Police seeking mother of 2-year-old girl who died from suspected fentanyl exposure
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(PORTLAND, Ore.) — Police in Portland, Oregon, said they’re seeking the mother of a 2-year-old girl who died from a suspected fentanyl exposure last month, and who is also wanted for “several violent crimes.”
Police said they have been unable to locate Mary Jacobo, 26, for over three weeks since the death of her toddler. The girl went into cardiac arrest on Sept. 12 and was transported from her home by ambulance to a local hospital, where she died, police said.
The cause and manner of death have not yet been confirmed, but “based on evidence discovered at the child’s home, and conversations with hospital staff, fentanyl is believed to be a contributing factor,” the Portland Police Bureau said in a press release.
The name of the deceased girl was not released by police.
Following the girl’s death, police said they were looking to speak with Jacobo, whom they said left the home “as this incident was initially unfolding.”
Jacobo has not been located in the weeks since, despite “significant investigatory efforts,” police said Friday.
Since the death of her child, Jacobo is suspected of having committed an armed carjacking and other unspecified crimes, police said.
Jacobo also has multiple warrants for her arrest, police said. However, police are not sharing details on the charges in the warrants because Jacobo isn’t yet in custody and the cases may be confidential, Portland Police Sgt. Kevin Allen told ABC News.
Police asked for the public’s assistance in locating Jacobo, warning that she is considered armed and dangerous.
Police described Jacobo as 5 feet, 5 inches tall and 135 pounds, with hazel eyes. She has brown hair that may have been recently dyed blonde, police said. She also has tattoos on the front of her neck, her chest and on her left hand.
Anyone with information on Jacobo’s whereabouts is urged to call 911, police said.
An F-16 Fighting Falcon, assigned to the 354th Fighter Wing, Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, flies over the Joint Pacific-Alaska Range Complex, Alaska, during exercise Red Flag-Alaska 24-1, April 26, 2024. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Julia Lebens, FILE)
(WASHINGTON) — A Russian fighter jet crossed the path of an American F-16 last week coming within 50 feet of the nose of the American jet, said North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which said the Russian pilot’s action “endangered all.”
NORAD released dramatic video on Monday that showed just how close the Russian fighter flew ahead of the American aircraft at a high rate of speed.
The close encounter occurred on Sept. 23 during a flurry of activity by Russian aircraft that over the span of several days had flown through the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) off of Alaska. The Alaska ADIZ is international airspace that stretches 150 miles from the Alaska coastline, but the U.S. requires that any aircraft transiting through it must identify themselves or be intercepted by NORAD aircraft.
On that day, two U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter jets were sent to intercept two Russian Tu-95 bombers and the two Su-35 fighter jets that were escorting them.
The video released by NORAD was taken from a camera mounted in the canopy of the F-16 aircraft providing a view of what the pilot was seeing as the fighter flew near one of the Russian bombers.
Suddenly one of the Russian jets entered the field of view at a high rate of speed coming at what NORAD said was within 50 feet of the American plane’s nose rolling to one side as it flew past.
The video then showed the F-16’s nose wobbling from left to right, either as the American fighter pilot flew through the Russian aircraft’s wake or the pilot maintained control of the aircraft after the close encounter.
“The conduct of one Russian Su-35 was unsafe, unprofessional, and endangered all – not what you’d see in a professional air force,” said Gen. Gregory Guillot, NORAD’s top commander, in a comment posted on X.
A NORAD statement about the intercept that day did not provide any indication that NORAD aircraft had intercepted the Russian planes only detailing that it had “detected and tracked four Russian military aircraft operating in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).”
“The Russian aircraft remained in international airspace and did not enter American or Canadian sovereign airspace,” said the release. “This Russian activity in the Alaska ADIZ occurs regularly and is not seen as a threat.”
The close encounter capped two weeks of incidents where NORAD said it had detected and tracked the aircraft as they flew through the ADIZ.
(NEW YORK) — A massive black market scheme that diverted and resold critical prescription drugs potentially put unsuspecting patients in the path of harm and bilked the U.S. government out of millions of dollars, according to federal charging documents unsealed Wednesday.
The illicit operation was allegedly led, aided and abetted by multiple pharmacy owners and employees in Puerto Rico, as well as a medical facility procurement worker who “used his position” to steal legitimate medications from the warehouse before they hit the market and then resold them at a “steep discount” to individual pharmacy owners, according to an indictment.
The 27 people indicted in the scheme include a onetime Olympic basketball player, officials at the U.S. Department of Health’s Office of Inspector General told ABC News. Of those indicted, one has already pleaded guilty, officials said.
