My Online On Crime Column On David McCloskey's 'The Persian'

I read and enjoyed David McCloskey’s three CIA spy thrillers, The Seventh Floor, Moscow X, and Damascus Station, I reviewed his novels for the Washington Times.

David McCloskey is a former CIA analyst. While at the CIA, he wrote regularly for the President’s Daily Brief, delivered classified testimony to Congressional oversight committees, and briefed senior White House officials, ambassadors, military officials, and Arab royalty. 

His latest spy thriller, The Persian (published by Norton), is a departure from his first three thrillers, as it is not about the CIA. The Persian is about Israeli intelligence operations in Iran.

 

As his publisher Norton noted, Kamran Esfahani is a Persian Jew living out a dreary existence in Stockholm when the Mossad recruits him and directs him to his native Tehran under the cover of opening a dental practice.

 

“From there he skillfully spies for the Mossad, trying to earn enough money to enjoy a more exciting and glamorous life on other shores. But when Kam is assigned to an operation involving an Iranian widow seeking to avenge the death of her husband at the hands of the Mossad, his dreams unravel and he finds himself in too deep, ultimately landing himself in prison under the watchful eye of a sadistic officer he knows only as the “General.” After enduring three years of torture and interrogation in captivity, Kam is ordered to write his final confession – but there is one secret he’s desperate to keep, one that might redeem him for his past lies and misdeeds.”

 

In addition to being a bestselling author, McCloskey is the co-host of the popular podcast “The Rest is Classified,” telling real-life stories from the world of spies and espionage. He offers an authoritative perspective on the hidden dimensions of power and intelligence services across the globe,” Norton added.

McCloskey spoke to NPR about the novel.

 

“I think the guts of the shadow war, not necessarily the kind of overt military conflict, are really at the heart of this story. And I really did try to take actual chapters from this conflict between Tel Aviv and Tehran and embed them, you know, in kind of a fictionalized way into the book. So for example, a few years ago, the Israelis assassinated the head of Iran's nuclear program using a remote-operated robotic machine gun. And that, in effect, is the sequence that opens this novel, "The Persian," although, of course, you know, the characters and some of the places have been changed. So this is a case much like Russia, where the actual news, the actual conflict, provides so much fodder for spy novelists kind of seeking to dig around in this terrain.”

 

The Persian is an interesting and suspenseful spy thriller.  

 

I interviewed David McCloskey for Counterterrorism magazine back in June.  

 

I asked him what years did he serve in the CIA and why did he become a CIA analyst?

 

“I was in the CIA from 2006 to 2014. I got into it by accident. The guy who ran the Middle East analytic shop at the CIA came to my undergrad college and gave a talk to my International Relations 101 class about the CIA. I thought this was really cool, and it was probably not more complicated than that. It sounded like a really interesting job, and I've always been fascinated with the world and how it works. The CIA felt like a pathway to understand it. I was 20 and I was applying for an undergrad internship, and all my friends were going home for the summer to mow lawns or something like that. I get to go work at the CIA. That’s pretty cool. I never thought I would get in, but here I am.”

 

Why did you leave the CIA?

 

“I wanted to try something else. It wasn’t like I didn’t like this job anymore. I think I have this sense of wanderlust, and I wanted to see what else is out there and it was no more complicated than that. Let me put it this way, I was definitely at a point with what was going on Syria where I wanted to do something else, because that conflict was going horribly and it was very grim. But I was for the most part, a really happy trooper, and I look back on that time, look back on that job, with credible affection for the people I was working with, and overall, for the organization itself.” 

Have you always wanted to write novels, or did you get the notion while serving as a CIA analyst? 

“The answer is actually neither. I grew up reading extensively and reading a lot of spy thrillers. My dad's a big fan of spy thrillers and that kind of genre in general, so I grew up reading it. I never thought that I would write it, never really imagined it as a possibility. When I was at the CIA, it's kind of the same answer. I did not think that I would end up writing spy novels. When I left, I started to write something really for me, kind of reflecting on my time at Langley and the war in Syria, which accounts for most of my time in the CIA. It wasn't a novel or even a draft about anything, but it was a journal, I found I liked the process of sitting down to write it. It helped make sense of the world, how I felt about it, and I would get into a flow of 6, 7, 8 hours, and the time flies by. It happened sort of organically, one step at a time.” 

