http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/wod/ en-us Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:09:54 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048013/posts SAN FRANCISCO -- Three more juvenile illegal immigrant drug dealers sent by San Francisco to group homes hundreds of miles from the city have escaped... The three were among the offenders previously protected from possible deportation under a long-standing city policy against handing over juvenile illegal immigrants to federal authorities, even those convicted of felonies. Chronicle stories about the policy prompted a national outcry, and Mayor Gavin Newsom rescinded it earlier this month. Newsom acted shortly after eight Honduran juveniles convicted of dealing crack on the city's streets walked away from unlocked group homes in San Bernardino County, where the... SF Chronicle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2048013/posts#comment Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:09:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2047693/posts Police need more evidence, state justices saySupporters of marijuana decriminalization celebrated Thursday's decision by the state Supreme Court restricting police from arresting passengers simply for being in a car smelling of pot. Seattle Post-Intelligencer http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2047693/posts#comment Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:17:17 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2047437/posts MEXICO CITY — The capture was worthy of an action thriller: elite Mexican troops rappelling from a helicopter onto the deck of a mysterious submarine. The 33-foot vessel turned out to be crammed with parcels believed to contain cocaine, possibly tons. Its disheveled crew of four emerged in stocking feet and baggy shorts, saying they had shipped out from Colombia a week earlier under threat of death. Mexico's military confirmed Thursday that the men are Colombian but offered little new information...Capt. Jose Luis Vergara, a spokesman for the Mexican navy, said authorities were hauling the "very well-constructed" vessel to shore... Seattle Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2047437/posts#comment Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:45:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2047254/posts Syracuse, IN (AHN) -- Two men and a juvenile have been charged with possessing more than 1,000 marijuana plants with the intent to distribute after more that 5,000 plants were found growing at a Girl Scout camp. Mario Comacho, 44, and Mariano Gonzales, 38, were charged with growing thousands of marijuana plants on land belonging to the Limberlost Girl Scout Council, which runs Camp Ella J. Logan in the area where the plants were discovered by Indiana State Troopers while searching the land by plane. Sherri Weidman, CEO of the Limberlost Council told the Journal-Gazette that the plants were located... All Headline News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2047254/posts#comment Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:43:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2047282/posts SILVER SPRINGS, FL - Capt. Lee Sullivan of the Multi-Agency Drug Enforcement Team has busted too many grow houses to count. But he had never seen one like the team shut down Tuesday afternoon. Acting on an anonymous tip, the agency uncovered an underground grow house at 13595 N.E. First Street Road. Michael Klopp, 61, had allegedly buried a container that would typically go on the back of a semi-truck behind his home. He placed an identical container above it to serve as a shed. "He buried it with a backhoe and dug a tunnel down to it," Sullivan said... Star-Banner http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2047282/posts#comment Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:52:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2047175/posts A homemade submarine packed with cocaine was seized Wednesday by the Mexican Navy off the Pacific coast. The 30-foot vessel was first detected as it made its way north about 200 miles off Oaxaca, but was intercepted hours later when it surfaced. The sub had a crew of four men who were arrested and flown by helicopter to the city of Huatulco. The suspects claim to be Colombian fishermen who had been forced to pilot the sub for drug traffickers threatening to harm their families. A Navy spokesman said the sub seizure is a first for Mexico. Other makeshift submarines... TWN http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2047175/posts#comment Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:29:48 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2046575/posts Clues in Saratoga pot bust suggest link to Mexican drug cartel From the bags of beans and rice found in the camp to the type of fertilizer used on the plants, the large marijuana farm in the Saratoga hills that was the scene of a deadly shooting last week has all of the marks of a Mexican drug cartel, law enforcement officials said Tuesday. The farm is part of a growing trend dating back to the 1980s, when increased security at the U.S.