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Maduro and his wife arrive in New York to face narco-terrorism charges

Posted on by neversleep

January 3, 2026

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife arrived at Stewart Air National Guard Base, just north of New York City, on Saturday afternoon, hours after their capture during a daring U.S. military operation in Caracas.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured overnight from their home in Caracas. They were transported to the USS Iwo Jima warship before being flown to New York to face criminal charges.

Maduro and Flores are expected to be taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal facility in Brooklyn, to be housed.

In a superseding indictment filed in the Southern District of New York against Maduro, members of his family and his cabinet, the U.S. is accusing the South American leader of conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism and to import cocaine. He is also accused of possession of and conspiracy to possess “Machineguns and Destructive Devices,” according to the indictment unsealed Saturday by Attorney General Pam Bondi.

“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Bondi said.

The charges appear to be the same as those that were filed in a 2020 indictment of Maduro and several key aides.

The indictment, prepared by New York U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton, says: “For over 25 years, leaders of Venezuela have abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States,” before alleging that Maduro “is at the forefront of that corruption and has partnered with his co-conspirators to use his illegally obtained authority and the institutions he corroded to transport thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States.”

The U.S. government also claimed that Flores is involved in her husband’s alleged crimes. According to the indictment, Flores allegedly brokered a meeting between a large-scale drug trafficker and the director of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office, Nestor Reverol Torres, and allegedly accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in 2007.

The trafficker arranged a bribe to Reverol Torres — $100,000 per flight — to ship cocaine, prosecutors allege. Reverol Torres was indicted in 2015 by U.S. prosecutors in New York.

In the indictment filed against Maduro in 2020, federal prosecutors alleged that the Venezuelan leader and other senior Venezuelan government officials collaborated with the Colombian guerrilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC, to traffic cocaine and weapons to the U.S. 

Maduro has in the past denied the accusations against him.

Hours after the operation, President Trump said the United States would run Venezuela at least temporarily and tap its vast oil reserves to sell to other nations.

Found on mainstream news.

Wegmans is storing biometric data on shoppers’ eyes, voices and faces

Posted on by neversleep

January 3, 2026

Wegmans in New York City has begun collecting biometric data from anyone who enters its supermarkets, according to new signage posted at the chain’s Manhattan and Brooklyn locations earlier this month.

Anyone entering the store could have data on their face, eyes and voices collected and stored by the Rochester-headquartered supermarket chain. The information is used to “protect the safety and security of our patrons and employees,” according to the signage. The new scanning policy is an expansion of a 2024 pilot.

The chain had initially said that the scanning system was only for a small group of employees and promised to delete any biometric data it collected from shoppers during the pilot rollout. The new notice makes no such assurances.

Wegmans representatives did not reply to questions about how the data would be stored, why it changed its policy or if it would share the data with law enforcement.

Legislation aiming to block businesses from using such systems was introduced in the City Council in 2023 after Madison Square Garden CEO James Dolan used it to identify and boot two attorneys who worked for law firms with active litigation against his company. But the bill has languished, and other supermarket chains like Fairway already use biometric collection systems.

Councilmember Shahana Hanif is the bill’s primary sponsor. She did not reply to a request for comment on Wegmans’ expanded collection program.

Wegmans and other businesses that collect biometric data are required to post signs announcing the practice because of a 2021 city law, but it’s unclear how many other companies may be using similar practices.

The agency in charge of implementing the law has no enforcement mechanism for businesses that don’t comply, according to a spokesperson for the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, who said that customers are free to pursue their own legal action.

Will Owen, a privacy advocate with the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, said that storing customer’s biometric data can open them up to risks from hackers or immigration enforcement.

“It’s really chilling that immigrant New Yorkers going into Wegmans and other grocery stores have to worry about their highly sensitive biometric data potentially getting into the hands of ICE,” he said.

Blaze Herbas, 29, said she shopped at the store but would avoid it in the future.

“We should be able to shop freely without data being saved on us. That’s obvious,” she said.

Found on mainstream news.

New Yorkers Appear to Foil ICE Raid Before It Begins

Posted on by neversleep

November 30, 2025

For the second time in just over a month, a large-scale raid by dozens of immigration agents in New York City was met with a similarly large-scale counter-protest. This time, however, the protesters thwarted the authorities’ plans before they began.

Multiple arrests were made on Saturday during scuffles on the edge of Chinatown, during which hundreds of protesters faced off with federal agents and the New York Police Department (NYPD) as they prepared to launch a raid in the area.

It comes just a month after a raid by 50 federal agents using military-style vehicles stormed Canal Street in Lower Manhattan, and was met with a protest of hundreds in response.

