New York woman pleads guilty to mailing drug-soaked documents to prisons
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(NEW YORK) — An Albany woman pleaded guilty on Tuesday to mailing drug-soaked documents to inmates in correctional facilities in New York, according to federal prosecutors.
Authorities said Maya McIntosh, 33, sold the illicit documents on social media — and disguised them as legal paperwork when she sent them.
McIntosh, 33, pleaded guilty to “conspiracies to manufacture, distribute and possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance and controlled substance analogue, distribution and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance and controlled substance analogue, and unlawful possession and use of a means of identification,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York said in a press release on Tuesday.
Officials said McIntosh ordered chemicals used to create MDMB-4en-PINACA, a synthetic cannabinoid, in liquid form and then “sprayed and soaked the liquid onto copy paper and business envelopes,” the attorney’s office said.
The documents were placed in U.S. Priority Mail Express envelopes and addressed to inmates at various correctional facilities in New York, prosecutors said.
McIntosh disguised the envelopes as legal mail by “stamping the names of actual attorneys in the return address portion of the envelopes” without the lawyers’ knowledge or permission, according to prosecutors.
This method allowed for the drug-soaked documents to appear as if they were sent by lawyers and “contained legitimate legal paperwork instead of a controlled substance,” the U.S. attorney’s office said.
Officials said McIntosh used social media to sell the sheets and envelopes, with customers paying her to mail the documents to inmates at correctional facilities, the prosecutors said.
McIntosh is believed to have sent the drug-soaked papers between January 2023 through July 2024, prosecutors said.
McIntosh faces up to 20 years of imprisonment in each count, a maximum fine of $1 million on the drug counts, a fine of $250,000 on the remaining counts and a term of supervised release of at least three years and up to life, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
The United States Postal Inspection Service and Homeland Security Investigations are continuing to investigate the case.
(WASHINGTON) — Firings at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will have reverberating impacts on how meteorologists across the country forecast the weather, according to experts.
Last week, many NOAA employees took to social media to announce that they had been terminated after weeks of uncertainty as the Trump administration continues to make cuts at federal agencies. But the widespread firings of meteorologists who make safety determinations based on upcoming weather and climate conditions could be detrimental to the government’s ability to protect Americans in times of disaster, experts told ABC News.
NOAA and the National Weather Service (NWS), which is a part of NOAA, are responsible for both routine and extreme weather forecasting nationwide – tracking hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires, tsunamis and other potentially life-threatening events. The union representing staffers at NOAA and the NWS told ABC News in an emailed statement that 586 probationary employees were terminated from NOAA on Feb. 27, with 108 of those cuts coming from the NWS.
The National Weather Service was already short-staffed ahead of the cuts, with more than 600 vacancies at the start of 2025, National Weather Service Employees Organization General Counsel Richard Hirn said in the statement. In addition, 500 employees, including 172 NWS employees, accepted a deferred resignation and began their administrative leave the next day.
“Which means that hundreds of operational personnel who usually staff the 122 NWS forecast offices, 13 River Forecast Centers, and two tsunami warning centers will disappear overnight,” Hirn told ABC News.
It’s unclear whether there will be sufficient staffing left at any number of regional forecast offices to continue 24/7 operations, Hirn said, adding that “there are only a dozen or so forecasters assigned to each office when fully staffed.”
The NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory announced on Feb. 27 that the office’s communication services would “be taking an indefinite hiatus” due to a reduction in staff.
In addition, the loss of satellite operators at the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility in Suitland, Maryland, and the Wallops Island Command and Data Acquisition Station in Wallops Island, Virginia, could impact the ability of the NWS to track and maintain the weather data used to forecast and provide severe weather warnings, Hirn said.
Many essential functions, such as satellite information, weather and its effect on airplane engine health, come from these offices, said Craig McLean, former NOAA director of research, during a news conference last Friday.
“Leaving NOAA understaffed will inevitably lead to additional chaos and confusion beyond what we’ve had over the last several weeks and is going to be a negative impact on people’s lives,” McClean said.
The cuts will lead to significant consequences for weather forecasting accuracy, sea navigation, the fishing industry and air safety, Democrats and former NOAA leadership officials said in a news conference the Friday after last week’s dismissals. Officials also expect an early termination of leases on a portion of the 620 facilities run by NOAA across the country.
“All of NOAA’s mission responsibilities have been impacted – every office in NOAA,” Rick Spinrad, former NOAA administrator, said during the news conference. “Every office in NOAA was hit by these indiscriminate, misguided, ill-informed terminations.”
The terminations come as the U.S. heads into tornado season, with hurricane season not too far behind, Spinrad said. Seasonal outlooks will be impacted in addition to the immediate weather forecasting products, Spinrad added.
“Musk and his fake officials, the DOGE tech bros, have been rummaging through our most sensitive data without authority in violation of the law for weeks now,” House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman, D-Calif., said in a statement. “And this has come with sweeping, indiscriminate layoffs of nonpartisan public servants. Park rangers, firefighters, scientists – all of these people, whose purpose is to serve everyday Americans, have had the rug pulled out from under them. And we will all be worse off for it.”
Among the fired scientists were a researcher at NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey; a NWS meteorologist in Anchorage, Alaska; a physical scientist with the National Centers for Environmental Prediction; and the meteorologist in charge at the NWS Louisville office, according to posts to social media.
Hirn said the union was aware of up to an additional 800 probationary NOAA employees could soon be terminated following the initial dismissals. Those additional cuts do not yet appear to have happened.
