Free Republic

EXCLUSIVE — At least five people were involved in a maritime shooting between U.S. border agents and drug smugglers that took place off the coast of Puerto Rico early Thursday morning, the Washington Examiner was first to report Thursday. The shootout happened 14 miles off the coast of northwestern Puerto Rico. Three federal agents were shot, according to a federal officer and a statement from Customs and Border Protection. The agents were from the Customs and Border Protection's Air and Marine Operations arm. AMO agents work the air and sea to patrol for human and drug smugglers. The incident took...

HIDALGO COUNTY-- Small. Deadly. Spikes are being used more often to harm police. "Punching out a couple tires is no big deal but when you do it at 60 or 70 mph you can very easily kill the deputy behind the wheel," said Sheriff Lupe Trevino, Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Trevino is trying to get these weapons classified as "deadly." He's working with the Department of Public Safety and U.S. Border Patrol. If it's clarified, it could change the way they pursue vehicles. "These things are going to be used for one thing and one thing only that's to...

(CNN)Consider it a win for 18th century technology over late 20th century criminal innovation. A three-masted sailing ship belonging to the Ecuadorian Navy last week captured a so-called narco sub, a homemade low-profile vessel (LPV) designed to transport illegal narcotics, in the Pacific Ocean off Colombia, according to a statement from Ecuador's military.... ,,,The 257-foot-long (78 meter) sailing ship, powered by more than 15,000 square feet (1,393 square meter) of sails hung from three towering masks, was on a training cruise when it spotted the drug-running vessel and made the stop, the Ecuadorian military said...

The El Paso Border Patrol sector has temporarily closed its system of highway checkpoints as it struggles to cope with a record influx of families crossing the border and requesting asylum. The agents who usually staff the checkpoints will be redeployed to process and transport the asylum seekers, according to multiple sources who spoke to Texas Monthly on the condition they not be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly about the change. “We were told to go ahead and close down all the checkpoints,” one official said Saturday morning. Agents assigned to checkpoints were told they would be...

For years, an organization called Women on Web has given women a way to perform their own medication-induced abortions at home. The organization would remotely do online consultations, fill prescriptions, and ship pills that trigger miscarriages to women who live in countries where abortion is illegal. Several studies have shown that the service is safe. For American women who’ve wanted pills, though, there’s been one major problem: Women on Web wouldn’t ship to the United States. American women could (and do) instead search online for abortion pills, but some of the medicines and pharmacies they’ve found have been less than...

Yesterday on Face the Nation, I responded to questions about the migrant separations from their children under the Trump Administration’s policy announced last month by trying to shift the focus to what drives these migrations in the first place – something that can’t be addressed by a simple band-aid piece of legislation paving the way for more lax border requirements.

More than half a million illegal immigrants of several dozen nationalities have been apprehended on John Ladd’s sprawling cattle ranch in southeastern Arizona. Ladd has also found 14 dead bodies on his 16,500-acre farm, which has been in his family for well over a century and sits between the Mexican border and historic State Route 92. The property shares a 10 ½-mile border with Mexico, making it a popular route for human and drug smugglers evading a meager force of Border Patrol agents in the mountainous region. “As big as that number sounds, many more got away,” said National Border...

On Monday, Pinal County (Ariz.) sheriff's deputies arrested Daniel Jupa-Fino, 21, after eluding deputies earlier in the day. Around 4 p.m. Monday, a deputy attempted to make a traffic stop on Interstate 8, when Jupa-Fino crossed into oncoming traffic, and leaped from the car. The passenger, identified as Felipe Gonzalez-Tempura, 19, was caught, after climbing over a barbed wire fence and running into a trailer park, according to deputies. A search of the vehicle revealed 10 bundles of marijuana, weighing in at a total of 220 pounds, according to deputies. The pot has a street value of approximately $165,000. Deputies...

Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa insisted Sunday on Meet the Press that his remarks about drug smugglers outnumbering immigrant valedictorians by a 100-to-one ratio was not inaccurate and that the plight of DREAMers “tugs at his heart strings.” “The people who are advocating for this, don’t understand the full scope,” King said of the immigration bill, which would grant a shorter path to citizenship to young adults who were brought into the country by their parents when they were underage, and exempt them from fines imposed on other undocumented immigrants. “My heart goes out to valedictorians who were brought...

“When it was my turn, they took me blindfolded,” the thief said. “Suddenly I felt a pain in my right hand that was out of this world. My hand had just been chopped off.” This is Gao, once the seat of an empire, and then a glorified village, and now a city the size of Scranton under the boot of its Islamist conquerors. Gao has become a place where thieves have their hands cut off, where women are forced to wear the stifling Hijab in 113 degree heat or be lashed and where unmarried couples are stoned to death. Borders...

