The FBI, under Kash Patel's leadership, arrested over a dozen members of the "Anti-Tren" gang, a splinter faction of the Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua, on charges of drug and weapons trafficking.

The Anti-Tren gang members were in the country illegally when they were picked up by FBI Houston, according to a June 30 press release from the Department of Justice.

'Operation Take Back America means going on the offensive against transnational criminal organizations to ensure that they cannot take root in our community and endanger public safety.'

"Two criminal complaints charge 14 Anti-Tren members and associates with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine," the DOJ stated. "According to the allegations, two groups of individuals agreed to transport kilogram quantities of cocaine in exchange for $15,000 for each load with each group accepting half as payment in advance."

The 14 suspects are facing up to life in prison and up to a $10 million fine.

Five individuals could face an additional 15 years in prison for alleged possession and sale of firearms.

Photo by El Salvador Presidency / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images

According to the criminal complaint, Jose Miguel Briceno, a 25-year-old Venezuelan national, was previously involved in a mass shooting at a Houston bar that resulted in injuries to six people. Briceno is facing separate charges for alleged unlawful possession of ammunition by an alien, which could result in up to 15 years in prison and up to a $250,000 fine.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Marshals Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Enforcement and Removal Operations, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Houston Police Department, and the Harris County Sheriff's Office assisted the FBI with its investigation.

The agency's arrests were part of a nationwide initiative, dubbed Operation Take Back America, to "repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime."

Photo by Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images

U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei stated, "The Southern District's twin priorities are securing our border and the eradication of violent crime. This case implicates both."

"Operation Take Back America means going on the offensive against transnational criminal organizations to ensure that they cannot take root in our community and endanger public safety," Ganjei continued. "SDTX is going to be unapologetic in carrying out that mission."

Douglas Williams, the special agent in charge of the FBI Houston Field Office, referred to the arrests as "the largest takedown of suspected Anti-Tren members and associates by the FBI."

"These individuals are accused of engaging in a turf war with TDA members and carrying out numerous violent crimes throughout our city, including a mass shooting at a local sports bar that left six people wounded. Fortunately, for the good and safety of our community, these individuals are now in federal custody facing U.S. justice," Williams said.

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Patel’s FBI arrests alleged Chinese spies targeting US Navy

President Donald Trump's administration arrested two more Chinese nationals on Friday as part of its efforts to crack down on the espionage activities of the Chinese Communist Party.

The FBI arrested Yuance Chen, an Oregon resident, and Liren Lai, who traveled to Texas on a tourist visa in April, the Department of Justice announced.

'The individuals charged were acting on behalf of a hostile foreign intelligence service — part of the Chinese Communist Party's broader effort to infiltrate and undermine our institutions.'

According to the DOJ, the two allegedly acted as agents for the CCP's Ministry of State Security by collecting intelligence about U.S. Navy military members and bases.

Attorney General Pamela Bondi stated, "This case underscores the Chinese government's sustained and aggressive effort to infiltrate our military and undermine our national security from within."

Photo by Sebastian Barros/NurPhoto via Getty Images

"The Justice Department will not stand by while hostile nations embed spies in our country — we will expose foreign operatives, hold their agents to account, and protect the American people from covert threats to our national security," she added.

The two men are also accused of attempting to recruit service members to carry out similar covert tasks for the MSS, having allegedly visited naval installations in Washington and California in 2022 and 2023. The DOJ claimed that during those visits, Chen took photographs of a bulletin board that contained the names and programs of recruits, most of whom identified their hometown as China. That photo was allegedly sent to an MSS intelligence officer.

Chen and Lai allegedly facilitated a $10,000 "dead drop" payment on behalf of the MSS. The men were accused of coordinating with others in the U.S. to leave a backpack with the cash at a locker in Livermore, California.

A criminal complaint stated that Lai recruited Chen to work for the Chinese intelligence organization in 2021.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service assisted with the FBI's Friday arrest of Chen and Lai.

The men face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News Digital, "Today's arrests reflect the FBI's unwavering commitment to protecting our national security and safeguarding the integrity of our military."

"The individuals charged were acting on behalf of a hostile foreign intelligence service — part of the Chinese Communist Party's broader effort to infiltrate and undermine our institutions," Patel continued. "Thanks to outstanding coordination with our partners, including NCIS, we disrupted those efforts and sent a clear message: The United States will not tolerate espionage on American soil. Our counterintelligence operations remain focused, vigilant, and relentless."

In May, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the Trump administration would begin aggressively revoking student visas for Chinese nationals with connections to the CCP or those "studying in critical fields" to clamp down on unchecked espionage.

