Female hostage rescued abroad as U.S. combats global trafficking operation

Washington D.C. – “We must not let the cartels exploit the pandemic to threaten American lives,” President Trump said. “In cooperation with the 22 partner nations, U.S. Southern Command will increase surveillance, disruption and seizures of shipments and provide additional support for eradication efforts, which are going on right now at a record pace.”

Flanked by Attorney General Bill Barr, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and top military officials at the White House coronavirus briefing, Trump announced on Wednesday a massive new “counternarcotics operation” in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea.

Earlier this year President Trump signed an executive order expanding efforts to combat human trafficking ‘monsters.’ – ABC News January 31, 2020. “My administration is putting unprecedented pressure on traffickers,” President Trump announced.

The President’s efforts have been previously highlighted when he pledged to end the ‘scourge‘ of addiction. – NPR 2018. At the time, the measures were a first step in the battle against illegal international trafficking. Senator Rob Portman was a leading proponent of the legislation in the Senate. “It will help in terms of both reducing some of this poison coming into our communities,” he said.

On March 17, 2020, on Twitter Trump alluded to the world being at war with a ‘hidden enemy,’ seemingly referencing the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Two days after the cryptic tweet, Trump used similar language in a daily briefing, saying, “When this hidden scourge is defeated, I think we’re going to go up very rapidly, our economy,” Trump said – The Hill March 19, 2020. During a daily briefing later in the week, Trump mentioned a young female American trafficking victim who was rescued in a secretive Military Operation. – Military.com March 22, 2020. 

Trump said he consulted with Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, who “took care of it. We went in and we got her out, but that was rough stuff.”

“We were able to get a young woman released from a certain area who was being horribly accosted, horribly treated,” he then added.

He thanked Milley “and all the people involved and people who went in to get her.”

In a question-and-answer session at the news conference, Trump was asked for details, but said only that “bad things were happening to her in a certain country,” adding that “Gen. Milley does not play games.”

A few days later it was announced that Venezuelan leader Maduro was charged in the U.S. with narco-terrorism. – New York Times March 26, 2020. Federal prosecutors accused President Nicolás Maduro of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy, in a major escalation of the Trump administration’s efforts to pressure him to leave office.

The State Department also announced a $15 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Mr. Maduro, who has led Venezuela’s economy into shambles and prompted an exodus of millions of people.

Mr. Maduro’s government is “plagued by criminality and corruption,” Attorney General William P. Barr said in announcing the charges at a news briefing along with the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the top federal prosecutors in Miami and Manhattan, where an indictment accused Mr. Maduro, 57, of importing hundreds of tons of cocaine into the United States.

The effect of this military operation coupled with the indictment during the COVID-19 pandemic, has caused the Mexican cartels to hike prices as supply chains from China dry up. – Fox News March 31, 2020.

Fentanyl, which originates from China, has become the most coveted cartel commodity in recent weeks.

Is the Kremlin is ditching its longtime ally? 

Another effect of the indictment, and pressure from the Trump administration has caused Russia to cut ties with Venezuela while the U.S. offers a peace plan. – Forbes April 1, 2020. The move came as a result of mounting U.S. pressure on Maduro since February. Last month, the Department of Treasury imposed sanctions on two Swiss-based Rosneft units – Rosneft Trading and TNK Trading International – for its business relationships with Venezuela’s Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A (PDVSA). Washington argued that Rosneft threw PDVSA a lifeline by acting as an intermediary for its crude oil sales.

A Russian plane with coronavirus medical gear landed in the U.S. after a perfect Trump-Putin phone call. – Reuters March 31, 2020. Russia sent the United States medical equipment on Wednesday to help fight the coronavirus pandemic, a public relations coup for Russian President Vladimir Putin after he discussed the crisis with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Another discovery was made in the war against trafficking this week when it was announced that the U.S. found a major cross-border trafficking tunnel in California. – New York Times March 31, 2020. The tunnel’s entrance is close to a newly constructed portion of the border wall that President Trump visited in the Otay Mesa section of San Diego.

The tunnel is equipped with ventilation, lighting and an underground rail system, authorities said Tuesday. The tunnel connected warehouses in Tijuana and San Diego, extending about 2,000 feet (610 meters) with an average depth of 31 feet (9.5 meters) and width of 3 feet (0.9 meter), according to the San Diego Tunnel Task Force, an investigative team made up of several federal agencies. Investigators believe the tunnel existed for several months “due to the advanced construction observed in several portions.”

