Authorities arrest man allegedly running “likely world’s largest” botnet

WASHINGTON>> An international law enforcement team has arrested a Chinese man and disrupted a major botnet that officials said he ran for nearly a decade, amassing at least $99 million profit by reselling access to criminals who used it for identity theft, child exploitation and financial fraud including pandemic relief scams.

The U.S. Department of Justice quoted FBI Director Christopher Wray as saying Wednesday that the “911 S5” botnet — a network of malware-infected computers in nearly 200 countries — was likely the world’s largest.

Justice officials said in a news release that Yunhe Wang, 35, was arrested May 24. It did not say where, and department officials did not immediately respond to a query.

The cybercriminals used a network of zombie residential computers to steal “billions of dollars from financial institutions, credit card issuers, credit card account holders, and federal lending programs since 2014,” according to an indictment filed in Texas.

Teen’s missing AirPod leads to arrest of driver accused of hitting him

Lochlan Nicol, 15, of Jensen Beach, Fla., was biking to a gas station and convenience store near his home to buy ice cream last week when a driver heading in the opposite direction suddenly turned into the station and hit him, he said.

It was about 10:30 p.m. May 22, and Lochlan was hit so hard that his head crashed through the rear passenger-side window, breaking his nose, cheekbone and eye socket, and knocking him unconscious.

The driver pulled Lochlan out of the road, left him outside the gas station and drove away, according to Sheriff William D. Snyder of Martin County.

What the driver didn’t know was that he had driven away with a tracking device — the AirPod that Lochlan had been wearing, which had been knocked out of his ear and had lodged under a floor mat inside the car, Snyder said.

Using the AirPod’s location-tracking feature, the Martin County Sheriff’s Office said Friday that Peter Bradford Swing, 49, of Jensen Beach had been arrested and charged with failing to stop at the scene of a crash with great bodily injury, a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Human skull padlocked to dumbbell pulled from water by magnet fisherman

NEW ORLEANS>> A human skull padlocked to an exercise dumbbell has been fished out of a New Orleans waterway, leaving police with a mystery on their hands.

The skull was found this month by a man using a red rope and a magnet the size of a hockey puck on a bridge to pull things out of the water below, police said in a report.

The fisherman also found a handgun and a gun barrel in the water May 18, police said.

The 15-pound dumbbell was padlocked around the skull, which was “fully decomposed, lacking a jaw or the top row of teeth,” according to the report.

The magnet fisherman flagged down a passing police officer after making the find off the Bayou St. John Bridge.

Noose used in largest mass execution in U.S. history to be returned to Dakota tribe

MINNEAPOLIS>> A noose that was used in the largest mass execution in U.S. history will be returned to a Dakota tribe, the Minnesota Historical Society announced.

The society plans to repatriate what is known as the Mankato Hanging Rope to the Prairie Island Indian Community after the 30-day notice period required under federal law. It was used to hang Wicanhpi Wastedanpi — in English, Good Little Stars — also known as Chaske. He was one of 38 Dakota men executed in Mankato following the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. It has been in the society’s collection since 1869, but out of sensitivity to the Dakota people, it is not on public display.

— Denver Post wire services