-Mexico border prompted drug trafficking organizations and cartels to move part of their business to California - and... Teh Murky Nuz http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2046575/posts#comment Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:36:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046519/posts MONTERREY, Mexico - Suspected drug gang hitmen shot dead a senior police commander in the violent Mexican state of Sinaloa on Wednesday, despite the arrival of hundreds of police reinforcements as killings surge. Gunmen shot dead Sinaloa's state police commander Salomon Diaz as he drove through a suburb of Culiacan, the state's capital and home to one of the country's main trafficking cartels. "He was shot in the stomach by gunmen with AK-47s," said a police spokesman who declined to be named. President Felipe Calderon has sent some 25,000 troops across Mexico to fight drug gangs but it has failed... Reuters http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046519/posts#comment Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:27:28 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046467/posts The owner of a Montreal cafe where patrons can smoke a psychoactive variety of sage says he will close up shop next month. Matthew Liscomb told the Montreal Gazette that Les Mentheurs would go out of business on Aug. 23 due to legal battles and changes in provincial tobacco laws. On top of that, he said, business insurance has been increasingly difficult to get. It's not been easy getting insured and it's not legal to operate a business without proper insurance, he told the Gazette. The closure will mark the end of a stormy history for Les Mentheurs, a 30-seat... Web India 123 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046467/posts#comment Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:01:10 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046369/posts There are some good arguments against the war on drugs. But there are some nonsensical ones as well. Pajamas Media http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046369/posts#comment Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:22:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046241/posts Mexican law enforcement officials are walking into U.S. ports of entry in increasing numbers to seek political asylum, and the flow may soon become a flood as Mexico's battle with the drug cartels intensifies. Our first instinct is to welcome them, but there is more at stake than humanitarian sentiments. The problem is that if our immigration laws are stretched to grant asylum to law enforcement personnel on the grounds that their own government cannot protect them, any Mexican threatened by these violent criminal gangs can claim the same right of asylum. U.S. immigration law does not easily accommodate these... FrontPageMagazine.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046241/posts#comment Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:10:08 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046048/posts Recent attacks are a troubling sign innocents aren't off-limits MEXICO CITY — Many Mexicans have long shrugged off the violence shaking their country by telling themselves it only affects those involved in the narcotics trade and corrupt law enforcement officers. But innocent civilians, once considered largely off-limits, now find themselves increasingly targeted. In the past five days, two attacks in the Pacific Coast state of Sinaloa claimed the lives of perhaps more than a dozen people with no apparent connection to the drug trade — including at least four teens, a 12-year-old girl and a father-and-son team of university accounting... Houston Chronicle Mexico City Bureau http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2046048/posts#comment Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:50:53 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2045668/posts Federal officials said Monday that Gwinnett is now the focal point of competing metro area Mexican drug cartels trafficking cocaine and methamphetamines due to its burgeoning Hispanic population and transportation infrastructure. Gwinnett Daily Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2045668/posts#comment Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:18:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2045490/posts EDINBURG - The Texas National Guard is set to end a two-year border security mission this week. And while the guardsmen's arrival in South Texas was met with concern from civil liberties groups, the soldiers have departed with relatively little fanfare. Most of the more than 500 guardsmen once stationed in the Rio Grande Valley have already been released from border duty even though their mission isn't set to expire until Tuesday, said Dan Doty, a local spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol. "I still see one or two of them around occasionally," he said. "But most of them have... The Monitor http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2045490/posts#comment Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:33:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2045362/posts This month's spectacular rescue by Colombian commandos of 15 hostages cast an international spotlight on the miseries inflicted by the terrorist group responsible for the kidnappings, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Much of the FARC's strength is derived from its protection of an illicit narcotics trade which channels cocaine to North American communities. But the recent hostage rescue has also drawn attention to the real role played by Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez in using the FARC to destabilize the government of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, his regional archrival. During a previous commando raid in March, which killed... NY Daily News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2045362/posts#comment Mon, 14 Jul 2008 20:39:01 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2044877/posts Heard a lot of stuff come out of the mouths of preachers this year. Encouraging criminal behavior from the pulpit is a new one. The Patriot Room http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2044877/posts#comment Sun, 13 Jul 2008 19:32:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2044825/posts Schools may not strip-search students for drugs based on an unverified tip, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. Overturning two other rulings, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said