Since Rubio's announcement, several Chinese nationals have been arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle biomaterial into the U.S.

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Is the FBI salvageable? Here's what bureau insiders have to say

Americans sent a clear message to the swamp after President Donald Trump swept all seven swing states and secured the popular vote in November. Since then, the MAGA base was promised an administration staffed with change agents eager to uproot the political establishment in Washington, D.C.

The winning streak continued after Kash Patel was successfully confirmed to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation alongside Deputy Director Dan Bongino, both of whom have been allies to the president. Patel and Bongino also shared a common mission going into the FBI: The status quo isn't working.

'If you embarrass that community, you will be ostracized.'

Now five months into Patel's tenure, several former agents and FBI whistleblowers described how their optimism has faded into disappointment.

"Kash Patel and Dan Bongino both used to consistently call for dismantling the FBI, or at minimum, for a massive restructuring of it," one FBI whistleblower told Blaze News. "The latest revelations only bolster the position that the FBI has become a secret police organization. Yet, there has been no mention of the criminal charges against FBI employees involved in this gross miscarriage of truth and justice. There has been no mention whatsoever of any form of punishment for those involved."

Photo by Calla Kessler for the Washington Post via Getty Images

"Like most of the FBI's known corruption, cover-ups, and illegal activities in recent years, these revelations began with yet another whistleblower," he added. "Only then did the FBI 'leadership' discover how deep the corruption surrounding this election interference was. Still, no whistleblower has been vindicated, reinstated, promoted, or provided back pay and damages under the 'new' FBI."

Other whistleblowers like Marcus Allen share this sentiment, saying the bureau is beyond help.

"Attempts to salvage the FBI are a fool's errand," Allen told Blaze News. "Its reputation is damaged beyond repair. It has lost the public trust and proven itself to be an enemy of the American people and rightfully elected American governance."

Allen previously worked in the FBI's Charlotte field office before he was abruptly put on unpaid leave for challenging the official narrative surrounding the January 6 protests. After being branded a conspiracy theorist, Allen was eventually given his security clearance back by former President Joe Biden's administration and was awarded back pay as part of a settlement with the FBI. Allen later resigned from the bureau.

"They know when they have been abandoned," Steve Baker, investigative reporter for Blaze News, said. "When they speak out, that goes against the culture of the FBI. It goes against the intelligence community at large. If you embarrass that community, you will be ostracized."

Clint Brown, who worked closely alongside Patel during his Senate confirmation process, pushed back on critics, noting that Kash has been heading the bureau for only five short months.

“Kash is an extremely methodical person and very strategic,” Brown told Blaze News. “He is going to work through everything methodically and in the right way. Not everything is a narrative. Not everything has a quick fix. We’re living in the real world.”

"The former leadership may have tarnished it’s own reputation, but they’re the institution that exists to catch the bad guys, and they still have to do that while fixing the place," Brown added.

Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

While continuing to "catch the bad guys," Patel has also lead the popular crusade against former Director Christopher Wray, which many current and former agents have championed.

Patel announced Tuesday that the bureau uncovered evidence of Wray lying to Congress about China's involvement in influencing the 2020 election. These findings also detail how the agency "recalled" a report that contradicted Wray's testimony under oath to Congress denying China's involvement.

"There are a dozen other people that we could put in the perp walk parade," Baker told Blaze News. "But the guy that needs to lead the parade is Christopher Wray."

This evidence is just the latest piece of a larger puzzle implicating the former FBI leadership for working to influence the 2020 election. Whether it's coordinating with social media monopolies like Facebook to promote one party over the other or censoring the bombshell Hunter Biden laptop story, all signs suggest the FBI was involved.

"To date, this is unequivocally the worst example of FBI election interference," Steve Friend, another FBI whistleblower, told Blaze News. "The Steele dossier and censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop were abhorrent attempts to smear Donald Trump's reputation and deter voters from his camp. However, this latest revelation that the FBI covered for a foreign adversary to stuff ballots for Joe Biden strains all bounds of credulity and requires an honest conversation about whether the FBI should be dissolved."

"Disgraced FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate knew this," Phil Kennedy, a whistleblower and former FBI agent, said in a post on X. "He was the executive who allegedly said, 'FBI employees who question the bureau's handling of January 6-related cases can seek employment elsewhere.' He helped hide the crime and then imprisoned Americans demanding answers."

Patel has also led a broader effort to decentralize D.C.'s influence in the bureau and empower local field offices to continue doing the day-to-day work that impacts communities.

