US attorney’s office announces huge operation in which authorities seized large amounts of drugs, illegally possessed guns, and cash.
The operation involved seven states and the alleged criminals had a large presence in Loudoun County.
The DEA says seven different groups were operating out of the DC region.
Although the drug operation spanned far beyond Loudoun, the county sheriff says in Loudoun alone it was the largest drug seizure in county history.
He says the drugs stemmed from the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico, once led by El Chapo.
$6.5 million in drugs, guns, and cash seized in Loudoun County during the operation, called “Operation Angels Envy.”
Cocaine, fentanyl, heroin, marijuana, crack all involved.
The Sinaloa cartel was allegedly behind shipments of drugs from Mexico to California and then to the DC area.
Even with El Chapo gone authorities say the cartel is still very violent and active in the drug trade.
I am told there were two major drug seizures in Loudoun County, both happened last year, one involved drugs disguised to look like a normal shipment that was flown into Dulles Airport, the other was at a home.
This is what was seized in just Loudoun County.
The Sinaloa cartel was allegedly behind all this - shipments of drugs would go from Mexico to California and then to the DC area.
Even with El Chapo gone authorities say the cartel is still very violent and active in the drug trade.
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On the scene near Giles St in Springfield’s Newington Forest area, where a husband & wife were shot & killed in their front yard this morning.
The new Fairfax County police chief called it a “tragic, brutal, vicious double murder.“
Fairfax Co. Police had been at the same home Monday for many hours after a report of a “dispute“ & burglary. They believe today’s murders were connected to what happened Monday.
Monday’s incident was still under investigation when this morning’s double murder happened.
Police chief: “This was not a random act of violence. Not at all...the shooter or shooters, we strongly believe, are known to a relative of our two victims.“
NEW: Metro has identified problems with its response to a 3/26 disabled train near Rhode Island Avenue station that affected 109 riders: poor communication, an inadequate response that left some riders stranded 90 mins, a train car that rolled 137 ft after riders got off. #wmata
GM Paul Wiedefeld says he’s taking several immediate steps, including adding Safety Dept. and Office of Emergency Management (OEM) staff to the rail operations control center 24/7 to coordinate the response to emergencies. #wmata
Metro says no one at the scene reported that a train car had rolled about 137 feet at less than five mph while they were trying to get it ready to tow. It should have been reported. #wmata
Some of Metro's own board members think the number is too low, but #wmata isn't projecting many more rail riders even by the end of 2021:
Metrorail Number of Trips Oct - Dec
2019 45.5 million
2020 6.3 million
2021 (projected) 8.0 million
Some Metro board members indicated that is an extremely conservative estimate given how many people are expected to be vaccinated by then. #wmata
Metro's chief financial officer indicated many rail riders who can work from home may never come back five days a week: "Going forward, the expectation is that folks are going to be working perhaps one or two days in the office and the rest from home." #wmata
BREAKING: Metro says $610 million it expects to receive from the Covid relief bill is only enough to stave off big budget cuts through next January.
GM *still* proposing closing stations at 9pm, 30 minutes between trains, turnbacks & closing 22 stations starting Jan 2022. #wmata
But noticeably absent from the new proposal - closing all rail stations on weekends, the GM is no longer proposing that at all #wmata
Bus service would also be slashed in January 2022 under the GM's new proposal. It would be reduced to 50 percent of pre-pandemic service. It is currently 75-80 percent, per a Metro document. #wmata
BREAKING: Metro says an FBI agent shot a Red Line passenger Tuesday morning after the man approached him and they had a “verbal exchange.”
Metro Transit Police chief calls the shooting an active criminal investigation. #wmata
Metro says the man approached the FBI agent on a train that was approaching Medical Center in Bethesda.
Metro says cameras on the 7000 series train appear to show the FBI agent firing multiple shots that hit the man after exchanging words with him. #wmata
Per Metro both the FBI agent & the shooting victim got off at Medical Center. A passenger called 911 & the station manager alerted rail operations & requested medics at 6:44 AM Tuesday.
Victim was taken to the hospital at 7:06 AM & is currently in “stable condition“ per #wmata
Starting tomorrow the Franconia-Springfield Metro station will close for 16 days and folks will have to catch shuttle buses in the area to the left. Van Dorn Street will also close. Metro says it is doing work modernizing its automatic train control system. #wmata
The same two stations were shut down for months in 2019 for platform work. We asked Metro why they didn’t do the ATC work then, they say it requires highly specialized equipment that wasn’t ready & available then. They say they did do some civil engineering work in 2019. #wmata
#wmata says ridership at Franconia-Springfield & Van Dorn Street is down more than 80% compared with before the pandemic, and ridership also is traditionally lower than normal during the holidays, so that’s why they are doing the 16 day shutdown now.