Month: March 2023

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Defendants Convicted And Sentenced In Long-Term Methamphetamine And Oxycodone Drug Trafficking Investigation In Bay County

Source: United States Department of Justice News

PENSACOLA, FLORIDA – A federal judge sentenced the seventh defendant in a large-scale methamphetamine and oxycodone trafficking organization operating primarily in Bay County.  The convictions and sentences were announced by Jason R. Coody United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida. 

“Our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners work tirelessly to keep us safe by removing addictive and deadly controlled substances from our communities,” said U.S. Attorney Coody. “We remain committed to support their efforts through the investigation and prosecution of criminals who would bringing drugs into North Florida. The imposed sentences illustrate the significant consequences of harming our citizens through their illicit drug trafficking activities.”

The defendants and their sentences were:

  • Darrell Britt, 33, of Panama City, Florida, 300 months in prison
  • Marcel Michaud, 57, of Southport, Florida, 144 months in prison
  • Kenneth Sizemore, 57, of Youngstown, Florida, 120 months in prison
  • Johnny Wayne Carr, 58, of Panama City, Florida, 212 months in prison
  • James Wilson, 60, of Panama City, Florida, 140 months in prison
  • David Barron, 60, of Panama City, Florida, 108 months in prison
  • Mary Ann Brown, 52, of Youngstown, Florida, 108 months in prison

All will be on supervised release once they are released from custody.

“We recognize the power in effective partnerships,” said Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford. “Our work with DEA and the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida is resulting in convictions and removing illegal narcotics from our streets. This is a win for the people of Bay County.”

In August 2019, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Panama City Resident Office Task Force initiated an investigation targeting the distribution of multiple kilograms of methamphetamine and multi-thousands of prescription narcotics pills by Kenneth Sizemore, Marcel Michaud, Darrell Britt, Johnny Carr, James Wilson, David Barron, and Mary Brown and others in Bay County and surrounding areas of north Florida.  Over the course of the two-year investigation, DEA, working with state and local partners, compiled evidence to secure indictments on seven Federal defendants and approximately 16 state of Florida defendants.  The investigation led to the seizure of several kilograms of methamphetamine, firearms, U.S. currency, vehicles, construction machinery, and real estate purchased from the sale of narcotics. 

“At a time when our country is experiencing a crippling drug overdose and poisoning epidemic, we need to be doing everything we can to keep our communities safe and healthy. Those who choose to bring this poison into our communities will be held accountable for their actions,” said DEA Miami Field Division Special Agent in Charge Deanne L. Reuter. “DEA remains committed to working with our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to keep these highly addictive and destructive drugs out of our North Florida communities.”

This case resulted from a joint investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Bay County Sheriff’s Office, Panama City Police Department, Panama City Beach Police Department, Lynn Haven Police Department, Springfield Police Department, Chipley Police Department, Walton County Sheriff’s Office, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Washington County Sheriff’s Office, and the Bay County State’s Attorney Office. Assistant United States Attorneys Walter Narramore and Amanda Gordon prosecuted the case.

This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida is one of 94 offices that serve as the nation’s principal litigators under the direction of the Attorney General. To access public court documents online, please visit the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida website. For more information about the United States Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Florida, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/fln/index.html.

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Justice Department Announces Allison Turkel as Special Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland today announced that he has chosen Allison Turkel to head the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF). Turkel, who has served in the Justice Department for over 14 years, most recently in the Office for Victims of Crime, will assume her new position effective March 12, 2023. She will be taking over from August Flentje, who on April 29, 2022, was appointed as Special Master on an interim basis following the departure of former Special Master Rupa Bhattacharyya.

“In administering the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, the Justice Department is committed to honoring the victims and survivors of the 9/11 terror attacks, including those who bravely responded that day and in the years after, putting themselves at great risk,” said Attorney General Garland. “I am grateful for August’s service as interim VCF Special Master and I am confident that Allison’s leadership, vision, and commitment to serving victims will enable VCF to continue its essential mission.”

