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--:-- Laila Faldil: The Biden administration is going after more than the fentanyl smugglers. This all comes back to the money piece. They want to disrupt the companies profiting off fentanyl.
--:-- Michelle Martin: That's right, Laila. And I'm Michelle Martin. This is Up First from NPR News.
--:-- Laila Faldil: More and more teens, especially young boys in America, are falling victim to sexual extortion online.
--:-- Michelle Martin: The victims are afraid and embarrassed and feel like they have nowhere to turn. Many of these scammers are based abroad, so the FBI director headed to Nigeria. What did he accomplish there?
--:-- Michelle Martin: And as attacks intensify on the Israeli-Lebanese border, both Israel and the Lebanese militia, Hezbollah are warning of all-out war. Is this rhetoric or a future reality? Stay with us. We'll give you the news you need to start your day.
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--:-- Michelle Martin: Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is in Atlanta today where she announced new financial sanctions against high-level members of a Mexican cartel accused of trafficking fentanyl into the U.S. Street fentanyl kills more than 70,000 Americans a year. It also generates billions of dollars a year in black market profits.
--:-- Brian Mann: Good morning, Michelle. So what's the background to this and what's new today?
--:-- Michelle Martin: So fentanyl is a booming business right now for Mexican drug cartels and for a lot of these companies in China that are making the precursor fentanyl chemicals while also doing some legitimate business around the world.
--:-- Brian Mann: So over the last year, the White House has been stepping up efforts to target those companies and pinch off the flow of drug profits. The Treasury Department's already sanctioned a bunch of people and firms. And today, Secretary Yellen added top members and affiliates of one of the Mexican drug cartels to that list.
--:-- Michelle Martin: The Treasury Department also released new guidance for U.S. banks and other financial institutions to help them spot this illicit drug money. Say more about the focus on the money, because I think we usually think of drug interdiction as stopping the drugs before they cross the border. But I take it that's not really getting the job done?
--:-- Brian Mann: Yeah, you know, law enforcement agencies, Michelle, are already seizing a lot more fentanyl at the border and inside the U.S., but fentanyl is super easy and cheap to make when cops capture a big batch of fentanyl pills. We see this on the news all the time. The cartels just churn out more, and that's seen as a relatively harmless cost of doing business.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So the idea here is to try to inflict real pain and cause disruption of those fentanyl networks by seizing cash and assets and penalizing legitimate companies that are supporting this drug trade.
--:-- Brian Mann: I spoke about this a couple weeks ago with White House drug czar Dr. Rahul Gupta. How do we address the commerce of illicit drug supply? This all comes back to the money piece, to focus on whether it's sanctions, whether it's money laundering efforts that are happening anti laundering efforts
--:-- Michelle Martin: So what we heard today from Yellen is another attempt to try to tighten the screws try to squeeze the money side of the fentanyl black market a little bit harder
--:-- Brian Mann: I guess the obvious question is why do they think this will work? Or are we seeing any evidence that this might work?
--:-- Michelle Martin: We're not seeing that evidence yet. The Biden administration says they are getting better at this, at finding and seizing fentanyl profits.
--:-- Brian Mann: Here's Assistant Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemos speaking last October. We freeze and disrupt the operating capital criminals need to manufacture and transport these illicit substances. We stop or recover the proceeds from drug sales, either through the U.S. financial system or through those partner countries that are willing to work with us.
--:-- Michelle Martin: But you know, Michelle, laying out that strategy is one thing and actually doing it is a lot harder. One challenge we're hearing about is crypto.
--:-- Brian Mann: A report issued by a congressional committee in April of this year found Chinese gangs getting really good at using cryptocurrencies to hide and transfer fentanyl profits.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Chinese criminal gangs, some allegedly with ties to the Communist Party, have emerged as global players at laundering fentanyl money. They've actually created what the U.S. Justice Department describes as an underground banking system where money transfers are really hard to detect.
--:-- Brian Mann: One more thing is that drug policy experts tell NPR that Mexican cartels and many Chinese companies appear to be operating with at least some protection from their national governments.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So the Biden administration is moving hard on this. They think this is part of the solution to the fentanyl crisis, but no huge gains so far.
