Free Republic

CORPUS CHRISTI — A day after learning of the arrest of a former Corpus Christi resident involved in an alleged international terror plot to assassinate an ambassador, local and federal authorities met to strengthen communications. When federal agents announced Tuesday they had arrested Mansour Arbabsiar, 56, it was the first local authorities had heard about the case, said Sheriff Jim Kaelin. Arbabsiar had previous arrests in Nueces County during nearly 20 years living in the area. That meant arrest records and personal details were on file in the county's warehouse. But no one from any federal agency ever asked for...

The two Navy SEALs who went missing off the coast of Somalia last week were helping seize Iranian weapons bound for the Houthis, the US said in a statement on Tuesday. The Navy SEALs carried out a "complex boarding" of a dhow, operating out of the USS Lewis B. Puller and assisted by helicopters and unmanned aerial drones, CENTCOM said. (excerpt) Among what was seized were propulsion, guidance, and warheads for medium-range ballistic missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles, as well as air-defense-associated components, it said. (excerpt) The Associated Press earlier reported, citing unnamed US officials, that the pair were climbing...

Commanders and advisors from Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are on the ground in Yemen and playing a direct role in Houthi rebel attacks on commercial traffic in the Red Sea. The IRGC has stationed missile and drone trainers and operators in Yemen, as well as personnel providing tactical intelligence support to the Houthis, U.S. and Middle East officials told Semafor. The IRGC, through its overseas Qods Force, has also overseen the transfer to the Houthis of the attack drones, cruise missiles, and medium-range ballistic missiles used in a string of strikes on Red Sea and Israeli targets in...

Mexican authorities are bracing for more border violence in the coming days as rival cartels fight for lucrative smuggling routes. In recent weeks, cartel gunmen killed more than 15 innocent victims and a dozen rivals. The most violent shootout took place Tuesday morning when gunmen from the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas rolled into Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas (West of McAllen Texas, across from Roma), and clashed with members of the Gulf Cartel. While the shootout took place under cover of darkness, by daylight residents reported the discovery of nine bodies strewn along a highway leading into the city....

In May 2011, discussions began secretly in Mexico between a known Los Zetas associate and Quds Force operative Manssor Arbabsiar. The discussion would lead to planning a C-4 detonation at a Washington, D.C. restaurant frequented by Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir. The Quds Force operative did not know that he was being recorded in a DEA operation. Over the course of a few months, several clandestine meetings in Mexico planned strikes against the Israeli Embassy in Washington, plus and the Saudi and Israeli Embassies in Argentina. New opium trafficking lanes between the Middle East and Mexico were also charted. In July...

RIO BRAVO, Texas — Chaos erupted in a small Texas border town as Los Zetas smugglers launched a complex smuggling operation. Border Patrol agents responded to an illegal crossing that quickly tied up agency resources in the area, enabling smugglers to move higher-value cargo elsewhere. What had only moments earlier been a quiet neighborhood became a scene of chaos as Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents and a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine Operations (AMO) helicopter aircrew leaped into action following the illegal crossing of a few migrants. Agents captured at least one in the presence of...

An ambush by gunmen from a faction of Los Zetas killed one Mexican soldier and injured two others in Nuevo Laredo. Three attackers working for a convicted terrorist also died in the incident just south of Laredo, Texas. Mexican military officials have not released any information on the attack, however unofficial sources with direct knowledge revealed to Breitbart News the attack took place along the highway that connects Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey. Moving in various SUVs, a team of gunmen with the Cartel Del Noreste (CDN) faction of Los Zetas attacked a convoy of soldiers patrolling the streets of Nuevo...

A verified and convicted terrorist who attacked a U.S. Consulate with a grenade and automatic rifle fire has taken over the ruthless Los Zetas cartel, a group headquartered at the Texas border in the Nuevo Laredo-Laredo metropolitan border area. Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, sits immediately across the border from Laredo, Texas, and is the only urban location along the entire U.S.-Mexico Border that does not have any fencing or constructed security barrier of any kind. The convicted terrorist, Hector Raul Luna Luna, is known as “El Tory” and was convicted in the 2008 terror attack on the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey,...

Despite the capture of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the criminal group continues to export "wholesale" quantities of methamphetamine, marijuana, cocaine, heroin and fentanyl through crossing points located along the Mexican-California border: AZ, NM, and W. Texas.... the Sinaloa cartel "maintains an international expansionary footprint" in comparison with other groups, says the Drug Control Administration (DEA) in its annual report on drug trafficking which was published this Friday. SINALOA- continues to export "wholesale" amounts of methamphetamine, marijuana, cocaine, heroin and fentanyl through crossing points located along the Mexican border .... These drugs are distributed in cities such as Chicago, Phoenix, Los...

"Betrayed." Victor Avila is a survivor. Soft-spoken but iron-willed, he dedicated his life to law enforcement and to his country. Yet, the feds are now fighting tooth and nail to bury the full truth about the 2011 ambush by Los Zetas drug cartel thugs in Mexico that left him gravely wounded and his partner, special agent Jaime Zapata, dead. This week, two of the Mexican gangsters convicted in the horror on Highway 57 between Mexico City and Monterrey were sentenced to double life terms in prison. "HSI Special Agents Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila were in Mexico to protect and...