In a statement to ABC News, NOAA and the NWS declined to comment on or confirm the staffing cuts, saying that the agency does not comment on personnel matters, but NOAA National Press Officer for Weather Susan Buchanan emphasized the agency’s ongoing commitment to meteorology.
“NOAA remains dedicated to its mission, providing timely information, research, and resources that serve the American public and ensure our nation’s environmental and economic resilience,” Buchanan said. “We continue to provide weather information, forecasts and warnings pursuant to our public safety mission.”
On Monday, demonstrators gathered outside of NOAA headquarters in Washington, D.C. to protest the employee dismissals.
“NOAA workers across the country are really kind of tense and waiting to hear what may happen,” Sarah Cooley, former head of NOAA’s ocean acidification program, told ABC News during the protest.
Tom Di Liberto, an ousted public affairs specialist and climate scientist with NOAA, told ABC News that his job before he was dismissed was to help communicate to the public exactly what NOAA does.
“If you ever wondered what the weather was like outside, if you’ve ever been to the ocean, you’re interacting with NOAA,” Di Liberto said. “If you ever looked at temperature on your phone, that’s probably NOAA data coming to you. Every aspect of everything we do outside is related to what NOAA does, which is why this is such a dangerous thing. You’re playing games with potentially lifesaving information to go out to people, or making that harder to get out the people.”
ABC News’ Matthew Glasser, Cheyenne Haslett, Daniel Manzo, Daniel Peck and Ginger Zee contributed to this report.
The family of a passenger who died in the midair collision near Washington, D.C., filed legal claims against the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the United States Army, seeking $250 million in compensation for each claim.
The filings are likely the beginning of a lengthy legal battle stemming from the deadliest aviation incident in the U.S. over the last quarter century, killing all 64 aboard the American Airlines passenger jet and three servicemembers in the Blackhawk helicopter on Jan. 29.
“This was a disaster waiting to happen, and it just so happened that particular night. Everything came together to create this preventable tragedy,” said Robert Clifford, a lawyer representing the family of Casey Crafton. “We want to get to the bottom of it, and this gets us going.”
Crafton was on board the American Airlines regional jet returning from a business trip to his home in Salem, Connecticut, where he lived with his wife, Rachel, and his three young sons. Crafton worked as a technical support manager for an aviation consulting firm after studying aviation management at Bob Jones University.
“Casey was an incredible human being. He was a giver. He was a loving husband and father. He enjoyed coaching his boys on their youth soccer and little league baseball teams. They will be grieving him for the rest of their lives that will never be the same,” Clifford said.
Clifford Law Offices filed two forms yesterday required under the Federal Tort Claims Act to bring claims against both the FAA and Army, seeking $250 million for each claim. Each claim was filed on behalf of Rachel Crafton, Casey’s wife.
Clifford described the $250 million number as a ceiling for the claim made “out of an abundance of caution.”
“You can always go down, you cannot go up. And if you look at, you know, wrongful death claims across the country, it’s not unheard of to have a number that high,” he told ABC News. “You’re talking about a father of three children and a loving wife. It’s a substantial claim.”
The firm has not filed claims against American Airlines, PSA Airlines, Sikorsky Aircraft or Collins Aerospace — though it sent preservation letters to each — as they await more information about the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation, according to the firm’s press release.
Separately, Clifford Law said it has begun an “investigation into potential claims of willful neglect” by airlines operating in the airspace near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, where the crash occurred.
The NTSB — which is leading the investigation– has not yet identified a cause for the collision.
Clifford, who described the incident as “preventable,” alleged that the airlines that fly in and out of Washington, D.C., failed to take “sufficient precautions to protect its passengers.”
With the pre-case claim against the FAA and Army filed, each entity has six months to respond; after six months without a response or if the claims are rejected, Clifford Law could file lawsuits in federal court.
An FAA spokesperson declined to comment on potential litigation.
(IDYLLWILD, Calif.) — Two hikers who were stranded for three days after falling down a snowy cliff were rescued on Monday near Idyllwild, California, the Riverside Sheriff Aviation Unit said in a statement Tuesday.
The climbers — one man and one woman — were traveling along the Tahquitz Mountain trail on March 1 when they suddenly plummeted approximately 800 feet down a snowy cliff, located about 8,900 feet above Idyllwild, California, according to officials.
The hikers called 911, stating they were “injured badly and needed help,” officials said. A helicopter was sent to rescue the two individuals, but due to 45 mph winds, rescuers failed in their attempt.
Helicopters from Cal Fire and the Orange County Fire Authority also attempted to hoist the victims out, but “all were unsuccessful due to low clouds and high winds.”
Authorities said volunteers from Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit were able to locate the male and female hikers on the ground that first night.
Then, on the second day, “several attempts” were again made, but helicopters were “unsuccessful due to mountain obscuration and high turbulence surface winds.” The hikers had to endure temperatures as low as 15 degrees Fahrenheit that night, accompanied by persistent snow, officials said.
Finally, on the third day, the “weather and wind calmed just enough” and the hikers were successfully hoisted out via helicopter, officials said. The man, “who was the most severely injured,” was rescued first and flown to Desert Regional Medical Center for treatment, followed by the woman, officials said.
Body camera video capturing the rescue shows the snowy conditions officials had to deal with while saving the two stranded individuals.
“Many thanks to all those ground crews that were involved as well as all the helicopter crews who were involved in the rescue,” the aviation unit said in a statement.
Along with the helicopters, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said on social media that over 20 mountain team rescuers hiked to save these injured victims, who “most definitely would have died from exposure to the elements.”
“This was a very long and coordinated effort with amazing partners and volunteers. Outstanding job by all,” Bianco said on social media.
