On February 19, 2019, Shamima Begum heard the news. While nursing her newborn son at a Syrian refugee camp, her family – contacting her from the UK – informed her that they had received a letter from the Home Office. The government, Begum’s family told her, planned to strip her of her British citizenship for joining the Islamic State (IS) in 2015. On February 20, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a similar statement to Hoda Muthana – an American that joined IS in 2014. Disqualifying any claim that Muthana may return to the US, Secretary Pompeo stated that, “Ms. Hoda Muthana is not a U.S. citizen and will not be admitted into the United States. She does not have any legal basis, no valid U.S. passport, no right to a passport, nor any visa to travel to the United States.

Following his mysterious disappearance and arrest in China, Meng Hongwei resigned as INTERPOL’s President in October 2018, leaving INTERPOL no option but to find a successor.  Among the top contenders for the post was Alexander Prokopchuk, a high-ranking official in the Russian Ministry of the Interior and already a vice president at INTERPOL.  The prospect of a Russian representative becoming the President of the world’s largest international police organization met strong opposition.  Some called the upcoming election the “Kremlin’s planned takeover of INTERPOL” and warned that Putin was about to gain control over the organization, making it an arm of the Russian mafia.  Human rights advocates once again pointed to Russia’s continuing abuse of INTERPOL’s resources to harass its regime’s political opponents. 

On February 5, 2019, the European Commission published its recommendations for the Council to engage in two international negotiations on cross-border rules to obtain electronic evidence. Following up on the European Council Conclusions from October 2018, the Commission presented two negotiating mandates, one for negotiations with the United States and one on the Second Additional Protocol to the Council of Europe “Budapest” Convention on Cybercrime. Both mandates, which need to be approved by the Council of the European Union, include specific safeguards on data protection, privacy, and procedural rights of individuals.

The decision by the United States to pull out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“JCPOA”) has left Iran and many European nations scrambling to salvage the agreement.  Soon after the U.S. announcement, EU Member States signaled their support for continuing their obligations under the agreement.  To avoid U.S. secondary sanctions, the UK, France, and Germany (the “E3”) have created a special purpose vehicle (“SPV”) in order to facilitate commerce between the European countries and Iran.

On February 13, 2019, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested two high-net-worth fugitives from Ecuador who have battled for at least a decade to avoid returning to Ecuador where an Ecuadorian court convicted and sentenced them in 2012 in absentia. ICE detained Roberto and William Isaías, 74 and 25, and brought them to a detention facility for undocumented immigrants awaiting deportation. ICE only said the detainees were “unlawfully present” in the United States.

At the beginning of February 2019, the European Parliament released its study on the misuse of INTERPOL’s Red Notices, discussing their impact on human rights in the lights of recent developments. The significance of this problem is evidenced by statistical data. The most recently available INTERPOL Annual Report confirms that in 2017, 52,103 valid Red Notices were on the Criminal Information System, 13,048 Red Notices were issued and 6,620 of these were public. In 2016, 20,922 Notices were published by the General Secretariat (GS), including 12,878 Red Notices and recorded 26,645 Diffusions. There were 76,713 Notices, of which 47,265 were Red Notices and 85,918 Diffusions in circulation at the end of 2016. In comparison to 2010, 6,344 Red Notices were issued of a total of 10,135 notices and 13,005 Diffusions were also issued. In total, 35,318 Notices and 48,451 Diffusions were in circulation in 2010.

On February 13, 2019 Christopher Bantli plead guilty to a conspiracy to import fentanyl into the U.S. Based in Calgary, Canada, Bantli was extradited to the U.S. from Canada on January 24, allowing him to face charges filed in the District of Columbia. The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) led the investigation into Bantli, working in cooperation with Canadian law enforcement authorities, particularly the Calgary Police Service Cybercrime Support Team. The investigation was also supported by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), in which federal, state, and local enforcement authorities combine expertise and abilities to bring down high-level personnel involved in drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, and money laundering.

On February 1, 2019, the Secretary-General of the United Nations submitted to the Security Council his report on the threat posed by ISIL (Da’esh) to international peace and security. This is the sixth strategic-level report that reflects the gravity of this threat, as well as the range of United Nations efforts in support of Member States in countering this phenomenon. The report highlights that, while ISIL has transformed into a covert network, including in Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic, it remains a threat as a global organization with centralized leadership. This threat is increased by returning, relocating, or releasing foreign terrorist fighters. The United Nations has continued to support Member States so as to address this evolving threat.

On February 14, 2019, a grand jury in Greeneville, Tennessee returned an indictment against Xiaorong You, also known as Shannon You, 56, of Lansing, Michigan, and Liu Xiangchen, 61, of Shandong Province, China for conspiracy to steal trade secrets concerning formulations for bisphenol-A-free (BPA-free) coatings. The grand jury also indicted You on seven counts of theft of trade secrets and one count of wire fraud. The BPA-free trade secrets allegedly stolen belonged to multiple owners and cost an estimated total of at least $119,600,000 to develop.

On February 12, 2019, a federal jury in Laredo, Texas found four men and two women guilty for participating in a two-year multi-million dollar black market peso exchange (BMPE) money-laundering scheme. After a five-week jury trial each of the six persons were convicted of a money laundering conspiracy:  Adrian Arciniega-Hernandez, 36, of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico; Adriana Alejandra Galvan-Constantini, 36, and Luis Montes-Patino, 57, both of Irving, Texas, and Ravinder Redding Gudipati, 61; Harsh Jaggi, 54; and Neeru Jaggi, 51, all of Laredo, Texas.  Additionally, Harsh Jaggi and Adrian Arciniega-Hernandez were each convicted of two counts of money laundering.