Security

Arms smugglers raid the residue of combat while black-market traders work Chernobyl for contaminated metal and timber. Soldier of Fortune follows three trails out of Ukraine. Ukraine’s front lines have produced more than casualties and headlines. They’ve produced inventory. Soldier of Fortune has spent months following the trail of what gets pulled out …

As Xi Jinping heads to Washington, federal cases show the workings of Chinese intelligence operations in the United States. by Stephen Caldwell A woman flew into Detroit Metro Airport from Shanghai on Sept. 8, one of many trips she made between China and the United States. When customs officers questioned …

Bricks of cash, luxury cars and secret accounts exposed a sprawling reconstruction fraud. Years later, a tip sent Soldier of Fortune back into cases that never reached an ending. by Susan Katz Keating They bought luxury cars, opulent properties, high-end watches, first class travel, and more. The only catch was, …

by Austin Lee It was one of the ballsiest clandestine ops in history: Project Azorian, the CIA mission to snatch a Soviet submarine from the Pacific Ocean’s crushing depths. The haul from the Golf-II-class K-129 was a priceless score for the Americans. The mission also prompted a rare act of …

In the Peruvian Amazon, U.S. soldiers are learning how jungle terrain turns routine movement into a test of endurance, fieldcraft and small-unit tactics. by Staff Sgt. Mickey Miller, U.S. Southern Command SAUCE, Peru — The jungle has a way of making even simple things complicated. Movement slows. Equipment gets heavier. …

U.S. Marines put field-expedient charges to work at a demolition range during exercise BALTOPS 26. by A.R. Fomenko VIENNA BUREAU — The steel beam lay twisted in the mud outside Skrunda, Latvia, its center torn open by an expedient cratering charge. Moments earlier, it had served as a target during a …

by “Sol Prendido” One of the most influential capos in Mexico’s history met a tragic end – and so did his doctors. One of the most powerful drug lords in Mexico was Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who was born in Navolato, Sinaloa, in 1956. El Señor de los Cielos (Lord of …

Smuggling networks led by fixers like Oleg move men through checkpoints, vehicles, and terrain, turning border enforcement into a market for escape. by A.R. Fomenko VIENNA BUREAU – Oleg did not ask many questions when the calls came in. He listened, noted what mattered, and moved on to the next name …

by Susan Katz Keating “The Taliban are behind my door.” The whispered words came through the phone in the pitch of night, hours after Kabul fell on August 15, 2021. My friend “Hakim,” a man I had been trying from afar to help leave Afghanistan, called me from inside his …

by A.R. Fomenko Hidden beneath the border, sophisticated tunnel networks have turned Ceuta into one of Europe’s most enduring corridors for organized cross-border smuggling. VIENNA BUREAU – It was the kind of pursuit that runs slow and cold. Spanish authorities hunted in vain for years to uncover a smuggling tunnel between …