Month: August 2022

Posted on

Security News: West Georgia Man Pleads Guilty to Possessing with Intent to Distribute 765 Grams of Fentanyl and Fentanyl Analogue

Source: United States Department of Justice News

COLUMBUS, Ga. – A Columbus resident with a lengthy criminal history pleaded guilty to attempting to distribute nearly 500 grams of fentanyl and 265 grams of a fentanyl analogue.

Michael Schlarman, aka White Mike, 31, pleaded guilty to possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute before U.S. District Judge Clay Land today and faces a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years up to a maximum of life imprisonment to be followed by at least five years of supervised release and a maximum $10,000,000 fine. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 29.

“Simply put, illicit fentanyl use kills. A single two milligram dose is potentially lethal, and Michael Schlarman was in possession of approximately 380,000 doses of this drug,” said U.S. Attorney Peter D. Leary. “In 2021, overdose deaths in America hit an all-time high; our office and our law enforcement partners at every level are working to combat the spread of fentanyl – and save lives – in every community across the Middle District of Georgia.”

“While in the midst of this country’s opioid epidemic, deadly drugs like fentanyl continue to ravage many communities,” said Robert J. Murphy, the Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Atlanta Field Division. “Consequently, DEA and its law enforcement partners will relentlessly pursue drug dealers like Michael Schlarman who choose to ‘push’ poison in the community for consumption. This defendant will now spend time in federal prison.”

According to court documents and other evidence, on Jan. 26, members of the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and FBI executed a search warrant at Schlarman’s residence on Wagner Drive in Columbus. Schlarman fled from the rear of the house but was later arrested with the help of DEA Air Support and escorted back to the house without incident. Inside the defendant’s residence, law enforcement found 496.4 grams of fentanyl and 265.5 grams of p-Fluorofentanyl (a fentanyl analogue), plus a Glock 9mm with an extended magazine and a Taurus 9mm with magazine and ammunition. In addition, agents found multiple jars of a cutting agent for drugs, digital scales, a 20-ton hydraulic press, a variety of drug paraphernalia and cash. Schlarman has a lengthy criminal history, including three prior burglary convictions in Muscogee County, Georgia, Superior Court.

The case was investigated by the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office, DEA, ATF, and FBI.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Williams is prosecuting the case for the Government.

Posted on

Security News: Harrisonburg Bank Robber Pleads Guilty

Source: United States Department of Justice News

HARRISONBURG, Va. – A Harrisonburg, Virginia man, who used a BB gun to rob First Citizen Bank in Harrisonburg on January 4, 2022, pled guilty yesterday to federal armed bank robbery charges.

Charles Joseph Hood, 62, pled guilty yesterday in U.S. District Court in Harrisonburg to one count of armed bank robbery. Hood faces up to 25 years in prison.

According to court documents, on January 4, 2022 Hood walked into First Citizen Bank on University Boulevard in Harrisonburg wearing a dark mask, sunglasses, a dark hat, a wig, and brown work boots. He approached a manager of the bank and inquired about opening an account. Hood provided the manager with a red makeshift bag and a gray glove. He then instructed the manager to put on the glove and to put cash in the bag. At this time, Hood brandished what appeared to be a firearm but was later found to be a Daisy Powerline 426 .177 caliber BB gun.

Hood then directed the manager from his office to the area behind the teller station, all while carrying the BB gun. There were two tellers behind the counter. Hood told the manager to retrieve large bills only, no dye packs, and not to trigger the bank’s alarm system. The manager and two tellers separately collected cash and placed it in the bag provided by hood. In all, $15,908 was placed inside the red bag. During the encounter, one of the tellers pressed the bank’s silent alarm system alerting law enforcement.

Hood retrieved the bag and exited the bank, walked around the corner, got onto a bicycle, and rode away. Approximately a half-mile away, Hood discarded the bike, wig, and his outer jacket, walked into a restaurant, entered the bathroom, and lifted an oil painting on the wall. He placed the BB gun behind the painting where it was out of view and undetectable. He then walked to the nearby Walmart Supercenter where he discarded his work boots and put on a pair of gray shoes he purchased.

Outside, Hood attempted to call a taxi.

Meanwhile, the Harrisonburg Police Department had responded to the silent alarm and were in the area searching for individuals who matched Hood’s description. An officer, seeing Hood outside the Walmart, approached him. Hood began to walk away from the officer, telling the officer his wife was in labor before eventually running away from the officer.

