informant

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Money Launderer Flips, Swipes $150K From DEA

Daniel Shaun Zilke sentenced to more than 7 years in prison

(Newser) - A man accused of laundering millions of dollars for drug traffickers flipped to informant, only to steal $150,000 from the Drug Enforcement Administration, federal prosecutors say. Known as "The Englishman," Daniel Shaun Zilke, 49, of Mexico City, allegedly oversaw money laundering operations for drug cartels across the...

CIA Is Openly Recruiting Informants on Social Media

Anyone interested in North Korea, China, or Iran?

(Newser) - The CIA says it was successful in recruiting Russian informants following the invasion of Ukraine. Now, "we want to make sure individuals in other authoritarian regimes know that we're open for business," a rep said Wednesday as the agency put out a call for informants in China,...

A Drug Sting in Louisiana Went Terribly Wrong

Informant wore a microphone, but law enforcement wasn't monitoring in real time

(Newser) - A woman outfitted with a tiny microphone and hidden camera walked up to a dilapidated drug house on a chilly afternoon last year looking to buy meth from a dealer known on the streets as "Mississippi." But as the informant disappeared inside with the career criminal, her law...

Source of Deutsche Bank's Secret Files Turns Up Dead

Valentin Broeksmit was an FBI informant; no foul play is suspected

(Newser) - A whistleblower who supplied secret files to federal authorities investigating Deutsche Bank's dealings with former President Trump has been found dead. The body of 46-year-old Valentin Broeksmit was found by a cleaning crew just before 7am Wednesday at Woodrow Wilson High School in Los Angeles, Sgt. Rudy Perez of...

CIA Warns That Informants Are Being Arrested, Killed

Operative worldwide have been urged to 'tighten up on tradecraft'

(Newser) - While businesses across the US are dealing with a labor shortage, the CIA apparently has an informant shortage. Sources tell the New York Times that a top secret cable sent to CIA stations around the world last week warned that dozens of foreign informants have been killed, captured, or compromised...

Report: Jailhouse Informants Were Offered 'Sex for Lies'

Their testimony may have sent innocent Philadelphia men to prison for decades

(Newser) - Former jailhouse informants in Philadelphia say detectives trying to clear up murder cases decades ago offered them the chance to have sex with girlfriends or sex workers in police interview rooms in return for false testimony that sent innocent men to prison. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that no case has...

'White Boy Rick' Inspiration Sues Police for $100M

Says he was coerced, as a teen, into becoming informant

(Newser) - A Detroit-area man whose decades in prison for drug dealing and work as an informant inspired the movie White Boy Rick filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking $100 million, claiming he was coerced into assisting police while just a helpless teenager, the AP reports. Richard Wershe Jr., 52, served roughly 30...

Proud Boys Leader Was 'Prolific' Police Informant

Enrique Tarrio was a 'key component' in drug investigations

(Newser) - Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio said Tuesday that he "doesn't recall" being an informant for federal and state law enforcement—but a former federal prosecutor and court records obtained by Reuters might jog his memory. Vanessa Singh Johannes, the former prosecutor, says that after a 2012 arrest in...

Report: CIA's Kremlin Asset Was Recruited Decades Ago

Sources say he rejected first extraction offer

(Newser) - A high-level CIA informant "exfiltrated" from Russia to the US in 2017 had been an American intelligence asset for decades, sources tell the New York Times —and he rejected an earlier attempt to get him out of the country. The sources say the informant—who was recruited long...

Drug Raid Ended in 2 Deaths. Now, a Cop Accused of Lying

Gerald Goines will 'more than likely be charged with serious crime' after raid that also hurt 5 cops

(Newser) - More details are emerging after a drug raid in Texas last month that left two people dead and five police officers injured. Undercover narcotics officers had been carrying out a search warrant on Jan. 28 for a Houston house that was reputed to be a drug den when shots rang...

Paul Ryan Gives His Opinion on Trump Pardoning Himself

'No one is above the law'

(Newser) - House Speaker Paul Ryan is agreeing with another senior House Republican who says there's no evidence that the FBI planted a "spy" in Donald Trump's 2016 campaign. The comments contradict the president, who has insisted the agency planted a "spy for political reasons and to help...

