Feds swarmed MacArthur Park near downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, executing a massive drug bust and taking an alleged narco queen into custody. Bill Essayli, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, announced Operation Free MacArthur Park in a post shared via X, explaining that agents were targeting what amounted to an “open-air drug marketplace.” Operation Free MacArthur Park Federal agents have taken control of MacArthur Park to execute federal arrest and search warrants targeting the notorious open-air drug market there. We are going after street dealers and suppliers of massive amounts of fentanyl and… pic.twitter.com/sozcSCGo5u — F.A. United States Attorney Bill Essayli (@USAttyEssayli) May 6, 2026 “We are going after street dealers and suppliers of massive amounts of fentanyl and methamphetamine. Over the last 24 hours, federal and local law enforcement have started arresting 25 defendants charged in a federal criminal complaint with possessing and distributing dangerous narcotics, including fentanyl and methamphetamine,” Essayli added. “The park’s #1 drug trafficker, a Calabasas resident, is in federal custody and faces possible life imprisonment. The other defendants arrested today also face decades in federal prison.” The New York Post gave additional details on the bust, reporting that Drug Enforcement Agency officers had also conducted a raid on the home shared by Mallaly Moreno-Lopez, a known “narco queen,” and her boyfriend Jackson Tarfur. After surrounding the suspected stash house, they called the occupants to come outside. When no one did so, officers crashed through the door  — and DEA officers reported finding occupants attempting to flush narcotics down the toilet at the time of the raid. Both Moreno-Lopezand Darfur were taken into custody. Video taken at the scene showed just how massive the operation was. BREAKING: Major drug bust taking place right now across from LA’s MacArthur Park. pic.twitter.com/tsCNh9UxmK — Matthew Seedorff (@MattSeedorff) May 6, 2026 Dr. Mehmet Oz, serving in President Donald Trump’s administration as the 17th administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, commented on the amount of fentanyl that was seized: “MacArthur Park has become a cemetery. The thought that 190,000 doses of Fentanyl was seized should scare you. Fentanyl is used in the operating room, before you know it you can’t breathe but fortunately we’re there with a tube.” Dr. OZ: MaCarthur Park has become a cemetery. The thought that 190,000 doses of Fentanyl was seized should scare you. Fentanyl is used in the operating room, before you know it you can’t breathe but fortunately we’re there with a tube …. @DrOz pic.twitter.com/OMIb9CjSae — Matt Finn (@MattFinnFNC) May 6, 2026 Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche praised the joint operation, including both DEA officers and members of the Los Angeles Police Department, saying that they’d succeeded in wresting control of MacArthur Park from the drug dealers. “To the drug dealers poisoning the streets of Los Angeles: your safe haven is gone,” he said. Agents from @DEAHQ and officers from the @LAPDHQ have taken back MacArthur Park. To the drug dealers poisoning the streets of Los Angeles: your safe haven is gone. pic.twitter.com/dNaVDitSTM — Acting AG Todd Blanche (@DAGToddBlanche) May 6, 2026

A suicide note possibly written by the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unsealed by a federal judge on Wednesday. The handwritten note, which is unsigned, undated, and unverified, was found by Epstein’s former cellmate, Nicholas Tartaglione. It had been sealed as part of Tartaglione’s case. The former police officer faces charges related to multiple murders. Parts of the message are indecipherable. “They investigated me for month – found NOTHING!!!” the note reads in part. “It is a treat to be able to choose ones time to say goodbye.” “Watcha want me to do – bust out cryin!!” “NO FUN – NOT WORTH IT!!” A federal judge has released a suicide note purportedly written by Jeffrey Epstein that was sealed for years as part of the criminal case of his cellmate “They investigated me for months — FOUND NOTHING!!!” the note begins, adding that the result was charges going back many… pic.twitter.com/rNOOzErXDw — Ian Miles Cheong (@ianmiles) May 6, 2026 U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas of the Southern District of New York ordered the document unsealed, siding with a request from The New York Times. The Department of Justice said in court filings that it did not know whether the note is authentic. “There appears to be a strong public interest in the circumstances surrounding Epstein’s death as described in the unsealing motion,” the DOJ said, according to CNN. The unsealing comes after the release of batches of the “Epstein files” connected to Epstein’s sex trafficking case. Large batches of records have been released in stages over the past year due to legal and congressional pressure, but many remain redacted and disputed. The rollout has been controversial, and no verified “client list” has been revealed. The disclosures have drawn attention to Epstein’s past associations with prominent figures. President Donald Trump, who was photographed with Epstein years before his arrest, has said the two had a falling out and that Epstein was later barred from Mar-a-Lago.

