Free Republic

Full Title: It's a Jungle in Calais all right but the desperate migrants menacing our truckers aren't the real problem - it's the ones we never see that you need to worry about Authorities say the French port is a no-go zone at night. And when you've been 28 hours in the cab of a truck, getting in and out of France, driving through the night, you're left in no doubt they are right. Calais is bandit country. Lawless. Ungodly. Inside the endless gates and fences, you made it. You are safe. Outside, you are a target.

Corroborating what Judicial Watch uncovered years ago, a U.S. military intelligence report discloses that Muslim terrorists are being smuggled into the country through Mexico. The government calls them Special Interest Aliens (SIA) and Latin American smuggling networks are helping them cross the border, according to information obtained from a U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) Intelligence dispatch. Located in Miami, Florida SOUTHCOM is one of nine unified combat commands in the Department of Defense (DOD). It’s responsible for providing contingency planning operations and security cooperation in Central and South America as well as the Caribbean. The internal assessment on SIA smuggling has...

The recent spate of ISIS-inspired terror attacks in Turkey and subsequent attempted coup, combined with foreign fighters’ incessant attempts to enter ISIS’s shrinking territory have kept Turkey’s border with Syria, once dubbed a “jihadist highway”, at the forefront of regional security issues. Has Ankara responded adequately to the international community’s demands to bring its 911-kilometer border with Assad’s regime under control, or are smuggling and border crossings by militants a continuing threat? Gasoline smuggling Earlier this year, gasoline smuggling from Turkey to Syria received international attention after Russia accused the Turkish government of facilitating contraband routes across the Syrian border....

Recent Iraqi military gains over the Islamic State have dried up oil revenues for the terrorist organization by up to 90 percent, according to a report by Iraqi News on Tuesday. Security sources from the ministry of oil said ISIS had been smuggling at least 50 vehicles full of oil everyday from oilfields in Qayyarah and Najma. The two sites stand south of Mosul—the largest ISIS stronghold and the third largest city in Iraq by population. But new offensives against the terrorist organization have reduced the smuggling rate to five vehicles a day. ISIS’ prices for the smuggled oil, which...

Human traffickers, who are finding increasingly creative ways to shuttle Central American migrants through Mexico to the U.S. border, have begun to use the Uber ride-sharing service. On June 10, five vehicles carrying 34 Central American migrants were apprehended while traveling together between the northern Mexican states of Zacatecas and Coahuila, said Segismundo Doguin, a Coahuila state official at the National Migration Institute (INM). Four of the vehicles were linked to the Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] platform, Doguin said, but it was unclear whether the human smugglers had hailed the drivers using the Uber app.

U.S. authorities are investigating an illegal immigrantion smuggling operation allegedly run by active duty military soldiers out of the Ft. Bliss U.S. Army post in El Paso, Texas. Ft. Bliss is headquarters for El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC), a federal tactical operational intelligence center. According to sources and documents, two U.S. soldiers, Marco Antonio Nava, Jr. and Joseph Cleveland, were arrested last Saturday by border patrol officers at Falfurias, Texas Border Patrol Station Checkpoint attempting to smuggle two Mexican citizens into the U.S. The Mexicans were riding in the back seat of the car. Upon their arrest, the soldiers, who...

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that the European Union can’t pursue a lawsuit accusing tobacco giant R.J Reynolds of taking part in a global money-laundering scheme that sponsored cigarette-smuggling in Europe. In a 4-3 ruling, the justices said the EU has no right to sue in U.S. courts because federal racketeering laws don’t allow recovery for injuries occurring outside the United States. The EU and 26 of its member states allege RJR coordinated the scheme with the help of Colombian and Russian criminal groups and laundered money through New York-based financial institutions. The EU claims the company’s actions hurt the...

TEL AVIV – As the debate over Donald Trump’s proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border continues to dominate the presidential race, Israel is reportedly planning to move ahead with a massive above and underground concrete barrier along the entire border with the Gaza Strip. The barrier was revealed on Thursday in a story splashed across the cover of Yedioth Aharonot, Israel’s largest daily newspaper. The story was published with the approval of the country’s defense ministry. Yedioth’s affiliated website, Ynetnews, has the details:

Almost a half-million acres in southern New Mexico were designated as a national monument two years ago. Now, members of the state's congressional delegation are pushing for portions of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks area to be set aside as wilderness. While praised by environmentalists, the effort is reigniting the concerns of local law enforcement about their ability to access the area to fight crime. The legislation introduced by Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, both Democrats, would set aside more than 376 square miles - or nearly half of the monument - as wilderness. ... The Southwestern Border Sheriffs' Coalition...

Thanks to a Brazilian-based smuggling network with Mexican guides, Middle Eastern men are being channeled into the United States. Immigration officials identified at least a dozen “Middle Eastern men” sneaking in the country, one with connections to the Taliban. Of course, these are the ones that were caught. No one knows the number that successfully made it into the U.S. The Washington Times reported that some of the special-interest aliens had previously been identified by authorities in other Latin American countries. But these nations never shared their concerns with the United States. Countries south of the border have no interest...