“As far as reforms in the FBI, there’s been a restructuring in the organization, and it’s still ongoing," Brown told Blaze News. "Agents have been moved out to the field, and this is all part of reorganizing the FBI over the long term and doing it methodically.”

Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

While some former agents believe that the new leadership is a step in the right direction, other whistleblowers say the bureau remains unchanged, forever being driven by the status quo.

"The FBI has demonstrated an unwillingness and inability to understand the complexities of corruption within the FBI writ large and the simplicities of emergent national security and public safety threats," one whistleblower and former DHS employee told Blaze News.

"The new FBI deputy director has told Americans this is 'our FBI,'" Kyle Seraphin, another FBI whistleblower, told Blaze News. "It turns out, 'our FBI' is the same FBI it was last year: deceptive, duplicitous, and functioning on operational morality. The FBI serves the FBI, polishes the reputation of the FBI, and exists to prop up the legend of the FBI. Americans can see the results — promises without production, press releases instead of probable cause to arrest, and backroom document deals instead of disinfecting sunshine. The status quo is 'cutesy time,' and it is unquestionably continuing."

Although critics insist the culture remains unchanged, Brown says Patel was the right choice to push for a change. In order to successfully restore integrity to the bureau, Brown argues that Patel needs both time and trust from the rank-and-file agents.

"Kash is the guy that exposed the 'Russia, Russia, Russia' hoax," Brown told Blaze News. "He did it methodically, and the president knows that."

"The other thing is he picked the guy who’s going to relate to the brick agents," Brown added. "Trump’s philosophy, whether it’s FBI or DOD, he said the same thing about Pete Hegseth, is that he wants people who are doing the job to feel like they have a leader who understands them. So Kash has to earn trust within the FBI, while having to expose, methodically, while also having to catch bad guys, in order to reform the FBI. Without their trust, they’re not going to follow your leadership to fix things.”

The FBI did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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Christopher Wray must be prosecuted

The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation has one job above all: Tell the truth. The FBI’s motto — “Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity” — demands it. But beyond the moral and professional imperative, the director has a legal duty when communicating with Congress. Former Director Christopher Wray failed that duty. On Thursday, the Oversight Project submitted a criminal referral to the Department of Justice and FBI, calling for an investigation — and prosecution if warranted.

The case against Wray centers on two major failures.

Transparency matters, but accountability is what the American people demand.

First, U.S. Customs and Border Protection intercepted 20,000 scannable fake driver’s licenses produced by the Chinese Communist Party. The licenses were part of an election interference scheme aimed at boosting mail-in ballots for Joe Biden in 2020. Current FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino confirmed this in recent disclosures to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), noting that prior FBI leadership “chose to play politics and withhold key information from the American people.” Wray had to have known. He testified repeatedly that the 2020 election was secure. That was a lie.

Second, Wray misled Congress about the FBI’s so-called “Catholic memo.” He claimed it came from a single Richmond office and had been withdrawn. But new documents show the FBI circulated over a dozen related files to more than 1,000 employees and even drafted a broader version for wider circulation. As Grassley put it, “[Wray] is lying, and he ought to be followed up. Because if people that lie to Congress aren’t held accountable, it encourages more people to lie.”

The Oversight Project’s referral highlights three key moments when Wray gave sworn testimony contradicted by documented evidence. In September 2020, appearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, he denied any coordinated voter fraud effort. In March 2021, he flatly repeated his claim that foreign interference posed no threat — despite growing evidence suggesting otherwise. Yet Wray received regular briefings from Nikki Floris, head of the FBI’s 2020 election security and Foreign Influence Task Force. He acknowledged China’s malign influence campaign as early as July 2020. That alone undercuts his claims of ignorance.

The idea that Wray didn’t know about either scandal doesn’t hold water. Either he knew and lied — or he didn’t want to know. In both cases, that’s disqualifying.

And Wray’s record doesn’t earn him the benefit of the doubt.

He dismissed Antifa as an “ideology,” despite clear evidence of coordinated violent activity across multiple cities. He created the Foreign Influence Task Force that censored speech protected by the First Amendment — flagging the Hunter Biden laptop story and labeling credible sources as conspiracy theorists. He unleashed unprecedented FBI resources to pursue low-level January 6 offenders while ignoring real threats from abroad.

