Free Republic

Leftists have long held no qualms about assassination against their rivals, and in Colombia, where narcoterrorism is also a problem and left-narco alliances are common, it has started up again.. But at least we have a secretary of state who is wise to what's going on. This week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a high-level delegation to Bogota after a leading Colombian presidential candidate, conservative Sen. Miguel Uribe, died of his wounds in a June shooting by a criminal known as a 'sicario' or hitman who obviously had a sponsor. Rubio seems to know who that might be, though,...

There probably isn't a more useful policy aim for the U.S. than taking out Venezuela's socialist regime. President Trump has hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan illegal aliens, including many criminals who have wrought mayhem, to deported and sending back to a democracy will be a lot easier. Venezuela's regime has served as a useful catspaw to multiple anti-American dictators, including China's oligarchs, the Russian regime, and the Iranian mullahs to keep the U.S. in check, propping up the otherwise bankrupt regime in power to harass the U.S. They've threatened and attempted to destabilize their neighbors. And close to President Trump's...

Like his sugardaddy, Vladimir Putin, Venezuela's dictator, Nicolas Maduro, likes to take American hostages for use as bargaining chips. He's got a lot of them in his many dungeons. So surprise, surprise, he's traded a lot of them: According to ABC News:The more than 200 Venezuelan migrants who were deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador's mega-prison in March have left El Salvador to be sent to Venezuela as part of a prisoner swap that included Americans being held in Venezuela, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele announced on X. The deal included the release of 10 Americans held in...

The Caribbean has become a “powder keg” as U.S. warships steam off the coast of Venezuela, sparking a tense standoff. While Washington frames the deployment as a counter-narcotics operation, it’s a clear strategic signal to President Maduro, whose own provocations against Guyana and alignment with China and Russia have raised alarms.

There appears to be a fair amount of cooperation between China and some of the Central and South American drug cartels. We've known for some time now that China has been supplying cartels with fentanyl and other drugs and drug precursors. Now it appears as though some Chinese interests are actually laundering cartel money through the American financial system.Chinese networks are laundering billions of dollars in drug cartel cash through the U.S. financial system, according to a new report from the Treasury Department.Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said banks flagged about $312 billion in transactions from suspected Chinese money laundering...

Guadalajara, a World Cup site next year, lies in a cartel stronghold. As Trump considers attacking drug gangs, it offers a cautionary tale.Carmen Lucia Carrillo spotted her son immediately. Daniel was dressed in black, stretching his lanky frame over the cars, squirting soapy liquid. Handsome and outgoing, with a gap-toothed grin, he always did like to look sharp, even with a rag dangling from his back pocket. She had just bought him those jeans, from a trendy Mexican discount store, Beware of the Dog. A half-hour later, Daniel vanished. Two men — one carrying a pistol — grabbed him and...

First the scientists dress dead swine in clothes, then they dispose of the carcasses. Some they wrap in packing tape, others they chop up. They stuff the animals into plastic bags or wrap them in blankets. They cover them in lime or burn them. Some are buried alone, others in groups. Then they watch. The pigs are playing an unlikely role as proxies for humans in research to help find the staggering number of people who have gone missing in Mexico during decades of drug cartel violence. Families of the missing are usually left to look for their loved ones...

Esmeralda Ferrer Garibay, 32, her husband Roberto Carlos Gil Licea, 36, their 13-year-old son Gael Santiago, and seven-year-old daughter Regina were discovered dead in an abandoned grey Ford Ranger in Guadalajara, Jalisco, last FridayEsmeralda Ferrer Garibay, 32, her spouse Roberto Carlos Gil Licea, 36, their 13 year old lad Gael Santiago, and seven year old daughter Regina were found dead in a deserted grey Ford Ranger in Guadalajara, Jalisco, last Friday. Mexican authorities only confirmed the victims' identities yesterday. The family had moved to the Guadalajara metropolitan region for employment just months earlier. Roberto was involved in vehicle trading and...

Civil servants, housewives and retirees alike lined up in Venezuela's capital Caracas over the weekend as thousands volunteered to join the country's militia in case there is a U.S. invasion. President Nicolas Maduro called on citizens to respond to "outlandish threats" by the U.S. and sign up over the weekend to the Bolivarian Militia, a civilian corps linked to the South American country's armed forces. The show of force is also intended to send a message to Washington, which has issued a $50 million bounty for Maduro -- who is accused by the Trump administration of leading a drug cartel...

The U.S. Coast Guard achieved a milestone with the offload of a record 76,140 pounds of illicit narcotics, valued at $473 million, at Port Everglades on Monday. This marks the largest quantity of drugs offloaded in Coast Guard history. Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton’s crew offloaded approximately 61,740 pounds of cocaine and 14,400 pounds of marijuana, preventing an estimated 23 million potential lethal doses from reaching the United States.

