By PHILIP MARCELO

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s border czar joined New York City’s mayor on Tuesday to tout new federal charges against 27 people accused of being Tren de Aragua gang members and associates.

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The joint announcement is the latest example of the close ties between Mayor Eric Adams and the Trump administration, which recently dropped federal corruption charges against the Democrat so he could better focus on the Republican president’s immigration priorities. Adams is now running for reelection as an independent.

Trump, in his nationwide immigration crackdown, has labeled Tren de Aragua an invading force as he invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a little-used authority from 1798 that allows the president to deport any noncitizen during wartime.

“Every member of TDA should be on the run,” declared Thomas Homan, Trump’s border czar, referring to the initials of the gang, which originated in Venezuela more than a decade ago and has been linked to a series of kidnappings, extortion and other crimes throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Adams’ administration recently announced that it would let federal immigration officials operate at the city’s Rikers Island jail complex — and Homan used the news briefing to take a swipe at a City Council lawsuit seeking to stop the plan.

“This is what collaboration looks like,” he said. “I never asked the city or the NYPD to be immigration officers. I asked them to work with us on significant public safety threats and national security threats, and that’s what we’re committed to doing.”

A New York judge ordered city officials on Monday to temporarily halt the plan, which would let Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies establish offices at the massive lockup, until an April 25 hearing on the suit.

Adams said Tuesday’s announcement showed he remains “unapologetic” in his desire to rid the city’s streets of violent immigrant gangs.

“The question that we must answer is whose side are you on?” the Democrat said. “Are you on the side of those who are carrying these illegal guns, wreaking havoc, sex trafficking, harming innocent people regardless of their documentation, or are you on the side of hardworking New Yorkers and Americans? I’m clear on which side I’m on.”

Manhattan prosecutors say the case is the first to bring federal racketeering charges, which were famously used to bring down the Mafia, against the Venezuelan street gang. The more than two dozen accused also face charges including sex trafficking, drug trafficking, robbery, and firearms possession.

Prosecutors said those arrested smuggled young women from Venezuela into Peru and the U.S. The women, who they referred to as “multadas,” paid off their debts through prostitution and were threatened with violence and death.

The gang members also committed armed robberies and smuggled illegal drugs, including a substance called “tusi” that contains ketamine, prosecutors said.

Of the 27 charged, 21 are in custody, including five arrested Monday and Tuesday in operations in New York and elsewhere, they said. Six others remain at large.

The charges are broken out into two separate indictments, one for six alleged members of Tren de Aragua and the other charging 19 alleged members of “Anti-Tren,” a splinter faction made up of former Tren members.

Among those named in Tuesday’s indictment was Anderson Zambrano-Pacheco, who was among those arrested back in January in the Bronx during some of the Trump administration’s first efforts to ramp up immigration enforcement in the city.

Authorities say the 26-year-old was part of a group of heavily armed men seen in a now-viral video forcing their way into an apartment in Aurora, Colorado, raising fears that Tren de Aragua was in control of the rundown complex in the Denver suburbs.

Zambrano-Pacheco’s lawyer didn’t immediately comment Tuesday.

FILE – New York City Mayor Eric Adams appears before a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing with Sanctuary City Mayors on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, March 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.,File)

Adams rejected the notion that many of those apprehended by immigration and law enforcement officials in recent months are otherwise law-abiding people.

“The American dream is not armed robbery. The American dream is not discharging guns. The American dream is not shooting at police officers. The American dream is not going into homeless shelters and taking the documentation from innocent people and forcing them into sex trafficking,” he said. “That’s not the American dream, and we’re not going to be a safe harbor for criminals.”

Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.

When it came time on Monday for David Powers to be cross-examined by Washington County prosecutors near the end of his five-day criminal trial, Powers never appeared.

David Powers. (Courtesy of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office)

On Tuesday afternoon, a Washington County jury found Powers, 37, of New Auburn, Minn., guilty of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping and domestic assault by strangulation.

Powers had testified in his defense on Friday, but when the trial resumed on Monday, he failed to return to be cross-examined by prosecutor Scott Haldeman.

Powers’ attorney, Bruce Rivers, informed the court that he did not know where his client was. Haldeman requested that Washington County District Court Judge Helen Brosnahan issue a bench warrant for Powers’ arrest, which she did.

