Free Republic

As odd is it might seem, the next to last day of 2003 may someday be seen as a fateful moment for the traditional family. That is the when the United States Drug Enforcement Agency busted a pair of methamphetamine dealers in Philadelphia. In a remarkable example of the corrosive force liberalism exerts on our society, the arrest of these drug dealers led to an opinion issued July 31 by U.S. District Judge Marvin Katz that -- if sustained by the Supreme Court -- could erase the special status marriage and the traditional family enjoy in American law. (snip) The...

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Two federal agents who took part in a raid that discovered $205 million in cash in a Mexico City mansion were found beaten and shot to death in southern Mexico, authorities said Wednesday. The bodies of Josue Hernandez, 32, and Anibal Sanchez, 30, both agents with Mexico's Federal Agency of Investigation, were found Tuesday in Guerrero state, where they were gathering intelligence on drug traffickers, the Public Safety Department said in a news release. Both officers took part in the seizure of more than 19 tons of a chemical intended for methamphetamine cartels in Mexico. They...

PASCAGOULA -- Chemicals from a methamphetamine dump exploded in the face of a 9-year-old boy, leaving him virtually blind in both eyes. "I just never dreamed this could happen," Mona Leissa Polk said as she cradled her son, Isaiah. "He's been so strong through this. He hasn't cried or even complained once. He's my hero." Isaiah, along with three friends, 6-year-old Kaimen Lowery, 8-year-old Noel Jones and 9-year-old Wendell Williams were playing in the woods behind the Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer park they live in last week. While exploring and talking about possibly fishing in a nearby pond, the...

Police Searching for Chlorine Gas Canister By WOL Staff Montgomery County, TX - A canister of compressed chlorine gas was reportedly stolen from the Regional Water Corporation (a water treatment facility in South Montgomery County) at 16705 Gleneagle Dr. N. Representatives from Regional Water Corporation reported to authorities that the facility had been entered sometime between the hours of midnight and 10:00 AM on Sunday, June 29. The suspect(s) allegedly entered the facility by cutting a hole in the fence at the rear of the property, and took the gas canister from the second floor of the plant. The canister...

ABINGDON, Va. — The Damascus police chief was arrested Saturday and charged with distributing methamphetamine. Anthony Stephen Richardson, 40, was arrested without incident at the city police department, Virginia State Police Sgt. M.T. Conroy said. The arrest was the result of an undercover investigation in which a confidential informant bought methamphetamine from Richardson on June 12, according to court documents.

Two more men were handed off to federal agents today, following a Wanamingo drug bust that yielded the most methamphetamine local authorities said they have uncovered. A series of arrests Wednesday netted 2 pounds of methamphetamine, cocaine, $8,000 in cash and a gun. SNIP Five men, ranging in age from 21 to 51, were jailed and handed off to Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.... Benjamin Alvarez, 38, Wanamingo, Adolfo Valenzula, 21, Plainview, and David Grajeda-Barreras, 32, Wanamingo were booked into Goodhue County Jail on suspicion of first-degree drug charges.... The two men, Amado Valdez-Cuevas, 51, no known address, and Rigoberto...

I recently read an important news article forwarded to me by Bruce DeCell; the article appeared in the April 12, 2007 edition of the The Washington Post and it reported that a nasty drug, a “poor man’s crack”, or methamphetamine, is now being mass-produced and smuggled over our southern border from Mexico. Bruce is a founding member of an organization known as "911 Families for a Secure America," an organization that was formed by a group of people who lost a family member as a direct result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. I act as an advisor...

LONG BEACH – Charges against members of an alleged multimillion-dollar, cross-border methamphetamine operation are expected to be filed today. ... The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office is expected to file charges today against those arrested Monday including Guadalupe Espinoza, the reputed ringleader on the U.S. side of the border; Angel Cruz Valdominos, an alleged drug-runner from Tijuana; and Francisco Zepeda of Ontario, another alleged courier, LeBaron. ... Felony charges already have been filed against Olmero Torres of Santa Ana; Antonio Ayala of Downey; Carlos Ruiz of Riverside and Myra Ayala, Jose Nieves, Jorge Gonzalez, Heriberto Garcia, Kenny Yanagihara, Greg...

Nation Mexican 'Ice' Replaces Home-Cooked Meth in U.S. by Howard Berkes    Amy Walters, NPR Police lay out the evidence seized during a day-long effort to identify a meth dealer. A half-pound of meth was confiscated, and about $6,000 in cash was found.       Hear More in This Series April 3, 2007 Meth Production Moves to Mexico April 3, 2007 Plunge in Meth Labs Paves Way for Potent Import       INTERACTIVE: Trace How Illegal Drugs Reach the United States Lindsay Mangum, NPR         Lindsay Mangum, NPR       Amy Walters, NPR...

