Free Republic

At airports across the U.S., Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents confront flyers as they are boarding flights and ask to search carry-on items. These interactions are supposed to be consensual. But flyers often get the impression that they have no choice but to submit to a search. IJ currently has a class action lawsuit against the DEA and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) over their unconstitutional searches and seizures at U.S. airports. Learn more about IJ's work protecting America’s foundational rights—including the right to be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures: https://ij.org/issues/ijs-project-on-...

HONOLULU (KHON2) -- Drug cartels from Mexico are operating in Hawaii, making and pushing deadly drugs including methamphetamines and fentanyl. New tougher penalties akin to murder charges are aiming to take them down. Authorities told KHON2 that the big cartels are ramping up business not just south of the border but right here in our island state. The top federal law enforcement official in Hawaii warns of the dangers not just to drug users, but to drug pushers once caught. Authorities have seen a big shift in recent years to Hawaii’s most dangerous drugs methamphetamine and fentanyl especially coming mostly...

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump plans to announce at the Libertarian National Convention on Saturday that he intends to commute "Silk Road" website operator Ross Ulbricht's life in prison sentence, according to a source familiar with the matter. Ulbricht was sentenced to life in federal prison in 2015 for creating and operating a hidden website known as the "Silk Road" that people used to buy and sell drugs, among other illegal goods and services. Many libertarians have called for Ulbricht's release. At the convention on Saturday, the crowd was filled with "free Ross" signs and took up chants in...

A DEA agent accused of killing a cyclist in Salem while on duty had his case presented before a federal appeals court today in Seattle. At the center of today’s hearing was whether the agent could claim immunity from state prosecution because he was an on-duty federal agent. On March 28, 2023, Marganne Allen was riding her bike home from work in southeast Salem. Video from that day shows a black pickup truck running a stop sign moments before striking and killing the cyclist.

EXCLUSIVE — Newly released details about a controversial mass surveillance program shed light on the pitfalls of government data acquisition programs as Congress debates reauthorizing a crucial statute. The Drug Enforcement Administration collected massive amounts of telephone records for 20 years before the program was shuttered amid the Edward Snowden revelations in 2013. A heavily redacted inspector general’s report into the program was released six years later, a more forthcoming version of which has been obtained by the Washington Examiner. While the Office of the Inspector General exists to provide oversight of government agencies, among the new details of the...

Stephen Lara sued after the Nevada Highway Patrol took his life savings without charging him with any crime.. RENO, Nev.—On Thursday, the Second Judicial District Court for the State of Nevada denied the state’s motion to dismiss a Marine veteran’s lawsuit challenging the state’s civil forfeiture laws, after his life savings were taken through the controversial process nearly three years ago. Thursday’s decision means Stephen Lara, represented by the Institute for Justice (IJ), can continue his legal challenge to the state’s forfeiture scheme, which allows police to take people’s property without showing that they committed a crime. “The court’s ruling...

A federal narcotics agent accused of blowing through a stop sign and hitting and killing a bicyclist while on a surveillance mission in Salem has successfully moved the criminal case from state to federal court. In federal court, he can assert immunity from prosecution on the criminal charge of negligent homicide, a defense not available to him in state court. Lawyers for the state objected to removing the case from Marion County Circuit Court. They argued that the agent’s alleged “grossly negligent actions” were not a necessary part of his federal law enforcement work. U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane...

Attorney John Thaler joined Brannon Howse with former Arizona State Representative Mark Finchem Friday night on Lindell TV to explain the alleged phony mortgage and real estate transaction scam used by the Sinaloa Cartel to bribe elected officials and control the state of Arizona. The Sinaloa Cartels and the treasonous Americans who work with them are destroying our country by flooding Arizona with dangerous drugs and crime. The Gateway Pundit reported that Tempe Police seized over 30 million lethal doses of fentanyl. In 2022, the DEA nationwide seized over 50.6 million deadly fentanyl-laced fake prescription pills and over 10,000 pounds...

The Drug Enforcement Administration recently sponsored an event for its Washington, D.C., headquarters employees at a bar and restaurant that largely caters to LGBTQ+ customers, to help the agency get what it described as "an understanding and perception of gay social culture" and that also was to include a drag show presentation. The agency's Equal Employment Opportunity Office led the effort. The event was held June 26 at Freddie's Beach Bar and Restaurant – a self-described "LGBTQ+, straight-friendly restaurant and bar" in northern Virginia, about a mile from agency headquarters. While the "woke" movement appears to be going strong in...

A senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary committee is demanding that U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram address allegations of improper hiring and contracting of her past associates. The request Thursday by Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa follows an Associated Press investigation finding that a federal watchdog is investigating whether strict federal rules on no-bid contracting and hiring may have been violated to channel DEA work to Milgram’s associates. “These are serious allegations, and DEA must respond to them and clear the air,” Grassley wrote in a letter sent to Milgram’s office, a copy of which was obtained by...

