18 Marines, 1 Sailor Arrested On Smuggling, Drug Charges

Three more service members were taken into custody in connection with a criminal probe into human smuggling and drug offenses that led to the arrests of 16 Marines at Camp Pendleton, investigators said. (AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi, File)

CAMP PENDLETON, CA — Three more service members – two Marines and one Navy sailor – were taken into custody in connection with a criminal probe into human smuggling and drug offenses that led to the arrests of 16 Marines at Camp Pendleton, investigators said Friday.

Naval Criminal Investigative Service agents took 16 Marines into custody Thursday morning during a battalion-wide roll-call formation at the northern San Diego County military installation, according to Marine Corps officials.

The arrestees range in rank from E-2 to E-4 and were all from the same unit – 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. Their identities and details on the allegations against them were not immediately available.

NCIS officials confirmed Friday that two more Marines had been arrested, along with one sailor, pushing the total number of arrests to 19.

"NCIS apprehended 18 Marines and one Sailor yesterday (Thursday) in relation to an ongoing investigation into allegations of human smuggling and drug-related offenses," NCIS spokesman Jeff Houston said in a statement. "The 1st Marine Division is cooperating with NCIS on this matter. NCIS is dedicated to investigating allegations of criminal activity that poses threats to Department of the Navy readiness and the safety of U.S. citizens.

"Out of respect for the investigative and judicial process, and to protect witnesses, NCIS will not comment further until the investigative and judicial process has completed," he said.

No other details were provided about the additional arrests.

As of Friday afternoon, the suspects had yet to be charged with any crimes, said USMC Maj. Kendra Motz, a 1st Marine Division spokeswoman.

"Out of respect for the privacy of the implicated Marines, we will not release names or other identifying information until charges are announced," Motz said. "The commanding officer of 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment will act within his authority to hold the Marines accountable at the appropriate level, should they be charged."

According to a Marine Corps statement, the arrests stemmed from "information gained from a previous human-smuggling investigation." Eight other Marines were interrogated Thursday for their alleged involvement in unrelated drug crimes, officials said. It was not immediately clear if the two additional Marine arrests announced Friday came from that group.

"None of the Marines arrested or detained for questioning served in support of the Southwest Border Support mission," according to the Marine Corps statement.

The prior case that led investigators to the new arrests involved Camp Pendleton Marines Byron Darnell Law II and David Javier Salazar-Quintero, who were taken into custody three weeks ago.

On July 3, Border Patrol agents investigating suspected human- smuggling activity in the southeastern reaches of San Diego County pulled over a small black car near Boulevard, according to a federal complaint.

Inside the vehicle were Law, Salazar-Quintero and three Mexican nationals in the United States illegally, the court document states. The two servicemen were taken into custody on suspicion of transporting undocumented immigrants for financial gain.

Law and Salazar-Quintero are being prosecuted in federal court. The newly arrested Marines' cases are in the military justice system for now, though they could wind up in the civilian legal arena, as well, said 1st Lt. Cameron Edinburgh, another public-information officer with the 1st Marine Division.

CyberTipline - NCMEC - Trinity Mount Ministries - Report Abuse!

NCMEC’s CyberTipline is the nation’s centralized reporting system for the online exploitation of children. The public and electronic service providers can make reports of suspected online enticement of children for sexual acts, extra-familial child sexual molestation, child pornography, child sex tourism, child sex trafficking, unsolicited obscene materials sent to a child, misleading domain names, and misleading words or digital images on the internet.

What Happens to Information in a CyberTip?

NCMEC staff review each tip and work to find a potential location for the incident reported so that it may be made available to the appropriate law-enforcement agency for possible investigation. We also use the information from our CyberTipline reports to help shape our prevention and safety messages.

Is Your Image Out There?

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A trusted adult can offer advice, help you report, and help you deal with other issues. It could be your mom, dad, an aunt, a school counselor, or anyone you trust and are comfortable talking to. You can also “self report” by making a report on your own to the CyberTipline.

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Having a sexual exploitative image of yourself exposed online is a scary experience. It can make you feel vulnerable and isolated, but remember, others have been in the same situation as you – and they’ve overcome it. Learn the steps you can take to limit the spread of the content.

Trinity Mount Ministries - DOJ - PROJECT SAFE CHILDHOOD - Justice News Update

PROJECT SAFE CHILDHOOD

Project Safe Childhood is a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.  Led by the U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.

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RESOURCES

Amber Alert

iKeepSafe

INOBTR ("I Know Better")

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Office of Educational Technology Internet Safety

Read the Project Safe Childhood Fact Sheet »

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View the Project Safe Childhood Video Page »

Oil Company ‘Man Camps’ in ND Terrorizing & Sex Trafficking Native American Kids and Adults (Article from December 5, 2017)

Camps popping up all over North Dakota have been infiltrated by sex traffickers and criminal gangs who are preying on the local native children and adults alike.
by John Vibes

New Town, ND – The recent disappearance of a 32-year-old mother has shed new light on the growing problem of violence against women that live near the booming oil fields of North Dakota. Over a month ago, Olivia Lone Bear went missing from Fort Berthold Reservation and has not been heard from since.