In the largest cash seizure in Mexican history, authorities confiscated $206 million in U.S. currency from a band of methamphetamine producers headquartered in a ritzy neighborhood here, officials said today. Two of the seven people arrested at the home were Chinese, and authorities said the bust hinted at the vast scope of an illegal drug trade that links Mexico to Asia. ... Mexican drug trafficking organizations have become increasing important in the wholesale and retail trade in methamphetamines in the United States because American authorities have placed tougher controls on the sale of the chemicals used to produce the highly...

Police have found $206 million in cash, belonging to drug smugglers who imported chemicals used to make methamphetamines, piled inside a mansion in a wealthy Mexico City neighborhood, officials said on Friday. Police arrested seven people at the house. They found wads of hundreds of dollars stuffed in drawers, suitcases and closets around the house. They also seized six Mercedes Benz vehicles and two other cars along with seven firearms, 200,000 euros and machinery used to make tablets. ~snip~ The attorney general's office, which operates the police force that led the raid, said the money belonged to a drug gang...

A 50-year-old principal was found naked in his school office while watching gay pornography on Tuesday, according to sources. Sex toys were found nearby, the sources added. Police said John Acerra was a longtime teacher and principal in the Bethlehem Area School District, but was also allegedly selling crystal meth out of his school office. Acerra, of Allentown, was the principal of Nitschmann Middle School in Bethlehem, and was arrested minutes after he arranged to sell the notoriously addictive drug to a police informant, according to investigators. Police arrived and found meth and drug paraphernalia on his desk, according to...

The principal of Nitschmann Middle School in Bethlehem sold crystal methamphetamine to police informants three times this month, once in his school office, police say. John Acerra, 50, of 832 Chestnut St., Allentown, was arrested Tuesday in his office, where police found meth on his desk, according to arrest papers filed by Bethlehem police. One police informant told officers that Acerra used and sold crystal meth for at least five months before his arrest, the papers say.Acerra faces felony charges of possession with intent to deliver meth and delivery of the drug and related charges. He is in Lehigh County...

Ted Haggard, founder and former senior pastor of New Life Church, plans to leave Colorado Springs and move to Iowa or Missouri to return to college, according to a message he e-mailed Sunday to some church members. Haggard’s family has been “offered two places” in the Midwestern states, Haggard wrote. He and his wife, Gayle, will go back to school together, but Haggard didn’t specify what college or university they would attend. “We are both planning on getting our masters in Psychology so we can work together serving others the rest of our lives,” Haggard wrote. The nationally known minister...

BONHAM — The death of 28-year-old Michael Lee Williams Saturday morning is believed by law enforcement to have been caused by electrocution from copper wires he was allegedly stealing. In a Fannin County Sheriff’s Office report by Investigator Wayne Walker, he said that law enforcement and ambulance service were called to Private Road 155, off FM 1550, and what was originally called in was a four-wheeler accident. Mr. Williams had already been taken to Red River Regional Medical Center in Bonham, and Walker began interviewing others still at the scene. A 30-year-old woman said she and Mr. Williams had been...

Sex, meth and Internet spark new AIDS fears Wed Jan 17, 2007 2:54 PM ET By Matthew Verrinder NEW YORK (Reuters) - An hour after speaking at a Crystal Meth Anonymous meeting about the benefits of sobriety to dozens of other recovering addicts, Charlie was alone in his Chelsea apartment, logged onto the Web site Adam4Adam.com. He cruised the site's profiles of muscular gay men who want to meet for sex while high on methamphetamine, and found his match: a 50-year-old man from Manhattan's Upper East Side who liked to "slam" the drug, or inject it directly into the bloodstream....

... Windsor said he took an ax from a closet and hit her at least five times until the ax stuck in her head. He stopped because he couldn't remove the ax. The coroner's office could not remove the ax and when the body was X-rayed it was embedded down to near the victim's jaw, according to police. ...

Like men featured in the movie Meth, Sumlin embraced the drug because urban, gay partiers often use it as an intoxicant and aphrodisiac of choice. Now crystal meth is cutting a destructive swath through another subculture: Gay men drawn to sex with casual, multiple partners. Since the late 1990s, HIV infection has risen among white and Hispanic gay men while staying flat or dropping among other groups. "The good news is maybe about 80 percent of gay men still haven't experimented with this," Liberti says. "Those who have, their lives have spiraled down in a very serious way. It's very...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Several people who live in a quiet Altoona neighborhood woke up to a loud blast on Monday morning.

A home burglar got a stern lecture and a 32-month prison sentence Wednesday from a judge who said the community is "sick and tired" of drug users stealing their hard-earned possessions. Lane County Circuit Judge Gregory Foote also reminded 20-year-old Michael Scott Wrighthouse that Oregon law allows residents to use deadly force when they encounter a burglar inside an occupied dwelling. "They have guns in their houses because of people like you. They are prepared to blow you away. You will go out of there in a body bag, and nobody will care," Foote told Wrighthouse. "Do I condone that...