Free Republic

The Kern County Coroner's Office reports the cause of death for the inmate, 53-year-old Juan Pablo Villanueva, killed in North Kern State Prison in Delano on February 24 as ligature strangulation. CDCR said Villanueva was serving a sentence for aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14 years old, when he was found unresponsive in his cell on February 24, 2023. CDCR said his cellmate, Ramon Escobar, was serving several sentences for five first-degree murders and seven counts of attempted second-degree murder. A CDCR officer saw Villanueva unresponsive in the cell and immediately went to get medical personnel. Responding staff...

A bipartisan House duo has introduced a new immigration measure that would offer a pathway to citizenship for undocumented migrants in the U.S. while investing in border security. The bill comes on the heels of a GOP-passed House bill all but guaranteed to fail in the Senate, which places severe limits on asylum. Reps. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.) and Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) see their legislation as having a better chance for success that the hardline GOP bill, charging undocumented workers a “1.5 percent dignity levy” in taxes and other fees that will pay for both border security and job training...

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Jose Diaz-Balart Reports,” Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) argued that “with the exception of family separation, virtually all Trump border policies are still in place today.” And things on the border have gotten worse because of Republican policies. Escobar stated, “Republicans continue to complain that they want Trump policies reinstated. The fact of the matter is, Jose, with the exception of family separation, virtually all Trump border policies are still in place today. And not only are we not seeing a slowdown in migration, not only are we [not] seeing things — a more orderly process...

Escobar, who spent the bulk of his NFL career with the Cowboys, was only 31 years old Former NFL tight end Gavin Escobar was one of two people found dead, at Idyllwild, Calif., on Wednesday after a rock climbing accident, according to USA Today. He was only 31 years old. Per the report, firefighters found the bodies of Escobar and 33-year-old Chelsea Walsh in the San Bernardino National Forest after a climbing accident was reported around noon, local time. Escobar and Walsh were reportedly climbing a rock face (the vertical surface of a rock). Rain and thunderstorms passed through the...

Rescuers were called around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday to Tahquitz Rock near Idyllwild following a distress call, the Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department said on Twitter. A team managed to climb into the steep, remote area and found both the climbers dead at the scene, the department said. While one climber remains unidentified, multiple reports and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department have identified the other climber as Long Beach firefighter and former NFL player Gavin Escobar. Tahquitz Rock, with its steep granite cliffs, is a popular destination for climbers. Two climbers from Los Angeles fell 200 feet (60 meters) to their...

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Don Lemon Tonight,” Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) argued that “just like” we regulate roads, cars, alcohol, cigarettes, and other things, “it should not be outside the realm of possibility to regulate guns so that parents don’t live in fear” of their children being shot. Escobar said, “I take issue with folks who say, legislators aren’t doing anything or Congress isn’t doing anything. We need to be precise in our language. Because the only way that we’re going to solve this is to understand where the obstruction to solutions [is]. And there is one party in...

One of the House Democrats alongside Vice President Kamala Harris on her visit to the “border” — which was actually hundreds of miles from the epicenter of the migrant crisis — gleefully referred to the Texas area they were touring Friday as “the new Ellis Island.” The eyebrow-raising moment came courtesy of Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), an ally of President Biden who represents El Paso and was part of Harris’ trip delegation.

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are calling on their Democratic colleagues to provide more details about a series of trips taken to Mexico while staff were touring border detention facilities, amid reports that at least one Democrat has been involved in “coaching” migrants there on how to exploit U.S. immigration law. In a letter to Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., obtained by Fox News, ranking member Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said there were at least two committee staff trips into Mexico in August — one of which required Border Patrol agents to provide a special escort back into the U.S. “Although...

Two teens arrested on murder charges last week in Maryland were supposed to be deported last year, but police in Prince George’s County refused to turn them over to ICE, the immigration agency said Tuesday. The teens, Josue Rafael Fuentes-Ponce, 16, and Joel Ernesto Escobar, 17, both Salvadoran, are connected to the violent MS-13 gang, police say. They stand accused, along with 14-year-old Cynthia Hernandez-Nucamendi, of killing another 14-year-old police say the teens feared would rat them out about another crime. Both Josue and Joel were in custody in Prince George’s County last year on attempted murder charges from another...

Roberto (El Osito) Escobar, the brother of the infamous late Colombian drug Lord Pablo Escobar, is raising money in an attempt to impeach the US president. El Osito launched a GoFundMe campaign with the hopes of raising US$50 million in donations for his company Escobar Inc. But GoFundMe removed the page shortly after it was posted. On the page, Escobar claimed to be “holding dirty secrets of President Trump, his family and associates.” The appeal on his GoFundMe read:  Pablo Escobar is a South American, also known as ‘Latino,’ legendary hero, who helped millions of people in his home...

