Tag: crime

German farmer investigated over gift from Russia

A farmer is facing criminal prosecution in Germany over receiving a small Easter gift from a Russian friend. The man is now accused of violating sanctions and could face up to five years behind bars.

A public prosecutor’s office in the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania confirmed on Friday that a criminal case had indeed been opened against a local man on suspicion of violating the restrictions.

The case dates back several months, to when a German customs office intercepted a small package which was sent to the farmer from Russia. According to the broadcaster NDR, the package contained a piece of soap, a wooden figurine, and a CD – worth less than €27 ($32) in total. All of the items were on the sanctions list, the report said, adding that the customs office had confiscated the package and a probe was opened into it.

The farmer, who has been identified as Rudolf Denissen by NDR, could face between three months and five years of imprisonment if found guilty. The prosecutor’s office also requested an official written statement from him, as well as “complete personal details and information on net monthly income.”

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Harry Miller Accused of Hate Crime – for Tweet Celebrating Dismissal of Trans Police Officer Who Stalked Him

Harry Miller, a former police officer who now campaigns for free speech, was accused of a hate crime by police for a tweet celebrating the dismissal of a trans police officer who had stalked him. The Telegraph has the story.

Harry Miller, a former police officer who now campaigns for free speech, was questioned under caution by Lincolnshire Police for a tweet welcoming the officer’s removal.

Mr Miller had been the victim of a sustained campaign of harassment by Lynsay Watson, a transgender constable with the Leicestershire force who was the complainant behind the arrest last week of Graham Linehan, the comedy writer.

Watson was sacked for gross misconduct in October 2023 after being found guilty of sending more than 1,200 messages to Mr Miller over an 18-month period, branding him a “Nazi”, a “bigot” and “wife beater”.

Mr Miller, who set up the Fair Cop campaign group to remove politics from policing, posted a tweet welcoming the decision. However, in November 2024, more than a year later, he was accused of having committed a criminal offence over the wording of the tweet and questioned under caution.

He was accused of having impersonated the Chief Constable of Leicestershire Police in his online remarks, seemingly because the offending tweet began: “Statement re the dismissal of PC Watson from @leicspolice”. The detective sergeant who interviewed him suggested the post read as though it was a statement being issued on behalf of Leicestershire Police.

Mr Miller was also accused of misgendering Watson in an article he had written about his stalking ordeal for the Critic magazine.

He was informed he was being questioned on suspicion of a breach of the Online Safety Act, which makes it a criminal offence to send a message knowing it to be false and intending it cause non-trivial psychological or physical harm without a reasonable excuse.

The Online Safety Act gained Royal Assent on October 26th 2023, the day before Mr Miller posted the tweet, but did not become law until January 31st last year, so could not have been applied in this case.

Mr Miller was subsequently released with no further action.

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“Billions In Losses”: Retail Crime Has Surged 93% In Progressive Cities

America’s great cities once symbolized prosperity and culture. Now, many are paying a steep financial price as crime surges and businesses flee. As one line in a new op-ed piece put it, “Crime has a balance sheet. In poorly led cities, that balance sheet is bleeding red ink by the day.”

Retail is bearing the brunt, according to an op-ed by Ted Jenkin at Fox News. The National Retail Federation (NRF) reported U.S. retailers lost $112 billion in 2022 due to theft, up from $94 billion in 2021. Between 2019 and 2023, shoplifting incidents rose 93% and dollar losses climbed 90%. Major chains are pulling back: Target projected $500 million in additional losses this year, Walgreens has shut stores across San Francisco, and Nordstrom left downtown entirely.

“Does it seem insane to you that so many of these retail stores have to lock up much of the merchandise…knowing that they will never be arrested?” the piece asked. The fallout is visible in empty storefronts and shrinking city budgets. San Francisco’s downtown vacancy rate has hit 34.8%, erasing jobs, tax revenue, and foot traffic.

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Migrant who ‘beheaded’ boss escaped deportation despite gruesome criminal record

The suspect in a horrific beheading of a motel manager in Texas had been detained by federal immigration officials — only to be released despite his rampant history of crimes across three states.

Cuban Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, 37, allegedly decapitated his boss and later kicking the head across the parking lot ‘like a soccer ball’ before tossing it into a dumpster. 

He had previously been detained and released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE, according to the Dallas Fox station. 

‘The migrant had been detained on January 13 and later released, despite a removal order to kick him out of the country because there was ‘no significant likelihood for removal in the foreseeable future,’ ICE told WFAA.

‘This barbaric criminal was released because Cuba would not accept him because of his criminal history.’

However, the local outlet found found footage of deportation flights to the island nation in 2023.

Additionally, Cobos-Martinez was wanted for a probation violation in California, with an active warrant. 

It’s unclear why Trump immigration officials did not arrest him on his active warrant, despite their immigration crackdown promise to arrest the ‘worst of the worst.’ 

