Crime

Two truckers have agreed to plead guilty in connection with a scheme to smuggle loads of cocaine from California to Ontario on behalf of fugitive Ryan Wedding’s criminal enterprise, CBC News has learned.

Iqbal Singh Virk and Ranjit Singh Rowal from the Toronto area are the first Canadians to sign plea deals with U.S. prosecutors following the FBI’s sprawling investigation revealed last fall, dubbed “Operation Giant Slalom.”

As dusk approaches in Bournemouth, nine men and one woman are gathered in a town centre car park. All are dressed in black, wearing dark blue tabards with the words “Safeguard Force”. They are about to set off on their evening patrol in an area where, the group says, “our streets are not safe” and “our women walk in fear”. Tonight’s volunteers are a mixed bunch, but there’s a preponderance of tattoos, powerful frames and bulging muscles.

“We don’t like the word ‘vigilantes’, don’t like it at all,” says Gary Bartlett, the group’s founder. It’s a word some in the town are using to describe the group, but others appear to be welcoming them with open arms. There is, many believe, something rotten at the heart of Bournemouth, and the hope is that Bartlett and his friends can help to fix it.

The five most dangerous cities in the United States have been revealed – and they are all run by Democrats.

Memphis, Tennessee, has been ranked as America’s most dangerous city in a report by US News and World Report, as its unemployment rate remains higher than average and household median incomes sit more than $26,000 below the national average.

The report determined the city’s danger levels based on ‘each city’s murder and property crime rates per 100,000 people’ obtained through FBI crime reports.

When Donald Trump’s Department of Justice requested the release of grand jury transcripts in criminal proceedings against sex-traffickers Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the move did little to quiet an ever-growing chorus of critics frustrated by the US president’s backtracking over disclosing investigative files.

Indeed, the justice department’s filings in this request revealed that only two law enforcement officers testified during grand jury proceedings in New York, undermining notions that unsealing them would reveal numerous truths.

In a Monday morning press conference, President Donald Trump announced new, decisive action to quell crime and violence in the District of Columbia. Flanked by Cabinet officials, the president indicated that he will not only deploy National Guardsmen to the city but also temporarily federalize the D.C. police department (MPD) under an obscure provision of the District’s home rule law.