Free Republic

Representative Ed Royce (R-CA) is calling on Congress to investigate the ties between Islamic terrorists and Mexican drug gangs revelaed in a report by the Drug Enforcement Agency in yesterday's Washington Times. A ranking House Republican yesterday demanded a hearing based on recent reports that Islamic terrorists embedded in the United States are teaming with Mexican drug cartels to fund terrorism networks overseas. Rep. Ed Royce, ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs terrorism and nonproliferation subcommittee, said the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) document — first reported yesterday by The Washington Times — highlights how vulnerable the nation is when...

A former director of the Drug Enforcement Administration warned federal officials shortly after the September 11 attacks that violent drug cartels from Mexico were teaming with Muslim gangs to fund terrorist organizations overseas. Asa Hutchinson, who also has been a Homeland Security undersecretary, said that in 2001, DEA agents uncovered the link between the drug cartels and terrorist groups but too few government officials listened. "I think it's important to recognize that the link between terrorism and drug trafficking exists," said Mr. Hutchinson in a phone interview from Arkansas. "While we are fighting terrorists, we should not neglect our fight...

Islamic extremists embedded in the United States — posing as Hispanic nationals — are partnering with violent Mexican drug gangs to finance terror networks in the Middle East, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration report. "Since drug traffickers and terrorists operate in a clandestine environment, both groups utilize similar methodologies to function ... all lend themselves to facilitation and are among the essential elements that may contribute to the successful conclusion of a catastrophic event by terrorists," said the confidential report, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times. The 2005 report outlines an ongoing scheme in which...

Police burn thousands of pot plants in forest preserve By Dan Ponce July 24, 2007 - Cook County Forest Preserve Police and federal agents were busy Tuesday cutting down and burning thousands of marijuana plants. The plants were found in a northwest suburban forest preserve. Investigators say they uncovered a very sophisticated pot-growing operation. Related Links Get ABC7 Newsletters Get Desktop Alerts It is a forest of marijuana plants. "These are not wild or indigenous, these were planted to be sold," said Gary Olenkiewicz, special agent DEA. The plants were spread out over 11 fields. There are between 20,000 and...

CHICAGO -- Cook County Forest Preserve police and agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration cut down and burn all of the plants found in 11 illegally cultivated cannabis fields in Cook County forest preserves -- pot with an estimated street value of $4 million dollars. Officials announced charges against two 23-year-old Mexican immigrants in what DEA officials called an elaborate, sophisticated cultivation scheme, according to a release from forest preserve police. Bernardo Rangel and Jose Verra were arrested in connection with the scheme. Raw Video: Marijuana Burned Rangel and Verra were each charged July 11 with cultivating marijuana over 50...

MEXICO CITY — Mexican police rearrested a former governor Thursday as he was released from prison with the intent of extraditing him to the United States to face cocaine-trafficking charges. Mario Villanueva, 58, who governed the Yucatan Peninsula state that includes the resorts of Cancun and the Riviera Maya from 1993 until 1999, was arrested at dawn, moments after finishing a six-year sentence here for money laundering. He faces federal charges in New York of taking part in a conspiracy to smuggle as much as 200 tons of cocaine into the United States while governor of Quintana Roo state. Much...

SANTA CATARINA, Mexico — Sex never has been safer since a motel called the Thunderclap Ranch reinforced its cinder-block rooms and started advertising them as bulletproof. For $5 an hour, guests here in the gritty outskirts of violence-plagued Monterrey needn't worry about jealous spouses — or more to the point, drug cartel hit men, who usually are better armed. Employee Lucy Regalado, 50, stands inside a room at the 'armored' Thunderclap Ranch hotel in the violent Monterrey area. Business is booming at the $5-per-hour establishment, which also will supply six-packs of beer for $4 and snacks through a porthole in...

GUARATINGUETA: Pope Benedict warned Latin America's ruthless drugs cartels they would face God's harsh judgement for wrecking countless lives across the region. After hearing moving stories of hardship and recovery from former cocaine and heroin addicts on the fourth day of his visit to Brazil, the Pope said drug abuse was a scourge throughout Latin America. "I therefore urge the drug dealers to reflect on the grave harm they are inflicting on countless young people and on adults from every level of society," he said in a speech to recovering addicts at the Farm of Hope (Fazenda da Esperanca)...

MEXICO CITY — Five soldiers and a suspected drug cartel enforcer were killed in a shootout in the western state of Michoacan, which has been plagued by drug violence and is the target of a military-led anti-drug offensive. More than a dozen suspected Zetas — a group of Gulf cartel hitmen that includes former soldiers — opened fire on the troops late Tuesday in Caracuaro, 120 miles west of Mexico City, police spokesman Miguel Covarrubias said Wednesday. The Defense Ministry said five soldiers were killed but declined to give details or confirm media reports that at least four more were...

(Editors note: This is the first of two stories on Gabriel Cardona that first appeared in the Houston Chronicle. The second is scheduled to appear Monday in the Laredo Morning Times.)If the teenage hitman had stayed locked up in his concrete cell after the first murder, maybe Moises Garcia would still sing goofy Spanish songs to his son. Maybe Noe Lopez, a 27-year-old father of four, wouldn’t be buried under a sapling in the city cemetery. Maybe. If a judge hadn’t reduced Gabriel Cardona’s bail after the second murder charge, perhaps Mariano Resendez would be close to finishing his junior...