When officers detained Hood they found a red bag stuffed into his pants that contained $15,606 in cash and a gray glove that matched the one left with the bank manager.

Hood is scheduled to be sentenced on November 8, 2022 and faces up to 25 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

U.S. Attorney  Christopher R. Kavanaugh and Stanley M. Meador, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Richmond Division made the announcement.

The Harrisonburg Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sean Welsh and Jordan E. McKay are prosecuting the case.

Posted on

Defense News: Midshipmen Test the Waters, Second IW Summer Cruise Underway

Source: United States Navy

Designed to fully explore how fleet-wide IW capabilities underpin all other warfighting operations, the Midshipmen took a deep dive in each of the IW disciplines: Cryptologic Warfare (CW), Cyber Warfare Engineer (CWE), Information Professional (IP), Intelligence (Intel), and Meteorology and Oceanography (METOC). This firsthand look at real-world environments and speaking directly to IW Community officers prepared the midshipmen for service selection week. The goal is to have the IW Community make a strong, positive impression on the midshipmen to help them decide if a career in IW is right for them, and then select which strand of IW is the best fit.

Each wave of the IW Community Cruise started with Core Week, during which Midshipmen collectively received briefings and visited various IW commands in Hampton Roads. The first welcome brief was presented by Rear Adm. Michael Vernazza, then commander, Naval Information Warfare
Development Center (NIWDC). Vice Adm. Kelly Aeschbach, Commander, Naval Information Forces (NAVIFOR), made the next two presentations. Vernazza and Aeschbach, both Intelligence officers, delivered a unified message to each group of midshipmen.

“In today’s environment, we are in constant competition with our adversaries, and in every fight, information warfare is and will continue to be constantly in demand,” said Aeschbach. “It will be you who will lead our Navy into the next generation of IW, leading the charge for the next wave of critical thinking and problem-solving for the Navy. I encourage you to learn, ask questions, and be curious as you see firsthand over the next few weeks what IW brings to the fight.”

The welcome brief was held at the joint Navy Cyber Defense Operations Command (NCDOC) / Naval Network Warfare Command (NNWC) building in Suffolk, Va. There the midshipmen toured the joint watch floor and discussed NCDOC’s mission priorities, which included the Navy Red Team that tests the Navy’s networks for vulnerabilities. NNWC – conducting vulnerability assessments of Navy networks to reduce risk to the DoDIN-N, or DoD Information Networks – Navy – was also a topic. Additionally, the midshipmen learned about the cloud watch floor charged with ensuring a secure migration of all NMCI accounts to a cloud-based platform that works in conjunction with Microsoft. Between the two commands, the touring midshipmen learned about the hand-in-hand working relationship with the Fleet in exercises, operations, and for network compromises.

MIDN Michael Schaefer capsulized the intent of the IW Summer Cruise. “I am cleared for either Intel or CW, so I desire to know about both and what they do on any given day,” Schaefer said. “I want to see how well I can keep up with that day-to-day life as that’s an important part of learning about a community.”

Throughout the three-week experience, each block of Midshipmen toured a combination of commands, ships and squadrons in the Hampton Roads area that included Fleet Weather Center Norfolk (FWC-N); U.S. Fleet Forces Maritime Operations Center (FFC MOC); Navy Expeditionary Intelligence Command (NEIC); Naval Special Warfare; Naval Computer & Telecommunications Area Master Station Atlantic (NCTAMS LANT); and various ships and squadrons.

Capt. Erin Acosta, commanding officer of FWC-N, outlined how meteorology and oceanography plays a major role in naval operations and explained the capability Naval Oceanography brings to the Fleet. “Equally as important is how we integrate with the larger IW enterprise,” said Acosta. “It is wonderful to see our Sailors, both enlisted and officers, and civilians interact and teach these future leaders how we do our job at the Weather Center.”

After the brief, the midshipmen toured the FWC watch floor to get a feel for a day in the life of a METOC officer. “The visit provides the midshipmen an excellent opportunity to ask questions and to assist them in making an informed career decision. Every Sailor is a recruiter and my team did an amazing job hosting the midshipmen,” said Acosta, a class of 2000 USNA graduate. “I’m blown away by the talent and diversity of these future officers. I am truly excited for them and for the Navy.”

