Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which has been nominated in the 2021 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards Program, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Office of Field Operations (OFO), have identified an increased use of social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok, by transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), to recruit and facilitate drug smuggling in the El Paso area.

These criminal organizations advertise various jobs such as money couriers for money service businesses such as money exchange houses or Casas De Cambio, and unsuspecting job seekers reply with their interest to the advertisement.

The solicitor, or “recruiter,” will then send a direct message to the job seeker with more information about the job.

The vast popularity and exponential growth of these platforms (for example currently has Facebook has 2.23 billion Monthly Active Users (MAUs), Instagram has 1 billion MAUs, and Tik Tok with 500 million MAUs), have facilitated a new portal to connect with large numbers of unwitting potential Smugglers.

For example, HSI special agents have spotted recruitment advertisements on Facebook, that may read as follows: “Our company is looking for individuals who are able to cross into El Paso. We work directly with the Casas de Cambio and transport money from El Paso to Ciudad Juarez (Mexico).”

The recruiter reassures the job seekers that everything is completely legal, and requests an “interview” with the job seekers in Ciudad Juarez to explain the job in further detail.

In reality, members of the criminal organization will conceal narcotics within the job seeker’s vehicle.

The unsuspecting individuals will pick up their vehicles and are instructed to cross through one of the El Paso ports of entry.

Once they have crossed into the United States, they are instructed to call the recruiter to pick up the vehicle.

(Learn More. The Sinaloa cartel is enlisting unemployed Americans to move drugs over the border with Mexico. VICE News spoke with cartel members and smugglers adapting to pandemic conditions. Courtesy of VICE News and YouTube.)

Homeland Security Investigations advises job seekers to research the name and address of any company that attempts to recruit them.

Be advised that legitimate businesses neither conduct interviews in parking lots nor do they take custody of a potential employee’s vehicle.

Job seekers should also obtain the employer’s information and ask for company identification.

“Individuals caught with contraband in their vehicles trying to enter the United States risk being arrested and convicted,” explains Erik P. Breitzke, special agent in charge of HSI El Paso.

“HSI will continue to work jointly with CBP to intercept and prevent drugs from coming into the country and poisoning our communities. Do not allow yourself to be used as a smuggler.”

AST is helping U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to remind the traveling public that when a driver presents themselves at a port of entry, they are responsible for all items found in the vehicle and charged if illegal or prohibited goods are located during the inspection process.

Any offer to drive a vehicle on the behalf of another should be met with suspicion.

“CBP encourages the public not to entrust their vehicles and their safety to ‘job recruiters’ they meet online,” said CBP El Paso Director of Field Operations Hector Mancha,” We encourage the public to be aware of job ads from social media that seem too good to be true.”

HSI encourages the public to report any suspicious activity through its toll-free Tip Line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or by completing its online tip form. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators, and callers may remain anonymous.

From outside the U.S. and Canada, callers should dial 802-872-6199. Hearing impaired users can call TTY 802-872-6196.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is a directorate of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel, and finance move.

(Learn More about the ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) directorate, a critical asset in the ICE mission, responsible for investigating a wide range of domestic and international activities arising from the illegal movement of people and goods into, within and out of the United States. HSI investigates immigration crime, human rights violations and human smuggling, smuggling of narcotics, weapons and other types of contraband, financial crimes, cybercrime and export enforcement issues. ICE special agents conduct investigations aimed at protecting critical infrastructure industries that are vulnerable to sabotage, attack or exploitation. Courtesy of ICE .gov.)

HSI’s workforce consists of over 10,400 employees, with more than 7,100 special agents assigned to 220 cities throughout the United States, and 80 overseas locations in 53 countries.

HSI’s international presence represents DHS’s largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.

To Learn More, go to ice.gov/about-ice/homeland-security-investigations.

ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Nominated in 2020 ‘ASTORS’ Awards

American Security Today’s ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards program is today in its Sixth Year and continues to recognize the Outstanding Innovations of top firms and agencies in the Homeland Security and Public Safety fields.

2020 has been a very challenging year for everyone due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the much heralded AST ‘ASTORS’ Awards Winners Presentations and exclusive Luncheon at the Jacob Javits Center in NYC has been canceled and rescheduled for 2021 due to the virus.

However, the 2020 ‘ASTORS’  Homeland Security Awards Program was again a huge success and many new categories were added including a section for COVID-19 Detection and Innovation.

