Federal agents arrested another suspected Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang member in Aurora, Colorado, Saturday morning. 

An illegal immigrant from Venezuela was charged locally with property damage and domestic violence, the Denver office for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said. 

The arrest was carried out by ICE Denver and the Denver office for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). 

The suspect will remain in ICE custody "pending a hearing before an immigration judge," ICE Denver wrote on X. The post did not further identify the suspect.

TREN DE ARAGUA MEMBER WANTED FOR AURORA, COLORADO, APARTMENT TAKEOVER BUSTED IN ICE RAID IN NYC 

The Trump administration said Friday it was in talks with El Salvador to revive an agreement that could allow the United States to send non-Salvadoran migrants to the Central American country.

This time, though, the government would also aim to send members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua to Salvadoran prisons, Mauricio Claver-Carone, the State Department’s special envoy for Latin America, said in a call with media outlets.

Tens of thousands of people have been arrested in El Salvador as part of President Nayib Bukele's gang crackdown. Despite international human rights concerns, El Salvador has seen a sharp drop in violence in the country once plagued by the warring Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and Barrio 18 gangs.

Meanwhile, six Americans who had been detained in Venezuela in recent months were freed by the government of President Nicolás Maduro after he met Friday with a Trump administration official tasked with urging the authoritarian leader to take back deported migrants who have committed crimes in the United States. President Donald Trump's envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, announced the release of the six men on social media. 

Grenell’s hours-long trip to Venezuela, according to the White House, was focused on Trump’s efforts to deport Venezuelans back to their home country. 

Trump wrote Saturday on his social media site Truth Social that he was happy to have the Americans back home.

'WE STOPPED THAT': NOEM CANCELS BIDEN ADMIN'S 11TH HOUR DEPORTATION SHIELD FOR VENEZUELAN MIGRANTS

"And very important to note, that Venezuela has agreed to receive, back into their Country, all Venezuela illegal aliens who were encamped in the U.S., including gang members of Tren de Aragua. Venezuela has further agreed to supply the transportation back," he wrote. "We are in the process of removing record numbers of illegal aliens from all Countries, and all Countries have agreed to accept these illegal aliens back."

ICE has been conducting operations across the United States prioritizing criminal illegal immigrants as part of Trump's campaign pledge. 

On Friday, ICE Denver announced that its officers arrested an illegal immigrant from Mexico charged with assault and kidnapping. 

The suspect was identified as 48-year-old Juan Benitez-Ortega, who unlawfully entered the United States in November 1998 "at an unknown location." Benitez-Ortega was taken into custody on Thursday in Adams County, Colorado. 

"Officials in Adams County, charged Benitez with felony assault, kidnapping or false imprisonment on Dec. 28. Benitez also has a prior conviction for driving while ability impaired," ICE Denver said. "ICE officers issued Ramirez an intent to reinstate a prior order of removal, and he will remain in ICE custody until his removal from the U.S." 

As of Friday, ICE reported 864 arrests and 621 immigration retainers lodged across the country. 

The Biden administration's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took a significant new step on Wednesday that would effectively ban cigarettes currently on the market in favor of those with lower levels of nicotine.

"Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a proposed rule that, if finalized, would make cigarettes and certain other combusted tobacco products minimally or nonaddictive by limiting the level of nicotine in those products. If finalized, the United States would be the first country globally to take such a bold, life-saving action to prevent and reduce smoking-related disease and death," the FDA said in a statement on Wednesday. 

"The FDA first announced its intent to propose such a rule in 2018, and today’s announcement is an important next step in the rulemaking processExternal Link Disclaimer. The agency intends to seek input on the proposal, including through public comment and the FDA’s Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee," it added. 

The "Tobacco Product Standard for Nicotine Level of Certain Tobacco Products" cleared a regulatory hurdle earlier this month. The rule is not yet published or finalized. 

BIDEN ADMIN WORKING TO EFFECTIVELY BAN CIGARETTES IN 11TH HOUR PROPOSAL A 'GIFT' TO CARTELS, EXPERT SAYS 

"Multiple administrations have acknowledged the immense opportunity that a proposal of this kind offers to address the burden of tobacco-related disease," said FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf, M.D. "Today’s proposal envisions a future where it would be less likely for young people to use cigarettes and more individuals who currently smoke could quit or switch to less harmful products. This action, if finalized, could save many lives and dramatically reduce the burden of severe illness and disability, while also saving huge amounts of money. I hope we can all agree that significantly reducing the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the U.S. is an admirable goal we should all work toward."

The FDA's press release states that "the proposed rule would not ban cigarettes or any other tobacco products," and instead "cap the nicotine level at 0.7 milligrams per gram of tobacco in cigarettes and certain other combusted tobacco products, which is significantly lower than the average concentration in these products on the market today."