Trump Calls FBI Informant Report 'Bigger Than Watergate'
Trump Embraces
Controversial
FBI Spy Theory
THE RUNDOWN
May 18, 2018 1:06 PM CDT

Trump Embraces Controversial FBI Spy Theory

Allegations of informant inside campaign being used to discredit Mueller investigation

(Newser) - It's something Trump has said would be "bigger than Watergate" and the "all time biggest political scandal" ever if it pans out to be true. What he's referring to: a report in the New York Times this week that the FBI planted an informant to spy...

After a Few Days of Texting With 'Josh' He Was Dead
After a Few Days of Texting
With 'Josh' He Was Dead
in case you missed it
Nov 26, 2016 4:51 PM CST

After a Few Days of Texting With 'Josh' He Was Dead

The 'Inlander'digs into the death of 19-year-old Isaiah Wall

(Newser) - Isaiah Wall's phone kept ringing. The 19-year-old eventually picked up, and found the Idaho State Police on the other end. Best friend Chris Anderson recounts what happened next to the Pacific Northwest Inlander : The caller said police knew Wall's green Mustang had been in a hit-and run; Wall...

The Mysterious Mob Informant Who Inherited Widow's Fortune
Mob Informant Trades
Witness Protection for $100M
longform
Sep 30, 2016 7:03 PM CDT

Mob Informant Trades Witness Protection for $100M

A man called The General earned a wealthy widow's trust

(Newser) - A man called The General—though he's gone by other names—carries at least five cellphones at all times and always has an eye out for hidden enemies. And in 2010 at a McDonald's in New York, he became $100 million richer. DNAinfo has the improbable story of...

He Sold $80 of Pot, Turned Informant, Ended Up Dead

Now Andrew Sadek's family is suing

(Newser) - Six weeks after Andrew Sadek was last seen leaving his North Dakota State College of Science dorm in May 2014, his body turned up in the Red River. He'd been shot in the head. The 20-year-old was attending college on an electrician's scholarship and was just weeks shy...

Big Reveal: FBI Had Mole Who Met bin Laden—in 1993

He then died on a CIA mission

(Newser) - The FBI once had a mole so deep within al-Qaeda that he met with Osama bin Laden and provided the intelligence necessary to thwart his planned attack on a Masonic Lodge in LA, new investigative reports from the Washington Times and NBC News have revealed. The informant started out as...

Drug Lord Snitches: US Stiffed Us on Reward Money

'Snitches' tell the 'Guardian' they're still waiting for cash

(Newser) - In 2004, Diego León Montoya Sánchez, at the time the leader of Colombia's most powerful drug cartel, was second only to Osama bin Laden on the list of America's most wanted. Three years later, a member of his inner circle who goes by "Tito" decided...

Top WikiLeaks Volunteer Was FBI Informant

Sigurdur "Siggy" Thordarson sold out Assange for $5K

(Newser) - One of Julian Assange's key volunteers doubled as an informant for the FBI, he tells Wired . In August 2011, Sigurdur "Siggi" Thordarson, 18, sent an email to the US embassy in Iceland promising "intel"; the next day, he walked into the embassy building, flashed Assange's passport,...

Judge to Mobster: You Had No 'License to Kill'

Whitey Bulger didn't have 'immunity for future crimes'

(Newser) - Sorry, Whitey: Being a snitch doesn't allow you to commit murder. That's how a federal judge ruled today in the case of Whitey Bulger, a former Boston gang-leader who was arrested in California in 2011 and accused of taking part in 19 murders , reports the AP . Bulger claims...

Feds: Whitey Bulger's Immunity Claims 'Absurd'

Mobster says feds gave him carte blanche in the '70s

(Newser) - Prosecutors are rolling their eyes over Whitey Bulger's assertions that authorities gave him permanent immunity from all prosecution for his work as an informant in the 1970s. In court documents filed on Friday, prosecutors called those claims "absurd" and "frivolous," and asked a judge to insist...

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