Daily Intel Brief
German police foiled a teen's "Nazi terror attack", a Spanish journalist is held in Poland on espionage suspicions, and cartel-funded marijuana farms move indoors...
Counterterrorism
A U.S. move to allow some foreign investment in parts of northern Syria that are outside government control is part of the Biden administration's strategy to ensure the defeat of Islamic State by promoting economic stabilization, senior administration officials said…
Officials in western Germany said Thursday that police had foiled a "suspected Nazi terror attack" by a high school student against his classmates or former classmates. Police special forces in Essen, a city in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), raided the apartment…
Military & Defense
Russian president Vladimir Putin has begun moving troops from Syria to Ukraine to help in the Battle for Donbas, reports have claimed. Military forces are being moved from Syria where the Kremlin had thousands of troops based since 2015 when Vladimir Putin ordered…
The U.S. Army is poised to revamp its forces in Alaska to better prepare for future cold-weather conflicts, and it is expected to replace the larger, heavily equipped Stryker Brigade in the state with a more mobile infantry unit better suited for the frigid fight, Army leaders say…
Cybersecurity
A ransomware group with an Iranian operational connection has been linked to a string of file-encrypting malware attacks targeting organizations in Israel, the U.S., Europe, and Australia. Cybersecurity firm Secureworks attributed the intrusions to a threat actor it tracks…
The U.S. on Thursday signed the Second Additional Protocol to the Budapest Convention, a multilateral treaty aimed to protect citizens from cybercrime and hold cybercriminals accountable. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard Downing signed the treaty at the…
Counterintelligence & Espionage
A Michigan native who was accused of espionage by Russian troops in Ukraine has been freed, a private group said Thursday. Kirillo Alexandrov, 27, who had moved to Ukraine, was then taken to Poland along with his Ukrainian wife and her mother, said Project Dynamo…
A freelance journalist from Spain is spending his 10th week in Polish custody while prosecutors there investigate espionage allegations that appear to be linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In a case that raises red flags about press freedom in Europe at a time…
Transnational Organized Crime
A central figure of a transnational organised crime syndicate involved in trafficking and smuggling cocaine from South America to Europe has been arrested in Dubai. Dubai Police said in a media statement that they were informed in June last year that the man was living…
Foreign drug cartels that established illegal outdoor marijuana farms in Oregon last year are expanding to large indoor grows, a state police official said Thursday. The new challenge emerged as a task force created by the Legislature met for the first time to figure out how…