Free Republic

Did the current administration “collude” with Russia? So far no evidence at all has emerged to support that hypothesis, but Politico’s Josh Meyer digs deep into another curious set of circumstances in the Obama White House and its own operations with a foreign power. Perhaps the media will start asking whether the previous administration colluded with Iran to let terrorists and drug dealers go free in order to score one of the worst deals ever in international relations. Before Barack Obama decided to pursue the nuclear deal with Iran, the DEA had a major operation called Project Cassandra. This operation...

A once-standout U.S. narcotics agent who used his badge to build a lavish lifestyle of expensive cars, parties on yachts and Tiffany jewels was sentenced to more than 12 years in federal prison Thursday for conspiring to launder money with a Colombian cartel. (SNIP) U.S. District Court Judge Charlene Honeywell in handing down her sentence expressed disgust with the DEA for its failings and said other agents corrupted by “the allure of easy money” also needed to be investigated.(SNIP) Dominguez has met with prosecutors for “endless hours” to provide information on the criminal activities of “fellow law-enforcement agents who initiated...

Federal agencies paid out at least $548 million to informants working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), in recent years, according to government audits. A few informants became millionaires, with some Amtrak and “parcel” delivery workers making nearly $1 million or more. Many informants were authorized to commit “crimes” with the permission of their federal handlers. In a four-year period, there were 22,800 crime authorizations (2011-2014). The FBI paid approximately $294 million (FY2012-2018), the DEA paid at least $237 million (FY2011-2015), and ATF paid...

When Martin Njoku saw opioid addiction devastate his West Virginia community, he felt compelled to help. This was the place he'd called home for three decades, where he'd raised his two girls and turned his dream of owning a pharmacy into reality. In 2016, after flooding displaced people in nearby counties, Njoku began dispensing buprenorphine to them and to local customers at his Oak Hill Hometown Pharmacy in Fayette County. WBUR is a nonprofit news organization and our coverage relies on your financial support. Please give today. Buprenorphine, a controlled substance sold under the brand names Subutex and Suboxone, is...

Authorities in the U.S. and Europe say they've coordinated on one of the largest dark web drug busts in history. The coordinated police operation, dubbed “Dark HunTor,” involved a large number of law enforcement agencies, including the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Europol, and various other U.S. entities, including the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Postal Service. So far, “HunTor” has resulted in the arrest of 150 people worldwide, as well as the seizure of some $31.6 million from both cash and digital currencies (aka Bitcoin and other cryptos). Police say that they have also seized approximately 234 kilograms of narcotics.......

A shooting at an Amtrak station in Tucson, Ariz., on Monday morning left one Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent dead and multiple law enforcement officers injured. The suspected shooter was also declared dead after exchanging fire with officers. ... ...Tucson Chief of Police Chris Magnus said the incident occurred around 8 a.m. at the train station in downtown Tucson... ...Several officers boarded the double-decker train and made contact with two individuals on the upper deck. While detaining one person, the second, described by Magnus as a Hispanic man in his 20s to 30s, took out a gun....

(CNN)The Drug Enforcement Administration said Thursday it made 810 arrests and seized more than 1.8 million fake pills during a two-month sweep to stem the flow of counterfeit medications containing the synthetic opioid fentanyl. The lethal tablets are fueling a surge in US drug-overdose deaths in recent years, and largely are trafficked from Mexico, where drug cartels produce the tablets from precursor chemicals imported from China,... ...DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said the agency is working to shut wide distribution networks selling tablets that look like name-brand prescription medications such as Xanax and Percocet. "DEA laboratory testing reveals that today, four...

Distributing and trafficking fentanyl to the United States is the “perfect tool” in the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) campaign of “unrestricted warfare” against the West, according to a former division head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).“They are not dropping bombs or putting armies on the ground in America, but they’re still killing Americans at record levels,” said Derek Maltz, former head of the Special Operations Division of the DEA, referring to the CCP’s plan to destabilize the country using unconventional forms of warfare.“They’re taking advantage of massive, addicted population in America.”Maltz’s warning comes as a new report found that...

As more information trickles out on the assassination of Haiti President Jovenel Moise, there are details that point to the issue of narcotics trafficking in South Florida and issues surrounding how the cartels use Haiti as a shipping and transportation transfer hub. That old investigative phrase of "follow the money," and who benefits from the death of Moise, will eventually reveal who did this and why. However, there are significant details available today that answer some of these questions while creating additional ones. It is reasonable to believe the United States government knows exactly what happened in Haiti, who is...

Gangs raided multiple police stations for weapons in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, in deadly attacks over the weekend as violence between armed groups flared, with intense conflict in one southern neighborhood forcing thousands to flee. The gangs have proliferated in the poorest country in the Americas over the past few years during a period of political unrest and growing economic misery. Armed groups increasingly outgun Haiti's security forces and fight with one another over territory. The United Nations said on Sunday it was "profoundly worried" about the impact of the growing violence on civilians, recalling similar incidents over the past year...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge Wednesday threatened to throw out the guilty plea of a veteran U.S. narcotics agent who conspired with a Colombian cartel money launderer — an unexpected twist that could derail one of the most egregious misconduct cases in the history of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. U.S. District Judge Charlene Edwards Honeywell was expected to sentence the disgraced agent, Jose I. Irizarry, but refused to do so over what she called a “totally unacceptable” legal dispute. “I have never seen anything like this,” Honeywell said, postponing the sentencing indefinitely. “I’m not even sure at...

