Free Republic

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: "A .50-caliber rifle found at Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's hideout in Mexico was funneled through [Obama's] gun-smuggling operation known as Fast and Furious, sources confirmed Tuesday to Fox News. ... Former Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt after he refused to divulge documents for a congressional investigation into the matter," if you recall. "A .50-caliber is a massive rifle that can stop a car, or as it was intended, take down a helicopter." El Chapo was found to have one in his possession, and it was part of Obama's Fast and Furious operation. Now, for...

WASHINGTON — Justice Department watchdogs ran into an unexpected roadblock last year when they began examining the role of federal drug agents in the fatal shootings of unarmed civilians during raids in Honduras. From Our Advertisers The Drug Enforcement Administration balked at turning over emails from senior officials tied to the raids, according to the department’s inspector general. It took nearly a year of wrangling before the D.E.A. was willing to turn over all its records in a case that the inspector general said raised “serious questions” about agents’ use of deadly force. The continuing Honduran inquiry is one of...

Mainstream outlets from across the world reported the sentencing of rogue Drug Enforcement Agent Carl Mark Force to 78 months in prison this week, and in so doing brought bitcoin's association with illicit activity and the darknet back to the fore. More positive coverage came in the form of the European Court of Justice's bitcoin VAT exemption, with some outlets exploring its effect on the digital currency's rising price. Elsewhere, the creation of a discussion forum by a group of digital currency companies and US law enforcement agencies caused a ripple of excitement among the mainstream press. What else has...

This is a story that took place early in the year, so with all the water that’s passed under the bridge since then it might call for a quick refresher course. Do you remember these DEA agents who were working to foil the cartels in Colombia? Drug Enforcement Administration agents allegedly had “sex parties” with prostitutes hired by local drug cartels overseas over a period of several years, according to a report released Thursday by the Justice Department’s watchdog.The report did not specify the country where the parties occurred, but a law enforcement official familiar with the matter identified...

Well the left looks at issues that the rest of us currently look at and are concerned with and think it's a witch hunt, or partisanship. But for many of us who simply want a government that's competent, accountable, open,and ethical we look at things like Benghazi, the IRS targeting scandal, the DEA, the Secret Service, and Planned Parenthood- not to mention the VA, and we know how sad of a shape everything is in today. Most people in the country regardless acknowledge that something is wrong. They just don't necessarily know what. Well, the "something" may not be all...

AUSTIN — As Dallas County district attorney, Craig Watkins inappropriately spent about $80,000 from an asset forfeiture fund for legal fees covering personal behavior, excessively expensive travel for himself and aides, and a recreational football league sponsorship, a state audit has found.

A former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent was sentenced today to 78 months in prison for extortion, money laundering and obstruction of justice, which crimes he committed while working as an undercover agent investigating Silk Road, an online marketplace used to facilitate the sale and purchase of illegal drugs and other contraband.

Half the federal agents who were investigated for allegedly attending sex parties with prostitutes in Colombia received financial bonuses during the investigation or afterward, according to a new internal review of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s handling of the scandal. Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz issued a report on Thursday analyzing the aftermath of the internal probes of DEA agents in Colombia for allegedly patronizing prostitutes. The allegations were originally investigated in 2010, but the issue created a firestorm earlier this year when the details became public…. DEA policy prohibits employees from receiving promotions, awards or other favorable personnel actions...

Many Americans think the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects their medical privacy, but federal bureaucrats issue thousands of subpoenas every year without prior judicial approval to get around the law.“If you don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy against government in your medical care, then where does it exist at all? If that’s not private, then what is?” Adam Bates, a criminal justice policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.Congress passed HIPAA in 1996 with a promise that it would clamp down on waste, fraud and abuse in the health care...

The Justice Department is investigating the FBI’s use of information taken directly from mass surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA)’s collection of telephone metadata.The yield of that NSA spying program was described by a judge as a “staggering” amount of data when the agency's ability to collect it was struck down as illegal in court earlier this year. The program was resumed in June and will run until at least December. Another ongoing Justice Department investigation is examining the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)'s use of “parallel construction.” The investigations surfaced in a report to Congress from the Justice...

