ND cops beg for feds’ help over Tren de Aragua infiltration

 A police chief in a small North Dakota city says he and his officers were abandoned by the feds and left to fend for themselves when suspected Tren de Aragua members showed up in town.

North Dakota is the latest state to report that the brutal Venezuelan migrant gang is operating there after alleged member Henry Theis, 25, was busted last month for hacking and ripping off ATMs in West Fargo to the tune of $100,000, according to authorities.

And he’s not the only suspected TdA member to now have been identified in the city of 40,000.

West Fargo Police Chief Pete Nielsen told The Post his department is doing its best to address the threat of such foreign gang activity — but its resources are limited, a situation that has been made only more “difficult” and “frustrating” without federal help.

“If you don’t have federal help on these crimes crossing all these different state lines, it’s difficult for local police to enforce some of this,” he said.

“We haven’t had a lot of federal partners knocking on our door here to assist with this crime,” Nielsen said of the latest suspected TdA bust.

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West Fargo Police Chief Pete Nielsen says his office is tracking individuals in the area who are suspected Tren de Aragua members.The City of West Fargo

The top cop said his officers are meanwhile “monitoring” the “activity” of multiple other suspected Tren de Aragua members in the area.

“Being the police chief of this community, I think I would be looking to make sure that anybody that’s committing any crime in the community is accountable for that action. As local authorities, we want to make sure we have the ability to remove these people that are committing crimes from the community,” Nielsen said.

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Suspected Tren gang member Henry Theis, 25, was caught illegally entering the US, freed, nabbed over an alleged DWI, released again — and then recently busted in an ATM heist.Cass County Jail

Theis crossed the border illegally into El Paso, Texas, last year and was released into the US by border agents with a future court date, Homeland Security sources told The Post.

Then in August 2024, Theis was arrested in Lewisville, Texas, for a DWI but was later let go for an unknown reason.

He was busted again Nov. 1 for the ATM crime — after he was allegedly caught with $24,000 in bank cash and facemasks and black latex gloves in his car.

“I think it’s concerning to any police chief of any community throughout the United States when these individuals are here illegally, number one,” Nielsen said. “Number two, they’re getting arrested for a crime. And then we release [them back] into the country they’re not even supposed to be in.”

ICE recently lodged a detainer with the Cass County jail to take Theis into its custody.

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Suspected Tren de Aragua gang members emptied an ATM in West Fargo, North Dakota, which is one of the most remote areas of the country.Valley News Live
The suspect’s bust in North Dakota — one of the most remote and least populated states — confirmed TdA’s infiltration in now 17 states.

Nielsen said he hopes the situation changes once President-elect Donald Trump comes into office in January. The police chief said that if he is asked to help with mass deportations, which Trump has promised, he will do all he can to assist.

“I think if there was an order from Tom Homan to assist the federal government in, you know, making arrests of people that are here within the communities illegally, we would entertain that order, and we would assist the federal government on any thing that they needed us to do,” he said, referring to Trump’s border czar.

https://nypost.com/2024/12/15/us-news/cops-in-north-dakota-beg-for-feds-help-over-tren-de-aragua/

Feds to deploy high-tech system to NY as drone swarms have experts baffled

 Federal officials are set to deploy a high-tech drone detection system to New York State as swarms of unidentified flying objects popping up in the tri-state area continue to leave experts perplexed.

The new system will help state and local law enforcement in their investigation into the mysterious drones that have been spotted flickering across the night sky over the past month, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Sunday.

“In response to my calls for additional resources, our federal partners are deploying a state-of-the-art drone detection system to New York State,” Hochul said.

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Multiple drones are seen over Bernardsville, N.J., Dec. 5, 2024.AP

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Photos taken in the bayside section of Toms River of what appear to be large drones hovering in the area at high altitudes.Doug Hood / Asbury Park Press / USA TODAY NETWORK / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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“In response to my calls for additional resources, our federal partners are deploying a state-of-the-art drone detection system to New York State,” Hochul said.Michael Nagle

Despite the boost, Hochul said additional support was needed from Congress to help provide greater resources.