The Biden administration wants to blame the border crisis on Trump, but the problem is much larger and more complex than that.The Biden administration would like you to know that, whatever is happening at the border, it’s not Joe Biden’s fault. It’s Donald Trump’s. White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said Sunday the historic surge of unaccompanied minors in recent months isn’t “because of a speech Joe Biden gave,” but “because of horrible conditions in El Salvador and Guatemala and Honduras.” Never mind that conditions in those countries have been horrible for at least the last five administrations. The...

As if our never-ending war on drugs hasn't already done enough damage (1), children are now in the cross-hairs. Counterfeit tablets of Adderall, a drug typically used to treat ADHD, containing high doses of pure methamphetamine are being seized in the Northeast, primarily in New Hampshire. Since children and teens primarily use Adderall, the manufacture of "Meth Adderall" pills is especially ghoulish. Feel free to blame the DEA for this latest debacle (2). The agency is responsible for the passage of a 2006 law that required the decongestant drug Sudafed to be labeled a controlled substance because its active ingredient,...

A former Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent says he was fired simply for being present at former President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 rally. Mark Ibrahim spoke with Fox News host and Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson about what happened to him after he attended the former president’s speech along with his brother, an FBI special agent. (RELATED: KRUTA: Tucker Was Right About The Military, And The Intentional Perversion Of His Point Endangers Americans) “There were thousands of Republicans, kind of garden variety Republicans, who went to hear Donald Trump speak near the White House on January 6th,” Carlson began. “Most...

A dual U.S.-Mexican citizen pleaded guilty today to willfully engaging in financial dealings with Mexican companies that had been identified as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). According to court documents, Jessica Johanna Oseguera Gonzalez, 34, of Guadalajara, Mexico, violated the criminal penalties of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (the Kingpin Act) by engaging in property transactions with six Mexican businesses that OFAC previously designated to be “specially designated narcotics traffickers.” These six businesses were so designated because they provided material support to the Mexican drug trafficking organization...

Judicial Watch Sues for Solyndra Records of Biden’s Chief of Staff Judicial Watch Continues Fight to Open Biden’s Hidden Senate Records Energy Department Leaves Nuclear Labs Vulnerable to Former Employees Mystery in Mena: The Death of a Patriot Judicial Watch Sues for Solyndra Records of Biden’s Chief of Staff Solyndra is one of the worst scandals of the Obama era – and Ron Klain , President Biden’s chief of staff, is right in the middle of it. The issue is fresh again given the new administration’s plans to fund more Solyndra-type companies with countless tax dollars. Solyndra is the...

“MS-13 is responsible for a wave of death and violence that has terrorized communities, leaving neighborhoods on Long Island and throughout the Eastern District of New York awash in bloodshed,” Acting U.S. Attorney Seth D. DuCharme said in a statement. More than a dozen of the highest ranking leaders of the notorious transnational gang MS-13 have been charged, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Earlier today, an indictment was unsealed in Central Islip, New York charging 14 of the world’s highest-ranking MS-13 leaders who are known today as the Ranfla Nacional, which operated as the Organization’s Board of Directors,...

The driver of a box truck that struck and killed five bicyclists on a stretch of Nevada highway last week, and told investigators he fell asleep at the wheel, had a high level of methamphetamine in his system, prosecutors said Wednesday. Jordan Alexander Barson, 45, of Kingman, Arizona, faces 12 felony charges, including driving under the influence and reckless driving, in a criminal complaint filed in Las Vegas. "Choices have consequences," Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said after a Las Vegas judge issued a warrant for Barson's arrest in the Dec. 10 crash on U.S. 95 between Boulder City...

If you’ve ever filled out a Form 4473, you’re familiar with the Question 11e: “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or other controlled substance?” In case you thought there was any ambiguity with regard to medical marijuana, you were wrong. Indeed, there is a warning in bold right underneath the question that clarifies: “Warning: The use or possession of marijuana remains unlawful under Federal law regardless of whether it has been legalized or decriminalized or for medicinal or recreational purposes in the state where you reside.” Regardless of what one...

Six months after the Drug Enforcement Administration stole $43,000 from Stacy Jones at a North Carolina airport, her lawyer, Dan Alban, received a letter from the aptly named Douglas Kash, a senior attorney in the DEA's Asset Forfeiture Section. "I am writing to inform you of the decision to return the above-referenced property," Kash said. While the DEA offered no explanation for its sudden benevolence, the reversal fit a pattern: Government bullies who use civil asset forfeiture laws to seize allegedly crime-tainted property from innocent people tend to back down when they encounter unexpected resistance. But because challenging a forfeiture...