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Federal officials found nearly 40 pounds of methamphetamine after making a traffic stop and raiding an apartment Tuesday in Gwinnett County. Bryan Cox, with the Department of Homeland Security , told Channel 2 Action News the bust at the Las Colinas apartment complex in Norcross may be tied to a larger drug operation . A woman bought drugs from the apartment and officers conducted a traffic stop, Cox said. Sanjuana Rendon had more than 3 pounds of meth in her car when she was stopped and arrested at a QuikTrip on Brook Hollow Parkway , according to a warrant. Inside the Norcross apartment, officials found another 35 pounds of meth, cash and guns. Jesus Sosa Perez , 46, and his 18-year-old son, Jesus Cabrera, were arrested. All three people face drug trafficking charges , but Cox couldn’t immediately say how their local operation may be tied to a cartel across the border, Channel 2 reported .  “At initial glance it looks like this is a part of a larger organization,” Cox said. 

Photo by Andrea Yori | CC BY 2.0 In the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, Washington pursued its elusive enemies across the landscapes of Asia and Africa, thanks in part to a massive expansion of its intelligence infrastructure, particularly of the emerging technologies for digital surveillance , agile drones, and biometric identification. In 2010, almost a decade into this secret war with its voracious appetite for information, the Washington Post reported that the national security state had swelled into a “fourth branch” of the federal government — with 854,000 vetted officials, 263 security organizations , and over 3,000 intelligence units, issuing 50,000 special reports every year. Though stunning, these statistics only skimmed the visible surface of what had become history’s largest and most lethal clandestine apparatus . According to classified documents that Edward Snowden leaked in 2013, the nation’s 16 intelligence agencies alone had 107,035 employees and a combined “b...

August 24, 2017 11:43 PM ROCHESTER—21,000 people have been busted in New York State in the past few years trying to use stolen or bogus information to get a driver’s license. The Department of Motor Vehicles has been cracking down on the fraud by using updated facial recognition technology . Every time your photo is taken at the DMV, it is now run through the software. The photograph is compared not only to the last photo that was taken of you but to all the photos that have been taken at DMV offices across the state. The facial recognition technology uses 128 measurements to compare; different hair styles, glasses and other features that change over time do not prevent the technology from making matches. “About half of the people we identified were driving the roads while they were suspended or revoked under another name,” says Owen McShane, the Director for Investigations for NYS DMV. So, the technology has arguably made the roads safer, it’s also stopping fraud: ”A lot of the...

NORTH ANDOVER — Police say a 32-year-old man they described as a " drug wholesaler " is suspected of selling heroin and oxycodone pills from his Royal Crest Drive apartment to drug dealers in Lawrence. A call to the Drug Enforcement Administration Tipline brought federal agents and local police to the apartment of Guarionex Pratts, 32, 26 Royal Crest Drive , Apt. 6, Wednesday night . Police said Pratts consented to a search of the apartment and during the search they found a 2.2 pounds of heroin, several hundred oxycodone pills and $5,000 cash. Investigators also found drug packaging materials and some of the heroin already packaged for street sales. The heroin had a street value of $150,000 and the 10 milligram dose oxycodone pills had a street value of about $2,000, police said. Acting Police Chief Paul Gallagher said calls from neighbors raised the possibility of a meth lab in the apartment because of the strong odor coming from it. But when investigators se...

Paul Bass | New Haven Independent Democrat Marcus Paca, left, and incumbent Mayor Toni Harp . Marcus Paca promised that if he becomes mayor, he will fight gentrification, while Mayor Toni Harp argued that the burst of market-rate housing in town doesn’t constitute gentrification. Harp promised to continue New Haven’s “sanctuary city” policies even if President Trump withholds federal grants , while Paca promised to take a closer look at the issue first to avoid losing needed dollars . Those differences between the two Democratic mayoral candidates emerged Sunday afternoon at their first debate, held before a full house in the sanctuary of Varick Memorial AME Zion Church on Dixwell Avenue. The event was billed as a “forum,” not a “debate.” But a debate it turned out to be, from the moment the two Democrats began fielding questions from a panel of three local ministers and passionately responded to each other’s positions in a fast-paced, issues-focused back and forth. Two- term incu...

ISIS has claimed responsibility for this past Thursday's deadly terror attack in Barcelona, Spain, that killed and wounded people from at least 34 countries -- including the United States. This year alone, the Spanish police have arrested more than 20 people with links to ISIS.  Here in America, 100 people have been arrested for ISIS-related crimes over the last three years. The FBI devotes significant resources to identifying potential terrorists and sometimes spends years tracking them. The terror attack in Garland, Texas, two years ago was the first claimed by ISIS on U.S. soil.  It's mostly forgotten because the two terrorists were killed by local cops before they managed to murder anyone.  As Anderson Cooper first reported in March, we were surprised to discover just how close the FBI was to one of the terrorists. Not only had the FBI been monitoring him for years, there was an undercover agent right behind him when the first shots were fired. Terrorists behind 2015 ...

Aug 16, 2017 The first time Captain Noorullah Aminyar traveled to the United States, in 2012, he felt calm and peaceful in a way he never had before. Back home in Afghanistan, he had slept fully clothed , boots on, hand on his rifle. The Taliban attacked every night, and he had to be ready. "But when I come to America," he told me, "I have no stress in America. I sleep good. I tell you, I have no stress. It was really easy. It was a good thing. You feel safe. I was born in the war. I grew up in the war. Always, your life is in danger. You find a little safe time, for sure you'll be happy." Advertisement - Continue Reading Below Advertisement - Continue Reading Below For Aminyar, then twenty-eight, coming to America was an honor and an achievement. He attended the prestigious Defense Language Institute in San Antonio, the culmination of more than a decade of studying English, followed by a basic infantry officer 's course at Fort Benning, Georgia, with Ame...