USA Today has a revealing, if disgusting, report this week which shows just how great it can be to land a government job these days, at least in some quarters of the establishment. At the Drug Enforcement Agency, for example, it’s nearly impossible to be terminated from your job for things such as being late for work, failure to correctly fill out your time sheet, parking in the wrong spot, running an illegal drug ring of your own or having sex parties with prostitutes.Wait a minute… what were those last two again? The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has allowed...

John Hawkins writes at Townhall: "Boehner Resigned? Good. Go Cry, Drink And Surrender Somewhere Else." Well, Boehner's resignation is far too late for me and especially far too late for the Fast and Furious investigation that he derailed because the FBI was blackmailing him. Long-time readers will recall that when the Issa committee got around to noticing the fact, uncovered by this blog and FOX News' William La Jeunesse, that the middle men who the ATF agents were forbidden by their superiors from following (the ones who actually transported the weapons across the border) were the Miramontes brothers who were...

Jack Riley, the No. 2 at the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), signaled support for Donald Trump’s proposal to build a wall along the Southern border in a recent interview centered on hunting down Mexican drug cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. In an exclusive interview with Yahoo News, the acting deputy administrator at the Obama administration’s DEA agency, discussed why the U.S. government is invested in hunting escaped convict El Chapo, the leader of Mexico’s brutal Sinaloa cartel. Riley explained why El Chapo and his murderous criminal empire are a threat to the United States. The Sinaloa cartel has been...

Drug Enforcement Administration agents have been accessing personal medical files without a warrant, generating a backlash from doctors and privacy advocates who say the practice is intrusive and unconstitutional -- and have taken the agency to court. “It’s just not right,” Texas attorney Terri Moore said. The controversial record searches are part of the government's effort to crack down on illegal “pill mills” and prescription drug abuse. But they've set up a clash over privacy rights, and a legal battle is now playing out in the 5th and 9th Circuit appeals courts. Lower courts have issued conflicting rulings to date,...

One of them needs to eliminate or totally reform the DEA and thier over stepping power. I know a close family friend that recently killed themselves(last week), because pharmacies would not fill their pain medications. This person had terminal cancer and was dying, and the damned pharmacies around here would not fill her doctors script. I don’t condone killing oneself(as it isn't christian) but her note the police found said she was in so much pain and couldn't stand it anymore. She was a sweet old lady that I used to mow her lawn when I was growing up and...

Maine Drug Enforcement Agency agents revealed yesterday that EBT cards (debit cards that are loaded with funds for welfare programs, like SNAP and TANF) are being used as currency to buy drugs. In the past 11 months, MDEA agents have found 40 EBT cards in 25 drug enforcement operations.

One of the men charged in the murder of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry pleaded guilty to one count of murder, Monday morning. Once a potential candidate for the death penalty after the murder of the agent, the drawn up plea deal now states that the U.S. and the defendant will ask for 360 months imprisonment, with credit for time served since his arrest in October 2012. The Justice Department indicted Rosario Rafael Burboa Alvarez last summer in connection with the killing. Alvarez was identified as the recruiter for the rip-off crew that ran into Terry's elite BORTAC unit...

More than a dozen senior Drug Enforcement Administration agents who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan as military reservists claim their bosses within the law enforcement agency ridiculed their service, assigned them to jobs their war injuries made especially difficult -- and, in one case, allegedly planted a cellphone in an agent's car to track his movements and record conversations.

More than a dozen senior Drug Enforcement Administration agents who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan as military reservists claim their bosses within the law enforcement agency ridiculed their service, assigned them to jobs their war injuries made especially difficult -- and, in one case, allegedly planted a cellphone in an agent's car to track his movements and record conversations. The agents, who have filed a formal complaint with a federal watchdog agency over allegations that date back more than a decade, believe they were singled out from other veterans within the agency because their duties caused staffing problems, according to...

He was part of the team that helped put one of Mexico's most violent drug lords behind bars – the same one who escaped from a Mexican maximum-security prison over the weekend. Tuesday, KOB talked to Michael Vigil, a former DEA agent from New Mexico who investigated Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman for years. Vigil says Guzman's escape is not good for the U.S., especially our state. He says Guzman wants to push out the Juarez Cartel and push more heroin through New Mexico. "Chapo Guzman has taken over that area and he controls most of the routes into the United...