You can read my Q&A with David McCloskey via the link below:

 Paul Davis On Crime: My Counterterrorism Magazine Q&A With David McCloskey. Former CIA Analyst And Author Of The CIA Thriller 'The Seventh Floor' 

Mark Twain On The Difference Between Man And Dog

 

DHS Provides Update On U.S. Border Patrol In Portland Who Attempted To Arrest Tren de Aragua Gang Associate And Suspected Member

 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) offers the report below:  PORTLAND, Ore. – Yesterday, two suspected Tren de Aragua gang associates—let loose on American streets by Joe Biden—weaponized their vehicle against Border Patrol in Portland. The agent took immediate action to defend himself and others, shooting them.  After fleeing, the suspects drove nearly five miles to an apartment complex and called emergency medical services. They were transported to separate hospitals. Luis David Nino-Moncada sustained an injury to the arm while Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras was hit in the chest. Nino-Moncada is now in FBI custody. These individuals are not married.   “Only one day after an ICE officer was almost ran over in Minneapolis, two vicious Tren de Aragua gang members—let loose on American streets by Joe Biden—weaponized their vehicle against Border Patrol in Portland,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “The agent took immediate action to defend himself and others, shooting them. Thankfully, no law enforcement was injured as these criminals fled. Our law enforcement officers are on the frontlines arresting terrorists, gang members, murderers, pedophiles, and rapists. They are facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them, a 3,200% increase in vehicular attacks against them, and an 8,000% increase in death threats against them. The violence must end.”  Zambrano-Contreras is a criminal illegal alien from Venezuela and is associated with the Tren de Aragua gang. She illegally entered the U.S. in 2023 near El Paso, Texas, and was released into this country by the Biden administration. Since illegally entering, Contreras played an active role in a Tren de Aragua prostitution ring and was involved with a prior shooting in Portland in July.   Nino-Moncada is a criminal illegal alien from Venezuela and suspected Tren de Aragua gang member. He illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 and was RELEASED into the country by the Biden administration. Since then, he was arrested for DUI and unauthorized use of a vehicle. He has a final order of removal.   The DHS law enforcement is facing an unprecedented 3,200% increase in vehicular attacks.

National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day 2026

 

From The Editors At Broad + Liberty: A Functioning Republic Needs A Functioning News Media

The Editors at Broad + Liberty, where my weekly Crime Beat column appears, offers an editorial on why we need a functioning news media.

Readers of a certain age will no doubt recall the opening monologue to Woody Allen’s film, Annie Hall: 

“There’s an old joke: Two elderly women are at a Catskills mountain resort, and one of ’em says: ‘Boy, the food at this place is really terrible.’ The other one says, ‘Yeah, I know, and such small portions.’ Well, that’s essentially how I feel about life. Full of loneliness and misery and suffering and unhappiness, and it’s all over much too quickly.”

Today the joke would still carry if describing the relationship most Americans have with the  media if you took out the word “food” and replaced it with “news.”

That’s essentially how today’s public feels about news — they think it’s terrible, lacks context, is under-researched and biased, and yet they can’t get enough of it.

The announcement this week that the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will cease publication in four months is the latest example of this trend — and a seriously damaging one for our state. Formed in 1927 after a series of mergers of Pittsburgh newspapers, the Post-Gazette’s antecedents dated back even farther — to 1786, when the Pittsburgh Gazette was the first newspaper published west of the Alleghenies. Since the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review went all-digital in 2016, the Post-Gazette has been the only print newspaper in the city. The news scene has changed over the years, but Pittsburgh has always had at least one reliable source of print journalism — until now.

Print, as a technological medium, may be dying. You’ll notice that this editorial is not coming to you on a sheet of newsprint. But some sort of daily publication is needed to reach the masses, whether on their phones, their computers, or their front stoops. The written word — whether in ink or in pixels — delivers a thoroughness and a seriousness that video cannot replace. 

… We all have a part to play — publishers, writers, photographers, editors, and — yes — readers. In a republic, the people rule themselves. They cannot do so without reliable news to tell them about the world. Republican governance in Pittsburgh — and all of western Pennsylvania — will now be worse off.

You can read the rest of the editorial via the link below:

From the Editors: A functioning republic needs a functioning news media 

The Game Is Afoot: Sherlock Holmes The Great Detective At The Walnut Street Theater

Philly Daily, where my weekly Crime Beat column appears, reports that Sherlock Holmes The Great Detective will be performed at the Walnut Street Theater from January 13^th to February 15^th.   

