Free Republic

The state of Oklahoma is planning to execute death row inmates with drugs intended for use on animals. Lawmakers want to switch away from the only brand of anaesthetic that has been used in the US for lethal injections because there is not enough to go around. The replacement is likely to attract controversy because it is currently used by vets to anesthetise animals for operations. Other states are watching closely and may well follow suit, but such a move is likely to face a challenge from human rights groups to ensure that it is safe to use.

Mexican authorities confirmed that Ezequiel "Tony Tormenta" Cardenas Guillen—one of the two leaders of the Gulf Cartel and a pivotal figure in recent border drug wars—was killed in a shootout in Matamoros Friday. Violence across the city throughout the day left at least 47 others dead, including a reporter for a Matamoros newspaper, sources with knowledge of the situation said. Three of Cardenas Guillen’s aides, or bodyguards, also were killed, according to Alejandro Poire, spokesman for the Mexican government. He gave no other information other than confirming the death of Cardenas Guillen and his aides. Two Mexican soldiers also were...

The state of Arizona executed a convicted murderer on Tuesday night despite objections from attorneys that the state would use a non-approved drug from overseas for the lethal injection. Just hours before Jeffrey Landrigan's death, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to lift a stay issued by a federal judge to halt the execution. "There is no evidence in the record to suggest that the drug obtained from a foreign source is unsafe," the Supreme Court said Due to a U.S. shortage, the state turned to a non-FDA approved drug. It was later revealed that the source was the U.K., although...

Well armed and trained assassins are loose in the United States. Can you guess who they are? If you are thinking al-Quida, Hezbullah, or perhaps home grown terrorists – try again. Would you be that surprised to find out that they are drug smuggling Mexicans cartel members! A few weeks ago I wrote an article detailing the growing threat of Mexican drug cartels. After showing the evidence of the gangs’ escalating aggressiveness and violence leaving a body count now totally to over 27,000 dead since 2006 I posed the question “do Mexican drug cartels pose a greater threat” to the...

Sinaloa cartel exploiting Tijuana corridor "unimpeded"The Examiner reported that Mexico's largest-ever seizure of marijuana packaged for sale is even bigger than the original estimate of 105 tons and probably belonged to the country's most powerful drug-trafficking cartel, authorities said Tuesday. The Sinaloa cartel run by Mexico's most wanted fugitive, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, now is moving drugs through the Tijuana corridor "unimpeded," said a U.S. law enforcement official in Mexico, a possible reason why violence has dropped in the city across the border from San Diego, California, since a bloody peak in 2008... Mexican soldiers and police grabbed the U.S.-bound...

Mexican drug cartels are like a malignant cancer that keeps on spreading. Mexico has spent billions of dollars on its drug war to combat the power and influence of the cartels, but when you look at the statistics it seems as if little progress has been made. Considering the dramatic impact cartels have on the United Sates, America should consider if securing our border is as important to our national security as is the war we are fighting in Afghanistan. Mexico’s war on drugs has been ongoing since 2006, but the problem keeps getting bigger each year. So does the...

US authorities and outraged Texans are pondering a plan of action to deal with Mexican pirates after a US jet skier was shot Thursday and his fleeing wife chased onto the US side of a border lake. The shooting on Falcon Lake, part of the Rio Grande watershed near Zapata, Texas, follows a months-long surge in attacks by drug-cartel-linked pirates on US boaters who have crossed into Mexican waters. It is the first instance in which an American has been hurt. "Piracy on Falcon Lake is an incredible story, especially when Somali piracy has been so much in the news,"...

10 Years Later, Abortion Drug Has Killed One Million Children, Hurt Women Washington, DC -- This weekend marked the tenth anniversary of the Clinton administration approving the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug that has taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of unborn children and hurt women. The drug has killed at least eight women in the United States and dozens around the world. http://LifeNews.com/nat6729.html

PITTSBURGH -- A Dan Onorato campaign worker is facing felony drug charges after she was arrested at a campaign office in Lawrenceville. Lauren Lynn McDonnel was charged with felony conspiracy to manufacture drugs. Police said they found 28 marijuana plants in the basement of her home on Belgreen Place in Oakland. State trooper and U.S. Postal inspectors searched the house after smelling a strong odor of marijuana coming out of the front door, police said. Investigators said they were initially called to the house to track a package from Los Angeles that police said contained 12 ounces of marijuana. McDonnell...

Scientists today hailed the 'end game' in the battle to understand the causes of cancer and how to treat it. In a dramatic breakthrough compared to the discovery of penicillin, doctors have successfully trialled a drug that uses genetic data to target specific tumours. Professor Mark Stratton, the head of the Cancer Genome Project, today said that researchers had reached a 'remarkable moment' in the fight against the disease. 'We have the potential to sequence cancer genomes in their thousands and tens of thousands to find all the mutations within them,' he told Radio 4's Today programme. 'We have entered...

