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Eastern District of Virginia

Arlington
News
Fairfax, DC Women Among 16 Drug Offenders Granted Clemency By Biden Fairfax, DC Women Among 16 Drug Offenders Granted Clemency By Biden
Fairfax, DC Women Among 16 Drug Offenders Granted Clemency By Biden Sixteen nonviolent drug offenders were granted clemency by President Joe Biden, including two with ties to Virginia and one from Washington DC. Katrina Polk, 54, pleaded guilty to a nonviolent drug offense at 18 years old. She served her sentence and completed the terms of her release. She her release, Polk has earned her PhD in public policy and administration and advocates for the elderly, according to the White House. "Colleagues, supervisors, friends, and community members uniformly praise her character and work ethic and consider her a role model, noting her demonstrated commitmen…

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by Cecilia Levine
Stafford
Police & Fire
Stafford Man Convicted For Role In DMV Dog Fighting Ring Stafford Man Convicted For Role In DMV Dog Fighting Ring
Stafford Man Convicted For Role In DMV Dog Fighting Ring A 45-year-old Stafford man has been convicted for his role in an animal fighting ring in the DMV for five years, federal officials said. Mark Joseph Rodriguez, aka “Slow Poke,” and co-conspirators from the region used a messaging app that they called "The DMV Board" or "The Board" to discuss training fighting dogs, exchange videos about dogfighting, and arrange and coordinate dog fights, out of view of law enforcement, Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said. Members of the DMV Board also used the app to compare methods of killing dogs that lost f…

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by Cecilia Levine
Hudson
Police & Fire
Convicted MS-13 Killer Sentenced In NJ Murder Plot Convicted MS-13 Killer Sentenced In NJ Murder Plot
Convicted MS-13 Killer Sentenced In NJ Murder Plot 𝗨𝗣𝗗𝗔𝗧𝗘: A member of an MS-13 clique who just began serving 40 years in federal prison for a murder in Virginia was sentenced to 10 years for his role in a failed plot to kill a rival in Hudson County. The plea-bargained sentence approved by a federal judge in Newark on Thursday, March 21, won’t require Jose Gimenez-Lobos, a 33-year-old Salvadoran national, to serve more time. It will run concurrently. Gimenez-Lobos and two companions were ordered by a high-ranking member of La Mara Salvatrucha to execute a member of the rival 18th Street gang from the Maryland/Virginia area, U.S. Attorney …

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by Jerry DeMarco
Loudoun
News
Leesburg Army Reservist Used COVID Scam To Pay Swindlers Overseas: Feds Leesburg Army Reservist Used COVID Scam To Pay Swindlers Overseas: Feds
Leesburg Army Reservist Used COVID Scam To Pay Swindlers Overseas: Feds A Virginia Army reservist was apparently no better than the people he thought he was fooling. Russell Laraway, 56, of Leesburg, admitted he fraudulently claimed more than $400,000 in a COVID relief fund scheme, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Jessica D. Aber said. Being busted by the feds ultimately may have saved Laraway, though, who allegedly gave some of his hard-earned cash to foreign entities "in scams of which he was a victim," Aber's office said. According to court documents, Laraway incorporated two business entities that he purported to operate out of …

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by Cecilia Levine
Prince William
Police & Fire
Feds Detail Letter Found In Home Of Would-Be Haymarket Church Killer Feds Detail Letter Found In Home Of Would-Be Haymarket Church Killer
Feds Detail Letter Found In Home Of Would-Be Haymarket Church Killer A 35-year-old Virginia man is facing new federal charges months after showing up to to a church with a handgun and threatening to kill its members on social media, officials said. Falls Church resident Rui Jiang, 35, was charged with attempted aggravated murder of multiple people, after showing up to the Park Valley Church on Waverly Farm Drive in Haymarket with a handgun on Sunday, Sept. 24, Prince William County police said. Federal officials this week charged Jian by criminal complaint with posting threatening messages online against the congregants of a Haymarket church. A search of hi…

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by Cecilia Levine
Fairfax
News
18 Virginia Residents Indicted In Fentanyl, Firearm Trafficking Operation: Feds 18 Virginia Residents Indicted In Fentanyl, Firearm Trafficking Operation: Feds
18 Virginia Residents Indicted In Fentanyl, Firearm Trafficking Operation: Feds Twenty-six people including 18 Virginia residents were federally indicted in a fentanyl and firearm-trafficking operation. The charges were brought as the result of Operation Lights Out, an FBI-led investigation in partnership with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.  The defendants from Virginia have been indicted: Cortez Dayshawn Bumphus, aka “Co”, 34, of Newport News Dontae Lamont Dozier, aka “2 Chains”, 35, of Chesapeake Zuri Anthony Dre-Oliver Reeves, aka “Zu” or “ZuWaap”, 26, of Spotsylvania Amanda Bell, 22, of Chesapeake Stephon Lamount Bumphus, aka “Fon”, 34, …