“As a native New Yorker, a former Philadelphia area police officer and lieutenant, and a prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, it is an honor and privilege to be selected by the Attorney General for this important service,” Turkel said. “I recognize I am stepping into the position to carry on the legacy of those who held the role before me, while also focusing on the future of a program that must continue to meet the needs of claimants for decades to come. I look forward to working alongside the dedicated VCF staff to ensure that 9/11 claimants promptly receive the payments to which they are entitled. I also want to thank August for serving as interim Special Master over the past 10 months, leading the team and ensuring there was no slowdown in claims processing.”

The VCF has made tremendous progress since it re-opened in October 2011. As of Feb. 28, 2023, over $11.1 billion in compensation has been awarded to more than 50,000 responders and survivors who have been harmed because of their exposure to 9/11 toxins. Under Flentje’s leadership over the past 10 months, the VCF issued over 7,400 awards totaling over $1 billion dollars. Flentje continued to build upon the progress made during Bhattacharyya’s tenure, including reviewing and rendering decisions on nearly 800 appeals, meeting his goal to reduce to six months or less the waiting period for a decision after an appeal hearing is held. Flentje also saw that the VCF Transformation effort – initiated following the VCF’s Permanent Authorization in July 2019 – continued to move forward to ensure the program remains operational for decades to come.

Flentje is a career civil service attorney with the Department’s Civil Division and will support the VCF and Special Master Turkel as she steps into her new role. The Department does not expect any interruption in VCF claim review or in the issuance of awards during this transition.

Turkel’s career in public service has spanned decades, including her recent work with the Justice Department’s Office for Victims of Crime (OVC). Prior to this role, Turkel oversaw all grant functions for the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking. Her prior work also included oversight of the team working with American Indian Tribes to implement the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, for which she and her team received the Assistant Attorney General Award for Exceptional Service.

Turkel previously served as the Deputy Director of the Federal, International, and Tribal Division at OVC. She oversaw the Antiterrorism Emergency Assistance Program, including the International Terrorism Victim Expense Reimbursement Program, National Mass Violence Victimization Center, and OVC’s Mass Violence victim support program. As Deputy Director, she also provided guidance and resources for federal partners’ victim services programs. In addition, she led the Tribal victims’ services program, including the creation of innovative and efficient processes to help the Department effectuate a massive increase in funding for the first ever Tribal Victim Services Set Aside Program, and the creation of the Tribal Financial Management Center.

Before her federal service, Turkel was the Director of the National District Attorneys Association’s (NDAA) National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse (NCPCA), where she managed program activities and staff; and trained and provided technical assistance nationwide on child abuse, maltreatment, sexual exploitation, computer facilitated crimes against children, and domestic violence. Prior to her position at NDAA, Allison was a prosecutor for over 11 years, serving in New York and Illinois. She was an Assistant District Attorney in the New York County District Attorney’s Office for more than nine years, where she tried a wide variety of felony cases.

Turkel was born and raised in New York City, and although she has lived in the Washington D.C. area for the past 20 years, considers herself a lifetime New Yorker. Before beginning her legal career, she served as a police officer and lieutenant for eight years in the Philadelphia area. She received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. from Temple University School of Law.

“This is a program that has always operated with transparency and compassion, and this will not change as we continue to work to provide full compensation to those who have suffered as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001,” said Turkel.

For additional information on the Victim Compensation Fund, please visit: www.vcf.gov.

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GSA Celebrates Successes on 2nd Anniversary of American Rescue Plan

Source: United States General Services Administration

March 10, 2023

WASHINGTON, DC – This Saturday, the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) will celebrate the second anniversary of the American Rescue Plan (ARP), President Biden’s plan to provide direct relief to Americans, contain Covid-19, and rescue the economy.

Since the bill was signed into law on March 11, 2021, ARP investments at GSA have helped modernize technology and made government digital services simpler and more secure.

“The American Rescue Plan is delivering government services better than ever and building trust along the way,” said GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan. “GSA is proud to be making smart investments in agency efforts in everything from cybersecurity to customer experience that are helping deliver more seamless and secure digital services to millions of Americans.”

The ARP focused critical resources to strengthen the technology infrastructure that federal agencies use. It included $150 million for the Federal Citizen Services Fund (FCSF) and $1 billion for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF).

