About 70 Marines, dressed in civilian clothes, recently participated in a training exercise that allowed them to observe LAPD drugs busts, prostitution arrests and murder investigations. Police passed on tips about knowing your surroundings, noticing people’s body language and building rapport with local citizens.

 

Gretchen Peters, author of Seeds of Terror: How Heroin Is Bankrolling the Taliban and al Qaeda, has likened the Taliban to a crime syndicate. She told the Associated Press: “Think of the Taliban as the Sopranos in turbans. I think essentially they’re criminals.”