Homeland Security News

A 22-year-old accused of taking six guns and body armor into a busy Atlanta grocery store will remain in jail after waiving his first appearance hearing Thursday.

Rico Abednego Neequaye Marley faces 11 felonies after authorities said he walked into the Atlantic Station Publix on Wednesday afternoon armed to the teeth. He was arrested after a shopper spotted him with a rifle in the men’s restroom about 1:30 p.m. and alerted the store’s employees, Atlanta police said.

According to an incident report, Instacart shopper Charles Russell entered the restroom and heard “clicking sounds” coming from a bathroom stall.

“It sounded to him like someone was loading firearms,” the officer wrote in the report. “He also told me that he saw an AR-15 style rifle leaned against the wall. He rushed out of the restroom and notified the Publix staff.”

Read more: Atlanta Journal Constitution

The United States has seized “r-m-n.net” and “Almaalomah.com,” two websites that were unlawfully utilized by Kata’ib Hizballah, a Specially Designated National and a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

“The internet must not be used as a recruitment tool for terrorist organizations to promote violent extremism and spread their hateful rhetoric,” said Raj Parekh, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “We stand committed with our law enforcement partners to use all available resources to combat terrorism.”

“Special Agents with the Bureau of Industry and Security’s Office of Export Enforcement will use all of the tools at our disposal to protect American citizens, including our military service members, from terrorist acts of violence inspired and directed via online platforms,” said Kevin J. Kurland, who is performing the non-exclusive duties of the Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement at the Bureau of Industry and Security. “We will continue to aggressively disrupt Foreign Terrorist Organizations such as Kata’ib Hizballah and their efforts to utilize U.S. cyber infrastructure to harm U.S. national security.”

Read more: Department of Justice

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is considering expanding efforts to monitor possible domestic terrorism threats through surveillance of travel patterns of individuals, it said on Wednesday.

“Domestic violent extremism poses the most lethal, persistent terrorism-related threat to our homeland today. DHS is committed to improving security and is reviewing options for enhancing screening and vetting protocols and travel pattern analyses, consistent with privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties,” a DHS spokesperson told Reuters.

Precise details were unclear for how the DHS is going to step up screening of domestic travelers for possible extremist ties or intentions. The Biden administration has emphasized in recent weeks the threat that homegrown, violent individuals, including white supremacists, present to the country.

Read more: Reuters

A man charged with carrying out a mass shooting at a Minnesota health clinic last month allegedly called 911 during the attack and told the dispatcher he was the shooter and to send “a lotta ambulances,” records show.

Medical assistant Lindsay Overbay was killed and four other staff members were wounded in the Feb. 9 shooting at the Allina Crossroads Clinic in Buffalo, a small city about 40 miles (65 kilometers) northwest of Minneapolis.

Gregory Ulrich, 67, is charged with murder, attempted murder and other counts in the attack. Ulrich’s call to dispatchers was made three minutes after the first report of shots being fired, according to a 911 transcript obtained by KARE-TV.

Read more: AP

A German woman accused of taking her son to Islamic State-controlled territory in Syria and fighting for the extremist group there was arrested Wednesday after landing in Berlin.

The woman, identified only as Stefanie A. in line with German privacy rules, traveled to Syria in 2016 to join her husband, federal prosecutors said in a statement. He had left Germany the previous year and was fighting for IS, they added.

Prosecutors said that the suspect joined IS after her arrival and, together with her husband, decided to have her son — aged under 15 at the time — get firearms training at a training camp run by the group. Her son was used in military operations and she also at some point became an IS fighter, they said.

Read more: AP