A Gazan fisherman arrested by Israeli security services has revealed how Hamas regularly uses fishermen to smuggle weapons and other military equipment into Gaza. The Shin Bet security service (Israel Security Agency), Israeli navy and Israel Police released for publication Monday afternoon the arrest of 39-year-old fisherman Salim Jamal Hasan Na’aman back in April. Na’aman, a resident of the Shati refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, was initially detained by Israeli naval forces after straying beyond the zone permitted for fishing, as part of the Israeli military’s blockade aimed at containing the Hamas terrorist group. Under Shin Bet interrogation, the...

Henrico Co. cigarette bust: More than $10 million funneled into smuggling operation By Kristin Smith Published: May 4, 2016, 5:46 pm Updated: May 5, 2016, 6:32 pm HENRICO, Va. (WRIC)–New details are emerging about a massive bust in Henrico County. 8News broke the story earlier this week.Police shut down a multi-million dollar cigarette trafficking ring that was operating out of Henrico County. The court documents on the case read like a movie script.Details of the nearly two-year investigation involve confidential informants, GPS tracking devices and lots undercover surveillance.According to a search warrant affidavit, the masterminds behind the operation spent...

The Danish government is charging hundreds of its citizens with human smuggling for giving rides to refugees, the Washington Post reports. Denmark has been aggressively combating the wave of migrants from Germany. The government strongly reduced the benefits it provides, migrants are banned from public transportation, and authorities often confiscate their possessions. Denmark even placed ads in Lebanese newspapers, warning people against coming to the Scandinavian country. At the same time, Danish citizens who take migrants to the Swedish border are arrested for human trafficking. While the government is primarily based around the center-right, the strongly anti-immigrant Danish People's Party...

A.J. Strata informs us that Sidney Blumenthal has leaked the fact that NSA is assisting Israel in tracking weapons shipments from Iran and Syria to Hezbollah, gaining him anti-Israel supporters and (one hopes) a chance to talk to the grand jury investigating NSA leaks: Why would Sydney Blumenthal risk everything to publicize the fact he has been leaked – and is publicizing – classified information? The leftwing, anti-Israel sites are lapping this up. But my guess is Sidney just won himself an invite to a Grand Jury looking into leaks at the NSA:

A very unusual case of smuggling took place on Thursday, as huge quantities of gold, steroids and smart phones were found in the car of a European Union (EU) representative in Israel, as he drove into the country from Jordan. Dozens of kilograms of gold, hundreds of smartphones and a full package of steroid drugs were discovered by customs inspectors in the car as it tried to pass through the Allenby Border Crossing from Jordan, reports Channel 2. The EU diplomat was detained and later released, and his driver - an Arab resident of the northern Atarot neighborhood of Jerusalem...

North Korean diplomat expelled from SA for rhino horn trafficking 2015-12-23 14:43 Julian Rademeyer, News24 Correspondent Pretoria - A high-ranking North Korean diplomat accused of abusing his diplomatic immunity and his embassy's diplomatic bag to smuggle rhino horn out of South Africa has been expelled from the country. News24 has learnt that Park Chol-jun - also identified in some news reports as Pak Chol Chun - quietly left the country on December 11. A spokesperson for the Department of International Relations and Co-operation (Dirco), Nelson Kgwete, did not name Park, but confirmed on Tuesday that the department had been "informed...

Earlier this week, we told a fascinating story about an unprecedented, multi-year smuggling ring involving Turkey, Iran, and Dubai (as well as China, Russia and countless other nations) which saw corruption reaching to the very top of the political and financial establishment: from president Erdogan in Turkey, to one of Turkey's richest people, Iran-born Riza Sarraf, to Sheikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, the son of the ruler of Abu Dhabi and one of the world's richest people. The smuggled object in question was gold, billions of dollars worth of gold. The focus of the story was the previously unknown...

The security guards of the Defense Ministry's Transfer Authority and the Civil Administration's David division stopped a truck traveling from Hevron to Gaza at the Turkarmiya checkpoint Monday, after it noted it was shipping soybean oil. [...] The shipment was sent to a lab for testing, where it became clear the "soybean oil" was TDI - turbocharged direct injection - material, the fuel primarily used for rockets and diesel engines. ...

<p>Legally, alcohol is banned in Saudi Arabia. In reality, however, there are people in the country who drink.</p> <p>If you're wondering how exactly they actually get that alcohol, consider the multiple reports in the Saudi press today that describe how the Saudi authorities at border with United Arab Emirates caught a man with 48,000 cans of Heineken – all disguised as Pepsi cola.</p>

Egypt's pumping of salt water from the nearby Mediterranean into the tunnels is not only creating a mess as it rises to the surface. Palestinian officials say it is also contaminating water supplies as well as threatening to wreck farmland and spread disease. Local residents say that at the peak of the tunnel business, after Hamas Islamists seized the Gaza Strip in 2007 and Israel tightened a closure of its crossings into the enclave, nearly 2,500 underground passages snaked under the border with Egypt. The direction of traffic was mainly into Gaza. Commercial goods - and weapons smuggled in separate...