French police have detained 1,738 people in numerous raids on the drug scene across the country in recent days.
“We will continue the anti-drug operations,” France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced on Saturday afternoon in Saint-Denis near Paris. Drug trafficking is to be eradicated, he added.
During the operations over the past 10 days or so, €2.4 million ($2.6 million) have been confiscated. The forces also seized 150 kilograms of drugs, mainly cocaine and heroin.
In Paris and the Seine-Saint-Denis district north-east of the capital alone, more than 300 people were taken into custody, Darmanin said.
The minister said that the fight against drugs must not only be conducted in the area of security, but education, the fight against addiction and the question of parental responsibility also played a role.
The police raids, dubbed “Tidy Place” in French, are part of a strategy launched last summer with the aim of eliminating the approximately 4,000 drug sales points in the country.
Police officers are deployed around the clock at the relevant locations in the cities for an extended period of time. They are to arrest drug dealers and prevent them from starting their business again a few metres away after a brief police operation.
Drug gangs are particularly active in the high-rise housing estates of many large cities in France and make life difficult for the other residents. Violent clashes between gangs occur time and again, resulting in the deaths of innocent bystanders.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s top investigative body said Thursday that another suspect has been detained as an accomplice in the attack by gunmen on a suburban Moscow concert hall that killed 143 people.
A statement from the Investigative Committee said the latest person detained was involved in financing Friday’s attack on the Crocus City concert hall in which gunmen shot people who were waiting for a show by a popular rock band and then set the building on fire. It did not give further details of the suspect’s identity or alleged actions.
Officials previously said that 11 suspects had been arrested, including four who allegedly carried out the attack. Those four, identified as Tajik nationals, appeared in a Moscow court on Sunday on terrorism charges and showed signs of severe beatings. One appeared to be barely conscious during the hearing.
A faction of the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the massacre. But Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin have persistently claimed, without presenting evidence, that Ukraine and the West had a role in the attack.
The Investigative Committee statement said it has “confirmed data that the perpetrators of the terrorist attack received significant amounts of money and cryptocurrency from Ukraine, which were used in preparing the crime.”
Ukraine denies involvement and its officials claim that Moscow is pushing the allegation as a pretext to intensify its fighting in Ukraine.
Health officials said Thursday that about 70 people remain hospitalized from injuries in the attack, many of them in severe condition.
Nearly 100 people in the United States and Australia have so far been arrested over child sex abuse allegations after the fatal shooting of two FBI agents led to the unraveling of a suspected international pedophile ring, officials announced Tuesday.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said that 19 men had been arrested for allegedly sharing child-abuse material online, while at least 13 children were rescued from further harm as a result of a joint operation with the FBI, dubbed “Operation Bakis.”
The development brought the total number of people arrested as part of the joint probe up to 98, with at least 79 arrests so far carried out by the FBI, according to the AFP.
The joint investigation began after two FBI agents investigating the alleged pedophile ring were fatally shot in 2021 while executing a search warrant in Sunrise, Florida, for a man suspected of being in possession of child abuse material, the AFP noted in a news release.
Special Agents Daniel Alfin and Laura Schwartzenberger were fatally shot, while the gunman, David Lee Huber, 55, was also killed, NBC News previously reported.
The AFP said the coordinated probe was formally launched in 2022 after the FBI provided the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation with intelligence about Australian individuals suspected of being part of a “peer-to-peer network allegedly sharing child abuse material on the dark web.”
Operation Bakis was a joint investigation with Australian state and territory police that had its origins in the murder of two FBI agents in Florida in 2021.Australian Federal Police
The Australian suspects are between the ages of 32 to 81 years old, the AFP said. So far, two have been sentenced, it said.
Most of the Australian suspects were employed in occupations that required a high degree of knowledge on internet networks, the AFP said.
“Members used software to anonymously share files, chat on message boards and access websites within the network,” it said.
Some were also accused of having produced their own child abuse material to share with members of the network, the AFP said.
“Viewing, distributing or producing child abuse material is a horrific crime, and the lengths that these alleged offenders went to in order to avoid detection makes them especially dangerous — the longer they avoid detection the longer they can perpetuate the cycle of abuse,” AFP Commander Helen Schneider said in a statement.
“The success of Operation Bakis demonstrates the importance of partnerships for law enforcement, at a national level here in Australia, but also at an international level,” she said.
