Free Republic

1. The arrestWhen the Cienfuegos family landed at Los Angeles International Airport on Oct. 15, 2020, they looked excited and maybe a bit relieved. With the pandemic still ravaging Mexico, they had come to vacation in Southern California. Arranging such a visit wasn’t a problem, even on short notice: The patriarch, retired Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, had made powerful American friends during his six years as Mexico’s defense minister. When he needed a favor — like visas for his wife, daughters and granddaughters — he could still call someone at the Pentagon or the C.I.A. But as the family approached...

“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 arrest of Mexico’s former defense minister, retired Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos, on drug and money laundering charges shakes one of the few Mexican institutions that had maintained the confidence of the people. Cienfuegos was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport Thursday at the request of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. He had been Mexico’s top military official during the presidency of Enrique Peña Nieto from 2012 to 2018. On Friday, López Obrador said Cienfuegos’ arrest was “regrettable.” He said he had been told that the charges against Cienfuegos would be announced in the United States Friday afternoon, but he confirmed...