Fox News Digital reported earlier this month, when the rule cleared an FDA regulatory review, that if nicotine levels in cigarettes are lowered under federal regulation, experts say cartels running black market sales of cigarettes will likely benefit.

"Biden's ban is a gift with a bow and balloons to organized crime cartels with it, whether it's cartels, Chinese organized crime, or Russian mafia. It's going to keep America smoking, and it's going to make the streets more violent," Rich Marianos, former assistant director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the current chair of the Tobacco Law Enforcement Network, told Fox News Digital earlier this month. 

Marianos said that criminal groups would likely quickly catch on to the proposal if it takes effect and subsequently amplify their tobacco operations – which he says will serve as an economic boon for the criminals. 

Americans who want to purchase cigarettes with higher levels of nicotine would then need to go through the illicit channels to obtain them, similar to buying "loosie" cigarettes on the streets of New York, putting average Americans at further criminal risk while also offering them cigarettes that are not regulated and originating from foreign nations. 

BIDEN ADMIN FACING CONGRESSIONAL PROBE OVER PROPOSED BAN ON MENTHOL CIGARETTES

The Biden administration pushing the cigarette rule at the 11th hour of his administration comes after its previous effort to ban menthol cigarettes ​​in what was described as a "critical" piece of President Biden's Cancer Moonshot initiative. The administration announced last year, however, it was abruptly delaying such regulations as the public decried the move. A handful of groups argued that banning menthol unfairly targeted minority communities, while others argued the ban would open the floodgates to illicit menthol sales.

"This rule has garnered historic attention and the public comment period has yielded an immense amount of feedback, including from various elements of the civil rights and criminal justice movement," Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said at the time. "It’s clear that there are still more conversations to have, and that will take significantly more time."

POPULAR ITALIAN CITY OFFICIALLY BANS CIGARETTE SMOKING OUTDOORS

The state of Massachusetts banned menthol cigarettes and flavored tobacco in 2020, with local police since uncovering illegal menthol cigarette sales in the state, including just this month when a man was busted with 700 packs of unstamped menthol cigarettes, as well as 38 bags of crack cocaine, the Boston Herald reported. 

"Mass. banned menthols and dangerous criminals stepped right in to create an illegal supply chain and make millions in the underground market," Marianos' Tobacco Law Enforcement Network posted to X this week about the bust. 

Former President Barack Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in 2009, which granted the FDA the power to regulate tobacco products. In the years since, the agency has worked to lower nicotine levels, including in July 2017 under the Trump administration, when then-FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced it would seek to require tobacco companies to drastically cut nicotine in cigarettes in an effort to help adult smokers quit.

BIDEN ADMIN ABRUPTLY DELAYS PLAN TO BAN MENTHOL CIGARETTES AMID WIDESPREAD OPPOSITION

The FDA announced in 2022 plans for the proposed rule that would lower levels of nicotine so they are less addictive or non-addictive.

"Lowering nicotine levels to minimally addictive or non-addictive levels would decrease the likelihood that future generations of young people become addicted to cigarettes and help more currently addicted smokers to quit," FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said at the time. 

A man who federal prosecutors say runs a notorious Japanese organized crime syndicate pleaded guilty last week to conspiring to traffic nuclear materials to Iran and U.S. weapons abandoned in Afghanistan to Burma. 

Takeshi Ebisawa, the 60-year-old alleged leader of the Japanese yakuza, pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday to conspiring with a network of associates to traffic nuclear materials, including uranium and weapons-grade plutonium, from Burma to other countries. He also pleaded guilty to international narcotics trafficking and weapons charges, the Justice Department announced. 

Acting U.S. Attorney Edward Y. Kim for the Southern District of New York said Ebisawa admitted that he "brazenly trafficked nuclear material, including weapons-grade plutonium, out of Burma," while at the same time, he worked to "send massive quantities of heroin and methamphetamine to the United States in exchange for heavy-duty weaponry such as surface-to-air missiles to be used on battlefields in Burma and laundered what he believed to be drug money from New York to Tokyo." 

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) had been investigating Ebisawa since at least 2019, according to court documents and evidence presented in court. 

During the course of the probe, federal prosecutors say Ebisawa unwittingly introduced an undercover DEA agent who was posing as a narcotics and weapons trafficker to his international network of criminal associates, which spanned Japan, Thailand, Burma, Sri Lanka, and the United States, among other places, "for the purpose of arranging large-scale narcotics and weapons transactions." 

JAPANESE CRIME BOSS CHARGED BY US PROSECUTORS IN CONSPIRACY TO TRAFFIC NUCLEAR MATERIAL TO IRAN

The superseding indictment alleges Ebisawa and his network, including his co-defendants, negotiated multiple narcotics and weapons transactions with that undercover agent. 