Eddin Orlando Santiago-Cordero, aka “Guayacan,” allegedly served as one of many unlicensed wholesale distributors, according to an indictment. Decades before facing charges in the scheme, he was on Puerto Rico’s Olympic roster, a spokesperson for the HHS-OIG told ABC News.
Early Wednesday, federal authorities arrested some of the individuals allegedly involved in the operation across Puerto Rico and in Florida, the HHS-OIG spokesperson said.
More than 100 different drugs — many of grave necessity to the people who take them — were part of the drug diversion scheme, the charging documents said. These drugs include multiple HIV+ medications, insulin, thyroid medication, antipsychotic / schizophrenia medication, alcohol and opioid addiction medication, blood thinners, asthma and COPD medications, IV antibiotics to treat serious infections like meningitis or sepsis, hormone replacement therapy estrogen, malaria medication, popular obesity and diabetes drugs including Ozempic and Mounjaro, as well as medication used for erectile dysfunction and enlarged prostate.
Those drugs were snatched before reaching retail, often stored in resealable plastic baggies without markings — and importantly, without the conditions needed to maintain some of the meds’ safety and effectiveness, the charging documents say. One example cited in the court documents is insulin, which must be refrigerated.
“It becomes difficult, if not impossible, for regulators such as the FDA, law enforcement, or end-users to know whether the prescription drug package actually contains the correct drug or the correct dose” once the meds are diverted, court documents said. “Law enforcement officers, regulators, and end users would not know whether the prescription drug was altered, stored in improper conditions, or had its potency adversely affected.”
Nearly $21 million in fraudulent funds — just shy of $14 million of that from ill-gotten gains selling misbranded and diverted prescriptions and more than $7.6 million of that from false Medicare and Medicaid claims — were netted in the alleged scheme, court documents allege.
The alleged operation is part of an “alarming” and a “growing” trend, HHS-OIG’s special agent in charge of the New York Regional Office Naomi Gruchacz told ABC News in an exclusive interview ahead of the takedown she helped lead.
“The motivation oftentimes to conduct this type of scheme is for greed,” Gruchacz said. “They’re making a financial profit. The greed takes over and even though the community is put at risk, that’s overlooked — even though oftentimes it’s happening in the same community that these healthcare providers should be servicing.”
Since syndicates like these operate outside official channels’ guardrails it’s not only near-impossible to track if the drugs are downgraded or even what they purport to be — it’s also hard to track where exactly the diverted prescriptions go, and into whose hands, an HHS-OIG spokesperson said.
Co-conspirators of the operation “sold prescription drugs in resealable clear plastic bags without any labels and adequate directions,” paid each other in cash, and sent shipments of diverted drugs via the United States Postal Service “as well as private and commercial carriers using fictitious names and addresses,” the charging documents said.
“We have seen in other investigations that sometimes the medication is sold on legitimate, wholesale distribution websites,” Gruchacz said.
Syndicates like this one have at times collected drugs from patients who ration and sell their own prescriptions for a kickback, she said.
“It is patient harm that we’re talking about, both on the front end – the patient that should be taking the medication, and on the back end if a patient is unknowingly receiving a diverted medication,” Gruchacz said. “We don’t know how it’s being stored. We don’t know if it’s expired.”
Attorney information for Santiago-Cordero and other defendants was not immediately available.
(WESTFORD, Mass.) — A Democratic member of Congress has become the latest victim of increased threats against federal lawmakers in the last two weeks.
Rep. Lori Trahan of Massachusetts said Saturday that her family and home received a bomb threat. No one was harmed and the Westford Police Department, U.S. Capitol Police and the Massachusetts State Police are all investigating the threat, she said.
“It’s a good time to say the obvious: threats of violence and intimidation have no place in our country,” Trahan said in a statement.
The threat against Trahan came a week after several Democratic members received similar threats against their families.
Reps. Joe Courtney, Jahana Hayes, Jim Himes and John Larson, who all represent districts in Connecticut, said their homes were targeted on Thanksgiving. Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Rep. Seth Magaziner, also of Rhode Island, said they were targets of bomb threats last week
No bombs were found and none of the elected officials nor their families were hurt, authorities said.
The investigations into the threats are ongoing.
Some of President-elect Trump’s cabinet selections were also targeted with threats last week.
Investigators are looking into bomb threats sent to Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump’s pick for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; Brooke Rollins, Trump’s pick for agriculture secretary; Lee Zeldin, the former congressman Trump has tapped to lead the EPA; and Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for defense secretary.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and President Joe Biden condemned last week’s threats.
“House Democrats will not be deterred or intimidated from serving the people by violent threats,” Jeffries said in a statement last week.