Washington County Attorney Kevin Magnuson said Tuesday that he plans to ask for a “significant” upward departure from the presumptive sentence under state sentencing guidelines after Powers is arrested and brought back to court. “This office places a high priority on prosecuting predators engaged in these types of violent offenses and ensuring the safety of the public,” he said.

The maximum sentences for each of the three convictions: 40 years for amended kidnapping; 30 years for first-degree criminal sexual conduct, and three years for domestic assault by strangulation.

“We know how difficult it is for victims to come forward, testify in a public courtroom, and relive these horrible events,” Magnuson said. “We are grateful for the victim’s courage in testifying.”

Lake Elmo rape

Powers, who also is known as David Robekevich, was charged in 2023 with beating and raping a Lake Elmo woman while holding her against her will in her home for more than 24 hours.

Washington County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched about 9 a.m. May 2, 2023, to conduct a welfare check at an address on Hudson Boulevard in Lake Elmo, where they saw a woman “screaming for help and frantically trying to open an upper-level window,” according to the criminal complaint.

“Officers then saw a large male appear behind her and pull her from view,” the complaint said. “Officers used force to enter the apartment and detained the male found inside.” The man was later identified as Powers.

When the deputies found the woman, they saw she had significant injuries to her neck, forearm and hands. She told police that she and Powers, who had been staying with her for several weeks, got into an argument, and she decided to sleep at a friend’s house. When she returned home on May 1, 2023, Powers “snapped,” tearing off her clothes, throwing her on the bed and strangling her, according to the complaint.

Powers allegedly covered the woman’s nose and mouth with his hands until she temporarily lost consciousness, telling her she had one hour to live. He continued assaulting the woman for about three hours, pulling her hair, punching her and slapping her, the complaint said.

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When she begged Powers to allow her to leave, he allegedly responded that he would “end her right now” before punching and sexually assaulting her, the complaint states.

When the woman woke up early the next morning, she attempted to escape and call for help, but Powers prevented her from leaving the apartment or using her phone, the complaint said.

After he was arrested, Powers told police he had been using Adderall, alcohol and cocaine, and that he didn’t remember the events of the previous 24 hours, according to the complaint.

By JACQUES BILLEAUD

PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona jury has found Lori Vallow Daybell guilty of conspiring to murder her estranged husband, meaning the mother with doomsday religious beliefs faces another life sentence after she was already convicted in Idaho in the killings of her two youngest children and a romantic rival.

Prosecutors said she conspired with her brother, Alex Cox, in the July 2019 shooting death of Charles Vallow at her home in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler.

She was trying to collect money from his life insurance policy and planned to marry her then-boyfriend Chad Daybell, an Idaho author who wrote several religious novels about prophecies and the end of the world, prosecutors said.

Cox, who claimed he acted in self-defense when he fatally shot Vallow, died five months later from what medical examiners said was a blood clot in his lungs. Cox’s account was later called into question.

Jurors deliberated for a total of three hours over two days.

Vallow Daybell, who isn’t an attorney but chose to defend herself at trial, told jurors that during the encounter inside the house, Vallow chased her with a bat, and Alex shot Vallow in self-defense after she left the house.

Vallow Daybell is already serving three life sentences in the Idaho case. In Arizona, she faces a life sentence without the possibility of release until serving at least 25 years.

Anthony Edwards received a $50,000 fine from the NBA, the league announced Tuesday.

This one was for “directing inappropriate language and making an obscene gesture toward a fan.”

Video surfaced on social media this week of Edwards getting into a verbal back and forth with a fan while at the scorer’s table during Minnesota’s Game 1 win over the Lakers in Los Angeles.

Edwards was seemingly defending teammate Rudy Gobert, as he repeatedly shouted that Gobert has “$300 million” — the approximate figure the center has made in salary in his NBA career (it’s actually a bit more than that).

But the NBA took issue with what came next, when Edwards said that his genitals were bigger than the spectator’s.

The fine was Edwards’ seventh of the season from the NBA, which add up to $350k on the season.

Clutch?

Edwards is one of three finalists for the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year award, along with Denver center Nikola Jokic and New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson.

The winner will be announced on TNT’s NBA pre-game show at 5:30 p.m. CDT Wednesday.

This is the third year of the award’s existence, and voters are still wading through how to determine who fits the description.

Edwards led the NBA in raw scoring in the clutch this season, tallying 157 points in the final five minutes of games that had margins within five points. But the guard’s shooting numbers weren’t great in those situations, and Minnesota was a team that struggled mightily in the clutch as a team throughout the season.