Saturday, January 10, 2026

Mark Twain On The Difference Between Man And Dog

Friday, January 9, 2026

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.”

Yorlenys Betzabeth Zambrano-Contreras

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.

Luis David Nino-Moncada

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

Thursday, January 8, 2026

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^rdPresident 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.

Wednesday, January 7, 2026

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.”