The confrontation also comes amid a reported surge in activity by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the city in recent weeks, despite a friendly encounter between the Mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, and President Donald Trump earlier this month that appeared to avert a showdown over the issue.

But the mass counter-protest of some 200 people demonstrates the challenges federal authorities will face in enforcing President Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown in a city that is rooted in its immigrant identity.

Immigration crackdowns in other cities like Chicago and Portland have been met with similar responses from locals opposed to the Trump Administration’s hardline immigration agenda, but New York could prove to be the toughest challenge yet. 

Saturday’s incident demonstrated how the city’s physical infrastructure —its narrow streets and densely populated areas, built mostly by immigrant labor over the last two centuries—can impede ICE’s so-called “enforcement surges,” which require large numbers of agents moving quickly in and out of an area.

Not only are large-scale ICE raids being met by hundreds of protesters, but in two months, New York will be led by an immigrant mayor for the first time in 50 years. Mamdani, who moved to the United States when he was seven years old, campaigned on protecting New York’s immigrant community from these very same raids.

‘Agitators’ in ‘goggles’

The confrontation began on Saturday, when agents from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) gathered in a parking garage in a federal building on the edge of Chinatown in preparation for a raid.

Videos of the incident show protesters blocking the agents as they try to leave the garage in their cars. The crowd then swells to the hundreds, as more NYPD officers arrive.

Later, according to reports, federal agents emerged from the garage and assisted the NYPD in detaining protesters.

The DHS blamed “agitators” for blocking the federal agents in a statement to [news source].

“Following social media posts calling agitators to ICE’s location in New York City, individuals dressed in black clothing with backpacks, face masks, and goggles showed up and began to obstruct federal law enforcement officers including by blocking the parking garage,” the statement said. “NYPD was called and responded to hundreds of violent rioters, which resulted in the arrest of multiple agitators.”

Murad Awawdeh, President of the immigrant advocacy group the New York Immigration Coalition and a member of Mamdani’s transition team, said the protests this weekend were a sign that the city would put up fierce resistance to federal immigration operations.

“New York City is unlike any other place in this country or even the world, and what you have seen yesterday and time and again is that New Yorkers of all stripes, across all creeds, are not going to allow a rogue, lawless, violent and horrific agency to continue to mess with their neighbors.”

The attempted raid in Lower Manhattan comes amid an increase in ICE activity in New York City over the past few weeks. On Oct. 21, in a separate raid on Canal Street, nine people from Africa were taken into custody by ICE agents during what DHS called a “targeted, intelligence-driven enforcement operation…focused on criminal activity relating to selling counterfeit goods.” The raid, which involved more than 50 federal agents, also led to the arrest of five protestors after people reportedly attempted to chase federal agents away. The DHS claimed protestors were blocking vehicles and obstructing law enforcement duties.

In recent weeks, ICE agents have been spotted with greater frequency in immigrant neighborhoods of Corona in Queens, Washington Heights in Manhattan, and Sunset Park in Brooklyn.

Activists in those neighborhoods have responded to the increased ICE activity by organizing community alert systems, such as handing out whistles to be used when agents are seen in the area. The strategies resemble ICE Watch in other cities hit especially hard by Trump’s immigration crackdown, such as Chicago, where groups like Protect Rogers Park enlist community members to follow and report on ICE activity in the area.

Found on mainstream news.

At least 11 police vehicles vandalized outside NYPD precinct in Queens

Posted on by neversleep

November 12, 2025

At least 11 police vehicles were vandalized while parked at a precinct in Queens on Monday night.

It happened outside the 116th Precinct just before 11:30 p.m. near North Conduit Avenue and 244th Street.

The damaged cars were both marked and unmarked.

It appears that someone threw rocks or objects through the vehicle windows.

The result was smashed windshields, back windows and broken mirrors.

The crime was brazen as multiple cameras are posted outside of the precinct.

The precinct is fairly new and opened a few years ago with a new community center.

“Hopefully they figure out who did it so it doesn’t happen again, because if they feel comfortable enough to vandalize the cars, who is to say they won’t vandalize the precinct next,” a neighbor said.

___

November 14, 2025

[Name] was arrested in Queens on Tuesday night in connection with the vandalized vehicles, the NYPD said. [Name] was charged with reckless endangerment, 14 counts of criminal mischief, two counts of possession of a weapon and resisting arrest.

Found on mainstream news.

