CIA operative caught red handed?

reply to post by XtheMasque


NSA job fairs:

www.nsa.gov...

Some thoughts on this topic that baffle me:

The Mosaic: No CIA employee is going to have anything so noticable etc. that pretty much screams hey yeah im in the CIA. That is just foolish. However, why the CIA mosaic in the first place? Definitely not used for fake ID purposes either as photoshop can do a much better job with less time consumption etc.

The Machine Shop: I am an experienced machinist. Machining a gun receiver is no easy task, where did this guy learn to do this? He needed some training. However if he was just milling off the serial numbers etc. then that is fairly easy but would not require a machine shop......interesting. Also this would have been extremely noisy and I am not sure but it would take a fairly big generator or run a lathe/mill etc. along with the rest of his apartment.

The Counterfieting: News said these were very good counterfiet bills. This is another skill you just dont pick up as a hobby. And why was he doing this? He wasnt paying his rent with this money, he wasnt paying his electric with this money, so what was he doing with it? Nothing that could be tied to him I would imagine.

The Binoculars: Curious he was watching the Federal Reserve. If thats really what he was doing. And how high powered were these binoculars? Details missing here... Was he watching the FR or perhaps just looking for things/people to exploit as scammers/identity thieves usually do.

The Drugs: If he was in the drug trade, why was this guy such high profile? His social ties are made to sound too high class, and he sounds to well connected for this to be his agenda. He obviously have better and more lucritve skills at his disposal than selling drugs.....

The Fake ID's/Passports: Why the secrecy? You do not need a fake id/passport to sell drugs or counterfeit money. Was he buying equipment with these to hide his identity? What on earth would he be buying that he needed a fake ID? And that doesnt explain the passports, was he traveling outside the country? and if so where? and WHY?

The PC Encyption: Yes fairly easy to encrypt your hard drive. However the article does not specify to what level of encryption it was. The fact that it was sent to the secret service is curious because since it was a counterfiet case the secret service deals with that. Was the counterfieting for this purpose? Did he want his hard drive to get sent to the secret service without anyone else seeing it? food for thought.

The Way He Was Caught: For me this makes the least sense out of all of it. It almost seemed like he was trying to be caught and not trying at the same time. If he had so much funds/connections why was this guy doing all this illegal activity out of a place so noticable as an apartment building? The noise, the fumes etc. this is stupid and this guy obviously was not stupid. Also, his "hideout" was his girlfriends house? Are you kidding? This guys was a planner and a thinker...he was not stupid enough to do that unless he was trying to get caught....for whatever reason.

Finally his lack of talking to the police says he is either A) loyal or B) afraid. Either one points to perhaps connections with a foreign mob/terrorist group/ or foreign spy. I think it is fairly safe to assume this guy was not working for the CIA, however he may have been involved with the intelligence community somehow or way.

This is a great and very interesting story. However details are very limited on this case and probably for very good reason....

Just my two cents as a former police officer and current necktie model:

Methamphetamine labs often have odors described as gas leaks by neighbors. Meth users, if they have typical attributes, are paranoid as hell. Cops routinely spot them because they install exterior fortifications and counter surveillance equipment on their homes. Sorta like high powered binoculars.

They also like guns. Alot. Goes with the territory.

As far as the fake ID's and bleached bills, that sounds like a pretty typical scam I encountered a few years ago. It went like this:

They would wash, or bleach small bills, and reprint them with a bubble or laser jet printer to be a larger denomination. They bleach money because most of the family owned check cashing/payday loan places, especially in lower income neighborhoods use simple anti fraud measures like reagent pens (the little markers clerks at the bank use) to check the money, instead of higher tech stuff.
Now take the bleached bills and a fake ID into one of those places and get a money order with it, or western union money to someone, who is actually just another one of the fake ID's they possess. Go cash your money order somewhere and pick up your real money.
It must have been a slow news day in LA if a meth head running from the cops made the paper.

My 2 cents
Comm

^The money washing makes perfect sense, I believe the article said that the cops also found various money orders. So that brings some light on that part of the story I would think.

Althought this was not a meth lab, article said nothing about finding drugs, lab supplies etc. Only drug connection is he was charged in the pass for selling.