In a recent interview, lawyer Mary Kathryn Nagle, who is helping the family with the investigation, pointed out that violence against women in this particular area has been steadily increasing since the oil companies came to town.

“We have the highest rates across the United States, again, in Indian Country, of violence, but in particular in North Dakota, where the rates of oil extraction have skyrocketed since 2005 in the Bakken oil boom. As a result of that, over 100,000 men from outside the state of North Dakota have moved to the state of North Dakota to live in man camps that the oil companies have set up. And unfortunately, as Senator Heidi Heitkamp has noted, as the former U.S. Attorney for the state of North Dakota has noted, the resulting rates of violence, drug of course, and crime and burglary have skyrocketed, but also in particular, domestic violence and sexual assault, including rape and sex trafficking,” Nagle said.

“Numerous leaders both at the state and federal level have now noticed that North Dakota—some of the towns in North Dakota within the Bakken boom and some within the Fort Berthold reservation, where Olivia is from, now some have some of the highest rates of sex trafficking in the United States,” she added.

Former Rosebud Sioux Tribe Police ChiefGrace Her Many Horses warned about these camps in a 2014 interview, saying that, “This tribal police department isn’t equipped to handle what’s going to happen out there when the Man Camp arrives. The infrastructure of the towns on this Indian reservation will be forced to expand then months later it will collapse onto itself. Because I’ve witnessed it doing just that… what I am saying up there in Newtown, ND. It’s going to be really scary. Realistically speaking, we’re going to need to setup a substation for the area nearest to the Man Camp, and we got have people on call 24 hours a day there too. I don’t know how we are going to deal with that just yet. We are overwhelmed as is stands right now. Once the Man Camp moves in…” she added.

Pop up trailer cities where tens of thousands of oil workers come to live have become known locally as “man camps.” These camps are filled with workers who have been shipped in from all over the country, and while the majority of them are just trying to take any job they can get in a tough economy, there is a very dangerous criminal element that goes unchecked in and around these camps.

According to the Boston Globe, there are over 35 corporations extracting oil and “man camps” that stretch for miles just on the Fort Berthold reservation alone. A 2013 report in the Bismark Tribune showed rates of crime increasing across the board in the state, with Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem placing the blame directly on the growing oil industry and the camps that come along with it. More recent numbers show that the state’s crime rate increased by nearly 10% in 2015 and has stayed at that level, despite a slight increase of less than a percentage point in 2016.

North Dakota U.S. Attorney Tim Purdon told the AP that, “Our police and prosecutors are going to have to adapt to keep pace. We have organized criminal gangs selling drugs, sex trafficking, and out-of-state flim-flam men coming in. And the cases have become more and more complicated."

Former Rosebud Sioux Tribe Police Chief Grace Her Many Horses warned about these camps in a 2014 interview, saying that, “This tribal police department isn’t equipped to handle what’s going to happen out there when the Man Camp arrives. The infrastructure of the towns on this Indian reservation will be forced to expand then months later it will collapse onto itself. Because I’ve witnessed it doing just that… what I am saying up there in Newtown, ND. It’s going to be really scary. Realistically speaking, we’re going to need to setup a substation for the area nearest to the Man Camp, and we got have people on call 24 hours a day there too. I don’t know how we are going to deal with that just yet. We are overwhelmed as is stands right now. Once the Man Camp moves in…”

The Tribal Police departments are also prevented from having jurisdiction over the non-tribal crime, which has presented a major roadblock in solving these cases, especially since the issue does not seem to be a priority to non-tribal law enforcement. In 2015, the FBI opened a fully staffed office in the area, but in the two years that they have been around there has been no improvement, and now there is another missing person with no major leads from the agency.

Trinity Mount Ministries - NCMEC - Active AMBER Alerts and Missing Children Posters - UPDATE

Active Missing Children Posters Below

Active AMBER Alerts

Name	Missing From	Issued For	Alert Date
Gracelynn Scritchfield	Fairmont, WV	WV	Jul 22, 2019
Gracelynn Scritchfield	Fairmont, WV	AZ	Jul 23, 2019

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Notice: The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® certifies the posters on this site only if they contain the NCMEC logo and the 1-800-THE-LOST® (1-800-843-5678) number. All other posters are the responsibility of the agency whose logo appears on the poster.

Select an image to view the poster for one of these missing children.

Madeleine McCann FaceApp-style tech could help crack case:

By Patrick Knox

THE hunt for missing Madeleine McCann could be boosted after a FaceApp-style AI was used to reunite a Chinese man with his family 18 years after being abducted.