You can read about the performance via the link below:

The Game is Afoot: Sherlock Holmes The Great Detective At the Walnut Street Theater - Philly Daily

Operation Absolute Resolve: My Crime Beat Column On The Takedown Of Venezuelan Strongman Nicolas Maduro

Philly Daily ran my Crime Beat column on the capture and arrest of Nicolas Maduro. 

You can read the column via the below link or the following text:

Davis: Operation Absolute Resolve - Philly Daily

At a press conference on January 3^rd President Donald Trump announced the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro following a successful overnight joint U.S. military/U.S. law enforcement extraction in Venezuela's capital city of Caracas.

"Last night and early today, at my direction, the United States armed forces conducted an extraordinary military operation in the capital of Venezuela. It was an operation against a heavily fortified military fortress in the heart of Caracas to bring outlaw dictator Nicolás Maduro to justice," Trump said during a midday news conference from his Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida.  

President Trump noted that both Maduro and his also-captured wife, Cilia Flores de Maduro, will now face criminal court proceedings on multiple federal charges, including narco-terrorism, conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and weapons offenses.  

President Trump had earlier posted a photo to social media showing a blindfolded and handcuffed Maduro in custody aboard the U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima.  

Called “Operation Absolute Resolve,” the Pentagon noted that the joint military and law enforcement mission to capture the Maduros was the result of months of planning and rehearsal involving U.S. joint forces, including special operations forces, from multiple service branches. The military also networked extensively with multiple U.S. intelligence agencies, according to Air Force General John Daniel 'Raizin' Caine, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"Our interagency work began months ago and built on decades of experience with integrating complex air, ground, space and maritime operations,” General Caine said. “We watched, we waited, we prepared, we remained patient and professional. This was an audacious operation that only the United States could do."

According to General Caine, the mission was so precise that it involved more than 150 military aircraft from all across the Western Hemisphere launching in close coordination to provide cover for the ground-based extraction force in Caracas. There were no casualties. 

"Words can barely capture the bravery and the power and the precision of this historic operation, a massive joint military and law enforcement raid flawlessly executed by the greatest Americans our country has to offer," said Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who was also at the press conference. 

"What I witnessed last night was sheer guts and grit, gallantry and glory of the American warrior. This is about the safety, security, freedom and prosperity of the American people. This is America first; this is peace through strength; and the United States War Department is proud to help deliver it," Hegseth said.

According to the Pentagon, the capture of the Maduros represents a culmination of tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela dating as far back as 1998, with the election of President Hugo Chavez, a Venezuelan socialist who espoused anti-U.S. rhetoric and formed close ties with Cuba, Iran and Russia. Following the death of Chavez in 2013, Nicolás Maduro took over and became increasingly politically hostile toward the U.S. as the years progressed.  

Tensions between the two countries increased significantly beginning in September of 2025, when the Trump administration began conducting targeted boat strikes on vessels deemed to be conducting narco-terrorism by attempting to smuggle illegal drugs into the U.S.  

In November 2025, the State Department declared Venezuela's state-embedded criminal network Cartel de los Soles — which is alleged to have been headed by Maduro — as a terror organization. 

On January 4^th Attorney General Pam Bondi fronted a joint statement from the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Drug Enforcement Administration about the Maduro arrest.

“The Department of Justice, working in close coordination with the Department of War, the Department of State, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Intelligence Community, and our interagency and international partners, successfully executed a complex law-enforcement mission to bring Nicolás Maduro into U.S. custody to face justice,” the joint statement read. “This operation required months of coordination, detailed planning, and seamless execution across multiple components of the federal government. The Department of War led this remarkable effort. We cannot thank our brave military heroes enough. Specialized FBI and DEA personnel, including tactical and transport teams, worked alongside DOW and our DOJ attorneys and other DOJ components to ensure the secure movement, control, and transfer of 2 high-risk defendants.

“All personnel involved acted professionally, decisively, and in strict accordance with U.S. law and established protocols. This was a perfectly executed operation with intensive cooperation and trust among President Trump’s team. The mission was conducted to support an ongoing criminal prosecution tied to large-scale narcotics trafficking and related offenses that have fueled violence, destabilized the region, and contributed directly to the drug crisis claiming American lives. The United States pursued every lawful option to resolve this matter peacefully. Those opportunities were repeatedly rejected. The responsibility for this outcome rests solely with those who chose to continue criminal conduct rather than disengage.”

