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☆ Feds charge Japanese Yakuza leader with nuclear materials trafficking
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-21 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The DOJ alleges that a high-ranking member of the Yakuza, Takeshi Ebisawa, was the central figure in a plot to funnel American weapons to ethnic militias in Myanmar in exchange for heroin and meth. Federal prosecutors in New York on Wednesday said they charged a Japanese Yakuza leader with conspiring to traffic nuclear materials from Burma to other countries in the belief that they would be used by Iran to make a nuclear weapon. "A U.S. nuclear forensic laboratory later analyzed the samples and confirmed that the samples contain uranium and weapons-grade plutonium," the statement said. Williams said Ebisawa "brazenly trafficked" the nuclear material while believing it would be used to develop a nuclear weapons program." The top prosecutor also said that even as he tried to sell the nuclear materials, the Yakuza leader "also negotiated for the purchase of deadly weapons, including surface-to-air missiles," M60 machine guns, AK-47s and armor-piercing ammunition.

Persons: Takeshi Ebisawa, Ebisawa, Damian Williams, Williams Organizations: DOJ, U.S . Drug, Administration, Attorney's, U.S, AK Locations: Myanmar, New York, Japanese, Burma, Iran, Thailand, Iranian, Manhattan, U.S

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A man who died in a Texas prison decades ago has been identified as the person who abducted and stabbed three Indiana girls and left them in a cornfield nearly 50 years ago, police said, citing DNA evidence. The girls, ages 11, 13 and 14, survived the attack, but “a clear suspect” was never pinpointed and the case went cold — until now. At the time of the August 1975 attack, police said Williams lived in Indianapolis near where the three girls were abducted while hitchhiking. Investigators submitted the profile last year to DNA Labs International, a Florida-based forensic laboratory, where it was subjected to “the latest forensic technology available,” police said. After ancestry analysis helped identify the suspect's children, samples from Williams’ relatives helped confirm his identification as the attacker, police said.

Persons: ”, Thomas Edward Williams, “, Kendale Adams, Williams, Williams ’, — Sheri Rottler, Kathie Rottler, Kandice Smith —, ” Smith, Rottler Organizations: INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, Indianapolis Star, DNA Labs, Associated Press Locations: Texas, Galveston , Texas, Indianapolis, Hancock County, Florida

TEL AVIV—The body bags arrive by the dozen in a refrigerated truck first thing every morning. Some contain corpses, some only fragmentary remains, burned almost to ash. Another shipment usually comes before noon. Three weeks after the bloody massacre that killed 1,400 people in southern Israel, the cramped yellow building that houses Israel’s government forensic laboratory is still inundated with unidentified remains. The bags line the morgue hallway, on gurneys and the floor, spilling into an outdoor courtyard.

Locations: TEL AVIV, Israel, gurneys

“They got the wrong man,” Caroline Smith said during opening statements in the trial of Logan Clegg in Concord. The newly retired couple were killed shortly after going for a walk on the trail near their Concord apartment on April 18, 2022. Shell casings also were found at a location later discovered to be Clegg's tent site. She said a state police forensic laboratory analysis showed the casings were fired from Clegg's gun. She said a criminologist could not say that Clegg's gun was the one used to fire the shots.

Persons: “, ” Caroline Smith, Logan Clegg, Clegg, Stephen, Djeswende Reid, Smith, Meghan Hagaman, ” Hagaman, hadn't, Hagaman, Logan Organizations: CONCORD, Court Locations: N.H, New Hampshire, Utah, Concord, South Burlington , Vermont, Portugal, United States, South Burlington, Berlin, Germany, Merrimack County

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The latest search for the remains of victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre has ended with 59 graves found and seven sets of remains exhumed, according to Oklahoma state archaeologist Kary Stackelbeck. The excavation ended Friday, Stackelbeck said, and 57 of the 59 graves were unmarked and previously unknown. None of the remains found thus far have been confirmed as victims of the massacre. Political Cartoons View All 1190 ImagesThe seven exhumed remains will be reburied in their original grave sites after the forensic analysis is complete and any DNA is collected, according to a news release from the city of Tulsa. Previous searches have resulted in 66 sets of remains located and 22 sent to the Utah lab.