The following day Trump made the big announcement of the anti-trafficking military operation, deploying destroyers and Air Force assets.  – Fox News April 1, 2020. Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the United States had obtained intelligence that cartels were seeking to “take advantage” of the coronavirus to conduct trafficking operations.

As the military operation are underway at Sea, two Navy hosptial ships have docked on the U.S. coastlines. The Comfort has docked in New York City, and no coronavirus patients will be accepted on board the 1,000-Bed Comfort hospital ship. – New York Times April 2, 2020. In NYC there is not a high volume of noncoronavirus patients. Because most New Yorkers have isolated themselves in their homes, there are fewer injuries from car accidents, gun shots and construction accidents that would require an emergency room visit.

On the west coast, the USNS Mercy has docked in Los Angeles, and already has been targeted by a crazed locomotive operator. Prosecutors said that the train engineer deliberately ran a train off the tracks at high speed in an attempt to crash into the USNS Mercy hospital ship in Los Angeles.

Federal prosecutors allege train engineer Eduardo Moreno, 44, of San Pedro intended to hit the ship, saying he thought it was “suspicious” and did not believe “the ship is what they say it’s for.”

Meanwhile Trump is under fire domestic from a far-left media group who requested the FCC to censor Trump press conferences. – The Federalist April 2, 2020. The spectacularly misnamed “Free Press” group seeks government control over conservative speech and conservative media.

“This is a sweeping and dangerous attempt by the far left to weaponize the FCC against conservative media outlets and elected officials. They want to turn the FCC into a roving speech police empowered to go after the left’s political opponents,” says FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr.

As news broke about the threat of pandemic, America has been suspicious of China, and it has now been revealed by U.S. Intelligence that China has concealed the extent of the coronavirus outbreak in its country, under-reporting both total cases and deaths it’s suffered from the disease, the U.S. intelligence community concluded in a classified report to the White House, according to three U.S. officials. – Bloomberg April 1, 2020.

Chinese President Xi Allowed 5 million people to travel out of Wuhan – 60 Minutes of Australia. In January President Xi Jinping made a decision that would ultimately condemn the world: allowing 5 million people to leave the epicentre of the virus without being screened. 

In a report published by Daily Caller on April 3, 2020, Coronavirus expert said the virus could have leaked from a lab in Wuham. Richard H. Ebright, a molecular biologist who has been quoted as a coronavirus expert by The Washington Post and MSNBC, said Thursday that it’s possible that COVID-19 leaked from a Wuhan lab.

Only citizens with a green health code are Chinese allowed to move in China now.

21 Million Fewer Cellphone Users in China May Suggest a High CCP Virus Death Toll – Bloomberg

“The Chinese regime requires all Chinese to use their cellphones to generate a health code. Only with a green health code are Chinese allowed to move in China now. It’s impossible for a person to cancel his cellphone.” – The Epoch Times

Brits may get ‘immunity wristbands’ to wear after coronavirus tests as Government vows to boost screening – The Sun

Epidemiologist leading the research project Gerard Krause said: “Those who are immune can then be given a vaccination certificate that would, for example, allow them to be exempt from any (lockdown-related) restrictions on their work.”

The CDC will set up a coronavirus ‘surveillance and data collection system’ as part of the $2 trillion stimulus bill, which President Trump just signed into law – Business Insider

• The CDC will launch a new “surveillance and data collection system” to track the spread of coronavirus in the US, per the coronavirus relief bill signed into law Friday.
• $500 million emergency stimulus money will go public health data surveillance and analytics infrastructure modernization.
• Tracking the spread of the virus will be a balancing act for the agency, which will have to navigate privacy laws as it expands its surveillance.

States are cracking down on companies microchipping their employees – Market Watch

Lawmakers worry about implantable devices, people keep getting more enmeshed in technology — and possibly Big Tech surveillance.

Governor signs ban on Indiana companies forcibly microchipping their employees NWI Times

Indiana companies cannot require their workers to be forcibly microchipped as a condition of employment.

In a January 21, 2020 Fox News interview, Tomi Lauren said, “Americans are under attack by these elitists.”

How criminals move their illegal goods around the world, in one map – Vox

This map from the UN Office on Drugs and Crimes helps explain how illicit goods — everything from guns to drugs to pirated DVDs — travel around the world.