Paul Davis’ Crime Beat column appears here each week. He is also a regular contributor to Broad + Liberty and Counterterrorism magazine. He can be reached at pauldavisoncrime.com. 

My Crime Fiction: 'The Refrigerator Thieves'

 Below is another chapter from my crime novel Olongapo, which I hope to soon publish.

 The story originally appeared in American Crime Magazine.

 The Refrigerator Thieves 

By Paul Davis 

After operating on “Yankee Station” in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War in 1971, the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk sailed into the huge U.S. Naval base at Subic Bay in the Philippines for repairs and replenishments.  

While in Port at Subic Bay, someone stole a brand-new compact refrigerator filled with soda cans. The small refrigerator had recently been purchased at the Navy Exchange on the Subic Bay naval base after the Kitty Hawk’s sailors in the Communications Radio Division took up a collection. The sailors wanted to buy the refrigerator so their sodas would be kept ice cold while they were at sea on Yankee Station. The refrigerator was stored in the supply office in the Communications Radio Division’s spaces aboard the Kitty Hawk.

The message processing center was a restricted area that held highly classified material, and one had to punch four digits into the security panel to gain entry. But the supply office, located next to the division’s berthing compartment, did not hold classified material and was only secured with a lock on the door.

With the compact refrigerator full of soda cans, it must have been quite heavy, awkward to carry, and noisy with the soda cans clanking together as it was moved, so none of us had any idea how it could have been lifted and taken out of the supply office without anyone noticing it. Nor did we have any idea of how the thieves could get the refrigerator off the carrier while in port at Subic Bay.

NIS Special Agent Boone Cantrell came aboard to conduct the investigation. While the theft of the refrigerator itself was a minor crime, the fact that it was stolen within the Communications Radio Division’s spaces made the theft a major security issue. Cantrell interviewed me after the theft was reported, along with other division sailors. We all told him that we didn’t see or hear anything.

 

Earlier, while at sea on Yankee Station, Salvatore Lorino visited the Communications Radio Division to pay a call on one of his good meth customers. Anthony Brant, a curly-haired seaman from Brooklyn, exchanged his cash for a bag of shabu - crystal meth -  and then he asked Lorino if he wanted a Coke. Brant waved for Lorino to follow him out of the compartment and to the door that read “CR Supply Office.” 

Brant took out his keys and opened the door and the two walked in. Lorino looked around, his criminally bent mind looking for something of value to steal. He saw only general office supplies, and he didn’t notice anything of value until Brant opened the refrigerator’s door and extracted two Coke cans. Brant handed one can to Lorino and opened one for himself. The two left the office and Brant locked the door.

As Lorino walked back to the Deck Department, he wondered what the small refrigerator, as well as the case of soda cans in it, would go for on the black market in Olongapo.

After the Kitty Hawk pulled into Subic Bay, Lorino left the carrier and went ashore. He walked down Magsaysay Drive and stepped into the Americano. Walker saw Lorino enter the bar, and he beckoned him over. He introduced Lorino to Bagwis Seno.

Born and raised in Olongapo, Seno had been stealing since he was a small child. When he turned 18, he befriended a local priest and convinced him that he was a good Catholic boy. Crying, he told the priest that he wanted to get far away from the temptations of Olongapo. He begged the priest to help him join the American Navy. He told the priest that he wanted to serve in the U.S, Navy so he could qualify for United States citizenship. He didn’t tell the priest that he wanted to become an American citizen as he believed there were greater opportunities to steal in America.

The priest believed Seno, and he used his friendship with a U.S. Navy Catholic Chaplin to get Seno into the U.S. Navy. Seno thanked the priest in his usual fashion by stealing cash and valuables from the church before he left Olongapo to enter the American Navy.

At the bar, Walker told Lorino that Seno was serving on the Kitty Hawk as a cook. Walker said that Seno was looking for more opportunities to steal on the aircraft carrier.

“I call this guy “Sticky Fingers” Seno,” Walker said laughing. “He’s a natural fucking thief. Nothing is safe around this thievin’ bastard.”