Under Wray, the bureau chased Republicans over flimsy allegations and turned a blind eye to millions flowing from Communist China to the Biden family. He rewarded agents who knelt for BLM while punishing whistleblowers who questioned the bureau’s politicization.

jnatkin via iStock/Getty Images

He effectively turned Pride Month into Pride Years, flooding the agency with DEI and LGBTQ propaganda instead of focusing on mission-critical tasks like national security and counterintelligence.

The FBI under Wray mocked its legal obligations — not just to Congress, but to the public. The bureau continues to fight in court to block the release of documents that would confirm its abuse of power.

Wray’s legacy is a textbook case of weaponization: Act aggressively when evidence hurts the political right, and bury it when it implicates the left. His repeated failures to disclose vital election-related information — and his lies about targeting Catholic Americans — expose a deeper pattern of deception.

The Oversight Project’s criminal referral gives the Justice Department and the FBI a chance to restore trust. Transparency matters, but accountability is what the American people demand.

And this case is only the beginning. We believe Wray and others at the FBI participated in a broader conspiracy to violate Americans’ civil rights. Investigating that conspiracy should begin with one simple act: prosecuting Christopher Wray.

Is the FBI still spying on this whistleblower? Hear his creepy story

At one point, FBI whistleblower Steve Friend assumed the FBI was a force for good.

“I’ve come around to the idea that it’s always been wrong, it’s always been about preserving the status quo and going after who the political enemies were,” Friend tells BlazeTV host Pat Gray on “Pat Gray Unleashed.”

Friend tells Gray that communists have been “able to infiltrate the organization,” which is why “we’ve seen them particularly recently devolve their national security mission away from going after legitimate threat actors.”

“Now, they have this responsibility of rooting out terrorism here, but we’re going to change the message of terrorism. It’s not going to be the people who subscribe to a foreign ideology that says, ‘We’re going to engage in a violent activity to bring about political unrest and fear so we can get the changes we want,’” he continues.

“Instead we're going to say, ‘Well, it’s a homegrown violent extremist or a domestic violent extremist or an anti-government, anti-authority, violent extremist.’ And eventually, it's a nihilistic violent extremist, someone who doesn’t have an ideology at all,” he adds.

Because the greatest threat to the government as an entity are those who believe in a smaller government — those are the people who the FBI goes after now. And Friend, unfortunately, is one of them.

“A couple of nights ago, my phone on silent, do not disturb, all apps closed down, on a charger, alerted me and my wife when it started playing the placeholder video for my podcast,” he tells Gray. “Lo and behold, the next day, all my access to the Justice Department, www.justice.gov, website access denied. And then actually, last night, my phone started to chirp and woke us both up.”

“So I want to be on record that if there’s any sort of remote shenanigans that are happening with my devices, that’s not because I have any incriminating material I put on,” he continues, noting that the sound that came from his phone was one he’s “never heard before.”

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FBI Won’t Say If It Will Reinstate Whistleblowers Booted After Exposing Biden-Era Corruption

The FBI is refusing to say if it will reinstate whistleblowers who said they were previously retaliated against after disclosing information about the agency’s Biden-era corruption, The Federalist has learned. The saga became public roughly two years ago, when a handful of FBI officials came forward with allegations highlighting “egregious abuse, misallocation of law-enforcement resources, […]

'Conspiracy theorists' right again? FBI reveals MASSIVE alleged Chinese voter fraud plot

Kash Patel has dropped a bombshell that, if true, would prove a lot of Americans who questioned the results of the 2020 election right.

The FBI director turned over an intelligence report to Congress that exposes an alleged Chinese campaign to mess with the election results through the creation of thousands of fake U.S. driver’s licenses.

A confidential source alleged those driver’s licenses were to be used by the Chinese for thousands of mail-in votes to sway the election in Biden’s direction.

Of course, the mainstream media is largely ignoring the development.

“We were called domestic terrorists, by the way, when we questioned the 2020 election,” BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler comments. “So they cannot in good faith now report anything associated with any kind of meddling that happened in the 2020 election, or else it makes them domestic terrorists per their own definition.”

According to Just the News, the “newly declassified intelligence reports from August 2020 were not corroborated or fully investigated and instead were recalled from intelligence agencies at about the time that then-FBI Director Christopher Wray testified that there were no known plots of foreign interference ahead of the 2020 election.”

“We have an intelligence report, meaning a report put together by intelligence officials, and this was before the 2020 election, that said that China was producing driver’s licenses in order to take votes, and yet, this was not fully investigated,” Wheeler comments.

“What the heck? Why was this not fully investigated?” she asks, adding, “Probably, the reason is ideology, right? The people inside the intel community didn’t want to investigate this because they were in the tank for Joe Biden.”

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