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Do you know which emojis drug dealers use?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:19:27 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Kids are using a secret language to coordinate buying drugs like fentanyl right here in Colorado.The FOX31 Problem Solvers are cracking the code with the Drug Enforcement Administration, learning the emojis parents need to understand to get a better idea of what their kids might be trying to buy. A future with legal MDMA in Colorado? There’s already a law on the books In a digital day and age, influence on youth is more prevalent than ever and in the palm of their hands. However, it’s not just the beauty gurus or craft creators who reach them. David Oleski, active special agent in charge for DEA Rocky Mountain Field Division, is seeing otherwise."We're seeing a variety of social media apps being utilized by drug traffickers to reach the end user," Oleski said. "So that could be TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook Marketplace."Emojis used to communicate drug dealsAlong with using the most common social media apps, there’s the evolving emoji vernacular the DEA ...

Case dismissed for man who trolled Thornton mayor — and video shows what happened

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:19:27 GMT

THORNTON, Colo. (KDVR) -- The Adams County District Attorney's Office has dismissed a criminal charge against a man arrested for violating a restraining order meant to protect the mayor of Thornton.Dariush Namazi was arrested on July 27 at an ice cream social event sponsored by the city of Thornton. Police said he got within 15 feet of Thornton Mayor Jan Kulmann, a violation of the restraining order a judge granted her on July 18 after finding Namazi often violated the mayor's personal space at prior city events. Rideshare murder suspect wasn’t supposed to own a gun FOX31 has previously reported on Daruish Namazi, known to dress up as a MAGA character named "Danny Kulmann" who trolls the Republican mayor at Thornton events.Just hours after the Problem Solvers interviewed Namazi on Tuesday about what the body camera video of his July 27 arrest showed, the case was dismissed by prosecutors. An assistant district attorney filed a motion to dismiss, stating: "The prosecution is unable...

DEA educates Colorado 8-year-olds to combat latest trafficking trends

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:19:27 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Federal drug enforcers say dealers are finding ways to target younger kids who may not even be seeking a fix.The FOX31 Problem Solvers sat down with the Drug Enforcement Administration to learn the latest ways dealers are reaching and impacting young people. Colorado among the worst states in the country for drug use, study says From where traffickers market drugs to how they change the look of drugs themselves, the DEA is now educating children at a younger age, knowing they are not immune to the trafficking trends.It could seem as innocent as weekend cartoons.“You think that, you know, my kids are just watching videos and cartoons. The problem is that that might be their intent in terms of what the kids want to do,” said David Olesky, active special agent in charge for the DEA Rocky Mountain Field Division.DEA: Dealers use trends for marketingRegardless of the intent, Olesky said drug dealers keep up with trends as a market...

Colorado Sen. Faith Winter undergoes surgery after bike crash

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:19:27 GMT

DENVER (KDVR) — Assistant Majority Leader and Democratic Colorado Sen. Faith Winter underwent surgery after crashing while on her bike.According to a post on her account on X, formerly known as Twitter, the crash happened on Tuesday afternoon. Winter was riding her bike to the Capitol when she crashed into a curb while trying to avoid being hit by a large truck.Winter's team said the senator was wearing a helmet but she did sustain injuries to her head. She was taken to UCHealth where she underwent surgery to remove pressure on her brain. Medina Alert: Dodge truck wanted in hit-and-run The surgery was successful and Winter is now recovering with what her team called a "good prognosis.""We can't express enough gratitude to her incredible care team and the hospital staff at UC Health. Please use this as a reminder to always wear a helmet and share the road with bicyclists," Winter's team posted on X.Senate President Steve Fenberg released the following statement on behalf of the Col...

SW Miami-Dade couple say man claiming to be police officer terrorized them with gun, threatened to shoot

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:19:27 GMT

A South Florida couple said a man claiming to be a police officer terrorized them with a gun, and now they’re wondering if he was impersonating a law enforcement official.Speaking with 7News on Wednesday, the couple asked not to be identified for safety reasons.The man said he was pulled over on Monday by someone in a white SUV with the police lights in the parking lot of their apartment complex in Southwest Miami-Dade, located off Southwest 89th Court.“I see lights, and I’m like in shock,” he said.The man who was stopped said the individual inside the SUV used a loudspeaker.“[He said], ‘Drop the windows, or I’m gonna drop you, [expletive],'” said the resident.The man who was stopped took a 7News crew in his truck to show what happened in the parking lot where, he said, he was first followed and ordered to get out of his vehicle.The man said a man in a police uniform got out of the SUV and pointed a gun at him.When asked what the unifo...