Walker, Seno and Lorino walked over to a table and sat down. A waiter brought over beer for the larcenous trio. Seno told Lorino that he had a partner on the Kitty Hawk, a fellow Filipino cook, and they worked with two of his old Filipino friends, both of whom worked as civilian painters on the Subic Bay naval base. The four thieves pulled off several scores on the aircraft carrier, but they were always looking for new things to steal.

“Do you know of anything on the ship you guys can boost?” Walker asked Lorino.       

Lorino immediately thought of the refrigerator. He hesitated for a moment, as he had good friends among the radiomen, including his pal from South Philly, and he didn’t want to steal from them. But, hey, business was business. He told Walker and Seno about the compact refrigerator.

On the evening before the Kitty Hawk pulled out from Subic Bay and returned to Yankee Station, Seno and Romy Fernandez, Seno’s partner in crime, walked through the darkened radio berthing compartment. The sailors not on watch or on liberty in Olongapo were sleeping in their racks. With Lorino acting as a look-out, the two thieves snuck through the compartment like modern-day ninjas. Seno picked the supply office’s door lock, and they entered the office. The two thieves lifted the heavy refrigerator and carried it out of the office and through the compartment as quietly as they could and then out into the passageway.

Lorino led them through a hatch and out onto the catwalk. The two Filipinos followed, carrying the heavy refrigerator as the soda cans banged against each other inside the refrigerator.

Lorino had previously made an effort to learn about line-handling and knots while working in the Deck Department, as he figured that one day he’d find a practical use - for Lorino, that meant criminal - and today was that day.

Lorino secured a line around the refrigerator, and the three men lifted the refrigerator over the top of the catwalk rail and lowered it to the small boat the Filipino painters used to paint the hull on the seaboard side of the carrier when the warship was moored to the dock.

The two painters took the refrigerator in hand and lowered it to the boat’s deck. The sailors topside dropped the line. The painters motored off away from the carrier.      

The following evening, the refrigerator was in Walker’s office in the Americano. He opened it and pulled out cold beer bottles for Lorino and Seno.

“Good work, fellas. I should get a good price for this refrigerator, and when I do, I’ll give you your cut,” Walker said to Lorino and Seno.

“Now drink up, you fucking pirates.”

Note: You can read my previous posted Olongapo chapters via the links below:

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Salvatore Lorino'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: The Old Huk

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: Join The Navy And See Olongapo

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Boots On The Ground'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The 30-Day Detail'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Cat Street'

Paul Davis On Crime: Chapter 12: On Yankee Station 

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The Cherry Boy'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The Hit'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: Welcome To Japan, Davis-San

Paul Davis On Crime: A Look Back At Life Aboard An Aircraft Carrier During The Vietnam War: 'The Compartment Cleaner'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Murder By Fire'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Admiral McCain'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Hit The Head' 

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'A Night At The Americano'  

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'Missing Muster'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The Barracks Thief'

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Fiction: 'The City of Bizarre Happenings'

 

CIA Turncoat Aldrich Ames, Who Sold US Secrets To The Soviets, Dies In Prison At 84

The Associated Press reports that Aldrich Ames. a former CIA officer turned Soviet spy, has died in prison.

WASHINGTON (AP) — CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames, who betrayed Western intelligence assets to the Soviet Union and Russia in one of the most damaging intelligence breaches in U.S. history, has died in a Maryland prison. He was 84.

A spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons confirmed Ames died Monday.

Ames, a 31-year CIA veteran, admitted being paid $2.5 million by Moscow for U.S. secrets from 1985 until his arrest in 1994. His disclosures included the identities of 10 Russian officials and one Eastern European who were spying for the United States or Great Britain, along with spy satellite operations, eavesdropping and general spy procedures. His betrayals are blamed for the executions of Western agents working behind the Iron Curtain and were a major setback to the CIA during the Cold War.

He pleaded guilty without a trial to espionage and tax evasion and was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Prosecutors said he deprived the United States of valuable intelligence material for years.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

Aldrich Ames, CIA officer who sold secrets to Russia, dies at 84 | AP News 

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine Q&A with the late Sandra Grimes, the former CIA spy hunter who helped takedown Ames, via the below link:

Paul Davis On Crime: The Ames Mole Hunt: My Q & A With Sandra Grimes, Former CIA Officer, Mole Hunter, And Author Of "Circle Of Treason"

 

The Philadelphia Orchestra: Dalia Stasevska - Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony

Philly Daily, where my Crime Beat appears each week, reports that the Philadelphia Orchestra: Dalia Stasevska - Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony will perform at the Marion Anderson Hall at The Kimmel Center on Thursday, January 15, 2026, at 7 PM and Friday, January 16, 2026, at 7 PM. 