In total, the TMF now manages 38 investments (across 22 agencies) totaling nearly $700 million, including 27 that have been awarded since the ARP became law.

“We’ve increased our investment rate tenfold, so agencies and the public are seeing a significant, measurable impact from our efforts to improve citizen data protections, strengthen governmentwide collaboration, and enhance public-facing digital services,” said TMF Executive Director Raylene Yung, who leads a team of financial and technical experts who work with agencies on these investments. “We know our investments are succeeding, as agency projects are delivering better outcomes for the American public in easier, faster, cheaper, and more secure ways.”

TMF investments underway include:

  • Enabling 1 million veterans to ask for and get fully digital service records through the National Archives and Records Administration.
  • Using a new streamlined system to inspect 64 billion pounds of produce annually at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
  • Collecting $90 billion in duties, taxes, and fees annually using a modernized system at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and saving over $30 million a year once their 30-year-old system is retired.
  • Working toward strengthening the security of data and privacy protections for:
    • 100 million students and borrowers that the Department of Education supports.
    • 2 million civilian federal employees in OPM’s systems.
    • Hundreds of facilities under GSA’s control.
    • Millions of veterans using VA’s digital services.
    • 70 million retirement and disability beneficiaries and their families served by the Social Security Administration.
    • 800 national security users of Treasury’s classified information sharing network.
    • U.S. Agency for Global Media’s reporters stationed in high-risk areas around the world, their sources, and the global media affiliates that rely on their news and information.

In addition to the TMF funding, the FCSF funding has supported key efforts in the Technology Transformation Services (TTS), an organization within GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS) focused on designing and delivering a digital government with and for the public. The ARP funding supports over 40 initiatives designed to improve digital government services for the public.

“ARP funding is enabling GSA to help more people seamlessly access their benefits, accelerate public-facing service delivery, expand cross-agency services, and deploy technical experts throughout agencies to improve federal digital capacity,” said TTS Director and FAS Deputy Commissioner Ann Lewis. “We at TTS are excited about working across the government to put people first.”

Examples of program successes include:

  • Accelerating agency cloud adoption to make services more secure by reducing FedRAMP authorization timelines by nearly a month and increasing annual authorizations by 27%, driving growth in the cloud and cloud security marketplaces.
  • Improving access to housing counseling services by partnering with the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Agency to modernize the housing counseling locator website and interactive voice response system, enabling 94% of people to access the information they need without help.
  • Developing the U.S. Web Design System’s Inclusive Design Patterns, a set of guidelines to build accessible, equitable, and inclusive government websites.
  • Launching the U.S. Digital Corps, a fellowship program whose inaugural class of 38 is helping to bring skilled early-career technologists into government in the fields of software engineering, cybersecurity, product management, design, and data science.

GSA is also working to support equitable outcomes through ARP funds and programs, helping federal agencies deliver funds to Americans experiencing financial hardship. For example, when the U.S. Department of the Treasury sought help deploying Emergency Rental Assistance, the department linked up with GSA’s Office of Evaluation Sciences (OES) to find the best way to distribute $3.5 billion to families across the country. OES and Treasury also worked together on four evaluations of the ARP’s State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds program. For more information, see the Office of Evaluation Sciences: Learning what works to support equitable delivery of the American Rescue Plan.

As GSA’s ARP-funded efforts enter their third year, GSA and its federal partners will continue to look for ways to deliver better for the American people.

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About GSA: GSA provides centralized procurement and shared services for the federal government, managing a nationwide real estate portfolio of nearly 370 million rentable square feet, overseeing approximately $75 billion in annual contracts, and delivering technology services that serve millions of people across dozens of federal agencies. GSA’s mission is to deliver the best customer experience and value in real estate, acquisition, and technology services to the government and the American people. For more information, visit GSA.gov and follow us @USGSA.

