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NCITE Summer Interns Research Newly Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations

NCITE has concluded its 2026 10-week summer internship, which offered three undergraduates a deep dive into research workflows and hands-on experience with data collection.

➡️ What’s new

Last week, NCITE concluded its 10-week summer internship, which offered three undergraduates a deep dive into research workflows and hands-on experience with data collection.

Working out of the Omaha headquarters, the students represented unique institutions and disciplines: Sophia Detisch studies criminology & criminal justice at Loyola University Chicago; Anjun Dhillon studies psychology at North Carolina State University; and Collin Stigge studies political science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

To cap their experiences, on Thursday, each presented a case study from their research to dozens of NCITE faculty, staff, and students.

💡 Why it matters

A core tenet of NCITE's mission is to build the counterterrorism research workforce. By training the next generation of analysts and researchers to rigorously examine today and tomorrow's most pressing threats, we expand the nation's capacity to keep Americans safe.

🔎 Zoom in

The interns supported NCITE's Research on Emerging Activity of Criminal and Terrorist Groups (REACT) project, which examines newly designated foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) and transnational organized crime organizations operating in or impacting the U.S. homeland. Mentored by NCITE doctoral student Isaac Moelter, the interns spent most of their time categorizing reams of data — termed "coding" in research lingo — drawn from federal court records of individuals charged in connection with such organizations.

Case Studies:

  • MS-13 Youth: Gang Violence in the U.S.
    • Detisch presented on United States v. Portillo, in which a 15-year-old killed four rival gang members in New York in 2017 to gain promotion within the gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), a U.S.-designated FTO as of February 2025. She discussed recruitment and advancement tactics within the group and how MS-13's mobilization to violence poses a threat to public safety.
  • CDN-Linked Human Smuggling: Understanding Modern Tactics
    • Dhillon presented on United States v. Luis Daniel Segura Guzman, in which three individuals (two affiliated with the Los Fantasmas gang and the FTO-designated Cártel del Noreste) were arrested for planning to smuggle and recruit three additional individuals from Mexico into Texas. Dhillon discussed how the defendants used Facebook to coordinate and how cartels are using social media to recruit youth. She noted ongoing challenges law enforcement face with monitoring encrypted communications while respecting first amendment protections.
  • CJNG and CDN Violence Fueled by Ghost Guns
    • Stigge presented on United States v. Pierson, in which the defendant operated a ghost gun assembly and trafficking network between Mexico and the U.S. from 2014 to 2018, selling to CDN and Cártel del Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), another FTO-designee. Ghost guns are firearms that lack a serial number and therefore cannot be traced by law enforcement. Stigge discussed the difficulties in tracking such small trafficking networks.

📈 By the numbers

In ten weeks, the interns:

  • conducted in-depth searches of 150+ agency websites
  • gathered nearly 700 sources

🎤 What they’re saying

Anjun Dhillon

“I was able to learn the ins and outs of research and can understand the process of what goes into research and writing a case analysis."

Collin Stigge

"NCITE has given me valuable connections to various law enforcement partners and allowed me to hone my analytical skills to best suit our practitioners."

Isaac Moelter, NCITE doctoral student and intern mentor

"I was able to offer some useful guidance on how to communicate clearly and professionally with audiences outside of academia. The experience gave me a much deeper understanding of the challenges and decisions involved in the early stages of the data collection process.”

Austin Doctor, Ph.D., REACT project lead

"We've been tasked ... to characterize and understand what the activities of these cartels and transnational gangs in the U.S. homeland looks like. Our interns have done some amazing work building that body of knowledge, increasing the qualitative depth that's ultimately informing this important effort."

🌎 What’s next

The 2026 summer internship served as a trial run for NCITE's burgeoning intern program; the Center is hiring three open undergraduate positions for the 2026-2027 academic year, including two junior research assistant interns and one operations and project management assistant. Email questions to ncite@unomaha.edu.