You can read the piece via the link below:

The Philadelphia Orchestra: Dalia Stasevska - Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony - Philly Daily

Operation Underworld: How An Italian Mafia Boss In Prison Helped The US Invade Sicily In World War II

 Allen Frazier at Military.com offers a piece on imprisoned Cosa Nostra boss Salvatore “Charlie Lucky” Luciano and how he aided the U.S. Navy during WWII.

A luxury ocean liner burned and capsized in New York Harbor on Feb. 9, 1942. The SS Normandie, being converted into a troopship, caught fire during welding work and took 6,000 tons of water from firefighting efforts before rolling onto its side in the Hudson River. One worker died and more than 1,500 people evacuated the vessel.

The Navy immediately suspected sabotage. German U-boats had sunk 120 American merchant ships in the first three months after Pearl Harbor, and fears of Axis agents operating along the waterfront ran high. Naval Intelligence started looking into local dock workers. Italian and German workers controlled by organized crime networks remained silent when federal investigators asked them questions.

Commander Charles Haffenden of the Office of Naval Intelligence needed help investigating the incident and protecting the waterfront. He turned to the one man who could make dock workers talk, Charles Lucky Luciano, who was serving 30 to 50 years in New York's Dannemora Prison for running prostitution rackets.

Thomas Dewey, the special prosecutor who sent Luciano to prison in 1936, had called him the most dangerous gangster in America. By 1942, Luciano controlled New York's Five Families crime syndicate from behind bars. Meyer Lansky, a Jewish mobster and Luciano's longtime associate, served as his connection to the outside world.

The Navy approached Luciano through his attorney, Moses Polakoff, in March 1942. Intelligence officers offered better prison conditions in exchange for Luciano's help securing the docks. Luciano agreed. The Navy moved him from Dannemora to Great Meadow Prison in May 1942, closer to New York City and easier for his associates to visit.

Luciano ordered his criminal network to watch for saboteurs, report suspicious activity and prevent labor strikes that could disrupt the war effort. Joseph Socks Lanza, who controlled the Fulton Fish Market and United Seafood Workers Union, became a key contact. Lanza told Haffenden during their first meeting: "You let me know where you want the contacts made, or what you want, and I'll carry on."

Albert Anastasia, who ran the Brooklyn docks and Murder Inc., guaranteed cooperation from the longshoremen.

Dock strikes stopped after Luciano became involved. No major acts of sabotage occurred in New York Harbor for the rest of the war. Lieutenant Maurice Kelly, a former New York Police Department officer who joined Naval Intelligence after Pearl Harbor, testified years later in the Herlands investigation about the success of Luciano's connections.

"From the time Commander Haffenden made these contacts with Luciano there was a very open and cooperative condition that existed between the investigators and the people that were very influential on the various docks in the Port of New York," Kelly said.

The Navy's covert partnership with organized crime, codenamed Operation Underworld, achieved its immediate goal of securing the docks.

You can read the rest of the piece via the link below:

Operation Underworld: How an Italian Mafia Boss in Prison Helped the US Invade Sicily in World War II | Military.com

You can also read my Washington Times On Crime column on Operation Underworld: How the Mafia and U.S. Government Teamed Up To Win World War II via the link below:     

 Paul Davis On Crime: Operation Underworld: My Washington Times On Crime Column on 'Operation Underworld: How The Mafia And U.S. Government Teamed Up To Win World War II'

America's Top General Offers Enthralling Minute-By-Minute Account Of How US Captured Maduro In Dead Of Night With 150 Aircraft On Standby For Weeks Waiting For Perfect Moment To Strike

The Daily Mail offers a piece on Air Force General John Cane explaining the takedown of Maduro.

The most senior member of the United States military has offered a grippingly detailed account of how Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was captured.

General John Daniel 'Raizin' Cane, who is Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said 150 US military aircraft stationed across the western hemisphere had waited for weeks for the perfect moment to strike, before it finally arrived on Friday. 