In another violent episode, Cobos-Martinez allegedly carjacked a woman in south Lake Tahoe, California while he was naked. 

Two years ago, he was convicted in that case and sentence to a year and a half in prison. He also had a record in Florida, according to Fox 4 TV.

More information is surfacing about victim, Chandra Nagamallaiah, 50 as well.

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6 more officers fired over handling of domestic violence-fueled triple homicide in South Florida

A South Florida sheriff’s office has fired six more deputies and disciplined 11 others for their handling of the case of Mary Gingles, a woman who investigators say was murdered by her estranged husband after she had warned officers for months that she feared he would kill her. Two officers had previously been dismissed for their role in the case.

An internal investigation found that multiple Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies failed to properly investigate Gingles’ reports of domestic violence perpetrated by her husband, Nathan Gingles, before he allegedly carried out the triple homicide of his wife, her father, David Ponzer, and her neighbor Andrew Ferrin, as the Gingles’ four-year-old daughter begged her father to stop.

Nathan Gingles has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

The killings – despite Mary Gingles’ repeated pleas for help – have shaken the South Florida community of Tamarac and ignited fresh scrutiny of officers’ failure to use the state’s red flag law to remove firearms from a person deemed a danger to themselves or others.

Following through on threats that Mary Gingles had repeatedly reported, on Feb. 16, 2025, Nathan Gingles fatally shot his father-in-law as he was drinking coffee on the back patio of the family’s home, before chasing Mary down the street and killing her and Ferrin, a neighbor whose home she fled to, according to investigators.

“We had multiple opportunities to protect Mary during the months preceding her death when she alerted us to the domestic violence she was experiencing. The deputies and detectives assigned to investigate these cases failed their training and, ultimately, failed to handle Mary’s repeated cries for help with the urgency required,” Broward Sheriff Gregory Tony said in a statement.

According to an investigation by the Miami Herald, in the year leading up to her murder, Mary Gingles had confided in friends, family and law enforcement officers that she feared her estranged husband would kill her.

He repeatedly violated restraining orders barring him from the family’s home, terrorizing his wife by putting a tracker on her car and leaving a backpack full of supplies like duct tape and zip ties in the garage, the investigation found.

Gingles’ alleged behavior in the months leading up to the killings was consistent with what experts say are known risk factors for further abuse, including deadly violence. More female intimate partners are killed by firearms than by all other means combined, according to a Department of Justice analysis of a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“One of the most crucial steps to prevent lethal violence is to disarm abusers and keep them disarmed,” the Justice Department’s report stated.

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Cardiff Man Wrongly Accused of Theft After Facial Recognition Error Triggers Privacy Complaint

A Cardiff man has filed a formal complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office after being wrongly accused of theft in a store using facial recognition software.

The case is now drawing wider attention to the unchecked spread of biometric surveillance in everyday retail environments.

On 29 April 2025, Byron Long, 66, arrived at the B&M outlet in Cardiff Bay Retail Park expecting an ordinary shopping trip.

Instead, he was approached by staff and told he was barred from the premises. In front of other customers, he was accused of stealing £75 ($101) worth of goods during a visit earlier that month.

That accusation was entirely false. During the visit in question on 9 April, Long had bought a single item: a £7 ($9.50) packet of cat treats. He paid for them in full. He later obtained CCTV footage showing himself at the checkout in a Red Bull Formula 1 jacket, clearly completing the purchase.

“It was a horrible experience, and I haven’t been back to the store since. The incident has had a very serious impact on my mental health, which is very fragile anyway, and I am now very anxious whenever I go shopping,” Long said, as reported by Nation Cymru.

The misidentification came from Facewatch, a private firm contracted by retailers to run facial recognition scans on customers. Images from Long’s previous visit were processed and matched to a database of alleged offenders. That match triggered the alert that led B&M staff to accuse him.

B&M later acknowledged the error, issuing a written apology and stating: “Our B&M store and security teams have a duty of care to all our customers and to our company, and this includes challenging people that they believe are potentially shoplifting. This is an extremely difficult task, and sadly we don’t always get it right; your case would be one of these instances…We can confirm your data has been removed from Facewatch.”

They also offered a £25 ($34) voucher as compensation, an offer Long flatly rejected.

Facewatch responded to the incident by suspending the user who had submitted the incorrect data. Michele Bond, the company’s Head of Incident Review and Data Protection Enquiries, said: “Facewatch Incident data is submitted by authorized users, who must confirm the accuracy of the information provided. Once the error was identified, the user responsible was immediately suspended from using the Facewatch system.”

Long has since taken the matter to Big Brother Watch, a civil liberties group focused on privacy and surveillance. The organization has now submitted a complaint to the ICO on his behalf.

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Fox News host on mentally ill people who commit crimes: “Just kill them”

LAWRENCE JONES (FOX HOST):  We don’t have to — we feel so compassionate because you see the mental health crisis happening.