Immigration agents conducting sweep on NYC’s famed Canal Street confronted by protesters

Posted on by neversleep

October 22, 2025

An immigration enforcement sweep targeting vendors on Manhattan’s famed Canal Street turned chaotic on Tuesday after droves of angry New Yorkers surrounded federal agents and attempted to block them from driving off, prompting arrests and fierce standoffs along a bustling downtown corridor.

The confrontation began shortly after 4 p.m., as federal agents fanned out across a section of Chinatown that has long served as a not-so-underground market for knock-off designer handbags, watches, perfumes, electronics and other goods.

A [news source] reporter observed dozens of agents detaining a street vendor selling bedazzled smartphone cases, one of a number of arrests in the area.

In response, a contingent of protesters, many of whom appeared to be on their way home from work, surrounded the masked officers, attempting to block their vehicle as they shouted “ICE out of New York” and called on other pedestrians to join them.

Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol and other federal offices then tried to clear the streets, in some cases shoving protesters to the ground and threatening them with pepper spray before detaining them.

As more New Yorkers joined the fray, some of the federal agents retreated on foot, followed by jeering protesters and honking vehicles. Additional federal agents, armed with long guns and tactical gear, also arrived in a military tactical vehicle.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said the agents were conducting an enforcement operation against sellers of “counterfeit goods”

“During this law enforcement operation, rioters who were shouting obscenities, became violent and obstructed law enforcement duties including blocking vehicles and assaulting law enforcement,” she said.

Trump has threatened to send federal troops to the city if Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, wins election in two weeks.

An FBI spokesperson said Tuesday that special agents were involved with immigration enforcement efforts in New York in response to a request from DHS to help with “major operations.”

October 23, 2025

Federal authorities said 14 people, including immigrants and demonstrators, were arrested in Tuesday’s sweep. The Department of Homeland Security said it was a targeted operation focused on the alleged sale of counterfeit goods, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Todd Lyons said it was “definitely intelligence-driven.”

“It’s not random. We’re just not pulling people off the street,” he told Fox News on Wednesday.

But some vendors saw it as an indiscriminate and heavy-handed crackdown by masked agents who queried a wide swath of sellers.

Awa Ngam was selling sweaters Wednesday from a table at a Canal Street intersection where at least one of her fellow vendors was taken away the previous afternoon.

She said she also was asked for ID, showed it, and then for her passport, which she doesn’t carry around. Agents quizzed her about how she had come to the U.S., but they eventually backed off after her husband explained that she’s an American citizen, she said.

Some other sellers decried the sweep as harassment. Others were keeping a low-profile and shied from speaking with journalists.

Signs freshly posted on streetlights mentioned Tuesday’s sweep and urged people at risk of detention to call an immigration law group’s helpline.

Law enforcement raids aimed at combating counterfeiting are relatively frequent on Canal Street, which is known for its stalls and shops where some vendors hawk knock-off designer goods and bootlegged wares. Federal authorities often team up with the New York Police Department and luxury brands on crackdowns aimed at shutting down illicit trade.

But the sight of dozens of masked ICE and other federal agents making arrests drew instant protests.

Nine people were arrested in the initial immigration sweep, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said. Four more people were arrested on charges of assaulting federal law enforcement officers, she said, adding that a fifth was arrested and accused of obstructing law enforcement by blocking a driveway.

The sweep came after at least two conservative influencers shared video on X of men selling bags on Canal Street’s sidewalks.

While clashes between immigration authorities and protesters have played out in Los Angeles and other cities, such scenes have been rarer on New York City streets, which Mayor Eric Adams has attributed in part to his working relationship with President Donald Trump’s administration.

Found on mainstream news.

Masked Federal Agents Storm Canal Street in Raid Targeting Immigrant Vendors

Posted on by neversleep

October 21, 2025

Dozens of federal agents, mostly masked, swarmed into downtown Manhattan near Chinatown on Tuesday afternoon, stepping out of unmarked vehicles and detaining several New Yorkers around the busy commercial area in a hectic raid that targeted people who fit the profile of a counterfeit goods vendor.

At one point early in the raid, a group of roughly 15 agents was quickly surrounded by residents and journalists as they took a Black man, who identified himself as Edwin, into custody against a wall. The agents maintained a perimeter around the arrest; nearby, bewildered tourists could be seen trying to figure out what was going on. Some locals filmed the arrest themselves, heckling the agents, telling them, among other things, to leave the city. Edwin yelled that he did not have his ID on him but was from Brooklyn and demanded agents release him as he also hurled expletives directed at President Donald Trump. After agents let him go, he confronted them, demanding that they “suck my dick,” prompting one agent to threaten to arrest him again, before Edwin eventually left.