Addressing journalists at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago country club in Palm Beach, Florida on Saturday, Cane said preparations to capture , on Saturday, Cane said preparations to capture Maduro and his wife Cilia began in August 2025 when CIA spies began monitoring the Maduros movements.

 

Cane said: 'We watched, we waited, we prepared, we remained patient and professional...

 

'After months of work by our intelligence teammates to find Maduro and understand how he moved, where he lived, where he traveled, what he ate, what he wore, what were his pets.

'In early December our force was set pending a series of aligned events. Key was choosing the right day to minimize the potential for civilian harm and maximize the element of surprise and minimize the harm to the indicted person so, as the president says, they could be brought to justice.'

The optimum moment finally arrived late Friday night, Cane explained, with Trump ordering the mission at 10:46pm ET.

'He said to us "Good luck and God Speed,' Cane recalled. 'Those words were transmitted to the entire joint force.'

You can read the rest of the piece via the link below:  

 America's top general offers enthralling minute-by-minute account of how US captured Maduro in dead of night with 150 aircraft on standby for WEEKS waiting for perfect moment to strike | Daily Mail Online 

Inside Operation Absolute Resolve: How US Forces Captured Venezuela’s Maduro — After Months Of Secret Planning

The US military unleashed a stunning overnight show of force to capture Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro, deploying more than 150 aircrafts, elite ground troops and overwhelming airpower — a mission months in the making, the New York Post reported. 

Speaking shortly before noon Saturday from Mar-a-Lago, Trump said the raid on Caracas — dubbed Absolute Resolve — was ordered at 10:46 p.m. Friday after weather briefly cleared, setting off a tightly choreographed mission that unfolded over just more than two hours.

“At my direction, the United States Armed Forces conducted an extraordinary military operation in the capital of Venezuela,” Trump said. 

“Overwhelming American military power, air, land and sea, was used to launch a spectacular assault, and it was an assault like people have not seen since World War II,” he added. 

… Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine said helicopters carrying the extraction force lifted off first, protected by the Marines, Navy, Air Force and Air National Guard as B-1 bombers loomed overhead. 

US warplanes dismantled Venezuelan air defenses — allowing helicopters to push into Caracas. 

“We arrived at Maduro’s compound at 1:01 a.m.,” Caine said, describing how an apprehension force “moved with speed, precision and discipline.” 

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, “gave up” and were “taken into custody by the Department of Justice,” he said. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the link below:

How US forces captured Venezuela’s Maduro in 'extraordinary' raid | New York Post

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My Philly Daily Crime Beat Column: The Feds Strike Back — U.S. Attorney In Philadelphia Announces Homeland Security Task Force

Philly Daily ran my weekly Crime Beat column on the U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia forming a Homeland Security Task Force.

You can read the column via the below link or the following text:

Davis: The Feds strike back — U.S. Attorney in Philadelphia announces Homeland Security Task Force - Philly Daily  

Donald Trump has been called a law & order president. He has declared cartels and transnational criminal organizations terrorists, sent the National Guard into high-crime cities, blown drug boats out of the water, and he has declared the deadly drug fentanyl to be a weapon of mass destruction.

And President Trump has signed into law the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative, which was established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion.

According to the U.S. Justice Department, the HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States.

Here in Philadelphia, David Metcalf, President Trump’s U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, announced the establishment of HSTF Philadelphia earlier in December. 

Metcalf called the task force a focused federal effort dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) that fuel fentanyl overdoses and deaths, inject violence into the communities, facilitate human trafficking, and exploit vulnerable communities across the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding areas.  

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, HSTF Philadelphia is part of the Department of Justice’s nationwide campaign to dismantle TCOs, following the President’s Executive Order and the Attorney General’s directive establishing Homeland Security Task Forces across the country.

“Philadelphia faces unique challenges as a major metropolitan hub and port city. At the center of those challenges is the fentanyl crisis and the violence that accompanies it. As cartels pour deadly drugs into this district that do immeasurable damage, they’re also fueling gun trafficking and violent gang activity that destabilize neighborhoods and put families at risk,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office stated. “From drug corners in Kensington to illegal firearms transported through the interstate corridor, HSTF Philadelphia will confront these threats head on, uniting federal, state, and local resources to identify, prosecute, and eliminate the criminal networks responsible.