Poland stops sending weapons to Ukraine amid grain fight, Warsaw says

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:19:27 GMT

Warsaw has stopped supplying weapons to Kyiv and is focusing on arming itself instead, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Wednesday, amid a dispute over Ukraine’s agricultural exports.“We are no longer transferring weapons to Ukraine, because we are now arming Poland with more modern weapons,” Morawiecki said in an appearance on Polish television channel Polsat, according to European Pravda. “If you don’t want to be on the defensive, you have to have something to defend yourself with,” he added, insisting, though, that the move wouldn’t endanger Ukraine’s security.Morawiecki’s terse comments came as tensions escalated between Kyiv and the EU over the past week, after the European Commission moved to allow Ukrainian grain sales across the bloc, ending restrictions on grain imports which five eastern EU countries originally sought to protect their farmers from competition. Poland, Hungary and Slovakia r...

King Charles calls to ‘reinvigorate’ ties between France and UK

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:19:27 GMT

PARIS — Britain’s King Charles III urged France and the U.K. to revitalize ties Wednesday, as both countries seek to improve relations after several acrimonious years marked by Brexit negotiations.On the first day of a three-day state visit to France, the king said it was “incumbent upon us all to reinvigorate our friendship to ensure it is fit for the challenge of this, the 21st century.” Speaking at a banquet dinner hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles, the king said he looked forward to a renewal of the Entente Cordiale between France and the U.K, an alliance which marks its 120th anniversary next year.The British monarch did not mention Brexit directly but hinted at relations between the two countries that had not “always been entirely straightforward.”The banquet dinner was held in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, a venue long associated in France with privilege, absolute monarchy and the French Revolution. The b...

On shaky grounds: The secret, slipshod evidence the EU uses to sanction Russian oligarchs

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:19:27 GMT

Hastily compiled dossiers leave the bloc vulnerable to legal challenges.By BY LEONIE KIJEWSKIIllustration by Anson Chan for POLITICOBRUSSELSBY LEONIE KIJEWSKIIT WAS AN UNUSUAL APOLOGY: from the office of the president of the European Council to a sanctioned Russian oligarch.In a confidential evidence packet used by the European Union to justify freezing his assets, Viatsheslav Moshe Kantor’s nationality had been listed as “Jewish/Russian.” A 70-year-old billionaire who once headed the Russian fertilizer giant Acron, Kantor stepped down as president of the European Jewish Congress after being sanctioned by the EU and the United Kingdom in April 2022. He holds Russian, U.K. and Israeli citizenship.The designation “Jewish/Russian” could be a mistaken reference to a Soviet-era ethnic classification, but several scholars commissioned by Kantor’s lawyers found it to be an antisemitic description that should not have been included in an official document.“We sincerely regret the error...

In Tunisia, the EU is repeating an old and dangerous mistake

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:19:27 GMT

Eve Geddie is Director of Amnesty’s European Institutions Office.As the representatives of so-called “Team Europe” were shaking Tunisian President Kais Saied’s hand this July, hundreds of refugees and migrants were stranded in the country’s desert border areas with Libya, after its security forces rounded them up and abandoned them there without access to food, water or shelter.The European People’s Party President Manfred Weber later referred to these reports — including of multiple deaths near the border — as “some videos from the desert or something.”European leaders were in Tunisia to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), aiming to curb migration to Europe. And in exchange they offered Tunisia €105 million for “border management,” and nearly €1 billion in additional loans and financial support amid the country’s unprecedented economic crisis.However, while Tunisia and the European Union are discussing how to implement the deal, its human costs are already apparent. And...

EU’s migration obsession is killing its commitment to human rights

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:19:27 GMT

Claudio Francavilla is a senior EU advocate at Human Rights Watch.Portrayed for years as the only Arab Spring success story, Tunisia today is everything but.Since staging a “constitutional coup” in 2021, President Kais Saied has dissolved the country’s parliament and fired its prime minister, concentrated power in his office, jailed critics and opponents, and crushed democratic aspirations.Then, finding himself unable to address the country’s deep economic crisis, Saied resorted to a textbook populism – attacking scapegoats.For Saied, that means Black African migrants and asylum seekers — also a favorite target for Europe’s far right. Blamed for all the country’s ills, while dehumanized and defamed by hate speech (uttered by Saied himself), Black Africans in Tunisia have been suffering horrendous abuses, including violence, discrimination and collective expulsion on Tunisia’s land borders, leading to dozens of deaths.Looking at the European Union’s countless pledges to promote human...