An alleged member of one of the most violent Mexican drug cartels was found in an American sanctuary city and turned over to Mexican officials on Tuesday. Coahuila state police officers traveled to the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo where they took custody of Juan Rafael “El Cubano” Arredondo Oviedo. U.S. authorities arrested Arredondo, a “foot soldier” in the Los Zetas Mexican drug cartel, at an immigration court in Chicago, Illinois, a sanctuary city, where he sought to be a protected as a witness from the Los Zetas cartel who he said is going to kill him.

For a few years, a wide-spread effort by the Mexican military to arrest or kill cartel leaders, most notably Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, seemed to be making progress. But as Cartels began to fight for the territory of military-weakened rivals, the homicide rate once again exploded. Now, a disturbing video shows the extreme length that participants in the emerging all-out gang war will go to retain or take power. The graphic video shows two Los Zetas gunmen insulting rival gangs behind a shirtless, kneeling man. The gunmen claim that their victim is part of a rival gang who was sent...

U.S. authorities on Monday said the vice president of Venezuela was an international drug trafficker and slapped severe sanctions on him. The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said Tareck El Aissami has played a "significant role in international narcotics trafficking," a news release said. "OFAC's action today is the culmination of a multi-year investigation under the Kingpin Act to target significant narcotics traffickers in Venezuela and demonstrates that power and influence do not protect those who engage in these illicit activities," said John Smith, acting director of OFAC. El Aissami, who was appointed vice president of Venezuela...

The banking giant HSBC "knowingly" provided support to four of Mexico's most notorious drug cartels by laundering their money and providing material support to terrorists, according to a new lawsuit filed by four families. The papers filed in U.S. District Court in Brownsville, Texas, on Tuesday say that laundering drug money made it possible for the cartels to operate. "HSBC's substantial and systemic money laundering support materially aided the activities of the Mexican cartels, including the Sinaoloa, Juárez, and Los Zetas cartels," court documents read.

A video leaked to Breitbart Texas by Mexican law enforcement shows a man being interrogated by cartel gunmen moments before his execution. The video revealed a dire warning about upcoming violence in this border city. The violence comes as two rival factions of the Los Zetas Cartel, the Cartel Del Noreste (CDN) and the Vieja Escuela Z (Old School Z)/Grupo Bravo have been at war for more than seven months. During their struggle, the Tamaulipas capital of Ciudad Victoria has been ground Zero for daily executions, regular beheadings, shootouts, drive by shootings and other acts of violence that have spread...

(Too long title: Mexican Drug Cartel Slaughters Three Hundred People, They Take The Victims, Murder Them And Burn Their Bodies To Nothing But Chard Pieces Of Human Flesh) In the El Limón Rance, which lies in the Mexican state of Veracruz, in the town of Tlalixcoyan, almost three thousand fragments of human corpses were discovered, leading investigators to believe that around three hundred bodies were buried on this very spot. The three thousand human remains were found after three days of investigation by forensic experts. The investigation was launched after locals began to make reports on the bodies to authorities....

Mexican drug cartels continue to fascinate the minds of Americans who tend to idolize outlaw gunmen with fast cash, fancy cars, guns and women. However, few realize that Mexican drug cartels are as ruthless and sadistic as Middle Eastern terror groups like ISIS with whom they actually have many tactics in common. For most in America, the closest they have come to a drug cartel is the small-time drug peddler in the street corner, the glamorous TV shows, or the Mexican narco-ballads. However, taking a step back and looking at their entire structure, and how those drugs got from...

Authorities have confirmed that one gunman has been wounded and that five kidnapping victims have been rescued following a Wednesday afternoon shootout in a busy downtown Reynosa shopping district. Mexico's Ministry of National Defense (SEDENA) confirmed that a shootout took place in the "peatonal" or "pedestrian shopping area" of downtown Reynosa on Wednesday afternoon. SEDENA officials reported that soldiers were in the area when they came under fire from an unknown number of men. Reynosa residents reported the gunfire on the social media network Twitter. SEDENA officials reported that shootout ended with one gunman being wounded and five alleged kidnapping...

A Mexican drug cartel known for kidnapping random civilians and beheading its rivals has expanded its operations into the U.S. The gang known as Los Zetas is recruiting U.S. prison and street gangs, and non-Mexicans, for its drug trafficking and support operations in Mexico and the U.S. An FBI intelligence bulletin notes that “multiple sources” reported the shift in Los Zetas recruiting. The cartel sought to maintain a highly disciplined and structured hierarchy by recruiting members with specialized training, such as former military and law enforcement officers. “The FBI judges with high confidence that Los Zetas will continue to increase...

"Lebanese Canadian Bank to Pay $102 Million in Hizballah Laundering Case" SNIPPET: "The Beirut-based Lebanese Canadian Bank ("LCB") will pay $102 million as part of a settlement reached this week with federal prosecutors. The LCB was accused in a December 2011 complaint of funneling money to the Lebanese terrorist group Hizballah as part of a global money-laundering scheme. The "settlement shows that banks laundering money for terrorists and narco-traffickers will face consequences for their actions, wherever they may be located. This type of money laundering network fuels the operations of both terrorists and drug traffickers, and will continue to use...