GENEVA/MADRID, May 6 (Reuters) – A luxury cruise ship hit by a deadly hantavirus outbreak and marooned since Sunday off the coast of Cape Verde left for Spain on Wednesday, a Reuters witness said, after three people, two of them seriously ill, were evacuated. The MV Hondius, with nearly 150 people on board, is expected to dock in Spain’s Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, within three days, Spain’s Health Minister Monica Garcia said, adding that those still on board were not presenting any symptoms of the disease. Once in Tenerife, if they are still healthy, all non-Spanish citizens will be repatriated to their countries, Garcia told a press conference in Madrid. The 14 Spanish passengers will be quarantined in a military hospital in Madrid, she said. The duration of the quarantine will depend on when they potentially had contact with the virus, she said, adding that it has a 45-day incubation period. Three people – a Dutch couple and a German national – have died in the outbreak. A total of eight people – including a Swiss citizen who has returned home and is being treated in Zurich – are suspected to have contracted the virus, with three of them confirmed by laboratory testing, the World Health Organization said. Argentina’s health ministry will carry out rodent trapping and analysis in the southern city of Ushuaia, the origin point of the cruise ship hit by the outbreak, it said in a statement. Officials are reconstructing the itinerary of the Dutch citizens who traveled in Argentina and Chile and later developed hantavirus symptoms on the cruise, the statement said. No associated cases have been found in Argentina. EVACUATIONS South Africa confirmed it had identified among the victims the Andean strain of the virus, which can, in rare cases, spread among humans through very close contact. Argentina’s health ministry said it would send Andes virus RNA and guidelines for diagnosis and treatment to laboratories in Spain, Senegal, South Africa, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. “This is the only (hantavirus) strain that is known to cause human-to-human transmission, but such transmission is very rare and … only happens due to very close contact,” South Africa’s health ministry said. Nevertheless, some Tenerife residents said they were worried about the ship docking there. “People are scared,” said Margarita Maria, 62, adding that the boat should go elsewhere in Spain. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X that the three people evacuated from the ship on Wednesday were on their way to the Netherlands. The Dutch Foreign Ministry said these people included a Dutch person, a German, and a Briton, and that they would be transported to specialized hospitals in Europe. One of the aircraft transporting two patients from Cape Verde to Amsterdam was scheduled to refuel in Morocco, but Morocco refused to allow the aircraft to land, and the plane was refueled at the airport in Gran Canaria, Spain’s health ministry said. While in Gran Canaria, the on-board doctor reported a problem with the patient’s life support system, and the patient is now connected to the airport’s electrical supply, awaiting the arrival of a new aircraft to continue the journey, the ministry said. Two of those evacuated presented acute symptoms, the ship’s operator, Oceanwide Expeditions, said. The third person was closely linked to the German passenger who died on the ship on May 2. The Dutch ministry said that person was possibly infected with the virus. The ship set off from the southern tip of Argentina on April 1 and traveled to some of the most remote places on earth, including the British island of Saint Helena. The Dutch government said in a letter to parliament that around 40 people disembarked at Saint Helena, including the Swiss national who has since developed symptoms. Cape Verde had been intended as the ship’s final destination, but the archipelago nation off West Africa has not allowed the passengers to come ashore because of the outbreak. ‘VERY, VERY DIFFERENT TO COVID’ Since the start of the outbreak, the WHO has said the risk to the wider public from a virus usually transmitted by rodents is low, and it stressed on Wednesday that this remained the case. “So when we say close contact (for human-to-human transmission), we mean very close physical contact, whether it’s sharing a bunk room or sharing a cabin, providing medical care, for example, (that is) very, very different to COVID and very different to influenza,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director of epidemic and pandemic management, told Reuters. Van Kerkhove said the WHO was working with countries to follow up with passengers who left the boat at Saint Helena in the south Atlantic, before it reached Cape Verde. South Africa has identified 65 people who have been in contact with confirmed or suspected hantavirus cases, and other countries have identified 12, the WHO’s South Africa representative, Shenaaz El-Halabi, told Reuters. ‘OUR DAYS HAVE BEEN CLOSE TO NORMAL’ Passenger Kasem Hato told Reuters the ship’s captain was keeping passengers updated and that those on board had been advised to limit close contact with other passengers and use hand sanitizer regularly. “People are taking the situation seriously but without any panic, trying to keep social distancing and wearing masks to be safe,” he said. “Our days have been close to normal, just waiting for authorities to find a solution, but morale on the ship is high and we’re keeping ourselves busy with reading, watching movies, having hot drinks, and that kind of things.” (Reporting by Sfundo Parakozov, Nellie Peyton, Tim Cocks in Johannesburg, Emma Pinedo and David Latona in Madrid, Bart Meijer and Charlotte Van Campenhout in Amsterdam, Madeline Chambers in Berlin, Makini Brice in Paris, Olivia Le Poidevin in Geneva, Catherine Cartier, Jennifer Rigby in London, Javi West Larranaga in Gdansk, Leila Miller in Buenos Aires; Writing by Ingrid Melander and Clement Bonnerot; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus, Robbie Corey-Boulet, Gareth Jones, Deepa Babington, Rod Nickel)