“We are proud of our longstanding relationship with the Australian Federal Police resulting in 19 Australian men facing criminal prosecution as a result of our collaborative investigation,” FBI Legal Attaché Nitiana Mann said in a separate statement.
“The complexity and anonymity of these platforms means that no agency or country can fight these threats alone,” Mann said. “As we continue to build bridges through collaboration and teamwork, we can ensure the good guys win and the bad guys lose.”
Mann said that 43 people had been convicted of child abuse offenses in the U.S. as part of the investigation, according to the Associated Press.
The FBI had also alerted other countries to suspects within their jurisdictions, Mann said according to the AP, but did not name those countries.
Israeli police said Saturday that they arrested two Israeli settlers after they stormed a Palestinian village in the West Bank in a rampage that left one Palestinian dead.
Armed settlers entered Burqa, a herding village east of the city of Ramallah, late Friday, shooting and killing 19-year-old Qusai Matan, Palestinian health officials said.
Israeli media reported that one of the arrested settlers, who remained unnamed, used to work as an aide for a lawmaker of the far-right Israeli “Jewish Power” party which is in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition of ultranationalist and ultraorthodox parties in the Israeli parliament.
It includes Itamar Ben-Gvir, a pro-settlement firebrand known for hardline positions against Palestinians.
The party couldn’t be reached for comment.
Police said they arrested two settlers after detaining five for questioning. The other settler who was arrested was hospitalized after sustaining injuries Friday night. Authorities did not elaborate on the charges.
The army said that Israeli settlers arrived in the area to herd sheep, leading to clashes between Israelis and Palestinians from the village. Both sides hurled rocks at each other, the army said, and Israelis fired at Palestinians, leaving Matai dead and four Palestinians and several Israelis injured by rocks.
he village was closed down and more Israeli troops were stationed in the area surrounding it.
Palestinian officials said the settlers also burned two cars in the village. They also called for the perpetrators to be punished.
Violence has spiraled in the northern West Bank with the rise of shooting attacks by Palestinian groups against Israelis and daily arrest raids by the Israeli military, and growing attacks by extremist Jewish settlers.
The surge in fighting is one of the worst between Israelis and Palestinians in nearly two decades. More than 150 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the start of 2023 in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
Israel says most killed have been militants, but stone-throwing youths protesting army raids and innocent bystanders have also been killed.
At least 26 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis so far this year.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police said Saturday that they arrested two Israeli settlers after they stormed a Palestinian village in the West Bank in a rampage that left one Palestinian dead.
Armed settlers entered Burqa, a herding village east of the city of Ramallah, late Friday, shooting and killing 19-year-old Qusai Matan, Palestinian health officials said.
Israeli media reported that one of the arrested settlers, who remained unnamed, used to work as an aide for a lawmaker of the far-right Israeli “Jewish Power” party which is in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition of ultranationalist and ultraorthodox parties in the Israeli parliament. It includes Itamar Ben-Gvir, a pro-settlement firebrand known for hardline positions against Palestinians.
The party couldn’t be reached for comment.
Police said they arrested two settlers after detaining five for questioning. The other settler who was arrested was hospitalized after sustaining injuries Friday night. Authorities did not elaborate on the charges.
The army said that Israeli settlers arrived in the area to herd sheep, leading to clashes between Israelis and Palestinians from the village. Both sides hurled rocks at each other, the army said, and Israelis fired at Palestinians, leaving Matai dead and four Palestinians and several Israelis injured by rocks.
The village was closed down and more Israeli troops were stationed in the area surrounding it.
Palestinian officials said the settlers also burned two cars in the village. They also called for the perpetrators to be punished.
Violence has spiraled in the northern West Bank with the rise of shooting attacks by Palestinian groups against Israelis and daily arrest raids by the Israeli military, and growing attacks by extremist Jewish settlers.
The surge in fighting is one of the worst between Israelis and Palestinians in nearly two decades. More than 150 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the start of 2023 in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, according to a tally by The Associated Press.
Israel says most killed have been militants, but stone-throwing youths protesting army raids and innocent bystanders have also been killed.
At least 26 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis so far this year.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.
Arrests, damage after thousands swarm Manhattan park for video game giveaway – CBS News
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A video game giveaway announced by social media influencer Kai Cenat drew a crowd of thousands to Union Square in Manhattan Friday. The massive gathering quickly degenerated into violence, with people throwing objects at NYPD officers, and nearby stores being forced to evacuate. Lana Zak has the latest.
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