WASHINGTON (AP)—Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is likening the federal government to a drug dealer. In an interview Thursday with Fox News' "Your World With Neil Cavuto," Pawlenty defended his order that seeks to limit his state's participation in the new health care overhaul law that makes available funds for states to try new medical models. The potential 2012 Republican presidential contender said it would be wrong to take the money. "Instead of all just running around saying, 'We'll take the money because it's free money,' let's call it what it is: The federal government is basically a drug dealer trying...

WASHINGTON -- Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty is likening the federal government to a drug dealer. In an interview Thursday with Fox News' "Your World With Neil Cavuto," Pawlenty defended his order that seeks to limit his state's participation in the new health care overhaul law that makes available funds for states to try new medical models. The potential 2012 Republican presidential contender said it would be wrong to take the money. "Instead of all just running around saying, 'We'll take the money because it's free money,' let's call it what it is: The federal government is basically a drug dealer...

U.S. diplomats at the Consulate General in Monterrey, Mexico, will no longer be allowed to bring their children with them, the State Department said today, citing increased violence and kidnapping in the area. “U.S. government personnel from the Consulate General in Monterrey have been advised that the immediate, practical and reliable way to reduce the security risks for children of U.S. Government personnel is to remove them from the city,” states a new Travel Warning issued today. The new restrictions follow a shootout that broke out last Friday in front of the American Foundation School in Monterrey in an apparent...

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – A gunbattle erupted between Mexican police and gunmen near the Rio Grande on Saturday, killing one person and prompting U.S. authorities to close a highway that runs along the border in El Paso, Texas. There were no reports of bullets crossing into the U.S. side, El Paso police Detective Mike Baranyay said. The gunmen attacked a municipal police patrol on a boulevard in Ciudad Juarez next to the border river, said Ramon Salinas, a spokesman for Mexico's federal police. The fighting escalated when federal police rushed to help, he said. One gunman was killed and three...

MONTERREY, Mexico—A surge of drug violence in Mexico's business capital and richest city has prompted an outcry from business leaders who on Wednesday took out full-page ads asking President Felipe Calderón to send in more soldiers to stem the violence. The growing violence in Monterrey, long one of Mexico's most modern and safe cities, is a sign that the country's war against drug gangs is spreading ever further from poorer battlegrounds along the border and into the country's wealthiest enclaves.

MEXICO CITY – Investigators said Friday there was an explosive device aboard a car that blew up outside police headquarters in the border state of Tamaulipas, the second car-bomb attack against law enforcement in less than a month. Authorities are still working to determine what explosives were used, who planted the bomb and how it was detonated, according to a state police spokesman who was not authorized to be quoted by name. No one was hurt by Thursday's blast in a parking lot outside a police station near Ciudad Victoria, the state capital, but two police vehicles were damaged. On...

Individuals Allegedly Responsible for State and Federal Crimes, Including Murder, Kidnapping, Firearms and Drug-Trafficking Violations SAN DIEGO, July 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A criminal complaint was unsealed today charging 43 defendants with participating in a federal racketeering (RICO) conspiracy. The RICO conspiracy alleged in the complaint involves the commission of both state and federal crimes, including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, drug trafficking and money laundering offenses. As set forth in the complaint, the defendants are members and associates of the Fernando Sanchez Organization (FSO), an offshoot of the Arellano-Felix drug-trafficking...

The following is from a retired Border Patrol agent who specialized in criminal intelligence. If you choose to watch the video, please be warned that it is extremely graphic.

HERMOSILLO, Mexico — A massive gun battle between rival drug and migrant trafficking gangs near the U.S. border Thursday left 21 people dead and at least six others wounded, prosecutors said. The fire fight occurred in a sparsely populated area about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the Arizona border, near the city of Nogales, that is considered a prime corridor for immigrant and drug smuggling. The Sonora state Attorney General’s Office said in a statement that nine people were captured by police at the scene of the shootings, six of whom had been wounded in the confrontation. Eight vehicles and...

PHOENIX (KGUN9-TV) – Several Mexican men have been sentenced to 24 months in federal prison on drug charges. 29-year-old Antelmo Vega-Cristin of San Ignacio, Sinaloa, Mexico and 23-year-old Efrain Plata-Jimenez of Acaponeta, Nayaritt, Mexico were sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Paul G. Rosenblatt. The pair pleaded guilty on March 16, 2010, to importing more than 400 pounds of marijuana into the U.S. from Mexico. On November 12, 2009, Vega-Cristin, Plata-Jimenez and their co-defendants, Manuel Alberto Alvarado-Romero, Raymundo Nunez-Rodriguez, Tomas Payanez-Carrazco, Santana Ponce-Perez, and Jose Garcia-Angulo, were apprehended by Wellton Station Border Patrol agents as they made their way towards...