Free Republic

It’s snowing in August. Police executed the “largest cocaine seizure” in decades this week when they seized 580 pounds of the cartel-tied drugs stashed in a Long Island City storage unit, officials announced Friday. Nelson Salcedo, of Englewood, New Jersey, was arrested in the middle of moving the alleged $10 million in coke Wednesday in what cops say is tied to a wide-reaching drug trafficking scheme. “This was a massive shipment of narcotics, tied to an interstate trafficking network with connections across the country, including in New York and New Jersey. And because of the work of the investigators standing...

Penn State fraternity pledges were made to cut and package cocaine for a drug ring that was run out of two off-campus frat houses, authorities said. The illicit initiation was revealed Monday as Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday charged 14 people — including 13 current or former Penn State students — in connection with the alleged drug ring. The man accused of leading the operation, 24-year-old Agostino Abbatiello, surrendered on Tuesday after failing to appear for a scheduled arraignment on Monday on charges including possession with intent to deliver and conspiracy. He was ordered jailed without bail.A message seeking comment...

Ever since Prince Harry and his attention-seeking grifter of a wife, Meghan Markle, moved to the United States, many of us have half-jokingly wondered why we can't deport them right back to the United Kingdom. Well, Meghan is a U.S. citizen, so I guess we're stuck with her, but do we really need a deadbeat "royal" trust fund baby from Europe who does nothing but whine about how hard his privileged life has been? Didn't we rid ourselves of that 248 years ago? This "royal" couple serves absolutely no purpose at all outside of creating mediocre content, irritating anyone they...

BOGOTA, Colombia - Authorities captured a fugitive right-wing warlord Tuesday accused in massacres and of running a murderous criminal band involved in drug trafficking and extortion, officials said. Ever Veloza, one of the few top paramilitary bosses who fled into hiding rather than embrace a government peace deal, was arrested in the turbulent banana-growing Uraba region on the Caribbean coast, police said. Better known by his alias "Hernan Hernandez," Veloza once commanded the Banana and Calima blocs of the United Self-Defense Forces, known by its Spanish initials as AUC. The two blocs are blamed for hundreds of murders of human...

Russian soldiers are operating drones over Venezuela as part of a search operation for members of a paramilitary force that led a botched invasion this week, local media reported on Friday, citing deleted tweets from a state military command centre. At least eight Russian special forces members will be “operating drones to run search and patrol operations” near La Guaira, the coastal state just north of Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, according to a report from local news outlet El Nacional. It posted a screenshot of a tweet it said was later deleted on Thursday from the profile of the military command,...

Under Governor Abigail Spanberger, Virginia has become a hotbed of illegal alien crimeWASHINGTON – The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the following statement after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested an illegal alien who has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual battery in the death of a 2-year-old girl in Virginia.According to local reporting, the child’s mother took her to the Goochland County Sheriff’s Office on July 4. Deputies began life-saving measures to save the child, who was then taken to a local hospital, where she later died.The Louisa County Sheriff’s Department arrested Raul Genesis...

The Justice Department has announced charges in a “sophisticated” criminal operation that it says used high-powered drones to deliver weapons, drugs, cell phones and escape tools into prisons in east coast states. US Attorney Keyes the middle district of Georgia, Federal Bureau of Prisons and FBI investigators in Atlanta, say the rogue drone operation led out of a former daycare in Macon, Georgia where multiple drones were launched on covert missions to deliver the contraband by air to 10 federal prisons at night. “We’re here to announce the unsealing of an indictment that charges the most sophisticated and sprawling criminal...

The U.S. government is significantly ramping up its efforts to capture two high-ranking leaders of the MS-13 gang, offering a combined reward of up to $15 million for information leading to their arrest or conviction. The State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs announced the major cash incentives under the Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program. Specifically, authorities increased the reward to up to $10 million for Yulan Adonay Archaga Carías, a fugitive widely known by the alias “Porky.” A separate reward of up to $5 million is being offered for Víctor Eduardo Morales Zelaya, who goes by...

Federal immigration agents have nabbed more than 10,000 migrant gangbangers since the start of President Trump’s second term, the US Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday. The milestone, reached just a year and a half after Trump launched his sweeping mass deportations agenda, includes arrests tied to murder, assault with a deadly weapon, drug trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, robbery and extortion, according to DHS. “Many of these gang members were released into our country by Joe Biden,” said DHS Sec. Markwayne Mullin. “These vicious criminals murdered, assaulted, robbed, and terrorized innocent Americans for sport.” “Thanks to the Secure America Act, ICE...

Party drugs, cocaine most notably, are rampant in the Hamptons during the summer, when wealthy New Yorkers flee the city for the season. 'It's getting busier and it's getting more dangerous. Even when I walk along the streets now I am very cautious.' Residents told the Daily Mail that drinking and drug use is amplifying already risky driving conditions. Last month, a 23-year-old man was arrested on Springs Fireplace Road in East Hampton and charged with DUI and possession of cocaine. Officers described the man as visibly intoxicated, with bloodshot eyes and unsteady feet. On June 8, another man, 54,...