2020 ‘ASTORS’ Excellence in Homeland Security and Government Award Recipients Include

U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

Excellence in Homeland Security

• • DHS Blue Campaign

• The Blue Campaign is a national public awareness campaign, designed to educate the public, law enforcement and other industry partners to recognize the indicators of human trafficking, and how to appropriately respond to possible cases.

• Blue Campaign works closely with DHS Components to create general awareness training and materials for law enforcement and others to increase detection of human trafficking, and to identify victims.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate

Excellence in Homeland Security

• • DHS S&T COVID-19 Response

• The COVID-19 pandemic is a global threat with life and death consequences, the enormity of which many of us have never seen before.

• It is also a scientific challenge in need of innovative solutions and S&T is using every tool at its disposal to join the fight; including harnessing the knowledge of it’s experts on technology deployments, international collaboration, scientific breakthroughs, and support for America’s frontline workers.

• S&T has focused its efforts on laboratory research and providing valuable resources to inform the broader response community and help keep front line responders safe.

DHS S&T Chemical Security Analysis Center (CSAC)

Excellence in Homeland Security

• • Chemical Security Analysis Center Chemical Agents Reactions Database (CARD)

• CARD, a chemical synthesis and chemical informatics centric data system (e.g. boiling point, melting point, toxicity, or spectroscopic information) containing both unclassified and classified data, is accessible from a classified website maintained on a server hosted by the Department of Defense.

  There is a detailed description of how each chemical is prepared to include information relevant to each step, the reagents and reactants that are needed and the conditions necessary for the reactions to take place, such as time, temperature, mixing—like a recipe.

DHS S&T National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL)

Excellence in Public Safety

• • Hoist Rescue Gloves for Aerial Rescue

• Rescue helicopter hoist operators need gloves to protect the hand that guides the hoist cable during rescue descents and ascents, using a significant amount of force to mitigate the cable swinging for situations from hurricane evacuations and dive rescues to rescuing stranded hikers on a mountain side, missions vary and no two are ever alike.

• A partnership between S&T and Higher Dimension Materials, Inc. (HDM) resulted in an enhanced rescue hoist glove with increased flexibility, durability, and dexterity.

(See the enhanced Hoist Rescue Glove in action. Courtesy of DHS Science and Technology Directorate and YouTube.)

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology (S&T) Directorate

Excellence in Homeland Security

• • Slash CameraPole

• The Slash CameraPole is a self-triggering platform with wireless data retrieval to detect and give warning of suspicious activities at the U.S.-Canada border, specifically a cleared stretch of land at the border that is approximately 20-feet wide, 1,349 miles long, and is referred to as the “Slash.”

• This man-made, treeless zone is mandated by the International Boundary Commission and presents a formidable surveillance challenge, against such threats as illegal crossings, drug and illegal contraband smuggling and human trafficking.

• Using the Slash CameraPole system, Border Patrol has been able to establish an advanced border surveillance capability where none existed before. 

• Partnering with MIT Lincoln Laboratory and several private companies to create the Slash CameraPole with numerous ingenious features, such as solar panels and a back-up fuel cell system make it independent of the power grid, multiple infrared cameras (two long-range, one foreground, and one base imager with a fisheye lens) mean it doesn’t miss a thing.

• The Slash CameraPole also employs advanced motion detection algorithms and automated alerts designed to improve classification of targets and lower the chance of false alarms from factors such as wild animals or vegetation moving in the wind. 

• *DHS S&T Programs have now been recognized in their Fifth Annual ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Excellence in Homeland Security

• • COVID-19 Efforts to Safeguard Law Enforcement & EMS

• The CDC has provided Law enforcement and EMS who must make contact with individuals confirmed or suspected to have COVID-19 with guidance to help safeguard their health while performing their duties.

• Different styles of PPE may be necessary to perform operational duties. These alternative styles (i.e. coveralls) must provide protection that is at least as great as that provided by the minimum amount of PPE recommended.

• Law enforcement who must make contact with individuals confirmed or suspected to have COVID-19 should follow CDC’s Interim Guidance for EMS. 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Excellence in Homeland Security

• • Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO)

• ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) is charged with enforcing the nation’s immigration laws in a fair and effective manner.

• ERO identifies and apprehends removable aliens, detains these individuals when necessary and removes illegal aliens from the United States.

• ERO transports removable aliens from point to point, manages aliens in custody or in an alternative to detention program, provides access to legal resources and representatives of advocacy groups and removes individuals from the United States who have been ordered to be deported.

• ERO’s mission is to protect the homeland through the arrest and removal of aliens who undermine the safety of our communities and the integrity of our immigration laws.

Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Personnel Management (OPM)

Best Federal Government Security Program

• • Federal Risk Management Process Training Program

• The Federal Risk Management Process Training Program (FedRMPTP), Newly available Online – is Interagency Security Committee certified for Facility Security Officials, Federal Security Supervisors and those involved with Federal facility acquisition, construction, and renovation projects.

• On October 19, 1995, six months after the Oklahoma City bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, President Clinton issued Executive Order 12977, creating the Interagency Security Committee (ISC) to address continuing government-wide security for federal facilities.

• Prior to 1995, minimum physical security standards for non-military federally owned or leased facilities.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)

Excellence in Homeland Security

• • FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)

• The IC3 serves as the FBI’s central hub to receive, develop, and refer criminal complaints regarding the rapidly expanding occurrences of Internet crime

• IC3 provides the public with a reliable and convenient reporting mechanism to submit reports of suspected Internet-facilitated criminal activity and to develop alliances with law enforcement and industry partners.

(Actress Kirsten Vangsness, who plays tech-savvy FBI analyst Penelope Garcia on the show Criminal Minds, is promoteing the awareness of Internet crimes and scams and encourages the public to report suspected criminal cyber activity to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). Courtesy of the FBI and YouTube.)

• Information is analyzed and disseminated for investigative and intelligence purposes to law enforcement and for public awareness.

• Since 2000, the IC3 has received complaints crossing the spectrum of cyber crime matters, to include online fraud in its many forms including intellectual property rights (IPR) matters, computer intrusions (hacking), economic espionage (theft of trade secrets), online extortion, international money laundering, identity theft, and a growing list of Internet facilitated crimes.

• It has become increasingly evident that, regardless of the label placed on a cyber crime matter, the potential for it to overlap with another referred matter is substantial.

• IC3 develops leads and notifies law enforcement agencies at the federal, state, local and international level.

Federal Protective Service in Collaboration with the Argonne National Laboratory

Best Risk, Crisis Management Solution

• • Modified Infrastructure Survey Tool (MIST) – COVID-19 Telematics Capabilities

• DHS’s Federal Protective Service (FPS) provides integrated security and law enforcement services–including conducting security assessments and detecting and mitigating threats–to over 9,500 federal facilities. To accomplish this mission, FPS leverages the Modified Infrastructure Survey Tool (MIST), a joint solution developed in partnership with Argonne National Laboratory.

• Argonne and FPS have continuously sought ways to improve the tool’s ability to assess, detect, and mitigating threats, and this year, no threat was more pervasive in this country than COVID-19.

• To confront the threat that COVID-19 posed to the FPS workforce, MIST was enhanced to allow FPS Headquarters and FPS Management to track and display each federal building affected by COVID-19, and to analyze local hospitals and EMS facilities in relation to federal buildings and office locations.

• The Federal Protective Service and Argonne National Laboratory have also been recognized in the 2019, and 20188 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Programs respectively.

• To Learn More, please visit the DHS Federal Protective Service at https://www.dhs.gov/topic/federal-protective-service.

John Verrico

Excellence in Homeland Security

• • Chief of Media and Community Relations, DHS Science & Technology Directorate

• John Verrico, who is also the former President of the National Association of Government Communicators, has nearly 40 years of experience as a public affairs professional in federal and state government agencies, working extensively in media, community and employee relations, with significant emphasis in science, engineering and the security fields.

• A retired Navy Master Chief Journalist, John’s career has been focused on helping government agencies tell their stories and share important news with the public. He takes special care to ensure government information is accessible and that complex issues are easily understood.

• As an international speaker and leadership coach, John helps people keep their motivational torches lit so they can face their own ‘monsters.’

Kathleen Kiernan, Ed. D

Excellence in Homeland Security

• • Kiernan Group Holdings CEO

• Dr. Kathleen Kiernan is the Founder and CEO of national security, education, risk management and compliance firm Kiernan Group Holdings, Chair Emeritus of InfraGard National Members Alliance, and adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University and Naval Post Graduate School.

• Preparedness without Paranoia® the experience-based training in awareness, preparedness, response and recovery training for active assailant and workplace violence prevention is delivered on a learning management system.

• GOT Preparedness® (Got Online Training), was built specifically for dispersed and remote workforces and we have trained thousands of individuals domestically and internationally. 

• She has delivered operational and educational capabilities across the globe and developed a methodological based approach to the resiliency cycle at an individual and organizational level.

Joseph Pangaro

Excellence in Public Safety

• • CEO at True Security Design

• As the owner and CEO of Pangaro Training and Management, Joseph Pangaro, concentrates on providing the best and most up to date training programs for the Law Enforcement, School and Business communities.