Also this guy wasnt buying guns, he was manufactureing them. Just screams somthing louder than meth head to me. Tho not CIA.

first post so bear with me here as for why this guy looks familer i think the same thing happend to him that happend to a buddy of mine uve seen it in ads for porn sites or personals my buddy from highschool showed up on a dateing site my frend was useing....problem was he never gave his consent to use the picture....just my therory but the first thing i though when i saw that picture is ive see this guy somewhere too shady indeed

I also thought the same thing when I first saw the pics. I swear to God I have seen this man before...either on tv, in the news, or on the web. With so many others saying the same thing, it is really fishy. Not just my eyes playing tricks on me. I cant for the life of me think of where I have seen this man. It is going to bug me for days.

reply to post by commdogg


First, thanks for your response but you seem to be leaving out important details and stretching others. This was no meth-lab and arguably, he was not a meth head. It would be hard for me to believe that a meth-head would be schmoozing around with the jet-set, unless of course he was dealing to them which is still unlikely. Remember, this was not a meth-lab according to authorities.

My first though about the ID making and his prior arrest, was that he was using the fake IDs to be the cold medicine to turn into methamphetamine. Now, all states require you to jump through hoops to get the cold medicine, which includes running your driver's license. However, he was making false passports, not false driver's licenses. Why make false passports when drive's licenses are so much easier?

As far as the binoculars, they were attached to a tripod, trained on the Fed Res through the back window of a high-rise apartment. This wasn't a simple meth-head paranoid and setting up counter-surveillance.

So, all together, this guy was manufacturing assault weapons parts through a machine shop, making counterfeit currencies and also passports. He was apparently surveilling the Federal Reserve and he hangs out in high-profile circles. This screams intelligence service of some sort. Whether it just looks like it or it really is, it does look very odd and is certainly news worthy. In fact, if the media would have ignored this story, it would have been extremely suspicious... of the media too.

--airspoon

reply to post by Sway33


You're right, I think I misread the meth lab part, or took it out of context from some other posts.

But, ID theft and fraud crimes are the fastest growing organized criminal activity and have been for several years now. Gun running has been around since there were guns to sell.

I just don't think that realistically a proper CIA or NSA agent would have obvious forged documents, or for that matter be busted by the local police and charged.

reply to post by airspoon


Yeah, I scrolled back and must have picked up the meth lab details from some other posters. It is kind of a meth lab trait though.

Machining gun parts isn't a brilliant crime. You can get machining plans for auto sears and stuff on the net. Maybe he was planning to pull off one of those takeover bank robberies? Maybe hit a cash truck?

Just my opinion, counterfeiting alone is a serious federal crime with major klink time. Add conspiracy to commit bank robbery and its no wonder he ran off.

reply to post by airspoon


Oh and passports fit well into that scam I was talking about. Most of those places take them as valid ID, yet none of them know how to check them accurately.

comm

Maybe the CIA tile was just a joke.

Maybe he's doing all this stuff and someone says Dude I saw someone like you in a movie about the CIA.

So he gets the mosaic done as a joke.

reply to post by hadriana


Maybe he was delusional? I'd buy that. Crazy people use the "God told me to do it" or "CIA put a chip in my head" thing all the time.

reply to post by commdogg


Upon first glance, one would think he waas preparing to hit an armored car since he was watching the Fed Reserve branch. However, you don't really manufacture weapons in your own machine shop for the purposes of a robbery. That's like buying a farm in order to obtain a gallon of milk. Of course, that's what he could have been doing just as he could have had no other motive all besides to legally manufacture weapons. We jst don't know at this point and I have a feeling we won't ever know. This is a secret that will most likely stay with the Secret Service.

Also, I don't think anyone is trying to claim his brilliance, only that normal criminals don't fabricate assault weapons, along with schmoozing in high-profile social circles. Also, common criminals don't rent penthouses in downtown Los Angeles for what seems to be the only reason of surveilling the Federal Reserve. This guy is not a common criminal. That doesn't make him brilliant or otherwise smart, it just makes him not an ordinary criminal. It would appear that he is backed by someone with an agenda. The only question is who that "someone" is.

--airspoon

reply to post by airspoon


I'm not going into much detail, mostly because I don't have the time right now, so I'm just going to drop in my opinion.

To me, he is either a criminal trying to score something big, while doing his usual "duties", or someone with too much money that lost his track (of mind). lol

This isn't a spy. At all.

I'm not a spy, not even trained as a spy. My job in the military was in spec ops. And even there, we would never make the mistakes he did.