Two suspects were arrested at Camp Pendleton on Thursday after an unauthorized entry to the Marine base. After abandoning their vehicle, they fled on foot, which prompted a six-hour manhunt. According to the NCIS, the situation began when the two suspects entered the base, trying to avoid local law enforcement. It was reported that they abandoned the vehicle and were on foot. Authorities enacted a temporary shelter-in-place order to keep everyone on base safe. KTLA 5 Reported: A shelter-in-place order at Camp Pendleton was lifted after two suspects who breached the Marine base during a law enforcement pursuit were arrested...

Chris Toukonen apparently has a drug problem. He's also a teacher at Lely High School in Naples, Florida. Toukonen, 44, has a shiny new set of felony drug charges to add to his résumé, along with possession of narcotic paraphernalia. According to reports, administrators got wind of suspected drug use while Toukonen was alone in the classroom. They then searched his backpack, found cocaine and fentanyl, and called the Collier County Sheriff's Office. Deputies showed up, investigated, and hauled him off to jail. No other drugs were found in his classroom or his vehicle on campus. Look at those pinpoint...

CLOVERDALE, Ind. (WISH) — Police arrested a 27-year-old man from California in Putnam County Monday morning after police found 392 pounds of cocaine in his trailer. Indiana State Police say a trooper conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle that was speeding eastbound on I-70 near Cloverdale. During the stop the trooper “observed multiple criminal indicators” from the driver, Harmandeep Singh.

An international fugitive was arrested in Dubai this week following a years-long manhunt. Daniel Kinahan, the alleged leader of one of Ireland’s biggest criminal gangs, the Kinahan cartel, was arrested on organized crime charges on Wednesday in a covert operation involving Irish and United Arab Emirates authorities. The 48-year-old alleged crime boss is expected to face charges in Ireland related to a gangland feud between the Kinahan cartel and the Hutch gang that has left 18 people dead since 2015. Dubai police didn’t name Kinahan, saying they had “arrested an Irish fugitive for his alleged role in an organized criminal...

Hunter Biden has quietly pulled up stakes and left the country amid claims he is $17 million in debt and living overseas, the Daily Mail can reveal. The disclosure came in a new legal filing submitted by his attorney Barry Coburn on April 6, in Washington DC, where the first son is being sued by his former attorneys at Winston & Strawn. The court filing bluntly states 'Mr Biden lives abroad', and argues that the former First Son 'cannot afford' to pay off his outstanding legal fees

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers discovered more than $6.8 million worth of cocaine hidden inside a Valentine’s rose shipment at the Texas-Mexico border. The massive drug bust at Laredo’s World Trade Bridge on February 10 yielded approximately 516 pounds of cocaine concealed among fresh flowers. Officials reported the haul contained enough cocaine for roughly 190,000 lethal doses. A CBP officer flagged the tractor-trailer for secondary inspection after it arrived at the crossing. The driver had declared the cargo as roses and fresh flowers. Officers deployed a canine team and non-intrusive imaging technology during their search. They discovered 211 packages...

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is going viral after saying on a podcast that he “used to snort cocaine off of toilet seats,” while discussing his decades-long recovery from addiction. Kennedy made the comments Thursday during an appearance on comedian Theo Von’s eponymous show, This Past Weekend w/Theo Von. Reflecting on more than 40 years of sobriety, Kennedy described the daily commitment he says has kept him in recovery. “We’ve been in recovery together for years,” Kennedy said, noting that he and Von first met at early-morning recovery meetings before the COVID-19...

A Portland man is facing criminal charges after police say he left two young children at home for several minutes to make a fast food run. According to court documents, Portland Police responded to a welfare check at the Columbia Park Annex on North Lombard on Tuesday evening. Officers found a 3-year-old boy outside dressed in a shirt, shorts, and socks standing near neighbors. The neighbors said he had thrown up and was frequently coughing. The boy was able to lead officers to where he lived which was a few blocks away in the 7000 block North Dwight Avenue. Police...

Rand Paul made his name as a gadfly preaching about the dangers of a tyrannical federal government. Now, after the killings of two Minnesota residents at the hands of Homeland Security agents, the Kentucky Republican has a chance to do something about it. The 63-year-old, who spent years on the outskirts of the party, is now at the center of the Senate’s response to the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, which have sparked new criticism of the administration’s immigration enforcement policies and raised many of the same civil liberties questions Paul has long been asking. As chair of...

➡️ Hezbollah established a presence in Colombia by leveraging the large Lebanese diaspora and the country's civil conflict, initially for recruitment and fundraising before expanding into a vast transnational criminal network. ➡️ The group's operations are primarily financed by cocaine trafficking, forging a key transactional alliance with FARC and FARC dissident groups in exchange for arms, training, and money laundering facilities. ➡️ Hezbollah's deep criminal nexus in Colombia, bolstered by Iranian ties and a weak security apparatus, increases its capacity to conduct hybrid warfare and carry out asymmetric attacks against U.S. and Israeli interests. Lebanon’s brutal civil war triggered waves...