Ebisawa conspired to broker the purchase of U.S.-made surface-to-air missiles, as well as other heavy-duty weaponry, intended for "multiple ethnic armed groups in Burma," including the unidentified leader of "an ethnic insurgent group," according to federal prosecutors. He also allegedly negotiated a deal to accept large quantities of heroin and methamphetamine for distribution as partial payment for the weapons. 

"Ebisawa understood the weapons to have been manufactured in the U.S. and taken from U.S. military bases in Afghanistan," the DOJ said. "Ebisawa planned for the heroin and methamphetamine to be distributed in the New York market." 

In a separate transaction, he also allegedly conspired to sell 500 kilograms of methamphetamine and 500 kilograms of heroin to the undercover agent for distribution in New York, prosecutors say. 

Ebisawa was also accused of working to launder $100,000 in purported narcotics proceeds from the U.S. to Japan.

Beginning in early 2020, court documents say Ebisawa informed the undercover agent and a DEA confidential source that he had access to a large quantity of nuclear materials that he wanted to sell. 

Later that year, Ebisawa allegedly sent the undercover agent a series of photos "depicting rocky substances with Geiger counters measuring radiation," as well as purported lab analyses indicating the presence of thorium and uranium, court documents say. At Ebisawa's urging, the undercover agent agreed to help him broker the sale of his nuclear materials to an associate who was posing as an Iranian general for use in a nuclear weapons program, according to the Justice Department. 

Prosecutors say Ebisawa then offered to supply the supposed Iranian general with "plutonium" that would be even "better" and more "powerful" than uranium for this purpose. 

With two other co-conspirators, Ebisawa allegedly proposed to the undercover agent that the Burma insurgent group leader sell uranium to the supposed Iranian general, through Ebisawa, to fund the group's weapons purchase.

On a Feb. 4, 2022, video call, one of Ebisawa's co-conspirators allegedly told the undercover DEA agent and the Burma insurgent group leader that he had available more than 2,000 kilograms of Thorium-232 and more than 100 kilograms of uranium in the compound U3O8 – a compound of uranium commonly found in the uranium concentrate powder known as "yellowcake," according to court documents. 

IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM IS NEARING 'THE POINT OF NO RETURN,' FRANCE'S MACRON SAYS

He allegedly claimed he could produce as much as five tons of nuclear materials in Burma. They had several meetings in Southeast Asia to discuss their ongoing transactions, prosecutors say. 

During one of these meetings, one of Ebisawa's co-conspirators showed the undercover agent in a Thailand hotel room two plastic containers each holding a powdery yellow substance which he described as nuclear samples of "yellowcake." 

He allegedly said one container held a sample of uranium in the compound U3O8, and the other container held Thorium-232.

The samples were seized with the assistance of Thai authorities and subsequently transferred to the custody of U.S. law enforcement. 

The DOJ said a nuclear forensic laboratory in the U.S. examined the samples and determined that both samples contained detectable quantities of uranium, thorium, and plutonium. "In particular, the laboratory determined that the isotope composition of the plutonium found in the nuclear samples is weapons-grade, meaning that the plutonium, if produced in sufficient quantities, would be suitable for use in a nuclear weapon," prosecutors added. 

Ebisawa had been jailed in Brooklyn since his April 2022 arrest during a DEA sting operation that resulted in international drug and weapons charges. A superseding indictment was brought against him last February. 

On Wednesday, Ebisawa pleaded guilty to six counts. The two counts of narcotics importation conspiracy carry a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison. The other charges he admitted to are conspiracy to commit international trafficking of nuclear materials, international trafficking of nuclear materials, conspiracy to possess firearms, including machine guns and destructive devices, and money laundering. 

Ebisawa's guilty plea "should serve as a stark reminder to those who imperil our national security by trafficking weapons-grade plutonium and other dangerous materials on behalf of organized criminal syndicates that the Department of Justice will hold you accountable to the fullest extent of the law," Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said in a statement.

DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said the investigation into Ebisawa and his associates "exposed the shocking depths of international organized crime from trafficking nuclear materials to fueling the narcotics trade and arming violent insurgents."

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is moving forward with a regulatory rule in the final days of the Biden administration that would effectively ban cigarettes currently on the market in favor of products with lower nicotine levels, which could end up boosting business for cartels operating on the black market, an expert tells Fox News Digital.

"Biden's ban is a gift with a bow and balloons to organized crime cartels with it, whether it's cartels, Chinese organized crime, or Russian mafia. It's going to keep America smoking, and it's going to make the streets more violent," Rich Marianos, former assistant director of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the current chair of the Tobacco Law Enforcement Network, told Fox News Digital of the proposal. 

The FDA confirmed to Fox Digital on Monday that as of Jan. 3, the Tobacco Product Standard for Nicotine Level of Certain Tobacco Products had completed a regulatory review, but that the proposed rule has not yet been finalized. 