An illegal immigrant who was allowed into the country by the Biden administration went on to land a job at a Wisconsin nursing home, where he allegedly sexually assaulted elderly residents, including one who has severe dementia, The Daily Wire has learned. The Fitchburg Police Department said last month that it received a report that an employee of Dimensions Living “may have assaulted vulnerable residents.” Following an investigation, authorities charged 23-year-old Julio Morales-Jarquin, of Nicaragua, with two counts of second-degree sexual assault of an elderly victim on April 29. In one instance, a worker at the facility said they found Morales-Jarquin one night with a dementia patient who was completely naked, according to WMTV. The report said the patient is also in hospice care. A staffer reported encountering the illegal immigrant exiting the bathroom with his pants down, and Morales-Jarquin seemed to be “caught off guard,” according to WMTV. When the colleague asked what he was doing, he claimed that he was helping the patient get dressed. Morales-Jarquin admitted that he touched the patient inappropriately and that he engaged in sex acts with her around February or March, according to the report. He also allegedly took pictures and videos of another patient’s intimate area, and later deleted those images from his phone. A patient who was over 60 years old told a detective that she had sex with Morales-Jarquin, and that she didn’t really give consent but gave in after he kept asking, WMTV reported. Morales-Jarquin later claimed that the patient consented to his actions. Another resident said that Morales-Jarquin had tried kissing and touching her inappropriately before she told him to stop and leave, according to WMTV. Since Morales-Jarquin’s arrest, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has lodged a detainer requesting that he be transferred into federal custody. The Department of Homeland Security has criticized Dane County policies in the past regarding cooperation with federal immigration authorities, arguing that such policies can complicate efforts to take custody of inmates who are illegal immigrants. In some cases, the county gives ICE officers just 30 minutes’ notice before releasing an illegal immigrant inmate, according to DHS. In a previous email to ICE, Dane County stated that “if you want the subject held, you must provide a court document signed by a judge,” adding that if federal authorities didn’t show up within 30 minutes of a phone call, “the subject will be released without delay.” (DHS) The Biden administration released Morales-Jarquin into the country in 2023 through its signature humanitarian parole program. The Trump administration ended the parole scheme in April 2025. The program allowed more than 500,000 “poorly vetted aliens” from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to fly into the country and stay and work for a two-year period, according to DHS. In Morales-Jarquin’s case, he overstayed his welcome. “This dirtbag was released into the country by the Biden Administration,” Acting Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement shared with The Daily Wire. “DHS is calling on sanctuary politicians in Dane County, Wisconsin to NOT release this criminal from jail back onto the streets to commit more crimes.” “We need Wisconsin sanctuary politicians to cooperate with us to remove criminals from our country,” Bis added.

The JPMorgan sex scandal just got a little wilder as the Wall Street Journal reported that plaintiff Chirayu Rana turned down a $1 million settlement offer in March. According to the outlet, inside sources say Rana’s attorneys countered by asking for $11.75 million. After negotiations failed, the lawsuit was filed against his former employer.  A JPMorgan spokesman confirmed to WSJ, “We did try to reach an agreement to avoid the time and expense of litigation and to support an employee who was being threatened with the very reputational harm now unfolding. We continue to believe these allegations have no merit and new information raised as a result of the public filing only reinforces that conclusion.” The company’s attempt to keep the matter out of the news does not necessarily indicate the harassment occurred, the outlet noted, but rather can be a common tactic used to make these claims go away without the national spectacle. As was previously reported, the company was unable to corroborate Rana’s claims of racial discrimination and sexual harassment.  The bombshell sexual harassment lawsuit sent shockwaves through the financial world before being deemed a “complete fabrication” by insiders. Rana, 35, first filed a lawsuit in late April under the pseudonym “John Doe.” The filing leveled a series of lurid and sensational accusations against Lorna Hajdini, 37, an executive director on JPMorgan’s leveraged finance team.  In the initial complaint, Rana alleged that Hajdini had turned him into her personal “sex slave,” claiming she drugged him with “roofies” and Viagra to facilitate non-consensual encounters. The suit included salacious quotes, alleging Hajdini told him, “If you don’t f*ck me soon, I’m going to ruin you… Never forget, I f*cking own you.” The original filing said that Hajdini referred to Rana as her “little brown boy toy” and allegedly told him, “I bet your little Asian, fish head, wife doesn’t have these cannons.” The suit further claimed that she threatened to “slash his bonus” if he didn’t follow her commands.  Rana’s claims came under intense scrutiny after it was revealed that he did not report to Hajdini, so she would not have had approval over whether his bonuses were awarded or taken away.  A bank spokesman said at the time, “Following an investigation, we don’t believe there’s any merit to these claims. While numerous employees cooperated with the investigation, the complainant refused to participate and has declined to provide facts that would be central to support his allegations.” The lawsuit was taken off the docket, but then was refiled on Monday, per the WSJ. “The original lawsuit was not withdrawn,” Daniel Kaiser, Rana’s lawyer, told the outlet. “After filing, the court clerk informed us that the suit required review and sign-off from the judge before being formally filed under a pseudonym. Upon signature by the judge yesterday, the suit was formally filed under a pseudonym.” Hajdini’s lawyers said she “continues to categorically deny the allegations. She never dated this individual, never had a sexual or romantic encounter with him of any kind and never gave him any drugs. She maintains that his false claims are entirely fabricated and tarnishing her reputation.”