Free Republic

Two-plus years into New York’s war on public order, it’s clear who the victims have been: Blood-spattered city sidewalks from Brooklyn to Buffalo speak for themselves. But cui bono — who are the beneficiaries? Gov. Kathy Hochul, for one. And the Mexican drug cartels. Hochul because she’s soaring politically as the titular head of a Democratic Party that elevates post-George Floyd ideology over common sense and public safety. She’s Andrew Cuomo’s cynical little sister in this regard — not so bombastic as her predecessor but equally invested in the criminal justice “reforms” that have turned so many urban neighborhoods into...

Ranchers and cops in rural Brooks County, Texas, say illegal immigration is worse than it’s ever been, with deadly consequences for migrants who get lost.FALFURRIAS, Texas — The last time Deputy Don White recovered a corpse, in early May, it had been ripped apart by feral hogs. He found human body parts and clothing scattered over about a 100-foot area on a cattle ranch in Brooks County, Texas, about 70 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. The man had been dead for about three weeks. The hogs, says White, “took the arms — the scapula will oftentimes come loose, and so...

I told you so. It's become crystal clear I was right on the money. I've said for two years now on my national radio show that the best thing that could ever happen for the Mexican drug cartels would be a Democratic presidential victory. Mexican drug kingpins have waited their entire lives for this fantasy. They must be singing, dancing and toasting champagne right now, because President Joe Biden is the greatest gift ever bestowed upon the Mexican cartels. Experts estimated the money made on drug trafficking by the cartels at around $500 billion a year. That's half a trillion...

One of the most visible and insistent demands of the Black Lives Matter movement is the abolition or disbandment of the police—or at the very least defunding them, which taken to the extreme would amount to the same thing. “Abolish the police” has become a rallying cry among protesters and a litmus test for elected officials seeking to ally with them.What comes after the police have been abolished remains unclear. Protesters and politicians alike are hazy on details, preferring instead to talk about “reimagining public safety” and throwing around vague terms like “community policing.”Of course, in concrete terms what...

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...

The president of the National Border Patrol Council testified in the Senate Thursday that the Obama administration’s loose immigration policy is the biggest factor driving illegal immigration into the United States, which in turn helps fund Mexican drug cartels. “Most illegal immigrants believe that they will either not be caught, or even if they are caught, they will not be deported back to their home country. Most believe that they will simply be issued a Notice to Appear (NTA) and will be released,” Brandon Judd said before the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest. “Candidly, they are not...

Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) Special Agent John Dodson blew the whistle on the Department of Justice (DOJ) ill-fated “Fast and Furious” operation in an interview with me in 2011. Dodson explained that the U.S. government had been instructing federal agents like him to encourage gun dealers to sell thousands of assault rifles and other weapons to traffickers for Mexican drug cartels. ... Beyond Fast and Furious, similar “gunwalking” cases by the government were reported in numerous cities: Phoenix, Tucson and Houston to name a few. “Walked” guns were used by illegal Mexican bandits in an Arizona shootout that killed...

Immigration: When California Gov. Jerry Brown hung out the "all welcome" sign for illegals, Mexico's drug cartels heard him loud and clear. Raids on Thursday left lawmen declaring Los Angeles a cash-laundering mecca. Roping off 100 blocks of downtown Los Angeles this week, federal agents from the U.S. attorney's office raided roughly 70 garment district businesses along with a few houses in tony Westwood and Beverly Hills. The suspected crime was laundering money for Mexico's Sinaloa cartel. Agents hauled out $65 million in cash stuffed in duffel bags, suitcases and boxes, some of it blood-spattered. The cash came from hostage...

Alleged enforcers for a Mexican cartel were reportedly involved in the kidnapping and torture of U.S. teenagers over methamphetamine in St. Paul, Minnesota, according to the local St. Paul Pioneer Press. The U.S. Attorney’s office omitted Mexican cartel involvement in their official press release on the case. The official press release was titled, "Four Indicted for Drug Trafficking Crimes Involving a Violent Kidnapping in St. Paul" and only identified the perpetrators as being from U.S. cities. There were no mentions of Mexico, cartels, or even a transnational criminal organization—the DOJ agency simply omitted the vital information amid national discussions of...

As the 2016 presidential field begins to take shape, Latinos should keep their eye on Kentucky senator, and presumptive presidential hopeful, Rand Paul. Through his first two and a half years in the Senate, Senator Paul has been championing policies that directly benefit the Latino community. While the rest of the Republican Party continues to mull over their November loss and unsuccessful attempt at Hispanic outreach, Senator Paul has taken principled stands on issues such as immigration and primary education. -snip- Paul also supports legislation that will repeal mandatory minimum sentencing for federal drug offenses. The law, as it currently...

