FBI director: Smuggling organizations connected to ISIS coming through US border

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By BETHANY BLANKLEY | THE CENTER SQUARE

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Monday confirmed that a smuggling organization working with the terrorist organization ISIS is funneling criminals through the U.S. border. He also said the FBI is currently investigating its operations that “we’re very concerned about.”

In a U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing held on Monday on worldwide threats to the United States, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, asked Wray about threats coming through the U.S. border.

“Over the last three years, millions of people crossed the U.S. border illegally and many have been released into the country,” Rubio said, asking first about “people with ties to dangerous gangs.”

“Are we now seeing crimes from people that entered the country over the last three years, some of them with ties to gangs or other criminal organizations?” Rubio asked.

“From an FBI perspective, we are seeing a wide array of very dangerous threats that emanate from the border, and that includes everything from the drug trafficking” to violent crime, Wray said.

“But there’s no doubt people that were criminals in their country of origin have crossed that border and are now in the U.S. committing crimes?” Rubio asked.

“Correct,” Wray replied.

Rubio also asked if Wray was familiar with “a black market emerging … to sell fake Social Security cards, fake Green Cards.” Wray said he was, and “there is a significant marketplace for different kinds of stolen identity” on the darknet.

Rubio then addressed human smuggling, saying, “There are smuggling networks all over the world that specialize in moving people from all over the world, including from the Middle East, Central Asia, and so forth. Are we aware of any of these smuggling organizations run by, or are conducted by, people that have ties, for example, to ISIS or other terrorist organizations?”

“I want to be a little bit careful how far I can go in an open session,” Wray said, “but there is a particular network that has where some of the overseas facilitators of the smuggling network have ISIS ties that we’re very concerned about. What we’ve been spending enormous amount of effort with our partners and investigating exactly what that network is up to, is something that’s again, the subject of our current investigation.”

“But there is a network we’re concerned about that has facilitators involved in it that have ties to ISIS?” Rubio asked.

“Correct,” Wray replied.

Wray’s testimony comes after 10 retired FBI directors and experts in counter intelligence warned congressional leaders in January that President Joe Biden’s border policies have facilitated a “soft invasion” into the U.S. of military-age men coming from terror-linked regions, China and Russia. They also warned a terrorist attack is likely imminent but preventable.

His testimony also comes after Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection agents have apprehended the greatest number of known or suspected terrorists (KSTs) in U.S. history, with the greatest number of apprehensions occurring at the northern border.

In fiscal 2023, the greatest number of KSTs were apprehended in a fiscal year in U.S. history, 736, The Center Square first reported. A significant majority – 66% – were apprehended at the northern border, 487. By comparison, 249 were apprehended at the southwest border.

In the first quarter of fiscal 2024, KST northern border apprehensions continued to outpace those at the southwest border by a similar margin, The Center Square reported on Feb. 1.

At that time, fiscal year to date, 144 KSTs had been apprehended, according to data last updated Jan. 26.

That number has since increased to 168, with the majority, 104, being apprehended at the northern border, according to CBP data last updated Feb. 14.

Former CBP and Border Patrol chief Mark Morgan and former ICE chief Tom Homan have both told The Center Square, Biden’s “open border policies have created the greatest national security crisis since 9/11.”

16 COMMENTS

  1. And our prestige Senior Senator “Princess Lisa”, voted no on efforts to identify these fine upstanding apparently, in her mind. Sad, Tragic, Ignorant, and an embarrassment.

  2. Wait, according to our current administration in the White House, these are part of the “newcomers” who have been entering our country illegally since early 2021. These newcomers include thousands of members of the notorious MS-13 gang, tens of thousands of Chinese men, some with military training, members of the Mexican Cartels, prisoners from Venezuela and now people with ISIS ties. What happens if these separate groups coalesce into a guerilla army? These are not people “looking for a better life” rather they are here to kill you. Your little spray bottle of personal protection spray is not going to cut it when these newcomers decide to form up and head out on an op. It’s time to plan ahead for something very bad that is likely to happen in a community near you.

  3. Well! That’s a dahhhhhh
    Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out! Expect the next 9/11

  4. I personally watched Chinese men , Haitians and Somali , on the roads south of Tucson in October. The Chinese men were rough looking but had a soldiers walk. Curiously they looked probably in their 30s. I am absolutely convinced we will see a terrorist attack like we have never seen shortly. And our politicians let them walk right in. Hell we even gave them a cell phone and a credit card with $ 2000 on it. That s better than we gave our brothers in Lahaina after the fire. It’s shameful. And in the end American men women and children will pay the price and the politicians with no soul will go have coffee with their buddies not caring one bit . If Biden would have been impeached the second he got 13 of this nations kids killed we wouldn’t be where we are. And yet the fool is still in office.

  5. I am surprised that with the resources the FBI is using to track, harass and arrest US citizens engaged in activities embarrassing to the Biden Regime that they have anything left to chase terrorists. I suppose if they did have any resources left, they would be devoted to deflecting and obstructing any investigation of Hunter Biden. And they certainly do not have any resources to investigate strategic leaks to the New York Times.

    I am sorry, but the FBI has so critically damaged their reputation over the last several years, it is very difficult to take the agency and Director Wray seriously.

  6. Wray provides this testimony while simultaneously providing cover fire for his boss Biden? This is no warning, it’s covering his own backside and hedging his bets for when the ISIS invasion that we watched in the media and on YouTube in Iraq begins here inside America’s border. He’s hedging his bets that when the violence starts and Americans start pointing fingers, that he will be able to say that he warned us all. But only after letting this happen. Hopefully this “public servant” will get what he deserves after the body count is complete and the indictments begin.

  7. There can be zero doubt that traitors in the White House are actively working to undermine the United States. Nearly as bad are all the Democrats- including Peltola- who voted against legislation that would remove proven criminals from our country.

    There will be a terror attack. The only question is when, and how many Americans die. Maybe then enough traitor Democrats will be voted out by an enraged populace.

  8. US government is funding the NGO’s running emigrant camps in the Darion Ga; one camp is all Chinese! With Chinese safe houses all along the way to boarder! Even giving them drivers license.
    China is currently building a highway through the Gap from Panama!
    MS13 are trained by CIA in US prisons!

  9. Chris Wray is Hillarys go to guy when covert operations need done. Dont worry folks…We are safe until the s**t hits the fan.

  10. We are about to find out where all those assault rifles and all that ammo purchased by Barry Obama went, and WHO they went to. Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!

  11. I wouldn’t want to be these people when America comes wide awake. You can run but you can’t hide. By the way what drug do you think Biden was jacked up on during his state of the union ?? I’ll bet that 8 ball they found in the White House was his not his dip stick sons . Time is the real judge before long all these morons will be pushing up weeds.

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