Free Republic

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday said she would ask the United States to share the $15 billion it expects to extract from convicted Mexican drug lord Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada with her country's poor. Sinaloa drug cartel co-founder Zambada pleaded guilty in a New York court on Monday to murder and drug trafficking, particularly of fentanyl — a powerful narcotic responsible for tens of thousands of US overdose deaths annually. In pleading guilty, the 77-year-old avoided the possibility of the death penalty but still faces life imprisonment at a sentencing hearing due at a later date. As part of...

Cocaine is no worse for your health than the common glass of whiskey, claimed the president of Colombia — the world’s biggest producer and exporter of the illegal drug. In a first-of-its-kind, six-hour live broadcast ministerial meeting in the South American country, Colombian President Gustavo Petro argued that cocaine is only illegal because of global politics — further claiming that it can be consumed as casually as alcohol, according to a report. “Scientists have analyzed this. Cocaine is no worse than whiskey,” the 64-year-old president said, according to CBS News. It is not clear what analysis the president was referring...