As if there were not already enough scandals plaguing the Obama administration, the federal “Fast and Furious” operation that armed Mexican drug cartels is back in the news after the Justice Department Inspector General released a report blasting a government leak intended to smear a key ATF whistleblower.

While Holder prepares to use all the powers of the Department of Justice and ATF to push through President Obama's new gun control agenda, he is more than happy to ignore Operation Fast and Furious. As a reminder, this was the DOJ program that allowed the deliberate trafficking of military style assault AK-47s to violent Mexican drug cartels south of the border. Let's not forget Holder has not only refused to cooperate with Congress when it comes to turning over documents about the lethal scandal (death toll is 400 people and counting), he's asked a court to indefinitely hold documents...

Pop star Lady Gaga and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano both attract ‘little monsters.’ But whereas Lady Gaga attracts innocuous albeit freakishly dressed teenagers, Lady Napolitano literally attracts ‘little monsters’—violent cárteles del narcotráfico. The Obama administration, with Lady Napolitano at the helm of the Department of Homeland Security, is unconstitutionally driving the American drug market underground, where the drugs are more potently addictive and the dealers are brutal Mexican cartel leaders. Here is what happens when the federal government tries to regulate narcotics: A black market emerges When the federal government prohibits a substance, whether it is alcohol...

@mrubin1971Two news stories from recent weeks, if true, should raise a red flag in the United States that Iran is preparing to use Hezbollah to strike at U.S. interests in Latin America, if not in the United States itself.First, this story from the Lebanese news portal Naharnet and sourced in part to Israeli radio. The Naharnet story was taken down shortly after it appeared: Hezbollah is using a training base established by Iran in northern Nicaragua near the border with Honduras, the Israeli radio reported on Thursday [September 6]. “The area is cordoned off and there are around 30 members...

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa has drafted a 48-page contempt of Congress citation for Attorney General Eric Holder over Operation Fast and Furious. It now appears Issa is currently moving forward without the support of House Speaker John Boehner. Holder’s Department of Justice has provided only about 7,000 pages worth of the more than 70,000 pages of documents Issa has subpoenaed related to Operation Fast and Furious. Issa and many others on Capitol Hill have threatened for months that they’ll hold Holder in contempt without actually doing it. This 48-page contempt citation is the first official step in...

"Botched." That is the word the mainstream media too often associates with the federal gunwalking scandal known as Operation Fast and Furious—but in her new book, Fast and Furious: Barack Obama's Bloodiest Scandal and Its Shameless Cover-Up, investigative reporter Katie Pavlich fearlessly chronicles exactly why the only thing "botched" about the ill-fated operation was the Obama administration's shoddy attempt to cover their tracks. Having shared office space with Katie for well over a year now, I've witnessed her ferocious commitment to this story since before Fast and Furious was even a thought in the national consciousness. I wasn't always quite...

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.

As if Congress didn’t have enough evidence that the Department of Justice has completely lost its mind, the New York Times is reporting that the Drug Enforcement Agency has helped launder “millions of dollars in drug proceeds” on behalf of Mexican drug cartels, a figure much higher than previously estimated. The Department of Justice has been under investigation by Congress for facilitating gun smuggling during Operation Fast and Furious. Fast and Furious was a gun running scheme on the US-Mexican border that’s resulted in violence and death on both sides of the border including the deaths of federal agents in...

(CBS News) Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said recently that al Qaeda terrorists may regroup in Africa, and that is why the U.S. is sending 100 Special Forces troops to one of the most violent places on Earth. The first 40 Americans have arrived in the region that includes South Sudan, scene of a long running civil war, and the Congo, site of the deadliest conflict since World War II. CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley sat down with Panetta, who said the Americans will train local forces to fight terrorists, including al Qaeda. Pelley: You're sending a hundred troops...

Actions by Mexican drug cartels are “consistent” with what the U.S. would consider to be “terrorism or insurgency” in other parts of the world, a State Department official told lawmakers on Thursday. “I do acknowledge that many of the facts on the ground, the things that are being done by those organizations, are consistent with what we would call either terrorism or insurgency in other countries,” William Brownfield told a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on emerging threats and security in the western hemisphere. Brownfield, assistant secretary at the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, was responding to...