Federal agents stumbled onto one of the largest drug labs they’d ever seen when executing four search warrants last week in Southern California.
The FBI found more than 2,000 kilograms, or more than 4,400 pounds, of “pill product” that could be made into illegal drugs at a drug lab in the Orange County community of Garden Grove, Laura Eimiller, a spokeswoman for the bureaus’ Los Angeles field office told Los Angeles Times reported.
Eimiller said agents also found what they believe to be counterfeit Xanax pills, methamphetamine and bath salts in the lab.
The FBI found more than 4,400 pounds of “pill product.”Twitter/FBIInvestigators also found what they believe are counterfeit Xanax, methamphetamine and bath saltsTwitter/FBI
No arrests were made Tuesday. It was not immediately clear whether there were people inside the lab when the FBI raided them.
Federal agents also descended on locations in Irvine and two other unidentified spots, said Eimiller.
Before the Irvine raid, FBI agents had to evacuate nearby residents as a precaution prior to executing the search warrant, she said.
The lingering impact of COVID school closures for 55 million American children is clear: They’re scholastically compromised, prone to higher levels of anxiety and their futures are uncertain.
Students today are 15 to 24 weeks behind where they should be for their age groups, according to new data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
The consulting firm McKinsey & Co. suggests it could take decades for children to recover from COVID absences — if they ever do.
Perhaps, most worrisome of all, there is clear evidence that low-income students were the hardest hit from pandemic-era learning losses.
Back during COVID’s early days, the federal government approved $200 billion in school-age assistance across three bills in 2020 and 2021.
But a deep dive into the data around those bills reveals that huge chunks of the funds have failed to reach the kids most in need.
After months of public records requests, back-and-forth conversations with state education officials and pouring over government documents, we identified at least $736 million in federal funding that has yet to reach K-12 schools and students through the Emergency Assistance for Nonpublic Schools (EANS) program. EANS was established in late 2020 to dole out $5.5 billion of that $200 billion to independent, private and nonpublic schools.
There is a myth that nonpublic schools were not as impacted by COVID-era school closures as public schools. This is simply not true.Shutterstock
It’s a myth that nonpublic schools only serve affluent families and were minimally affected by COVID. In reality, nearly every private and parochial school is home to low-income students and families. And just like their public counterparts, nonpublic schools weathered government-imposed shutdowns, learning and job losses, and severe illnesses.
But owing to political horse-trading – and confusing EANS legalese – federal emergency aid slated to benefit low-income students at non-public schools now risks turning into slush funds to cover the pet projects of wily state governors.
Take former Oregon governor, Democratic Kate Brown.
She spent $1.6 million of EANS money on Moonshot for Equity, a multiyear initiative aimed at “eliminating equity barriers” at state colleges.
South Carolina’s Republican governor Henry McMaster gave $25 million to community college scholarships for workforce preparedness programs.
The EANS program earmarked funds to support private, independent and parochial schools impacted by the COVID crisis. Much of those funds have yet to be spent.South Carolina Department of Education
Both efforts may sound noble, but the money was intended for kids who can’t read or perform math at grade level, not grown adults who already have a leg up in life.
How is it possible that funds meant to educate low-income students have been redirected to governors’ checking accounts? We found that due to a little-discussed loophole authorized by Congress when it established EANS, any money left over from the program can be used by governors for a myriad of other (loosely defined) “educational” purposes unrelated to nonpublic schools.
This provision stands in stark contrast to the relief funds designated for public schools, which must be returned to federal agencies if left unspent.
As a result of all these inconsistent policies, governors and state education agencies have been disincentivized from allocating much of their EANS funds to the nonpublic schools that deserve them. Instead, millions have found their way into local state coffers.
Former Oregon Governor Kate Brown shifted $1.6 million of EANS money to state colleges.Getty Images
Much of this misdirected money got there because EANS failed to provide clear and effective implementation guidelines. Each state, for instance, was not only tasked with how to notify their schools about EANS funds, but with finding a way for those schools to actually receive them.
States had to also calculate the financial impact of COVID on their schools, determine low-income student enrollment in order to qualify for EANS funds and manage the funding applications themselves. And they had to do all of this during some of COVID’s darkest days. The results have been unsurprisingly confounding: Schools in some states received $5 million or more, while schools in other states received $0.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster shifted $25 million in leftover EANS funds to local college scholarships.AP
A total of 27 states have federal dollars that should, but have yet to, reach schools and students: Ohio has $51 million, Virginia has $68 million and Washington has $41 million in remaining federal funds still available for nonpublic schools. In the Tri-State, New York has allocated all of its $500 million in EANS funds while some $20 million is left over in New Jersey and could revert to Gov. Phil Murphy’s control, if it hasn’t already.