“We are grateful to the Biden Administration for their support, but ultimately we need further assistance from Congress. Passing the Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act will give New York and our peers the authority and resources required to respond to circumstances like we face today,” she said.

Mysterious drones have been jetting over the East Coast, zeroing in primarily on New Jersey, for weeks now — with at least 3,000 sightings reported in the Garden State so far in December alone, though reports have been flooding in since Nov. 18. 

Local and state officials in New Jersey have been up in arms the past week after the Biden administration’s national security adviser brushed off the saga, claiming the unusual objects are planes or helicopters that people are simply mistaking for drones.

While drone experts warn the flying objects may be coming from an adversary or Iranian mothership, the Pentagon has denied these claims, and authorities have stated that there is no known threat as a result of their presence. 

https://nypost.com/2024/12/15/us-news/feds-to-deploy-high-tech-system-to-ny-as-drone-swarms-have-experts-baffled/

Massive Interest Burden Haunts $29 Trillion Emerging Debt Pile

 

• Lull in sovereign debt defaults may end as maturity wall looms
• Developing nations grapple with $850 billion of interest costs

Developing nations, already set for a turbulent 2025, are having to cope with ballooning interest payments on $29 trillion of debt that built up over the last decade.

A record 54 countries are spending more than 10% of their revenues on interest payments, according to the United Nations. Some, including Pakistan and Nigeria, are using more than 30% of revenue just to pay coupons.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-15/massive-interest-burden-haunts-29-trillion-emerging-debt-pile

US In 'Direct Contact' With Designated Terror Group HTS, Blinken Admits

The US has made "direct contact" with the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) under Abu Mohammad al-Jolani which now holds Damascus and most major Syrian cities in the wake of Assad's fall.

"We’ve been in contact with HTS and with other parties," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said following talks with Arab diplomats in Aqaba, Jordan.

This is the first official acknowledgement that the Biden administration is interacting with HTS, which has long been an officially US-designated terror organization, as it originated as Syrian al-Qaeda. Jolani also was once the personal envoy of ISIS terror leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

NBC News has underscored, "The U.S. designates HTS a terrorist organization, making it legally impossible to work with the group, but contact underscores ongoing efforts to change that designation as the U.S. and its allies look to support Syria's transition from Assad rule."

A statement from Blinken's meetings in Aqaba and signed by representatives of the US, EU, Turkey and several Arab countries called for a "a more hopeful, secure and peaceful future". It urged the protection of women and all ethnic and religious minorities, and for the preventing of "the reemergence of all terrorist groups."

Also, Jordan's foreign minister stressed that regional powers don't want to see post-Assad Syria "descend into chaos". Given that it remains formally listed as a terror group, HTS was not represented in the Jordan meeting.

The EU has also listed HTS as a terror group. Jolani still has a $10 million bounty on his head. Ironically he has been seen openly at well-known areas of Damascus, and the US could target him if it wanted to - but is clearly not.

"As we see Syria move in that direction and, in a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned process, take these steps, we in turn will look at various sanctions and other measures that we’ve taken and respond in kind," Blinken said from Aqaba.

Blinken affirmed the US position on Syria has been "communicated" to the new HTS leaders. Ironically, this comes after years of the US refusing to engage diplomatically with Bashar al-Assad, who was a secular ruler.

The US had shuttered its embassy and severed relations going all the way back to 2012. Since then there have been minimal back-channel efforts to communicate with Assad officials.

Meanwhile, there have been reports that the Biden White House, with a mere weeks to go until Trump enters office, could actually remove HTS' terror designation. This despite its long documented links to both Al Qaeda and Islamic State in the not too distant past.

Washington has since 2011 pursued regime change against Assad, and though Syria emerged victorious by the early 2020s, the Army and country appeared demoralized after years of US-imposed strangling sanctions, and with US troops occupying the country's oil and gas fields in the northeast.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-direct-contact-designated-terror-group-hts-blinken-admits