Crime Stoppers Global Solutions thwarting Serbian-crime organizations posing threat to
American highways – and the Richland County Sheriff’s Department connection
By Chris Carter
Crime Stoppers Global Solutions (CSGS), the international iteration of Crime Stoppers
here in the U.S., recently met with federal investigators in Washington, D.C. to discuss a
looming threat to public safety nationwide.
The meeting followed a nationally televised 60 MINUTES exposé entitled “Chameleon
Carriers,” which focused on Serbian-based criminal organizations infiltrating and taking
over parts of the U.S. trucking industry: Establishing fake companies, avoiding safety
regulations (as well as previous allegations and penalties), skimming money from
American drivers through excessive fees, pressuring those same drivers to break safety
regulations, and consequently endangering the American public on the road; all with
direct links to Russian money according to CSGS officials.
Former U.S. Congressman and King County (Seattle, Washington) Sheriff Dave
Reichert immediately went to working laying the groundwork with Congressional
leaders. Reichert, named National Sheriff of the Year by the National Sheriff’s
Association in 2004, is today a senior executive advisor with CSGS.
Five days after the April 12 airing of the 60 Minutes segment, CSGS board advisor Dr.
Joseph J. Lestrange was on Capitol Hill meeting with federal investigators and
presenting a CSGS-prepared finished-intelligence package to the U.S. Department of
Homeland Security (DHS). A former DHS official, Dr. Lestrange handed investigators “a
complete intel package including names of those running the dangerous trucking
schemes, which key players federal law enforcement needs to pursue first, where the
digital evidence is sitting, and how fast law enforcement needs to grab it before it
disappears,” said CSGS boardmember and retired police officer Justin Insalaco. “Also
which U.S. laws apply.”
Richland County Sheriff and CSGS boardmember Leon Lott, who like former
Congressman Reichert, was named National Sheriff of the Year (2021) said: “This
criminal activity originating in Eastern Europe is a very real physical threat to the public
here at home. What CSGS is doing is aggressively going after the threat, threats
actually, through sound intelligence.”
Insalaco agrees.
“This is the work we were built for,” said Insalaco. “Our team moved fast because we’ve
been doing this work in these communities for years and we care about it. What people will see from us over the next year is an organization that’s grown into something much
bigger than a tip line. We’re just getting started.”
CSGS was able to produce and deliver the intelligence in days because the CSGS team
has had people on the ground in Serbia for years, “building trust with the community
and gathering tips in Belgrade and the smaller cities,” said Insalaco. “That is something
the FBI and DHS cannot do from a desk in Washington. They need us for that. And we
delivered.”
How? Traditional law enforcement shoe-leather, working on the ground building trust
and relationships overseas, not unlike Sheriff Lott’s own culture here at home of building
“unity in the community.” That combined with CSGS’s ramping-up its tip-line technology
to aid in the production of finished intelligence for law enforcement agencies worldwide.
The organization was (and is) able to gather information, produce and present a
complete intelligence package to federal investigators in less than one week.
Still, “this is what ‘we did it well, but we were still reacting’ looks like,” said Insalaco.
CBS aired the story, then we moved. The harm was already done. But it’s going to get
better.”
CSGS primary focuses are combating crimes specifically known to be the funding
mechanism for organized crime and international terrorism, including human trafficking,
illicit trade, weapons trafficking, drug smuggling, cybercrime, bank fraud and money
laundering. The organization works with foreign law enforcement agencies and
INTERPOL and has recently been in discussions overseas regarding more effective
means of combating Internet crimes against children.
CSGS, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is also raising money for mine (explosive device) clearing
efforts in war-torn areas of Eastern Europe, and the organization’s work and
collaboration efforts in Serbia have expanded in recent years with ongoing coordination
of effort between CSGS and U.S. Embassy officials in Serbia and neighboring countries.
“CSSG is not simply an anonymous tip-generating non-profit, though it is indeed that,”
said CSGS boardmember W. Thomas Smith Jr., an internationally recognized
counterterrorism expert and special deputy with the Richland County Sheriff’s
Department who reports directly to Sheriff Lott. “In recent years, CSGS has evolved into
a top-tier source of vital information and intelligence for international law enforcement
agencies who work directly and coordinate efforts with agencies here in the United
States.”
CSGS is also reaching beyond Eastern Europe with outreach into Kenya and potential
expansion throughout other areas, nations, and regions of Africa.
For more information, please visit – https://thecsgs.org/.
– Military-Defense writer Chris Carter is a former semi-pro football player and U.S. Air
Force veteran whose articles have appeared in Ops Lens, the AP, Florida Times Union,
Human Events, Canada Free Press, Deutsche Welle, and NavySEALs.com among
other publications.
– Pictured [clockwise from top left] Dr. Joseph J. Lestrange, former U.S. Congressman
Dave Reichert, former Police Officer Justin Insalaco, Col. W. Thomas Smith Jr., and
Sheriff Leon