Several people who had been detained were released after agents checked their IDs. Another Black man who did not identify himself later told Hell Gate that agents had detained him without warning and then released him after checking his ID. Some agents appeared to be holding bundles of papers with photos on them, presumably arrest targets.

A person with knowledge about the raid told Hell Gate that agents from ICE, the DEA, the IRS, and the FBI had all been brought into the operation, which they said was hastily planned. They confirmed that the raid was targeted toward the counterfeit goods sellers on Canal Street. Homeland Security Investigation’s Strategic Response Team—the agency’s version of SWAT—was also there with an armored vehicle, though Hell Gate did not witness anyone leaving the vehicle or it being used in any way. Most agents participating in the raid had street clothes and bulletproof vests with small firearms, though at least one carried what looked like an M4-style long gun.

(Felipe De La Hoz / Hell Gate)

One agent present appeared to be the ICE agent who was briefly relieved of duties last month after he was filmed aggressively pushing a woman down at the 26 Federal Plaza immigration court in a viral video, though Hell Gate could not confirm his identity. According to reporting in [news source], that agent, who remains publicly unnamed, was quickly reinstated after a brief preliminary review of the incident, in which he tackled the distraught wife of a man agents had just detained. At the downtown raid, he was one of the few agents without a face covering.

Small teams of six or seven agents soon splintered off to do their own rounds. They mostly seemed to move between Bayard and Hester Streets to the south and north and Broadway and Bowery to the east and west. One fruit seller on Canal told Hell Gate that a group of agents had gone by in the direction of Broadway and then quickly come back around, somewhat aimlessly. “I’m not sure what they wanted,” she said. Hell Gate followed one group for about 10 minutes as it moved around the area, jaywalking and fanning out across the sidewalk, but did not witness them approach or interact with any pedestrians or drivers. Pedestrians who walked by them often seemed surprised to see the group, and many reacted viscerally, shouting out to warn others that there were federal agents approaching. At one point, they went down into the Canal Street subway station, looked around, and went back up the stairs.

(Felipe De La Hoz / Hell Gate)

During this lap, the group passed an NYPD Strategic Response Group vehicle idling on Walker Street. An officer with that group told Hell Gate that they were there incidentally and did not have advance notice of the operation and were not assisting federal counterparts or monitoring the situation. When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the NYPD pointed to a statement that the agency posted to X, which said that “the NYPD had no involvement in the federal operation that took place on Canal Street this afternoon.”

Other than those officers, Hell Gate did not see any state or local law enforcement in the immediate vicinity for the start of the raid. Federal agents did not respond to verbal questions about their targets, intent, or personnel. A request sent out to ICE with similar questions did not receive an immediate response. 

While Tuesday’s operation netted relatively few arrests in comparison to the volume of agents present, this mass, highly visible federal raid comes on the heels of another sudden raid outside of a migrant shelter, part of an escalation in tactics after a period in which arrests were largely confined to the city’s immigration courts. Donald Trump has been vocal about wanting to deploy agents to New York City in the same manner as aggressive operations in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. 

This federal show of force comes just a couple days after right-wing internet personality Savannah Hernandez posted on X about “African illegal immigrants…operating a black market” on Canal Street, and two weeks before a mayoral election in which frontrunner Zohran Mamdani has promised to more aggressively confront federal agents operating in the city. The NYPD has separately been cracking down on street vendors, including those selling counterfeit goods, as part of its renewed focus on “quality of life” enforcement.

Hell Gate did not see federal videographers of the sort seen filming footage for Homeland Security sizzle reels promoted on social media and elsewhere, though the person with knowledge of the raid said that at least one government photographer had been present. 

As the raid progressed, officers from different agencies stood or walked around and were yelled at by passersby. Small crowds formed near agents standing on street corners and curbs or inside their cars, as protesters called them “fucking fascists” and “scum.” Hell Gate overheard one agent exasperatedly telling another, “Well I guess we’ll just RTB then,” using an acronym for “returning to base.” Still, while some agents began to leave the area around 4 p.m., several groups of agents remained and conducted additional arrests. Many were subsequently swarmed by angry locals, who called the agents racists and demanded they leave the city. According to [news source], federal agents arrested some protesters, tackling some people to the ground and using their batons and riot shields to control the crowd.

