Arrest made in Baltimore anti-violence activist’s death

By The Associated Press
May 20, 2021 | 11:47 AM

BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore Police say they’ve made an arrest in the killing of a well-known anti-violence activist.

Police commissioner Michael Harrison thanked officers in a statement Thursday “for their diligence” in apprehending the suspect in the killing of Dante Barksdale.

Harrison said he will work with prosecutors “to ensure justice is served.” News outlets report that police served an arrest warrant on 28-year-old Garrick L. Powell Jr., who was home on pretrial detention on unrelated gun charges in Anne Arundel County. Officials didn’t immediately provide a motive in the killing of Barksdale in January.

In a statement, Mayor Brandon Scott said Barksdale was a “victim of the very gun violence he was determined to prevent.”

Fentanyl seizures plummet as Trump administration shifts focus to immigration

By Maryland Matters
August 22, 2026 | 8:26 PM

WASHINGTON — Fentanyl seizures decreased by 39% during the first year of the second Trump administration after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shifted the Department of Homeland Security’s criminal investigations arm to conducting immigration enforcement, according to a report government investigators published Friday. Agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a subagency of DHS’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reported an “all hands-on deck” environment toward immigration enforcement began in January 2025, according to the DHS Office of Inspector General report. “With ICE dedicating more staff hours to immigration investigations, staffing hours for fentanyl investigations declined,” the report said. The report found that the hours dedicated to fentanyl investigations for fiscal 2025 declined by more than 250,000 hours, or 31%, compared to fiscal 2024.

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