"The proposed rule, ‘Tobacco Product Standard for Nicotine Level of Certain Tobacco Products,’ is displaying in the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) ROCIS system as having completed regulatory review on January 3," an FDA spokesman told Fox Digital. "As the FDA has previously said, a proposed product standard to establish a maximum nicotine level to reduce the addictiveness of cigarettes and certain other combusted tobacco products, when finalized, is estimated to be among the most impactful population-level actions in the history of U.S. tobacco product regulation. At this time, the FDA cannot provide any further comment until it is published."

Fox New Digital reached out to the White House regarding concerns over the proposal if it were to take effect but did not receive a response. 

BIDEN ADMIN FACING CONGRESSIONAL PROBE OVER PROPOSED BAN ON MENTHOL CIGARETTES

Former President Barack Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in 2009, which granted the FDA the power to regulate tobacco products. In the years since, the agency has worked to lower nicotine levels, including in July 2017 under the Trump administration, when then-FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced it would seek to require tobacco companies to drastically cut nicotine in cigarettes in an effort to help adult smokers quit.

In 2022, the FDA under the Biden administration announced plans for the proposed rule that would lower levels of nicotine so they were less addictive or non-addictive.

"Lowering nicotine levels to minimally addictive or non-addictive levels would decrease the likelihood that future generations of young people become addicted to cigarettes and help more currently addicted smokers to quit," FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said at the time. 

POPULAR ITALIAN CITY OFFICIALLY BANS CIGARETTE SMOKING OUTDOORS

Lowering the levels of nicotine in commonly purchased cigarettes and other tobacco products would open the floodgates to the illicit trafficking of tobacco products into the U.S., Marianos told Fox News Digital. 

"This decision is being thrown down the public's throat without one ounce of thought and preparation. Nobody sat down with law enforcement, nobody sat down with any doctors, No one sat down with any regulators to find out, ‘Hey, look, what are the unintended ramifications of such a poor choice,’ and that's what I'm going to call it, a poor choice," Marianos said. 

He explained that Mexican cartels are well-positioned to bring illegal tobacco across the border, as they do with substances such as fentanyl that have devastated communities across the U.S., while Chinese criminal organizations have some of the best counterfeit operations stretching from baby formula to cigarettes, and Russian organized crime groups have their foot in the door in cities across the nation, including in bodegas and other stores that sell tobacco products. 

Marianos said that criminal groups would likely quickly catch on to the proposal if it takes effect and subsequently amplify their tobacco operations – which he says will serve as an economic boon for the criminals. 

Americans who want to purchase cigarettes with higher levels of nicotine would then need to go through the illicit channels to obtain them, similar to buying "loosie" cigarettes on the streets of New York, putting average Americans at further criminal risk while also offering them cigarettes that are not regulated and originating from foreign nations. 

WANT TO STOP SMOKING FOR GOOD? CDC LAUNCHES NEW CAMPAIGN WITH FREE RESOURCES TO QUIT

Both Democrat and Republican lawmakers have already warned that tobacco trafficking in the U.S. poses a grave national security threat and already has its foot in the door. 

"In 2015, the State Department cited activity by terrorist groups, and criminal networks who have used tobacco trafficking operations to finance other crimes, including ‘money laundering, bulk cash smuggling, and the trafficking in humans, weapons, drugs, antiquities, diamonds, and counterfeit goods,’" Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La.; Mark Warner, D-Va.; Marco Rubio, R-Fla.;  Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn.; and then-Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., wrote in a 2023 letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. 

BIDEN ADMIN ABRUPTLY DELAYS PLAN TO BAN MENTHOL CIGARETTES AMID WIDESPREAD OPPOSITION

"Recently, public reporting has also noted these financial linkages between Mexican transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) involved in narcotics and fentanyl trafficking, and these tobacco smuggling activities. Mexican TCOs pose a grave threat to American national security and public health."

Marianos added that in addition to the criminal effect posed to America and its residents, lowering nicotine levels would also defeat the stated mission of weaning smokers off cigarettes and instead lead to an increase in smoking. 

"You're going to create more smoking. And I thought that's what we're trying to get away from, right? Smoking is bad. I thought we're trying to do everything possible to get away from that and get the country safer. Well, if you take down the nicotine levels, people are going to smoke more. That is proven. All you have to do is just drive here in DC and see, you know workers on their smoke break," he said, saying work productivity will even be driven down as people take more smoke breaks in alleys to get their nicotine fix. 

The Biden administration previously attempted to outright ban menthol cigarettes, in what was described as a "critical" piece of President Biden's Cancer Moonshot initiative, but announced last year it was abruptly delaying such regulations as the public decried the move. A handful of groups argued that banning menthol unfairly targeted minority communities, while others argued the ban would open the floodgates to illicit menthol sales.