The very first rule about surveillance is that you don't make your presence noticed, at all. You don't get a 4,000$/month condo to do surveillance or any kind of operation.

First of all, because it's not worth the money. Agents are paid to do their work, not to do their work comfortably.

Secondly, a condo like that brings a lot of attention. It's not the best thing to get a really cheap one either. The best thing is to blend in. You don't bring too much attention to yourself, but you shouldn't get "under the radar" either.

To me, this whole attitude of rich boy doesn't make sense. Too many risks.

The "Mona Lisa" that he had relating to the CIA is just painfully stupid. You only do that in two situations:

1- Because you're stupid, and you like to show-off to everyone that you are a spy (what causes death around...2 months after the start of the career).

2- Because you want to drift the people investigating you. If you show-off as being a CIA agent, but you're actually working for another agency, or worst, for another country, that is a great way to drift the investigators.

But it's too risky, obvious and the good things are none compared to the bad things that can happen.


The gun manufacturing thing also makes me twitch my nose.

Spies usually avoid all sorts of weapons, and only use them when they really need to. And even then, the agencies try to minimize the exposure at all costs (thus the numerous *real* gadgets(I'm not talking about Bond stuff)).

His self-exposure, his risky attitudes and his behavior, to me, tells me that he isn't an agent.

Even when agents are trying to pretend that they are NOT agents, you can see the small details that give away the false front.

But not in here. It's too wild to seem real. And when an agent operates wildly, he usually kills himself before risking any kind of capture and investigation.

And honestly, to be caught because he was "releasing too many gases"? That's just pathetic. Even a small criminal knows how to hide his lab, let alone a criminal that can afford a 4,000$ condo.

I don't know much about the real life investigation of this sort of individual, but I gather that there are people in the thread who do.

If I had to put money on it I would bet that this guy is connected to the mob, probably the Russian mob. But I'm curious about one thing.

Why be involved in machining gun parts? I'm from Toronto and I might know nothing about what crooks do in Los Angeles but the last thing I would expect for a crook in LA would be to have difficulty getting any sort of weapon he wanted on the black market.

This is the one part of the story to me that says loner, and loner means just that, a guy working alone or a guy working for somebody like the FBI (think Donnie Brasco/Joe Pistone) trying to ingratiate himself in certain circles.

In view of the arrest, I'm thinking that the guy is just a guy who decided to go down a risky road in life.

reply to post by airspoon

I believe I have seen this guy on an "America's Most Wanted" or similar show a while back. That second photo is the one I have seen for sure.

One of these operations will eventually succeed. They will have a trained military operative commit one more convincing act against some federal agency, blame it on the mentality of conspiracy theorists because the guy had a bunch of books on conspiracy theories, Bilderberg, Bohemian Grove, Skull and Bones federal Reserve, and assorted Alex Jones sources.

Presto...Anyone who speaks of Bohemian Grove, Federal Reserve, Bilderberg, Alex Jones and other conspiracy related forums will be labeled worse and more dangerous than Al Qaida.

I can gurantee you it is just around the corner.

All the ip addresses that visit these sites and delve into the world of conspiracy theories will be investigated and or rounded up for interrogation and or possible prosecution.

Fun fact from Jessee Ventura: the CIA isn't even supposed to be active within the United States. Makes cases like these a whole helluva lot stranger. I'm thinkin false flag on the Fed?

An amazing story with literally hundreds of possibilities, I'm thinking either Russian spy or some kind of spy for a vigilante group or something.

reply to post by airspoon


Hi Airspoon, You're seeing the lair of a paper hanger, nothing more. We did something like this at WSU, years ago. The dormies cooked up a large 4'x8' piece of plywood, painted to look just like the Wash. State Driver's license. There was a square hole at just the right place to frame one's head. Take your photo in this setup, and laminate it, in plastic, to get a real neat, but totally phoney driver's license, that got you into the bars. Unfortunately, the law finally caught on, and the photo of the plywood horse coller, being held by two WSP troopers made all the T.V. news shows. I would think photoshopping such an I.D. would make more sense today. As machining a lower for a full auto M. 16, would probably be way beyond this dude's skill set, he was trying to set someone up, for sure. Just maybe he could do an auto sear, but have you ever really looked at a M-16 Lower? Some really serious stamping work for a condo.