Yu Weifeng shortly before his disappearance aged three

Yu Weifeng, 21, was reunited with his family yesterday after police used the technology to predict what the missing lad would look like as a grown man before searching a huge database. 

The AI used by the police was able to predict with high accuracy what the missing boy might look like now – much like the recently trending FaceApp.

Cold-case investigators in Shenzhen’s Futian District, which is in South China’s Guangdong Province, were then able to couple the Tencent AI Lab predictions.

The software spent about two months sorting through nearly 100 candidates before singling out Weifeng, who is a student in the provincial capital Guangzhou.

Investigator Zheng Zhenhai said: “When he found him, he refused to believe that he was a kidnapped child, but DNA confirmed that he was a match with his biological parents.”

Weifeng, whose adoptive parents had given him the family name Li, went missing on 6th May 2001 while playing near a construction site where his dad worked as a foreman.

Zheng added: “We opened the case the day after the incident and we never gave up.

“Technology was limited at the time. 

“We checked surveillance footage, but there were simply too many people coming in and out of the area.”

There are many cases of abducted children being found and returned to their families — even after long periods of time.

The technology could now boost the search for Madeleine McCann, who went vanishing from Praia da Luz in 2007 then aged three.

It comes as British tourists were being urged to take posters of Madeleine on their holidays in a bid to find her.

The official Find Madeleine Campaign website says: “Fortunately, there are many cases of abducted children being found and returned to their families — even after long periods of time. 

“The vital piece of information that leads to a happy and longed-for reunion is usually thanks to a caring and vigilant member of the general public, often recognising a face from a poster.”

After Weifeng was found, investigator Zheng Zhenhai said: “When he found him, he refused to believe that he was a kidnapped child, but DNA confirmed that he was a match with his biological parents.

“We opened the case the day after the incident, and we never gave up.

“Technology was limited at the time. We checked surveillance footage, but there were simply too many people coming in and out of the area.”

His emotional dad added: “We’re also very grateful to his foster parents for raising him for 18 years. From now on, his foster father will become like a brother to me; my son will have two dads.”

Children Won’t Say They Have Anxiety, They Say ‘My Stomach Hurts!’

By Debi Allison

As children grow and develop, they experience a number of emotional reactions that they know are different or even negative feelings, but they haven’t the experience to understand what they are dealing with. However, they will let us know when something is wrong even when they aren’t entirely sure of what it is.

While children may look at things differently than we do, giving them a deeper insight into another outlook on any given situation- they aren’t as educated or self-aware as an adult. To them, their feelings that are constantly changing and evolving can be confusing, and putting a definite prognosis on their health isn’t likely. Instead, they will tell us their symptoms, awaiting our experience and wisdom for help.

However, up until recently, most adults were completely unaware of the prominence of childhood mental disorders, other than ADHD and the other run of the mill behavioral issues experienced by children. And even in adulthood, it seems that anxiety isn’t taken as seriously as it should be, because most people think that anxiety is simply the occurrence of a normal fear taking hold of us.

But anxiety is much more than that and can be quite consuming for the person dealing with it.

What child doesn’t have a moment in which they cower behind their parents because it is dark outside, or because they heard a loud noise? In these situations, the child is anxious, but rightfully so, leaving no cause for concern. But, in some cases, children can develop an anxiety disorder which will affect their relationships, their education, and their overall quality of life.

Recent statistics have shown us that at least 1 out of every 8 children develops an anxiety disorder. If left untreated, the initial anxiety disorder can transpire into difficulty maintaining and developing connections with their peers, severe sleep disturbance, and substance dependency.

Sadly untreated anxiety can leave your child feeling as though they are worthless, and in turn they may not excel academically, leaving them short of reaching their full potential. Depression is often a result of an untreated childhood anxiety disorder as well. So, how can we make a difference in the outcome of this often tragic scenario?

Learn to pay attention to your child’s cry for help. Sometimes, their expression of anxiety will be much different than you would expect, so it helps to stay in tune with their triggers.

Look For These Signs:

-Constant stomach aches during stressful situations

– Agitation

– Restless behavior

– Avoiding people/situations that could even slightly stress them out

– Meltdowns over slight issues

– Difficulty transitioning

– Extreme perfectionism

– Strange coping mechanisms that could be considered as self-harm (biting, scratching, pinching or even the pulling of their own hair)

If you notice your child is constantly stressing, to the point of it intervening in their day to day activities, seek the help of a trusted therapist. Catching the symptoms early can mean a better probability for therapeutic intervention, meaning medicine may not even be necessary. Above all- listen to your child, within reason. Use your better judgment and stay tuned into your child’s normal behaviors and habits. Doing these simple things can make all the difference in the world.