--:-- Brian Mann: Brian Mann is NPR's addiction correspondent. Brian, thank you.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Thank you, Brian.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Israel and the Lebanese militant and political group Hezbollah are ratcheting up the war of words and firepower on the border. Israeli military says it's approved plans for an offensive in Lebanon if diplomatic efforts fail to stop the conflict, which is contained for now for the most part with the trading of fire across the Israeli and Lebanese border.
--:-- Jane Arath: Hi, Michelle. So, Jane, Nasrallah spoke for more than an hour yesterday. What was the main point?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Well, he speaks fairly regularly, but these were his hardest-hitting remarks since the war in Gaza began last October, not just in rhetoric, but in what he was laying out. He said Hezbollah did not want to go to war, but he warned there was a possibility that that's what the current fighting could slide into.
--:-- Jane Arath: We have to remember the Lebanese state is extremely weak, and Hezbollah was created with the help of Iran, largely to fight Israel after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Masrola said his group is much better armed now.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And as an example, he noted drone footage released this week with detailed images of potential targets in Haifa, Israel's major port city.
--:-- Jane Arath: Well, Hezbollah said the video was taken by an Iranian-made surveillance drone. It's nine minutes long and set to music. It shows high-resolution images of the port of Haifa and even individual vessels. And there are maps showing other potential target cities.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Nasrullah last night said that was just a small part of what he called hours of surveillance footage they had from Israel. He gloated that with all of Israel air defenses the drone was able to slip through them
--:-- Jane Arath: And he said that if there were war Hezbollah would fight with what he said were no rules
--:-- Michelle Martin: As for reaction Israel foreign minister dismissed Nasrallah remarks saying that if it came to war, Hezbollah would be destroyed and Lebanon severely hit.
--:-- Jane Arath: Now Nasrallah didn't limit his remarks only to Israel. He also widened out to the Mediterranean region and specifically threatened Cyprus.
--:-- Michelle Martin: What was that about?
--:-- Jane Arath: Nasrallah said Cyprus, part of the European Union, was hosting Israeli military training in its mountains, which are much like the mountains of Lebanon, and that Israeli fighter jets were using Cypriot air bases.
--:-- Michelle Martin: He said this made Cyprus part of the war.
--:-- Jane Arath: Israeli officials have acknowledged in the past Israeli military training in Cyprus. Cyprus, after the speech, said it was not involved in military operations and that it was playing a humanitarian role.
--:-- Michelle Martin: But Nasrallah also made a wider point about the Mediterranean Sea.
--:-- Jane Arath: If they open a war in Lebanon, the situation in the Mediterranean Sea would become completely different. All of the coastline, all of the ships. And Israel also has interests in a gas field off the coast of Lebanon.
--:-- Michelle Martin: So how are things likely to play out now?
--:-- Jane Arath: Analysts point out that speeches like this one on both sides are meant to act as a deterrent to escalation, and that the likelihood of that nightmare scenario Nasrallah laid out remains low, but not impossible.
--:-- Michelle Martin: As has been the case since October, though, Hezbollah has made clear that until the conflict in Gaza is solved, its conflict with Israel won't be either.
--:-- Jane Arath: That is NPSG and Araf in Beirut. Jane, thank you.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Thank you.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Now, I need to tell you that this next story is one that may be upsetting to hear. It involves suicide, but it's also something parents should probably pay attention to if their kids are online. This is about sextortion, a form of online blackmail that is targeting a rapidly growing number of children in the U.S.
--:-- Emmanuel Akinwolut: Okay, so even though Layla just told us a little bit, some people may not know what sextortion is, so why don't you just start by explaining it?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Well, it's a form of online extortion where people blackmail targets, either for money or other demands. And the perpetrators typically use fake profiles or AI-generated profiles even on social media.
--:-- Emmanuel Akinwolut: They present as potential love interests to extort explicit pictures. And then they demand money, essentially, and threaten to share those pictures.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Actually, even when the money's paid, the criminals demand more. And tragically, this is having fatal consequences. Thousands of children have been targeted in the US in the last few years and dozens have died, like 17-year-old Jordan Demay.