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador harshly criticized the U.S. government over an ongoing investigation into the Sinaloa Cartel. The president stated U.S. authorities not only sent informants into the criminal organization but also tapped the communications of military forces and their response to cartels. “An abusive intrusion, prepotent, that should not be accepted under any motive,” Lopez Obrador said during his morning news conference claiming he had not been told about any investigation.

"Death and destruction are central to their whole operation," DEA chief Anne Milgram Milgram said Friday, calling the Chapitos and the global network they operate "a network that fuels violence and death on both sides of the border." El Chapo, the Sinaloa cartel's founder, is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado after being convicted in 2019 on charges including drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons-related offenses. In January, El Chapo sent an "SOS" message to Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, alleging that he has been subjected to "psychological torment" in prison.

The Biden administration’s Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) chief is under investigation for allegedly handing no-bid contracts worth millions of dollars to previous colleagues, The Associated Press reported Thursday, citing sources familiar with the probe. The Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General is conducting the investigation after at least a dozen employees, including some of DEA Administrator Anne Milgram’s previous associates, were hired under the contracts, according to the AP. One portion of the probe centers around $4.7 million for “strategic planning and communication” contracts handed to Milgram’s previous colleagues from the New Jersey attorney general’s office and at New York...

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador accused the Pentagon of spying on Mexico’s government, vowing to safeguard classified military information to protect its national security after a spate of documents leaked in U.S. media. During his daily press briefing on Tuesday, Obrador said the Pentagon targeted Mexico several days after the leaked information exposed alleged tensions between Mexico’s Navy and the Army, according to The Washington Post. “We are going to take care of the information from Semar and Sedena because we are being spied on by the Pentagon, and many media outlets are leaking information that the [Drug Enforcement...

Researchers hope the vaccine, which blocked the drug from entering rats’ brains, could help reduce overdoses in humansDrug overdose fatalities soared to a record high during the early Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, deaths from overdoses in the United States rose to 91,799, a 30 percent spike from the previous year. Researchers say synthetic opioids such as fentanyl are partially responsible. These drugs were involved in more than half all fatal overdoses in 2020. More than 150 people die every day from synthetic opioids. “Fentanyl is killing Americans at an unprecedented rate,” Anne Milgram, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said...

A former DEA agent who played a major role in bringing notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout to justice more than a decade ago believes that Russia got the upper hand in the Brittney Griner prisoner swap — and that the US may end up paying a heavy price for it. “I’m kind of in disbelief that someone with the potential to orchestrate arms deals that can kill Americans anywhere in the world would be traded for a prisoner,” Tom Pasquarello told Yahoo! Sports just hours after Bout was exchanged for Griner in Abu Dhabi. Bout, 56, dubbed the “Merchant of...

Bout is alleged to have fueled multiple conflicts across the globe through arms dealing, sometimes to both sides ... A senior defense official is concerned that convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, the "Merchant of Death" .. could go back to illegally trafficking weapons, thereby fueling deadly conflicts around the world. "I think there is a concern that he would return to doing the same kind of work that he's done in the past.. Bout was in the middle of serving a 25-year prison sentence in a U.S. prison for several offenses, including conspiring to kill Americans ... Bout, a...

As he enters prison, a disgraced former DEA agent who lived a decadent double life has claimed his own crimes were the tip of the iceberg... ...In interviews with the Associated Press, Irizarry, who recently began a 12-year prison sentence, has claimed that corruption is endemic in the powerful US drug agency... ...Irizarry claimed to the Associated Press that dozens of other agents joined in with his debauchery, and that they deliberately tailored drug operations so that they could visit party hotspots...

Disclaimer: This shocking information was given to The Gateway Pundit this weekend. We decided to report this news and will post an update following Tuesday’s press conference. The Washington, D.C. lobbyist who has been on the hunt for Seth Rich’s killer found a “credible” witness who will identify the two men he believes murdered the DNC staffer. Jack Burkman, a Washington-based attorney and lobbyist who has worked with a private investigative team to solve the Seth Rich murder mystery, told The Gateway Pundit that the witness has conclusive evidence that will bring Rich’s killers to justice within a month. “We...

If there’s a candidate for elected office more honest, ethical, and authentic than Joe O’Dea, we’d be surprised.Indeed, national journalists have called O’Dea one of the best candidates anywhere in the country. O’Dea’s an American success story, who is a rare blend of candor, decency and strength.The campaign by [Democrats] to smear the good name of Joe O’Dea — an honest man trying to do good for a country that badly needs balanced leadership — is misleading and wrong. ... Even traditional mainstream media at the New York Times, the Washington Post and NBC News have loudly condemned the smear...