But pressure is mounting. Our work has already moved states to get this funding to kids hit by COVID school closures. Illinois is now making $46 million that was set to return to its governor’s office available to 560 nonpublic schools. In Tennessee, we uncovered an error in administrative program costs which led to $3.3 million returning to schools and students, rather than the state.
There are still hundreds of millions of dollars out there for students – and it needs to be recovered now. Converting classroom aid into state-level pet projects should be unacceptable to parents and policymakers alike. Not a single dollar for K-12 education can be given to other causes until every child eligible for this money is caught up in the classroom.
Patrick Hughes is the founder and president of the National Opportunity Project, a nonprofit government watchdog and education organization.
Average New Yorkers are now peddling illegal ghost guns as a lucrative side hustle, the Queens district attorney says.
“We are seeing individuals with no criminal history assembling and selling ghost guns to supplement their legal income,” Queens DA Melinda Katz said. “It is a deeply troubling trend that threatens to make an already pervasive gun violence problem much worse.”
Among this unlikely pool of firearms dealers is Javon Fournillier, a 27-year-old Queens man with no criminal background, who allegedly sold seven ghost guns to people in New York City and Trinidad, according to court records.
To circumvent New York’s ban on the untraceable ghost guns — which don’t have serial numbers and can be made with a 3-D printer or assembled piecemeal with shipped parts — Fournillier allegedly purchased components and ammunition from online sellers, and had them shipped to his pal Andrew Wilson, 27, in Conroe, Texas, according to the DA’s office.
Ghost guns do not have serial numbers and can be made with a 3-D printer.
Wilson mailed the parts and ammo to New York, where Fournillier assembled and sold the weapons from January to July 2022, raking in between $1,000 and $1,800 via word of mouth, according to the DA’s office and court records.
Fournillier and Wilson were indicted last month on more than 600 felony counts, including fourth-degree conspiracy and third-degree criminal possession, with seven counts of attempted criminal sale for Fournillier.
If convicted, Fournillier could face up to 22 years in prison, while Wilson could receive up to seven, the DA’s office said.
Javon Fournillier of Queens allegedly assembled and sold seven ghost guns between January and July 2022.
Their indictments come as Bayside pharmacist Andrew Chang, 35, pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, following a ghost gun bust last year in which he had also been charged with criminal sale of a firearm.
Chang’s defense lawyer, David Cohen, denied his client was involved in any ghost gun sales, claiming he had only purchased the gun parts and assembled them without knowing it was illegal.
Actress Julia Fox’s 30-year-old brother, Christopher, has also allegedly been wrapped up in the ghost gun trade. Police raided the tony Upper East Side apartment the “Uncut Gems” star’s sibling shared with their father earlier this month, where they reportedly found a ghost-gun manufacturing operation.
Prosecutors said Julia Fox’s brother, Christopher, allegedly manufactured and sold ghost guns from an Upper East Side apartment.Steven Hirsch
Fox had fabricated enough parts that it was clear he was selling ghost guns, prosecutors contended, noting the roughly $345,000 that flowed through his Cash app between April 2020 and January 2023.
As of Feb. 8, the NYPD has confiscated 36 ghost guns this year, according to city data. A staggering 463 ghost guns were recovered by police in 2022, compared to just 17 in 2018.
NYPD recovered 463 ghost guns last year.
For some, the potential financial windfall from selling these weapons is worth the risk of prison, experts said.
“Whatever slap on the hand he is gonna get, it’s not gonna undermine all the efforts and all the money he’s made thus far,” retired NYPD detective Rodrigo Caballero said about Fournillier’s alleged arms dealing.
The list of civilians-turned-criminals could grow, warned retired NYPD sergeant and John Jay College of Criminal Justice professor Joseph Giacalone.
Law enforcement experts predict more once-law-abiding people could turn to selling ghost guns for money.Paul Martinka
“Ghost guns have been on everybody’s radar now for over a year or so, and it’s only going to get worse as the technology becomes cheaper,” he said. “If ordinary people are doing this just to make money, then there you go.”