LAREDO — If the teenage hitman had stayed locked up in his concrete cell after the first murder, maybe Moises Garcia would still sing goofy Spanish songs to his son. Maybe Noe Lopez, a 27-year-old father of four, wouldn't be buried under a sapling in the city cemetery. Maybe. If a judge hadn't reduced Gabriel Cardona's bail after the second murder charge, perhaps Mariano Resendez would be close to finishing his junior year of high school. If the justice of the peace hadn't decreased Cardona's bail on another murder charge and a charge of engaging in organized crime from a...

SAN DIEGO – Federal authorities Wednesday arrested dozens of individuals across the country suspected of bringing 18 tons of illegal drugs into the United States, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said in an afternoon news conference here. Members of the Victor Emilio Cazares-Gastellum drug trafficking ring were awakened in the early morning hours by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies who served simultaneous arrest warrants as part of a 20-month-long investigation into the ring's operations, Gonzales and other federal officials said. Gonzales said the Mexico-based organization acquired drugs from Colombia and Venezuela to Central America, then smuggled them into...

MEXICO CITY - Authorities on Wednesday announced the capture of a purported drug cartel leader, the first major drug arrest under the administration of President Felipe Calderon, who has pledged a nationwide war against the drug trade. Pedro Diaz Parada was arrested in the country's southern state of Oaxaca on Tuesday and taken to Mexico City. He faces charges of organized crime and drug trafficking, the attorney general's office said in a news release. Prosecutors say Diaz Parada founded the cartel named after him in Mexico's southeastern region. Federal police and soldiers stopped the sport utility vehicle in which Diaz...

MEXICO CITY — Six police officers were shot to death in an apparent ambush in a rural part of western Mexico that has been plagued by drug violence, prosecutors said Tuesday. The bullet-riddled bodies of an investigative officer, a group commander and four officers were found after a caller reported gunshots late Monday near Aguililla, a mountain town about 200 kilometers (125 miles) southwest of the Michoacan state's capital of Morelia.

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — The unceasing wave of violence in this city claimed the lives of two state police officers Tuesday, including the head of the homicide division. Juan Gonzalez and Rodolfo Eguia had just finished lunch at a local restaurant about 12:15 p.m. and were leaving in a green Jeep Cherokee when gunmen ambushed them, authorities said. The Jeep then crashed into the corner of a building next to the restaurant, knocking out a large chunk of bricks and concrete that landed on the hood. No arrests were made, and investigators didn't have a description of the assailants' vehicle....

A high school social studies teacher who was put on leave after comparing President Bush's State of the Union address to speeches made by Adolf Hitler defended his lecture on Tuesday, saying he was trying to encourage students to think. "My job as a teacher is to challenge students to think critically about issues that are affecting our world and our society," Jay Bennish said on NBC's "Today Show." Bennish is on paid leave from Overland High School in suburban Aurora, Colo., while Cherry Creek School District investigates whether his Feb. 1 lecture violated a policy requiring that balancing viewpoints...

The Associated Press reached a new level of incompetence, and the "news" industry they serve doesn’t seem to care. If you want political opinion, you’ll find it in Associated Press dispatches. If you want news, you might have to read conservative opinion columns. On February 22nd, Walter Williams, a Townhall.com columnist, scooped the mainstream media. Williams reported that high school teacher Jay Bennish lectured his geography class stating: 1) "[President Bush’s State of the Union Speech] sounds a lot like the things Adolf Hitler used to say." 2) "Bush is threatening the whole planet." 3) "[The] U.S. wants to keep...

COLORADO high-school sophomore Sean Allen couldn't convince his father that his geography teacher was as over-the-top as he contended. So Allen taped one of his teacher's rants on his MP3 player. Too bad for Jay Bennish: His 20 minute lecture ended up on talk radio. As aired on Mike Rosen's show, Bennish said President Bush talks like Hitler: "I'm not saying that Bush and Hitler are exactly the same," but that the two share "eerie similarities." Peruvians and Iranians arguably have "a right to bomb North Carolina" because the state grows tobacco. On Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda operatives were...

by Mark Finkelstein March 7, 2006 Turns out the real culprit in the Colorado kerfluffle over the teacher who compared Pres. Bush to Hitler is . . . the student who complained about it. Just ask Matt Lauer. Interviewing teacher Jay Bennish this morning, Lauer laid out this sympathetic scenario: Lauer: "The family here, the student's family, didn't go to the school board with this tape." Bennish: "They never contacted me." Lauer: "They shopped it around to conservative media outlets and finally released it to one and created an uproar. On the tape you can hear Sean Allen [the student...

Student 'starting to get crucified,' his dad says By Julie Poppen, Rocky Mountain News March 4, 2006 Sean Allen's dad says he isn't handling this week's media attention and threats as well as his son. "Sean has handled this way better than his father," Jeff Allen, Sean's dad, said in an interview with Sean Hannity, syndicated talk show host with Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes. "To read some of these e-mails that are attacking Sean is just devastating," he said. "It looks like the tactic is to turn it around, to make it about Sean and not about the...