--:-- Emmanuel Akinwolut: Can you tell us more about Jordan?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Jordan was a popular high school senior in Michigan. He was just about to graduate and he wanted to be an athlete.
--:-- Emmanuel Akinwolut: I spoke to Jordan's mother, Jennifer Demay Buta, and she told me about the day he died in March 2022.
--:-- Michelle Martin: I got up for work and had seen that Jordan sent me a text message at 3.41 in the morning. It just said, Mother, I love you. I texted him back He did not respond He was later found dead by suicide
--:-- Emmanuel Akinwolut: Initially Jennifer was confused but then she received a transcript of the last messages that he sent on Instagram
--:-- Michelle Martin: What happened was there was a group of young men based here in Lagos who pretended to be a girl based in the US and had begun messaging Jordan. Then they threatened to release the pictures of him that they'd gotten, unless he sent them money.
--:-- Emmanuel Akinwolut: He sent them about $300, but then they wanted more. The tragic thing about the transcript is it shows how desperate he was just before he died. He told them that he was going to kill himself, and they told him to just do it then.
--:-- Michelle Martin: This all happened actually within the space of just six hours before he died.
--:-- Emmanuel Akinwolut: That's just awful. But Emmanuel, what's the Nigeria connection here? Why is it there, and are the authorities there doing anything about it?
--:-- Michelle Martin: Well, unfortunately, there's this long history of online scams committed from here in Nigeria.
--:-- Emmanuel Akinwolut: Clearly it's a major problem but not just for victims in the US also in Nigeria too and it plays out in really complicated brutal ways especially for young men that are targeted by police.
--:-- Michelle Martin: At the same time the rise of sextortion attacks in the US committed from here is a big concern and it's partly why the director of the FBI Chris Ray came to Nigeria last week.
--:-- Emmanuel Akinwolut: He told me actually he's the first FBI director to visit here and that this issue was at the forefront of his talks with law enforcement agencies and President Bolatinubu.
--:-- Michelle Martin: We're talking about kids between 10 and 17 years old typically, but we've even seen victims as young as seven years old.
--:-- Emmanuel Akinwolut: And one of the things that makes this crime so heartbreaking and difficult to detect is the victims are afraid and embarrassed.
--:-- Michelle Martin: The perpetrators in this case were two brothers from Lagos who've been extradited to the US, have pled guilty to child's exploitation charges, and now they're awaiting sentencing.
--:-- Emmanuel Akinwolut: That's Emmanuel Akinwotu in Lagos. Emmanuel, thank you.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Thanks, Michelle.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And if you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And we have an update on a story we reported on earlier this week. During his visit to Pyongyang, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a pact with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to give all available military help if either is attacked.
--:-- Michelle Martin: It's unclear how the agreement will affect Russia's war in Ukraine, but there have been growing concerns of weapon sales between the two nations, an allegation both sides have denied.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Putin is now in Vietnam where he's looking to boost economic ties with a communist-led government in Hanoi.
--:-- Michelle Martin: Vietnam has so far avoided condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
--:-- Michelle Martin: And that's Up First for Thursday, June 20th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Leila Faldin.
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--:-- Michelle Martin: For your next listen, tune in to Consider This from NPR. We're just a couple of months away from the start of a new academic year, yet many of the college-bound students who rely on federal financial aid still don't know how much money they're getting.
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--:-- Michelle Martin: What does that mean for their college prospects? Listen to Consider This.
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--:-- Michelle Martin: Today's episode of Up First was edited by Catherine Laidlott, Tara Neal, John Helton, Hannah Block, Mohamed El-Bardisi, and Alice Wolfley.
--:-- Michelle Martin: It was produced by Ziad Budge, Christopher Thomas, and Taylor Haney.
--:-- Michelle Martin: We get engineering support from Carly Strange, and our technical director is Zach Coleman.
--:-- Michelle Martin: We hope you'll join us again tomorrow.
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