AINSLEY EARHARDT (FOX HOST): You just get — exactly.

JONES  But it’s not our job — we shouldn’t have to live in fear while they figure out what is going on right there.

EARHARDT: Right, right.

JONES: Put him in a mental institution, put him in a jail, and you guys figure it out. But people having to duck and dive on the trains and the buses, walking through the street, this is one case, but this is happening all across the country, and it’s not a money issue. They have given billions of dollars to mental health and the homeless population. A lot of them don’t want to take the programs, a lot of them don’t want to get the help that is necessary. You can’t give them a choice. Either you take the resources that we’re going to give you and — or you decide that you are going to be locked up in jail. That’s the way it has to be now.

BRIAN KILMEADE (FOX HOST): Or involuntary lethal injection.

JONES: Yeah.

KILMEADE : Or something. Just kill them.

EARHARDT: Yeah, Brian, why did it have to get to this point?

KILMEADE: Right, I would say this, we are not voting for the right people. In North Carolina, wake up. You can’t put — keep putting these people in power. They woke up in Los Angeles, they got a stronger D.A. They woke up and they got rid of Chesa Boudin in San Francisco. Hopefully they will get rid of this terrible guy Alvin Bragg in New York. And now it’s up to the people in the election which is whoever is up in November and that Senate seat that belongs to Thom Tillis who by the way yesterday said I don’t want any help from the federal government to bring crime under control in cities like Charlotte. That’s your decision. But Michael Whatley or you could have Governor Cooper. Governor Cooper gave you these terrible laws. Mike Whatley wouldn’t. And he ran the RNC. These are the people in North Carolina. Purple leaning red state. They got a big choice. On this element, it is political. Because it’s political because politics has to change this.

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US Condemns Prosecution of Finnish Lawmaker Over Bible Verse Tweet

Finland’s prosecution of Päivi Räsänen has drawn sharp condemnation from the US State Department, which labeled the charges “baseless” and included a Bible verse in a rare public gesture of support.

This comes as Finland’s Supreme Court prepares to hear a case widely regarded as a test of whether expressing religious beliefs can be treated as a criminal act in a democratic nation.

The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor made its position clear on X, stating: “In a democracy, no one should face trial for peacefully sharing their beliefs. The case against Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen, which accuses her of hate speech for simply posting a Bible verse, is baseless, as two courts have unanimously found.”

The post included a verse from Matthew 5:11: “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”

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HORROR: Illegal Alien Released by Biden Admin Beheads Motel Manager In Dallas, Kicks Severed Head, Tosses it in Dumpster

An illegal alien who was released from ICE custody by the Biden Administration beheaded a motel manager in Old East Dallas, Texas, on Wednesday.

Yordanis Cobos-Martinez, an illegal alien from Cuba, was released into the interior of the US on January 13, 2025, just one week before Trump was sworn into office.

Cobos-Martinez used a machete to repeatedly hack the victim, Chandra Nagamallaiah, 50, and then beheaded him.

According to Fox News, Cobos-Martinez was caught on surveillance video kicking the victim’s severed head in the parking lot, then picking it up and tossing it into a dumpster.

Fox News reporter Bill Melugin said Cobos-Martinez has a prior criminal history of:

False imprisonment in CA (unknown disposition)
Indecency with a child in Texas (dismissed)
Grand theft of vehicle in Florida (dismissed)
Carjacking & false imprisonment in CA (acquitted on carjacking, convicted of false imprisonment).

Cobos-Martinez was charged with capital murder, Fox 4 reported.

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Longtime head of Mexican megachurch is indicted in New York on federal sex trafficking charges

The longtime head of a Mexican megachurch who is serving more than 16 years in a California prison for sexually abusing young followers has been charged with racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking for allegedly victimizing members of the church for decades, authorities said Wednesday.

A federal grand jury in New York returned the indictment alleging that Naasón Joaquín García, 56, and five others exploited the church for decades to enable the systemic sexual abuse of children and women for the sexual gratification of García and his father, who died in 2014.

The newly unsealed indictment said the criminal activity included the creation of photos and videos of child sexual abuse.

García was taken into federal custody early Wednesday in Chino, California, where he is serving a more than 16-year sentence after pleading guilty in 2022 to two state counts

His lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

García is the head of La Luz del Mundo (The Light of the World), which claims to have 5 million followers worldwide. Believers consider him to be the “apostle” of Jesus Christ.

Prosecutors in California have said that he used his spiritual sway to have sex with girls and young women who were told it would lead to their salvation – or damnation if they refused.

Besides García, one defendant charged in the case was taken into custody in Los Angeles while another was arrested in Chicago, authorities said. Three others were at large.

According to the indictment, two of the defendants and others tried to destroy evidence and prevent victims of the sexual abuse from speaking to law enforcement after García was arrested.

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