Juan Pablo Escobar Henao, son of notorious Medellín cartel drug kingpin, Pablo Escobar, now says his father “worked for the CIA.” In a new book, “Pablo Escobar In Fraganti,” Escobar, who lives under the pseudonym, Juan Sebastián Marroquín, explains his “father worked for the CIA selling cocaine to finance the fight against Communism in Central America.” “The drug business is very different than what we dreamed,” he continues. “What the CIA was doing was buying the controls to get the drug into their country and getting a wonderful deal.” “He did not make the money alone,” Marroquín elaborated in an...

It might be called the art of the drug deal: Florida authorities seized scores of individually wrapped heroin packets stamped with the image of President Donald Trump. As Tampa news station WFLA reports, law enforcement officers seized 5,550 packages of heroin Jan. 27 in Hernando County, culminating a months-long investigation into heroin distribution in the area. Some of the packets bore the names or likenesses of other notorious figures, such as Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and Colombian cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar. Authorities couldn't explain the markings' purpose. Dealers often stamp heroin bags with street "brand names." Top...

At the peak of his power, infamous Medellín cartel boss Pablo Escobar brought in an estimated $420 million a week in revenue, easily making him one of the wealthiest drug lords in history. Escobar, known as the "king of cocaine," saw his wealth grow so immense that he stashed piles of cash in Colombian farming fields, dilapidated warehouses, and in the walls of cartel members' homes, according to Roberto Escobar, the cartel's chief accountant and the kingpin's brother, in his book, "The Accountant's Story: Inside the violent world of the Medellín cartel." "Pablo was earning so much that each year...

A herd of hippopotamuses once owned by the late Colombian drug baron Pablo Escobar has been taking over the countryside near his former ranch - and no-one quite knows what to do with them. It was in 2007, 14 years after Escobar's death, that people in rural Antioquia, 200 miles north-west of Bogota, began phoning the Ministry of Environment to report sightings of a peculiar animal. "They found a creature in a river that they had never seen before, with small ears and a really big mouth," recalls Carlos Valderrama, from the charity Webconserva. He went to look, and found...

Photos of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar’s abandoned private island At the height of his power, Pablo Escobar was worth an estimated $3 billion (USD) and his Medellín Cartel controlled 80% of the global cocaine market. So he may have had a few extra dollars to throw around on a private island. In fact, many drug lords had luxurious villas on small islands off the coast of Cartagena, islands that have since been abandoned by their human occupants. Urban explorer and photographer Stefaan Beernaert, also known as Fotantje, has explored the islands off Catagena and photographed the so-called "Drug Islands."...

Read the complaint (PDF) In the PDF copy of the suit:

Bounty hunters have killed one of three fugitive hippos who escaped from a zoo founded by the fallen Colombian drug baron Pablo Escobar. The other two remain on the run in the north west of the South American country. The one-and-a-half ton male was killed by two hunters near a river in Antioquia province on June 18, but the news was first reported on Friday by Colombian news media. The three mammals bust loose from the zoo two years ago, surviving on the lush vegetation of the steamy Magdalena valley, far from their native Africa, ever since. Colombian wildlife authorities...

<p>At a time when a tape handed over to the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera television station has received widespread expose for its purported comments by Osama bin Laden in praise of recent terror events around the world, another al-Qaeda message released to the same station has received little coverage.</p> <p>Al-Jazeera was granted an interview with one Mohammed al-Usuquf, allegedly al-Qaeda's number three. Al-Usuquf is said to be a doctor in physics and to hold a masters degree in international economics. A copy of the interview was sent to the prestigious Arab-language daily Al Quds Al Arabi, edited in London, but it was not printed.</p>

"The people who are doing the beheadings are extremists ... the people slaughtering Iraqis - torturing in prisons and shooting wounded prisoners - are 'American heroes'. Congratulations, you must be so proud of yourselves today." - Iraqi girl blogger Riverbend Whom are you going to trust: Fallujah civilians who risked their lives to escape, witnesses such as Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein, hospital doctors, Amnesty International, top United Nations human-rights official Louise Arbour, the International Committee of the Red Cross; or the Pentagon and US-installed Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi? On the humanitarian front, Fallujah is a tragedy. The city has virtually...

The Spanish press has finally confirmed it: the outgoing government of premier Jose Maria Aznar - just like the Bush administration and the British government in relation to the non-existent weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - lied and manipulated information concerning responsibility for the Madrid bombings. Since the morning of March 11, hours after the bombings took place, journalists at the Spanish news agency EFE knew that the official version blaming Basque separatists from ETA was false. According to the journalists, "already in the morning, EFE learned about the existence of a cellphone configured in Arabic, the van found...