• True Security Design (TSD) law enforcement training programs are centered around supporting today’s modern professionals’ by teaching them vital skills through courses designed to engage and empower its participants.

• A 27-year veteran police lieutenant and experienced school security director, Lt. Pangaro is uniquely qualified to provide law enforcement training programs that are centered around supporting today’s modern professionals’ by teaching them vital skills through courses designed to engage and empower its participants.

• Pangaro Training also teaches in police academies and police agencies throughout New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

New Jersey City University

Excellence in Public Safety

• • NJCU Cyber Defense, National security and Intelligence Programs

• NJCU is one of the few programs nationally in higher education designated an Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) per the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and a Cyber Defense CAE per the National Security Agency.

• The Department of Professional Security Studies focuses on a student–centered, scholar-practitioner approach to education.

• It’s mission is to facilitate access, create opportunities and provide a supportive environment for achieving academic success through learning and appreciation of subject matter, professional and personal growth and the development of identified and marketable global and disciplinary competencies.

• The New Jersey City University (NJCU) Cybersecurity program is an interdisciplinary center for cybersecurity education, training and research, which aims to provide current and future professionals with the knowledge and skills necessary to strive and compete within the cyber security community outreach.

New York City Emergency Management

Excellence in Homeland Security

• • New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM), is under the guidance of Commissioner Deanne Criswell, a former FEMA official and head of OEM for the city of Aurora, CO, who is responsible for oversight and development of the city’s emergency management plans.

• • NYCEM regularly tests plans by conducting drills and exercises, and responds to emergencies to ensure that other agencies not only follow these plans, but to foster communication amongst the responding agencies.

    NYCEM also operates the city’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) where city, state and federal agencies join representatives from the private and nonprofit sectors to coordinate complex responses to emergencies and disasters.

  • The agency also developed and runs the Notify NYC emergency alert program, by which citizens can sign up to receive phone and email alerts about emergencies and events happening in their neighborhoods.

  • NYCEM is also the administrator of New York City’s community emergency response teams. Each community emergency response team (CERT) is coterminous with one or more New York community boards.

  • The agency also maintains the Citywide Incident Management System which is based on the National Incident Management System.

U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary

Excellence in Public Safety

• • Boating Safety Courses and Volunteer Initiatives

• U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary (CGAUX) boating courses provide instruction to boaters at all levels, from the fundamental to the advanced.

• The agency’s courses (virtual and classroom) are taught by experienced and knowledgeable CGAUX instructors committed to the highest standards of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary.

• They are offered in two modalities: virtual, video conference with CGAUX Virtual PE Instructors, and classroom setting with CGAUX PE Instructors.

The 2020 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program was sponsored by ATI Systems, Attivo Networks, Automatic Systems, X.Labs and Reed Exhibitions, every one a returning Sponsor from 2020, 2019 and More.

Nominations are currently being accepted for the 2021 ‘ASTORS’ Homeland Security Awards at https://americansecuritytoday.com/ast-awards/.

Comprehensive List of Categories Include:

Access Control/ Identification	Personal/Protective Equipment	Law Enforcement Counter Terrorism
Perimeter Barrier/ Deterrent System	Interagency Interdiction Operation	Cloud Computing/Storage Solution
Facial/IRIS Recognition	Body Worn Video Product	Cyber Security
Video Surveillance/VMS	Mobile Technology	Anti-Malware
Audio Analytics	Disaster Preparedness	ID Management
Thermal/Infrared Camera	Mass Notification System	Fire & Safety
Metal/Weapon Detection	Rescue Operations	Critical Infrastructure
License Plate Recognition	Detection Products	And Many Others!

COVID Innovations

And Many Others!

 

Don’t see a Direct Hit for your Product, Agency or Organization?

With the unprecedented occurrence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the focus of the safety and security industries has realized the need to increase innovations to address the daily growing challenges.

As such AST aims to make sure these firms and professionals are reflected in the 2021 ‘ASTORS’ Awards Program, so we’d like to encourage you to submit appropriate categories recommendations and include COVID-19 Frontline Professionals in your Nominations to see that these Professionals, Facilities, and Vendors receive the Recognition they Deserve!

Submit your category recommendation for consideration to Michael Madsen, AST Publisher at: mmadsen@americansecuritytoday.com.

AST strives to meet a 3 STAR trustworthiness rating, based on the following criteria:

• Provides named sources
• Reported by more than one notable outlet
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