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office will bring the most serious charges available — racketeering, continuing criminal enterprise, terrorism-related statutes, and major narcotics conspiracies — to dismantle TCOs from top to bottom. Prosecutors will also pursue human trafficking and smuggling cases, especially those exploiting minors, and will strip cartels of their financial power by seizing and forfeiting illicit assets. Where violence threatens communities, the office will move swiftly to secure detention and bring offenders to justice.”

U.S. Attorney Metcalf added, “Transnational gangs bring fentanyl, violence, and human misery into Philadelphia and southeastern Pennsylvania. Let me be clear: they will find no safe harbor here. My office will use every federal statute, every investigative tool, and every ounce of our authority to prosecute them, dismantle their networks, and put their leaders behind bars for as long as the law allows.”

HSTF Philadelphia is co-led by Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI, in coordination with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Partner agencies include the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the U.S. Marshals Service.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office noted that this announcement builds on prosecutions already under way in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Recent indictments have charged defendants allegedly tied to transnational criminal organizations and foreign distribution networks pouring millions of dollars of fentanyl, cocaine, and other illegal drugs through Philadelphia:

·         Humberto Gutierrez-Orozco, 37, a Mexican national illegally in the United States, was charged with trafficking over $10 million worth of cocaine from Mexico, after he attempted to smuggle these deadly drugs into and across the United States, including to Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia, as alleged in court filings.

HSTF investigators conducted a covert operation after agents identified a tractor-trailer with 440 kilograms of cocaine secreted inside. As part of that operation, Gutierrez-Orozco was arrested, and the drugs were seized.

If convicted, Gutierrez-Orozco faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum term of 10 years in prison.

·         Four defendants have been charged with allegedly trafficking bulk amounts of fentanyl, in related cases.

Victor Bueno-Fermin, 54, a Dominican national illegally in the United States, and Yesenia Duarte-Paulina, 35, of the Dominican Republic, were charged with trafficking 689 grams of fentanyl, and heroin. Bueno-Fermin was also charged with illegally reentering the United States after a prior deportation. Jose Rondon, 25, of New York, was charged with trafficking 865 grams of fentanyl, and cocaine, and Manuel Antonio Sanchez-Santos, 51, of the Dominican Republic, was charged with trafficking 1.7 kilograms of fentanyl.

Their indictments followed coordinated drug raids earlier this year in North and Northeast Philadelphia by HSTF agencies and partners. As detailed in court filings, HSTF investigators seized over three kilograms of fentanyl in the raids, which equals millions of individual doses of this dangerous drug.

If convicted, each of these defendants faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum term of 10 years in prison.

·         Francis Rondon-Caceras, 32, a Dominican national and the alleged leader of a large-scale fentanyl trafficking organization, was charged along with seven other individuals with distributing millions of dollars' worth of fentanyl into Philadelphia, as well as Western Pennsylvania.

As alleged in the indictment, this criminal organization utilized packaging houses in Philadelphia to process bulk amounts of fentanyl, which members of the organization mixed with adulterants, including the horse tranquilizer xylazine, in order to expand their profit margins and to “boost” and extend the drugs’ effects.

As further alleged in court filings, HSTF partners caught the defendants trafficking over 10 kilograms of fentanyl, and over $185,000 in drug proceeds was seized during the investigation.

Donald Griffin, 32; Francisco Quezada, 41; Alexi Quezada, 36; Juan Fransella-Jose, 36; Alexander Rodriguez Crouset, 38; Victor Jose Herrera Castillo, 44; and Juan Ortiz, 35, were charged in the indictment, along with Rondon-Caceres. Except for Griffin, of Allegheny County, Pa., the defendants in this case are Dominican nationals illegally in the United States.

If convicted, each of these defendants faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum term of 10 years in prison.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office stated that these cases demonstrate how federal prosecutions can both disrupt the flow of deadly drugs into our region and eliminate criminal drug trafficking organizations operating here.

“Our neighborhoods deserve to be free from the grip of cartels and gangs that traffic in drugs, guns, and people,” Metcalf said. “HSTF Philadelphia is about more than prosecutions — it’s about protecting families, restoring safety, and ensuring that no community in our district is left vulnerable to the reach of transnational criminal organizations.”

Paul Davis’ Crime Beat column appears here each week. He is also a frequent contributor to Broad + Liberty and Counterterrorism magazine. He can be reached via pauldavisoncrime.com.