an assistant principal at an Arizona middle school violated the constitutional rights of a 13-year-old by ordering her to be strip-searched. He thought the honor student had prescription-strength ibuprofen; she did not. The 6-5 ruling by the San Francisco-based court reinstated a lawsuit that a divided three-judge circuit panel threw out last year. The lawsuit was brought by the parents of Savana Redding, who was an eighth-grader at Safford Middle... LA Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2044825/posts#comment Sun, 13 Jul 2008 16:25:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2044294/posts Deputies seized more than 60,000 marijuana plants over the past week from the Santa Ana River bed west of Norco, potentially removing millions of dollars from the pockets of drug dealers, sheriff's officials said. The Press-Enterprise http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2044294/posts#comment Sat, 12 Jul 2008 04:01:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2044167/posts MEXICO - Gunmen killed 16 people, including a police chief, in a spate of separate shootouts across Mexico, which is grappling with a spike in drug-related violence, local officials said Thursday. Six of the murder victims in Culiacan were inside a car repair shop, while three others were killed outside, the state attorney's office said. Reporters said the three victims outside the shop were police officers who rushed to the scene of the gunfire. At practically the same time and also in Culiacan, one police officer was shot and killed at the wheel of his pickup truck. Another officer was... Canada.com/AFP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2044167/posts#comment Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:23:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2044059/posts LAKE WORTH – The case against a teenager accused of delivering drug-tainted cookies to police crumbled Thursday after scientific tests revealed no traces of narcotics. Christian Phillips, 18, became a cookie monster and the butt of jokes around the globe following his arrest Tuesday after he left a basket of treats at Lake Worth police headquarters. Authorities said then that "field tests" they conducted on the cookies showed traces of marijuana and LSD. But lab tests performed by the Tarrant County medical examiner's office were negative for drugs, and Mr. Phillips – who had been charged with tampering with a... Dallas Morning News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2044059/posts#comment Fri, 11 Jul 2008 18:28:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2043736/posts Chapel Hill, N.C. (AHN) -- A new study found that stopping drinking alcohol can be detrimental to one's mental health.According to the findings of the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, studies performed on mice who voluntarily drank alcohol for 28 days showed that when their alcohol consumption was stopped, it caused depression and a negative mood that set in 14 or more days after their systems were cleared of alcohol. This led scientist to believe that people who quit drinking, even moderate drinkers, will experience "negative mood states" days or weeks... All Headline News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2043736/posts#comment Fri, 11 Jul 2008 01:30:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2043017/posts CNN http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2043017/posts#comment Wed, 9 Jul 2008 18:41:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2042898/posts Man Robbed While Trying To Purchase Crack Cocaine Calls Cops, Is Arrested Wednesday July 9, 2008 CityNews.ca Staff A man who called police in East Hartford Connecticut Monday seems to have lost sight of his priorities. He reported he'd paid money for goods never received, presumably hoping they would chase down the guilty parties. But authorities were more interested in the fact that the man was trying to purchase crack cocaine at the time of the theft, and charged him with criminal attempt to commit possession of narcotics. The Judge at his arraignment reportedly asked if he "really thought" police... CityNews.ca http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2042898/posts#comment Wed, 9 Jul 2008 14:23:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2042591/posts Police officers in Blue Mound didn’t think much of cookies dropped off at their station Monday night — until they got a whiff of them. Overpowering the chocolate chips was the rich scent of marijuana. “It reeked of it,” said Lt. Thomas Cane, a Blue Mound police spokesman. “It wasn’t hard to tell. Anyone that’s been around marijuana before would have known.” Christian Phillips, 18, Watauga, who was serving court-appointed community service for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, dropped off the cookies in a wicker basket about 6:30 p.m. Monday, Lt. Cane said. A card from MADD was attached. The Dallas Morning News http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2042591/posts#comment Tue, 8 Jul 2008 21:26:11 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2042466/posts For the first time in recent years Cameron County's Democratic Party may not have a candidate on the ballot for a constable's race in the November general election. Precinct 1 Constable Saul P. Ochoa was to represent the party in the election, but after pleading guilty last month to a charge of distributing marijuana, it knocks him out of the race. The Democratic Party has until Aug. 26 to nominate another candidate in his place. However, with Ochoa's sentencing on the drug charge not scheduled until Sept. 22, this leaves the party without a candidate in this election. "I don't... The Brownsville Herald http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2042466/posts#comment Tue, 8 Jul 2008 17:15:48 GMT