A mother in Texas has been arrested for allegedly using her children and teenage sister to smuggle narco cash from Dallas to Mexico. After pulling over Betzabeth Perez-Torres, 23, in a Mercedes Benz in Combes en route to Brownsville, an officer noticed the three children in the car were fidgeting. The officer became suspicious when Perez-Torres told the children to stop fidgeting and to keep their coats on. The officer eventually discovered the children had cash in plastic bags wrapped around their waists and hidden by the coats. The two younger children, aged 2 and 6, are said to have...

During the last week of January 2012, in Tucson, AZ, local and federal investigators arrested 14 suspected members of a drug-trafficking organization. They believe this organization has been in operation for more than 10 years and is suspected of also being involved with money laundering and weapons.

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE COLO. (KGUN9-TV) - The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) scrambled two F-16 fighter jets to southern Arizona at 6:10 a.m. Sunday to intercept an ultralight aircraft that entered Arizona from Mexico. The aircraft was flying from Mexico and crossed into Arizona. At the direction of North American Aerospace Defense Command, two F-16 fighters were launched from Davis Monthan Air Force Base to intercept the aircraft, said a news released from NORAD issued Sunday morning. "Upon intercepting the aircraft, the F-16s shadowed the aircraft for 30 minutes until it turned and flew back into Mexico," said...

Drug smugglers are turning to a sharp law enforcement tactic as they try to stop Texas law officers from chasing them.... Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Joe Trevino says agents in south Texas have had spikes thrown at their vehicles at least five times this year. Trevino told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that at least 15 incidents were reported in 2009, in which 33 vehicles were damaged, including 13 civilian cars and trucks. Just one incident was reported in 2008...

Washington - “Last night, Border Patrol Chief Daavid Aguilar and I were devastated to learn about the senseless killing of one of our young Border Patrol Agents, Robert Rosas. Agent Rosas’ murder is a tragic reminder of the ever-present dangers CBP officers, Air & Marine and Border Patrol agents face as they protect our nation’s borders. “By his service and sacrifice, Agent Rosas joins a long line of law enforcement officers and agents who have served—and died—in the law enforcement tradition of honor, valor and dedication to duty. “The FBI, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office, our brothers and sisters...

A mystery substance found in a truck that authorities believe was hauling narcotics has sickened numerous law enforcement officers in Louisiana, and at least 18 have been quarantined as a precaution.

COLUMBUS, N.M. – This dusty little border town with almost no visible means of support has been seeing something of a boom in the past year: Brand-new Lincoln Navigators and Cadillac Escalades with flashy wheel rims are parked just off the bleak main drag. Homes are selling quickly, sometimes for cash. The source of this sudden wealth? An influx of Mexican drug smugglers, investigators say. The smugglers are fleeing the Mexican army's occupation of the town of Palomas, on the other side of the U.S.-Mexico border fence, and settling in Columbus, where there has been a law enforcement vacuum. The...

The entire crew of a South African Airways flight have been arrested on suspicion of drug smuggling - for the second time in a month. Fifteen members of the flight crew, including the pilot, were detained today at London's Heathrow after customs officers found five kilos of cocaine in a bag.  They were being held by officers after the class A drug, with an estimated street value of £250,000, was discovered as the crew tried to clear customs following a 12-hour flight from Johannesburg. Bob Gaiger, spokesman for HM Revenue and Customs, said the drugs were discovered after the...

When President Bush failed to pardon border agents Ramos and Compean on Nov. 24, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher issued a press release expressing his disappointment that while drug dealers and embezzlers were pardoned, these wrongly convicted agents were neglected, despite the pleas of Americans. Congressman Tom Tancredo responded that he and many other congressmen have pleaded repeatedly for their pardon. The agents' prosecutor, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, said they were justly convicted for shooting an unarmed, fleeing man and covering it up. A closer look at the case reveals something different. When the agents interdicted drug-smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila, he refused their...

HOUSTON -- It did not take long Tuesday for the Texas Department of Transportation to find out what the Houstonians at a public hearing thought about the proposed 600-mile Trans-Texas Corridor, KPRC Local 2 reported. "George Washington, Sam Houston would vomit on you people," one attendee said. Chris Zora, who opposes the plan, attended the hearing at the Arabia Shrine Center in Southwest Houston. "I'd like to see a show of hands here of anybody that approves of this corridor," Zora said. "Is there anyone in this room who approves of this corridor? Raise your hands if you approve of...