Free Republic

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Nearly 100 purported gang members have been arrested, along with weapons, cash and drugs, in what law enforcement officials are calling a devastating blow on local gangs and leaders of the notorious Mexican Mafia. Among those named in one of several indictments unsealed Wednesday was Peter Ojeda, a Santa Ana native indicted in 2005 and currently in federal prison. But despite his incarceration, Ojeda is accused of continuing to hold a grip in Orange County's Latino street gangs, ordering punishment on local gangs that refused to follow his commands and giving the "green light" on rivals...

Richard Ojeda, the firebrand state senator and ex-U.S. Army officer, is set to announce his intention to run for president in 2020 less than a week after losing his bid for West Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District. Ojeda, who rose to prominence earlier this year for his role in the state’s teachers' strike after voicing support for an increase in wages, is expected to formally announce his intention to run at 12 p.m. E.T. having already signed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to create a campaign “Ojeda for President,” reports Roll Call.

LIFE AFTER TERROR By JOSEPH F. CONNOR YOU sometimes hear how the first World Trade Center attack was a warning that the city ig nored. But it wasn't the first: Tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of the New York terrorist attack that killed my father, Frank T. Connor — the Jan. 24, 1975, bombing of Fraunces Tavern. The killers struck on a warm, clear and pleasant winter's day. My dad, a 33-year-old officer of Morgan Guaranty Trust, was having lunch with clients. The bomb killed him and three others in unspeakably gruesome ways. One of his colleagues was decapitated; silverware...

A candidate for West Virginia state senate was brutally attacked over the weekend when a man wielding brass knuckles blind-sided him at a cookout, police say. Retired Major Richard Ojeda, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who's challenging the incumbent Democrat, was attending the political function in the town of Logan when a man reportedly asked him for a bumper sticker. When Ojeda knelt to attach the sticker to the man's car, police say the suspect struck the candidate as many as nine times with brass knuckles, knocking him out. According to West Virginia State Troopers, the suspect--who's been identified as...

SNIPPET: "WASHINGTON – Four members of a violent guerilla organization were indicted on Friday on conspiracy and hostage-taking charges stemming from the kidnapping of more than 60 people in Colombia in 2000, including three United States nationals."

An anti-gang task force arrested 15 defendants charged in a federal racketeering indictment with exercising control over Hispanic street gangs across Orange County, CA. The indictment alleges that members of the Ojeda Organization - named after leader and Mexican Mafia member Peter Ojeda - extorted "taxes" from street gangs and punished non-payers with assaults. In addition to the arrests made by well over 100 agents and officers associated with the Santa Ana Gang Task Force, ten defendants are already in state custody. The three-count indictment, which was returned by a federal grand jury in Santa Ana, asserts that the Ojeda...