The Wire - January 8, 2026

//The Wire//2300Z January 8, 2026//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: PROTESTS CONTINUE IN MINNEAPOLIS AS GOV. WALZ ISSUES WARNING ORDER TO NATIONAL GUARD TO PREPARE FOR DEPLOYMENT AGAINST FEDERAL FORCES. CIVIL UNREST INTENSIFIES IN TEHRAN. SHOOTING AT LDS CHURCH IN UTAH REVEALS TRANSNATIONAL CRIME SYNDICATE.//

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-International Events-

Middle East: The situation in Iran is heating up as demonstrations have shifted to riots and a general state of uprising in many cities around the country. This morning internet access to the outside world was cut for most of the country, and flights have allegedly been halted at Tabriz International Airport.

Analyst Comment: Right now it's too soon to tell if this is the real-deal, simply due to the extremely significant amount of deception surrounding events in Tehran. A lot of older or misleading footage has circulated, so it's hard to determine what's real and what isn't. The Iranian government shutting off the internet in an attempt to halt communications out of the country is a common tactic, but also strongly indicates that government forces are concerned with the growing level of uprising. How far this will go is anyone's guess, but this will be something to monitor for the next few days.

-HomeFront-

Minnesota: Overnight various protest events continued in Minneapolis, along with serious developments on the political front. In a press statement yesterday Gov. Tim Walz stated that he has given the WARNO (warning order) for Minnesota National Guard troops to deploy in a policing role, against federal agents. During this press conference, a reporter directly asked Walz if these troops would be used to defend the state from federal forces. In response, Walz stated that Minnesota has "never been at war with the Federal government", before directly stating that these troops will be used to "protect the people of Minnesota" from a "rogue federal agent".

Utah: Yesterday evening a mass shooting was reported at an LDS church in Salt Lake City. Local authorities state that a shooting broke out in the parking lot of the LDS church on Redwood Road. At the time of the shooting, a crowd was gathered in the parking lot for a funeral/memorial service being held inside the church. The shooting reportedly took place as a result of mutual combat between two suspects, both of which are currently at large. Concerning casualties, 2x were killed and 6x others wounded during the engagement.

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Analyst Comments: Shootings involving churches or other places of worship are worth dedicating more attention to, as these are more vulnerable sites that are easy targets for malign actors and terrorists. However, a brief investigation into this shooting indicates that this incident is not what many may think at first.

The church itself is a front...this facility is really a safehouse/community center for the Tongan Crip Gang (TCG). The facility is indeed a real LDS church, however this particular ward has been taken over by the gang, which have declared this church (and the surrounding terrain) to be their turf.

Photo and video evidence from inside the Church on the night of the shooting confirm a heavy TCG presence, with various Lieutenants and their footsoldiers manning security by all of the doors.

Videos of the memorial service confirm nearly everyone was wearing the "colors" of the TCG (which are blue bandanas), with some people even showing up to the service wearing ski masks, drinking alcohol, and flashing gang signs to the police officers in the church after the shooting.

Additional investigation indicates that this was not a one-off event. Per the website of this church, services at this facility are only held in the Tongan language. No English services are held at this location, which indicates both the demographic of the alleged congregation and also provides additional context. This was not a normal church that was simply host to a gang's event that officials did not know about; TCG has been conducting power-projection operations at this facility for some time.

As if this was not enough to confirm beyond all doubt the TCG affiliation here, on December 17th, the widow of the deceased man who's funeral was being held during the shooting, confirmed that Aki Sekona (the deceased man) was an active member of the Crips while simultaneously being heavily involved in the church.

The Tongan Crips have risen to be one of the biggest gangs in the state of Utah after being transplanted into the area from the Polynesian island of Tonga over the years, or from California where they also maintain a significant presence. The TCG, along with other Polynesian splinter groups, have dominated Salt Lake City for years, and have conducted extremely brutal crimes around the city, most of which surpass the level of violence seen within the most brutal Central American Cartels. These guys are no joke, and they dominate the local terrain of Salt Lake City, where they conduct operations nearly completely unchallenged.

In this case, though the shooting took place at a church, it's absolutely certain that the shooting was actually gang-related, and not due to a grievance with the LDS church itself, or a terrorist attack for ideological reasons.

Due to these complications, local authorities have been tight-lipped regarding the shooting, and still have not officially confirmed that this was a gang-related shooting, despite the SLCPD Gang Unit being the lead investigative unit for this case. There has never been a more clear case of a gang shooting being the cause of these casualties, however nobody wants to confirm anything due to the uncomfortable link to the LDS Church and the follow-on questions of why a transnational crime syndicate has been allowed to dominate this terrain for so long, especially in conjunction with a church. Very, very few journalists in Salt lake City (and absolutely zero national correspondents) have shown the footage from inside the funeral service, or mentioned any link to the Tongan Crip Gang. This hesitance to call it like it is, is likely to result in increased risk locally as both shooters are still on the loose.

The Tongan Crips who survived the encounter will certainly be conducting an investigation of their own...and they are probably looking for blood. If the Tongans think that a rival group was involved in any way, more brutal murders are on the menu over the next few days. If the local shot-callers want to make a mess of this, they certainly can. Sekona himself had "strong ties" to the Inglewood area of southern California...where the Tongan Crips have been at war with MS-13 for many years.

Analyst: S2A1
Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground
Disclaimer: No LLMs were used in the writing of this report.
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