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Rockland County Jail Inmates Charged With Production Of Child Pornography While Awaiting Trial On Murder And Other Charges

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Michael J. Driscoll, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and Louis Falco III, the Rockland County Sheriff, announced that DARIN PETERSON and ANTHONY MITCHELL were charged today with production of child pornography.  According to the Complaints, PETERSON and MITCHELL enticed a child (the “Victim”) — while the Victim was 14 and 15-years-old and while the defendants were incarcerated, awaiting trial for murder and other serious charges — to send them digital content of herself engaged in sexually explicit activity.  The defendants were transferred into federal custody today and presented on the charges in White Plains Federal Court.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “The harm that child sex abuse can inflict on the most innocent of victims is something no child should bear.  That these defendants committed these crimes while awaiting trial for murder and other serious charges makes their conduct especially contemptible, and this Office and our FBI partners will continue to exhaustively detect, identify, and charge any individuals engaged in this sinister conduct.”

FBI Assistant Director Michael J. Driscoll said: “Petersen and Mitchell, while incarcerated awaiting trial for murder and additional violent crimes, allegedly preyed on a child, inducing them to send sexually explicit content to the defendants.  Adults manipulating children to satisfy their own perverted wishes bring harm into our community both now and into the future.  The FBI and our partners in law enforcement will remain tireless in our efforts to protect children from violent predators.”

Rockland County Sheriff Louis Falco III said: “The Rockland County Sheriff’s Office and the Rockland County Intelligence Center were proud to assist the FBI Safe Streets Task Force in this investigation.  Sexual predators who exploit children, who are among the most vulnerable members of society, will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

As alleged in the Complaints:[1]

From on or about August 12, 2022, up to and including on or about September 25, 2022, in the case of MITCHELL, and from on or about December 7, 2022, up to and including on or about January 29, 2023, in the case of PETERSON, the defendants contacted the Victim and demanded that she take and send to them sexually explicit digital media depicting herself.

The defendants committed these crimes while PETERSON awaited trial for murder, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon, and while MITCHELL awaited trial for murder, attempted murder, and criminal possession of a weapon.

*                *                *

MITCHELL, 23, of Haverstraw, New York, and PETERSON, 29, of West Haverstraw, New York, are charged with one count of production of child pornography, which carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum potential sentence of 30 years in prison.

The minimum and maximum potential sentences are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by a judge.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding work of the FBI and the Rockland County Sheriff’s Office and thanked the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office for its assistance in this case.

The case is being prosecuted by the Office’s White Plains Division.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Arad is in charge of the prosecution.

The charges contained in the Complaint are merely accusations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

[1] As the introductory phrase signifies, the entirety of the text of the Complaint, and the description of the Complaint set forth herein, constitutes only allegations, and every fact described therein should be treated as an allegation.

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Alabama Man Sentenced On Charges For Actions During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Defendant Was Among First in Mob to Enter Capitol Building

            WASHINGTON – An Alabama man was sentenced in the District of Columbia of felony charges for his actions during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. His actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the presidential election

            William Watson, 25, of Auburn, Alabama, was sentenced yesterday to 36 months in prison for obstruction of an official proceeding and entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a dangerous weapon. Watson was found guilty at a stipulated trial in November 2022. In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton ordered 36 months of supervised release.

            According to the facts presented in court, on Jan. 6, 2021, Watson joined the mob of rioters illegally on the West Plaza area of Capitol grounds. He carried a knife with him on his waistband, which he used to tear down cloth around the inauguration scaffolding so that the crowd could move further up the steps toward the Capitol Building. Just after 2 p.m., the police line was overrun by rioters. He also obtained a cannister of OC spray while at the Capitol, which he pointed threateningly at officers.

            Watson was among the first rioters through the Senate Wing Door; he helped smash out a window adjacent to the Senate Wing Door before crawling through it at 2:13 p.m. Watson eventually arrived in the Ohio Clock Corridor near the Senate Chambers, where he and other rioters confronted several officers. Officers eventually escorted Watson and others out of the building. Shortly after the events of January 6, Watson created a Snapchat story with a photo of himself and others in the Ohio Clock Corridor. Among other things, the caption stated, “The fake news won’t win against the thousands of patriots recorded today.”

            Watson was arrested on May 4, 2021, in Alabama.

            This case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Alabama.

            The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Mobile Field Office and its Auburn Resident Agency, and the FBI’s Washington Field Office, which identified Watson as #22 on its seeking information photos. Valuable assistance was provided by the Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Capitol Police.

            In the 26 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 999 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 320 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation remains ongoing. 

            Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.