After Core Week, the midshipmen splintered off into Strand Week. The length of this part of the IW Community Cruise lasted from one to two weeks, depending on the chosen designator. Some midshipmen remained in the Hampton Roads area while others headed to Fort Meade, Md. Commands toured in the Maryland area included Fleet Cyber Command / 10th Fleet and their MOC watch floor; Office of Naval Intelligence; Cryptologic Warfare Group SIX; Navy Cyber Warfare Development Group, and Defense Special Missile and Aerospace Center.

USNA’s Class of 2023 is the second to participate in the IW Cruise, and the experience was well received, according to Midshipman 1st Class Kristofer Gamalong Medina, who embarked on the IW Cruise with the intent of continuing in the CW community. “I’ll stay with my choice of designator (CW). As a prior enlisted Sailor, Cryptologic Technician Technical, I had only seen CW on a tactical level,” said Medina. “But learning how we affect the national scale was mind blowing to me. I was fascinated by the type of people leading those missions, the information we find, and how we can make an impact on the bigger picture of naval warfare.”

Of the IW Cruise overall Medina said, “The most beneficial part was seeing the different applications all the communities had. I did not know that there were so many divisions that focused on different things, and that they relied on each other to create the best picture for the warfighters.”

The IW Community Cruise is an annual event, divided into two or three blocks to allow for maximum participation. This year the last wave included three Recruit Officer Training Command (ROTC) students. Midshipman 1st Class Tai T. Nguyen, a University of Southern California ROTC student, stated in his biography, “I always wanted to work in the field of cyber security for its intellectually challenging mission, which is to stop foreign cyber threats to the United States. Therefore, becoming a cyber warfare engineer is my dream job.”

NAVIFOR’s mission is to generate, directly and through our leadership of the IW Enterprise, agile and technically superior manned, trained, equipped, and certified combat-ready IW forces to ensure our Navy will decisively DETER, COMPETE, and WIN.

U.S. Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command directs and oversees more than 2,500 globally-distributed military and civilian personnel who collect, process and exploit environmental information to assist Fleet and Joint Commanders in all warfare areas to make better decisions, based on assured environmental information, faster than the adversary.
 
For more information about Naval Oceanography, contact cnmoc_stns_paoweb@.navy.mil or 228-688-4147. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram (Naval Oceanography), Twitter (@NavyOceans), and LinkedIn.

Posted on

Security News: Justice Department Seeks Seizure of Boeing 747 Cargo Plane Grounded in Argentina

Source: United States Department of Justice

The Boeing 747 Aircraft Was Recently Transferred from a Designated Iranian Airline to South America in Violation of U.S. Export Control Laws

The U.S. Department of Justice transmitted a request to Argentinian authorities today to seize a Boeing 747-300M cargo plane following the unsealing of a seizure warrant in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The warrant, which was issued on July 19, 2022, alleges that the U.S.-made plane is subject to forfeiture based on violations of U.S. export control laws related to the unauthorized transfer of the plane from Mahan Air, an Iranian airline affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp-Qods Force (IRGC-QF), a designated terrorist organization, and Empresa de Transporte Aéreocargo del Sur, S.A. (EMTRASUR), a Venezuelan cargo airline and subsidiary of Consorcio Venezolano de Industrias Aeronáuticas y Servicios Aéreos, S.A (CONVIASA), a Venezuelan state-owned company.

In 2008, the Department of Commerce issued, and has since periodically renewed, a Temporary Denial Order prohibiting Mahan Air from, among other things, engaging in any transaction involving any commodity exported from the United States that is subject to the Export Administration Regulations. As alleged in the seizure warrant, in or around October 2021, Mahan Air violated the Temporary Denial Order and U.S. export control laws when it transferred custody and control of the Boeing aircraft to EMTRASUR without U.S. Government authorization. Additional violations of U.S. export control laws subsequently occurred between February and May 2022 when EMTRASUR reexported the aircraft between Caracas, Venezuela; Tehran, Iran; and Moscow, Russia, without U.S. Government authorization.

