Free Republic

WASHINGTON – Rep. Tom Tancredo's charge that Mexican drug cartels are buying up legitimate businesses in U.S. cities to launder money and using some of the proceeds to win local mayoral and city council seats for politicians who can shape the policies and personnel decisions of their police forces, has been backed up by a veteran gang investigator. Richard Valdemar, a retired sergeant with the L.A. County sheriff's department and a longtime member of a federal task force investigating gang activity, went beyond the charges made by Tancredo, the chairman of the House Immigration Reform Caucus who has led the...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexican federal police arrested a people smuggler who sneaked illegal immigrants, including Iraqis and Iranians, into the United States, the attorney-general's office said on Wednesday.Police detained Agustin Chan Montoya as he left his home in the city of Mexicali, near the border with California.The attorney-general's office said Chan Montoya was one of the people smugglers most sought by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.His clients were often "of Asian origin, including Iraqis and Iranians," the attorney-general's office said. He helped them reach Mexicali by plane and then cross into California.Security analysts say the U.S-Mexican border is...