BREAKING: President Trump and SecDef Pete Hegseth just sent out 3 United States Navy destroyers, joined by an attack submarine, near Venezuela to crack down on the cartels. The gloves are finally coming off.

Sinaloa is a Mexican state in northwest Mexico. To the west, it's the Pacific Ocean and to the east a couple of other states. The largest city is Culiacan, a city of about a million people and a place that most of us didn't hear much about until a famous cartel came into the news, i.e., the Sinaloa cartel. In recent days, bullets are flying in Sinaloa because the cartels are fighting each other for territory as well as angry over their leader’s capture. This is the story: August 10 was, for many in Mexico, a quiet Sunday like any...

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem temporarily relocated her personal residence as she’s facing an increase in threats against her and “vicious doxxing,” a department spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Friday. “Following the media’s publishing of the location of Secretary Noem’s Washington D.C. apartment, she has faced vicious doxxing on the dark web and a surge in death threats, including from the terrorist organizations, cartels, and criminal gangs that DHS targets. Due to threats and security concerns, she has been forced to temporarily stay in secure military housing,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. “Secretary Noem continues to pay rent for...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mexico sent 26 high-ranking cartel figures to the United States Tuesday in the latest major deal with the Trump administration as American authorities ratchet up pressure on criminal networks smuggling drugs across the border. Those handed over to U.S. custody include Abigael González Valencia, a leader of “Los Cuinis,” a group closely aligned with notorious cartel Jalisco New Generation or CJNG. Another defendant, Roberto Salazar, is wanted in connection to the 2008 killing of a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy. Other prominent figures have ties to the Sinaloa Cartel and other violent drug trafficking groups. The transfers...

President Trump has ordered the military to use force against the drug cartels that he designated as terrorist organizations on his first day in office.The New York Times reported the development this morning, a day after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that a reward for the arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro — also kingpin of the Cartel los Soles cartel — has doubled to $50 million dollars.Attacking the cartels was one of Trump’s key campaign promises. Border Czar Tom Homan said Trump would destroy them.DetailsNot yet published at the White House website, the “order provides an official basis...

The Mexican government thought it hard turned a corner in cooperating with the Trump administration on combating the cartels, having launched an aggressive crackdown of its own.President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico denied that the United States would use its military in Mexico on Friday, responding to news that President Trump had directed the Pentagon to target drug cartels that the United States considers terrorist organizations. “The United States is not going to come to Mexico with the military. We cooperate, we collaborate, but there is not going to be an invasion. That is ruled out, absolutely ruled out,” she said....

Even at this late date in the presidential race, a few things stand out to those who have followed Hillary Clinton's career as a Marxist sympathizer and greedy politician/foreign policy Conan "The Destroyer" type. It is the refusal of the mainstream media and even some of the conservative media, to really dig into her past and even open actions to see things that would greatly disturb an honest, educated person, namely her accepting large amounts of money from Organized Crime and her relationship with a woman who gave all appearances of being a Cuban propaganda asset at the least, and...

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – An average of 328 Mexican drones are coming within 500 meters of the U.S. border every day, raising concerns about the safety of border agents and whether dangerous drugs are coming into the country undetected. “Nearly every day transnational criminal organizations use drones to convey illicit narcotics and contraband across U.S. borders and to conduct hostile surveillance of law enforcement,” said Steven Willoughby, deputy director of the Department of Homeland Security’s counter-drone program.

DEL RIO, Texas (NewsNation) — Drug cartels are increasingly burglarizing American homes along the Texas border as immigration enforcement cuts into their human smuggling profits, law enforcement officials said. Several homes along the Rio Grande have been broken into in recent weeks, with the most recent victim losing more than $60,000 worth of valuables, including guns, jewelry and important documents. Frank Rivas discovered his waterfront home had been ransacked after Mexican nationals crossed the Rio Grande and stormed his property, according to officials. The burglars made off with a massive safe containing cash, weapons, collector’s items and his wife’s immigration...

On a daily basis, ICE officers battle protesters who oppose the enforcement of immigration law. These attacks are coming from multiple sources, and challenge not only the effectiveness of ICE, but endanger the agents’ lives. June 9 was the onset of the protests in Los Angeles, which are actually being funded by our tax dollars:Los Angeles descended into turmoil this weekend as left-leaning activist organizations, funded by taxpayer dollars, are believed to have intensified protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). What started as a relatively small demonstration opposing the Trump administration’s crackdown on criminal illegal immigrants rapidly escalated into...