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by Cecilia Levine
Alexandria
News
VA Family Gets Prison Time For Forcing Pakistani Woman Into 'Modern-Day Equivalent Of Slavery' VA Family Gets Prison Time For Forcing Pakistani Woman Into 'Modern-Day Equivalent Of Slavery'
VA Family Gets Prison Time For Forcing Pakistani Woman Into 'Modern-Day Equivalent Of Slavery' Three people in Virginia will get a taste of their own medicine after being sentenced for a years-long conspiracy to force a Pakistani woman who married into the family into forced labor, federal officials announced. Midlothian residents Zahida Aman, 80, was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison, Mohammed Rehan Chaudhri, 48, to 10 years in federal prison, and Mohammad Nauman Chaudhri, 55, to five years in federal prison for their roles in conspiring to compel the domestic labor of a woman for more than a decade. According to federal prosecutors, in 2002, the victim married Aman’s son, wh…

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by Zak Failla
Arlington
News
Former State Department Employee Admits To Sexual Conduct With Philippine Minors: DOJ Former State Department Employee Admits To Sexual Conduct With Philippine Minors: DOJ
Former State Department Employee Admits To Sexual Conduct With Philippine Minors: DOJ A former state department employee admitted in court to having sexual conduct with Philippine minors, authorities said. Dean Edward Cheves, 63, pleaded guilty to two counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place on Monday, Oct. 24, according to the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Cheves met multiple minors over the Internet while serving at the US Embassy in the Philippines from 2017 to 2021, federal officials said. From Dec. 2020 to March 2021, the man communicated online with a then 15 to 16-year-old Philippine juvenile, who he paid …

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by Nicole Acosta
Montgomery PA
News
Feds: Counterfeiter Who Made Phony $100 Bills With Bleached Singles Gets 5 Years Without Parole Feds: Counterfeiter Who Made Phony $100 Bills With Bleached Singles Gets 5 Years Without Parole
Feds: Counterfeiter Who Made Phony $100 Bills With Bleached Singles Gets 5 Years Without Parole A convicted counterfeiter from Philadelphia must spend the next five years in federal prison for printing $235,000 worth of fake $100 bills that he and a crew circulated in Virginia, authorities said. Hollis Forteau, 38, formerly of Willingboro, NJ, already had an extensive criminal history when federal investigators arrested him for printing Benjamin Franklin and other $100 images onto bleached dollar bills that he distributed to at least six associates. The crew members used the funny money to buy items at retail stores in Virginia, then returned the goods to other stores in the same chai…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Yonkers
News
Biden Nominates Longtime Lawyer To Serve As US Attorney for the Southern District of NY Biden Nominates Longtime Lawyer To Serve As US Attorney for the Southern District of NY
Biden Nominates Longtime Lawyer To Serve As US Attorney for the Southern District of NY President Joe Biden has nominated Damian Williams to serve as the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, one of the most high-profile federal positions. Williams, age 40, has been an Assistant United States Attorney for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York since 2012, serving as its Chief of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force. The Southern District includes Manhattan, the Bronx, Westchester County, and other northern suburbs. If approved, Williams would be the first African American to serve as the leader of the Manhattan prose…

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by Zak Failla
Essex NJ
Police & Fire
Feds: Crew In NJ, NY, Michigan Conned Banks, Merchant Processors Out Of $3.5 Million Feds: Crew In NJ, NY, Michigan Conned Banks, Merchant Processors Out Of $3.5 Million
Feds: Crew In NJ, NY, Michigan Conned Banks, Merchant Processors Out Of $3.5 Million Federal agents arrested five people from New Jersey, New York and Michigan and were searching for two others Monday in connection with a $3.5 million bank fraud. Working together, the defendants defrauded several major banks and electronic merchant processors by creating shell companies that issued checks to one another, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said. They also conducted “fraudulent credit card and debit card transactions between shell companies to fraudulently credit payee accounts and fraudulently overdraw payor accounts,” Carpenito said. The shell companies also issued temporary re…

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by Jerry DeMarco
Hackensack
News
Justice Dept: COVID-Related Directives Can't Treat Religious Groups Differently Than Businesses Justice Dept: COVID-Related Directives Can't Treat Religious Groups Differently Than Businesses
Justice Dept: Covid-related Directives Can't Treat Religious Groups Differently Than Businesses Although state and local governments may issue coronavirus state-of-emergency directives, "there is no pandemic exception to the Constitution and its Bill of Rights," the Justice Department said Sunday. Federal authorities issued the statement in support of a Virginia church whose pastor was charged criminally with conducting a worship service attended by 16 people in a 225-seat sanctuary. But its message extends well beyond the specific case, as federal authorities continue examining state and local emergency orders to see whether they'd stand up to a constitutional challenge. The Lightho…

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by Jerry DeMarco