(Felipe De La Hoz / Hell Gate)

Source: Hell Gate

Journalist Charged with Hate Crime After Photographing Protest of New York Times’s Gaza Coverage

Posted on by neversleep

September 30, 2025

Here in New York, prosecutors have charged three people over a direct action targeting The New York Times last summer. On July 30, protesters doused the Times’s headquarters in Manhattan in red paint with the words ”NYT lies, Gaza dies” spray-painted on the building’s windows. On Monday, prosecutors brought charges of felony criminal mischief against two protesters; meanwhile, a photojournalist who took pictures of the direct action was charged with aggravated harassment in the second degree as a hate crime. The group Writers Against the War on Gaza has condemned the prosecution as an attack on the movement to end Israel’s assault on Gaza, and an attempt to criminalize both journalistic and political speech. This is organizer Tracy Rosenthal.

Tracy Rosenthal: “This action echoed the tactics of Palestine Action in targeting weapons manufacturers here at the headquarters of The New York Times. And I think it must be understood as an antiwar action against the paper, which has supported every — like nearly every U.S. war in my lifetime. I think we can turn to the words of Palestinian journalist Hossam Shabat, who was assassinated by Israel this March, and who wrote in June 2024, ‘Language makes genocide justifiable. A reason why we are still being bombed after 243 days is because of The New York Times.’”

Source: Democracy Now!

New York officials among dozens arrested at anti-ICE demonstration

Posted on by neversleep

September 19, 2025

New York City and state officials were among dozens of people arrested at a demonstration opposing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Downtown Manhattan on Thursday.

It happened at 26 Federal Plaza, an ICE holding facility that has been a source of controversy over the past several months.

Protesters chanted during an outside sit-in in front of a driveway of the building, objecting to the treatment of detainees held there, before authorities moved in to make arrests. Another group also moved in on the 10th floor, demanding to see conditions there before they, too, were arrested.

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 71 people, including two state senators and nine state Assembly members, were arrested. DHS also said the building was later placed on lockdown due to a bomb threat.

Found on mainstream news.

Judge drops terror charge against Luigi Mangione as police warn business leaders of rising assassination risks

Posted on by neversleep

September 16, 2025

A New York judge has tossed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s terrorism charges against suspected UnitedHealthcare CEO assassin Luigi Mangione.

The suspected killer appeared court Tuesday morning shortly after the NYPD warned that business leaders and political figures may be at an increased risk less than a week after a sniper shot and killed Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk during a public event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.

Mangione faces a slew of state and federal charges after police allege he stalked and ambushed Brian Thompson, the health insurer’s chief executive and a married father of two from Minnesota who was visiting New York City for an investor conference.

“There was no evidence presented of a desire to terrorize the public, inspire widespread fear, engage in a broader campaign of violence, or to conspire with organized terrorist groups,” Judge Gregory Carro found in a 12-page written decision. “Here, the crime – the heinous, but targeted and discrete killing of one person — is very different from the examples of terrorism set forth in the statute.”

The judge declined to rule on other pending motions, including whether Mangione is facing double jeopardy or on the legality of a controversial subpoena to his health insurance provider, Aetna. He’s due back in court on Dec. 1.

There are concerns that he has inspired copycats. He allegedly wrote messages on shell casings found at the scene. The suspected Kirk assassin also allegedly etched memes and anti-fascist rhetoric onto cartridges found in the alleged murder weapon.

Kirk had warned of a rise in “assassination culture” before his murder, which came as he was discussing politicized mass shootings with someone in the audience last Wednesday. Researchers are now also echoing his concern.

The NYPD’s Counterterrorism and Intelligence Bureau is reportedly warning businesses, political groups and other public figures that the risk of more assassinations remains elevated, [news source] reported Tuesday, citing an internal threat assessment.

“These individuals likely remain vulnerable at open-air speaking engagements and public events, which have been targeted by malicious actors seeking to advance political or ideological agendas and/or draw attention to unique personal grievances through violence,” the assessment reads.

Found on mainstream news.

Hackensack man charged with setting fire to multiple police cars

Posted on by neversleep

September 3, 2025

Police arrested a Hackensack man on arson charges, accusing him of setting multiple police vehicles on fire in a Hackensack parking lot on Aug. 30, announced the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office.

[Name], 78, was arrested on Sept. 2 on charges of aggravated arson and arson among other criminal mischief charges.

At about 8:09 p.m., the Hackensack Police and Fire Department were dispatched to put out a fire at Municipal Parking Lot Area T, located at 78 Trinity Pl. Upon arrival, police found three marked Hackensack Police Department vehicles engulfed in flames.

No injuries were reported and the police vehicles were unoccupied, according to the BCPO.

[Name] is accused of intentionally setting the police vehicles on fire by pouring and igniting an accelerant onto the vehicles before fleeing the scene.

The press release sent from the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office did not say why [name] was determined to be the suspect.

Found on mainstream news.