging Scott, Petrovic, and a third accomplice, Evan Blake Barajas, 24, of Vancouver, Washington, with sex trafficking of children and transporting minors with intent to engage in sexual activity. On December 4, 2019, a fourth accomplice, Jamil Timpke-Rhoades, 23, of Vancouver, Washington, was added as a co-defendant by superseding indictment.

On December 9, 2021, Scott pleaded guilty to two counts of sex trafficking.

Barajas and Timpke-Rhoades are in custody pending a seven-day jury trial scheduled to begin on July 19, 2022.

On October 9, 2019, in a separate criminal case, a federal grand jury in Portland returned a three-count indictment charging Jackson and Petrovic with sex trafficking of a child by force, fraud, and coercion; sex trafficking of a child; and transportation of a minor with intent to engage in sexual activity. Later, on December 4, 2019, Jackson and Petrovic were charged by superseding indictment with conspiring to engage in sex trafficking of children; sex trafficking of a child; sex trafficking of a child by force, fraud, and coercion; and transporting a minor with intent to engage in sexual activity.

On July 22, 2020, Petrovic was charged by superseding criminal information with and pleaded guilty to distribution of controlled substances to persons under 21. She will be sentenced on April 3, 2023.

On March 11, 2022, Jackson was convicted at trial of one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking; three counts of sex trafficking of a child; two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion; and three counts of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in sexual activity. He will be sentenced on July 25, 2022.

U.S. Attorney Scott Erik Asphaug of the District of Oregon made the announcement.

This case was investigated by FBI Portland’s Child Exploitation Task Force (CETF) with assistance from the Tigard Police Department and Portland Police Bureau. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ashley Cadotte and Pamela Paaso with assistance from Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kelly Zusman, Suzanne Miles, and Thomas Ratcliffe, and Multnomah County Deputy District Attorney Glen Ujifusa.

The FBI CETF conducts sexual exploitation investigations, many of them undercover, in coordination with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. CETF is committed to locating and arresting those who prey on children as well as recovering and assisting victims of sex trafficking and child exploitation.

If you or someone you know is in danger, please call 911. If you are a human trafficking victim or have information about a potential human trafficking situation, please call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-373-7888 or by texting 233733. Calls and texts are answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Human trafficking is a serious federal crime where individuals are compelled by force, fraud, or coercion to engage in commercial sex, labor, or domestic servitude against their will. Traffickers exploit and endanger some of the most vulnerable members of our society and cause unimaginable harm. In January 2022, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland launched a new national strategy to combat human trafficking that aims to prevent all forms of trafficking, prosecute trafficking cases, and support trafficking victims and survivors.

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Security News: Armed Drug Trafficker Sentenced to Life in Federal Prison for Murder, Gun, and Drug Charges

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake today sentenced Sydni Frazier, a/k/a Sid, Junior Boss, and Perry, age 28, of Baltimore, Maryland, to life in federal prison on charges of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime resulting in death, conspiracy to distribute more than 100 grams of heroin, possession with intent to distribute heroin and fentanyl, and possession of firearms by a felon.  A federal jury convicted Frazier on March 3, 2020.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron; Special Agent in Charge Toni M. Crosby of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Baltimore Field Division; Commissioner Michael Harrison of the Baltimore Police Department; and Chief Melissa R. Hyatt of the Baltimore County Police Department.

According to the evidence presented at Frazier’s six-day trial, between at least 2014 and 2017, Frazier conspired with others, including members and associates of the MMP gang, to distribute narcotics.  For many years, MMP controlled the drug trade in large swaths of Northwest Baltimore City and neighboring Baltimore County, including Forest Park, Windsor Mill, Gwynn Oak, Howard Park, and Woodlawn.  The gang’s drug shop in the 5200 block of Windsor Mill Road was particularly lucrative due to its close proximity to Interstate 70, and it frequently attracted drug customers driving from Western Maryland and neighboring states. 

The evidence presented at trial established that on August 10, 2016, Frazier and his co-conspirators kidnapped, robbed, and murdered Ricardo Johnson in order to enrich themselves and their drug trafficking conspiracy.  The victim was abducted at approximately 2:30 am as he was returning home to his apartment in the 1100 block of West Lanvale Street in Baltimore.  Less than four hours later, the victim’s body was discovered in the back of a stolen minivan parked next to the light rail tracks in the 2200 block of Kloman Street.  Johnson had been bound by the wrists and ankles, blindfolded, and shot over twenty times.  There was partially burned flammable material sticking out of the gas tank of the van, indicating that the killers had attempted to set the van on fire before departing the scene. 

Less than twelve hours after Johnson’s body was found, members of the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) attempted to stop Frazier for riding an illegal dirt bike in the 2100 block of Tucker Lane.  Frazier fled and was able to get away, but in the process of fleeing, he abandoned the dirt bike as well as a backpack and gloves he had been wearing.  The backpack contained two cell phones belonging to Frazier and two loaded 9mm caliber handguns.  Both guns were a ballistic match to the 9mm caliber casings recovered from the murder scene.  In addition, the BPD DNA and Serology laboratory determined that Frazier’s DNA profile matched DNA from the insides of the gloves, and the victim’s DNA profile matched DNA from the outsides of the gloves.  Frazier illegally possessed the two loaded 9mm firearms, as he was prohibited from possessing firearms or ammunition due to previous felony convictions.

With today’s sentencing, all twenty-six defendants charged in this case have been convicted and sentenced, with the gang leader, Dante Bailey, also being sentenced to life in prison, and most of the other defendants receiving between 14 and 30 years in federal prison. 

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.  Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts.  PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime.  Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them.  As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.

This case is also part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation.  OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron praised the ATF, the Baltimore City and Baltimore County Police Departments, and the Baltimore City and Baltimore County State’s Attorney’s Offices for their work in the investigation and prosecution.  Mr. Barron thanked Assistant United States Attorneys Christina Hoffman and Christopher M. Rigali, who prosecuted the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/project-safe-neighborhoods-psnexile and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.  

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