Persons: Kary Stackelbeck, Stackelbeck, we've, Greenwood Organizations: OKLAHOMA CITY, Intermountain Locations: Tulsa, Oklahoma, Salt Lake City, Utah, Black

☆ Kosovo so awash with fake euro coins they are accepted as payment
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-21 | by ( Fatos Bytyci | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"At the beginning everyone was worried and was checking if the 2-euro coins were fake or not," said waiter Endrit. "Now we don't check anymore... we may be taking fake money or may be giving out fake money. The number of fake 2-euro coins in circulation has seen a massive increase this year, according to law enforcement agencies. In April they arrested a man and a woman trying to bring 10,600 fake 2-euro coins into Kosovo from North Macedonia. "We always complained in Kosovo that we don't have our own currency, well it looks we have now - fake 2-euro coins."

Persons: Endrit, Vjollca Mavriqi, Sokol Havolli, Fatos, Alexandra Hudson Organizations: Police, Sokol, Kosovo's Central Bank, Reuters, Alexandra Hudson Our, Thomson Locations: PRISTINA, Kosovo's, Pristina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia

A judge vacated the felony murder convictions in 2020, after testing found the towel was free of blood. The two men filed a federal wrongful conviction lawsuit against Lee, eight police investigators and the town of New Milford. U.S. District Court Judge Victor Bolden ruled in July that there was no evidence Lee ever conducted any blood tests on the towel, and a summary judgement was issued against him. Under the settlement, which must still be approved by the General Assembly, Birch and Henning would each receive $12.6 million, Attorney General William Tong's office said. Simpson murder trial, in which he questioned the handling of blood evidence.

Persons: —, Henry Lee, Ralph “ Ricky ” Birch, Shawn Henning, Everett Carr, Lee, Victor Bolden, Birch, Henning, William Tong's, Lee . Lee, ”, Blood, Henry C, Simpson, JonBenet, Scott Peterson, Laci, Phil Spector, Spector Organizations: General, University of New, Lee, of Criminal, Forensic Sciences Locations: HARTFORD, Conn, New Milford, Hartford, New Milford . U.S, Birch, JonBenet Ramsey, Colorado

☆ Fast, cheap and deadly
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +18 min

Fast, cheap and deadly How fentanyl replaced heroin and hooked AmericaLeer en EspañolReuters obtained and analyzed ten year’s worth of data on drugs seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents at ports of entry along the southern border. It shows: Fentanyl seizures by weight more than tripled in the last quarter of 2022 compared to a year earlier. Pills were mentioned in nearly half of fentanyl border seizure incidents in 2022, up from just 6% five years earlier. A fifth of fentanyl seizures take place on pedestrians, the Reuters analysis shows. Over the same period, heroin seizures fell more than 80% from over 2,000 kg, according to the Reuters analysis.

Persons: Bryce Pardo, Troy Miller, Joe Biden, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, ”, Chris Urben, Urben, Joaquin ‘ El Chapo ’ Guzman, “, CBP’s Miller, Jonathan Caulkins, James Mandryck, Oxycontin, Lopez Obrador, narcotrafficking, Lopez, Rosa Rodriguez, Cecilia Farfan, Mendez, Freed, Pardo, Romain Le Cour, Cour, Carlos Perez, Perez Organizations: Reuters, U.S . Customs, Border Protection, U.S . Centers for Disease Control, United Nations Office, Drugs, DEA, CBP, U.S, Nardello, Carnegie Mellon University, U.S . Postal Service, Chinese Foreign Ministry, Mexico's, North, Forensic Laboratory, University of California, Global, Transnational, U.S . Congress ’ Commission, New Generation, Center for Research Locations: Mexican, U.S, Mexico, Sinaloa, El Paso, Arizona’s Nogales, United States, offscreen, sierra, China, Beijing, Washington, University of California San Diego ., ”, New, New Generation Jalisco, Mexico City

☆ Car buried in Silicon Valley in the '90s may have been put there for insurance fraud, police say
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Phil-Helsel-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | Phil Helsel | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

A Mercedes-Benz found buried in the backyard of a home in an affluent San Francisco-area community may have been put there for insurance fraud, Atherton police said Thursday. The 1991 500 SL car was found buried beneath 4 to 5 feet of earth as landscapers were doing a project at the home on Oct. 20. Law enforcement personnel investigate a car found buried in a San Francisco area backyard, on Oct. 21, 2022. “Detectives are still investigating this incident and it is believed the vehicle was possibly buried for insurance fraud purposes,” Atherton Police Chief Steven D. McCulley said in Thursday’s statement. Lew was convicted in 2000 of insurance fraud after he paid undercover agents $50,000 in cash and jewelry to sink his 56-foot yacht — worth $1.2 million, NBC Bay Area has reported.

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