Further, as alleged in the seizure warrant, in June 2022, Argentinian authorities detained the flight crew of the Boeing aircraft, including five Iranians. The registered captain of the aircraft was identified as an ex-commander for the IRGC and a shareholder and member of the board of Iranian airline Qeshm Fars Air. Argentinian law enforcement also searched the aircraft and found a Mahan Air flight log documenting the aircraft’s flights after the unlawful transfer to EMTRASUR, including a flight to Tehran, Iran, in April 2022. Mahan Air was designated in 2011 by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) for providing material support to the IRGC-QF, and Qeshm Fars Air was designated in 2019 for being controlled by Mahan Air and for providing material support to the IRGC-QF.

In addition, CONVIASA, EMTRASUR’s parent company, was designated by OFAC in 2020, and its fleet was blocked pursuant to Executive Order in 2019. Concurrent with today’s action, the Department of Commerce issued a Temporary Denial Order denying the export privileges of EMTRASUR for 180 days with the possibility of renewal.

“The Department of Justice will not tolerate transactions that violate our sanctions and export laws,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “Working with our partners across the globe, we will give no quarter to governments and state-sponsored entities looking to evade our sanctions and export control regimes in service of their malign activities.”

“The seizure of this aircraft demonstrates our determination to hold accountable those who seek to violate U.S. sanctions and export control laws,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves for the District of Columbia. “We will aggressively seek to prevent sanctioned entities from gaining access to America-made items or profiting from their illegal transfer. Working with our federal and international partners, we will be unflagging in our efforts to bring to justice those who violate these sanctions and to seize assets where appropriate and lawful.”

“Today’s coordinated actions target the unlawful transfer of an Iranian cargo plane to a Venezuelan airline and the airline’s subsequent operation of that plane in violation of our rules,” said Assistant Secretary of Export Enforcement Matthew S. Axelrod of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security. “We will continue to take significant and direct enforcement action against foreign airlines operating U.S.-origin aircraft in violation of U.S. export controls.”

“This seizure demonstrates the FBI’s persistence in using all of our tools to hold the Iranian Government and affiliated individuals and companies accountable when they violate U.S. laws,” said Acting Assistant Director of Counterterrorism Kevin Vorndran of the FBI. “The FBI, along with our international partners, will continue to seek out those individuals who contribute to the advancement of Iran’s malign activities and ensure they are brought to justice, regardless of where, or how, they attempt to hide.”

This matter is being investigated by the Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security’s Miami Field Office and the FBI Miami Field Office.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rajbir Datta of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andy Camacho of the Southern District of Florida, and Trial Attorney Elizabeth Abraham of the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are handling the seizure and investigation, with assistance from Paralegal Specialist Brian Rickers and Legal Assistant Jessica McCormick. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs provided significant assistance in working with the Argentinian authorities.

A photograph of the TARGET Aircraft from Sept. 6, 2019 with the Mahan Air livery and logo.

A photograph of the TARGET Aircraft from Jan. 23, 2022 with the EMTRASUR livery and logo.

Posted on

Security News: Justice Department Officials Join Citywide Kick-Off for National Night Out Celebrations

Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division

            WASHINGTON – The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia today joined community and law enforcement partners in celebrating National Night Out, with U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. attending the District of Columbia’s kick-off event in Northeast Washington.

            Community organizers, neighbors, and law enforcement turned out for the event at Lincoln Park and at other locations throughout the city. The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) organized the events in each of the District of Columbia’s seven police districts.  Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr., who leads the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, was among numerous law enforcement and government officials who joined U.S. Attorney Graves in commemorating the night in the District of Columbia.

            “Our mission in law enforcement is to serve the community, and the best way to do that is by working together with people at the neighborhood level across the District of Columbia,” said U.S. Attorney Graves. “Tonight is a special evening to recognize the importance of these ties and to demonstrate that all of us are determined to make our city a safer place.”

            “Keeping communities safe is a top priority for the Department of Justice,” said Assistant Attorney General Polite. “Law enforcement is most effective when it has the trust of the communities that we serve.  Events like National Night Out lead to meaningful and positive engagement between law enforcement and the community, and strengthens those bonds.”

            Across the nation, senior Justice Department officials and U.S. Attorneys are taking part in a Department-wide effort to bring attention to events that build stronger community-police relations. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland attended events in Baltimore, while Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco attended National Night Out events in Charleston, S.C.

            Established in 1984 from a Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Assistance grant, the goal of National Night Out is to build relationships with and between communities and law enforcement. National Night Out promotes police-community partnerships and neighborhood camaraderie to make our neighborhoods safer, better places to live. In most areas of the country, the program occurs annually on the first Tuesday of August.