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"El Chapo" lad arrested successful El Paso
A notorious cause cartel enlisted a hacker who was capable to infiltrate telephone information and Mexico City's surveillance cameras to assistance way and termination FBI informants, the U.S. Justice Department has revealed.
The 2018 cognition was disclosed Thursday successful a 47-page audit by the Justice Department Inspector General, outlining the FBI's "efforts to mitigate the effects of ubiquitous method surveillance."
The partially redacted study cites a lawsuit involving Juaquin "El Chapo" Guzman -- the laminitis of the infamous Sinaloa cartel. "El Chapo" is present serving a beingness condemnation successful a maximum information situation successful the U.S connected aggregate conspiracy counts for smuggling immense quantities of cocaine and different drugs into the U.S. for much than a 4th of a century.
According to the recently released audit, an unnamed hacker was recruited by the cartel successful 2018. The hacker "observed radical going successful and retired of the United States Embassy successful Mexico City and identified 'people of interest' for the cartel, including an FBI adjunct ineligible attaché," the study said.
The hacker was capable to usage the attaché's telephone fig to find incoming and outgoing calls arsenic good arsenic the FBI official's geolocation data, according to the audit.
The study said the hacker besides utilized Mexico City's surveillance camera strategy to travel the FBI attaché' passim the metropolis and place radical they met with. "The cartel utilized that accusation to intimidate and, successful immoderate instances, termination imaginable sources oregon cooperating witnesses," the audit said.
The study noted that modern exertion has made it hard to support delicate operations and sources.
"Advances successful information mining and analysis, facial recognition, and machine web exploitation person made it easier than ever for federation authorities adversaries, violent organizations and transgression networks to place FBI unit and operations," the audit said.
The study urged the FBI to behaviour an enterprise-wide menace appraisal to find wherever the bureau is astir vulnerable.
The Sinaloa cartel, which was designated a violent organization earlier this twelvemonth by the Trump administration, has agelong been 1 of Mexico's astir almighty and ruthless transgression syndicates. The cartel is 1 of the largest producers and traffickers of fentanyl and different drugs to the U.S. and has been known "to murder, kidnap, and intimidate civilians, authorities officials and journalists," according to the U.S. State Department.
The revelation astir the Sinaloa cartel hacker comes conscionable weeks aft the U.S. offered a $10 cardinal reward for the seizure of 2 of El Chapo's sons -- Archivaldo Ivan Guzman Salazar and Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar. His different 2 sons — Joaquin Guzman Lopez and Ovidio Guzman Lopez — are presently successful U.S. custody.
El Chapo's sons pb a faction of the Sinaloa cartel known arsenic the "Chapitos," oregon "little Chapos." The Chapitos and their cartel associates person utilized corkscrews, electrocution and blistery chiles to torture their rivals while immoderate of their victims were "fed dormant oregon live to tigers," according to a 2023 U.S. indictment.
Stephen Smith is simply a managing exertion for CBSNews.com based successful New York. A Washington, D.C. native, Steve was antecedently an editorial shaper for the Washington Post, and has besides worked successful Los Angeles, Boston and Tokyo.
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