Free Republic

A drug cartel in central Mexico has kidnapped 14 local residents, including four children, in apparent retaliation for an uprising by angry farmers earlier this month that killed 10 cartel gunmen, officials said. Farmers in the village of Texcaltitlán and a neighboring hamlet had apparently grown tired of cartel extortions. Armed only with sickles and hunting rifles, they chased down suspected gang members amid bursts of automatic gunfire on 8 December, hacking, shooting and burning them. Four villagers also died in the clash. Prosecutors said late on Wednesday that the cartel then abducted 14 people, including four children between the...

Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs’ Chief of Staff, Allie Bones, has resigned after working with Hobbs for four and a half years. She worked in her current role for five months. ... Kari Lake (R-Ariz.), Hobbs’ gubernatorial opponent in the 2022 election, shared her thoughts ... Everyone close to @katiehobbs is fleeing as fast as they can. Hobbs is a disaster. She's a sinking ship. I just hope she doesn't take our state down with her. ... She is the fourth member of Hobbs’ administration to resign within the first six months of the governor’s reign.

A Mexican cartel turned over five of its members and a written apology for the kidnapping and murder of American citizens. Four Americans crossed into Mexico from Brownsville, Texas last Friday. Their rented vehicle came under gunfire and they were taken by a faction of the Gulf cartel. Two of the Americans, Zindell Brown, and Shaeed Woodard, died. Eric Williams has a serious leg injury, and the lone woman, Latavia McGee. was left physically unharmed. The Americans traveled from South Carolina, though the rented vehicle had North Carolina license plates. A fifth American remained behind in Brownsville because she did...

If ever there were a face of innocence to haunt us as a victim of unthinkably cruel violence, it would be the beautiful and sweet visage of Melissa Ortega.According to a GoFundMe page, Melissa and her mother — both from Mexico — arrived in Chicago in August. In Wednesday's statement, her mother said that the family had been "filled with dreams" about their move to the United States."We imagined a better life here. We came in search of the American Dream we so famously hear of but instead I get to live a nightmare for the rest of my life,"...

Mexican drug cartels and human smugglers TAG 'asylum-seeking' migrants to the US with $500 colored wristbands that look like hospital bracelets to keep track of their movements U.S. Customs and Border Protection has learned that migrants illegally crossing the border have been using a system of colored wristbands The plastic wristbands were placed on the individuals by the drug cartels and human traffickers who ferried them over the Mexico-United States border The bracelets were marked 'arrivals' or 'entries' in Spanish and were spotted lying along the Rio Grande shore near the Texas border town of Penitas A Honduran migrant told...

Peter McAleese was recruited by a rival Colombian cartel to take out Escobar.A new documentary about Pablo Escobar will focus on the Scottish mercenary hired to kill the world’s most notorious drug baron. Ex-SAS operative Peter McAleese was recruited by a rival Colombian cartel to take out Escobar in 1989. Now a documentary will tell the story in McAleese’s own words and will show never-seen-before footage of his mission – which was ultimately unsuccessful. Killing Escobar, produced by Glasgow-based Two Rivers Media and Salon Pictures, will also reveal how McAleese’s violent upbringing in Glasgow, SAS training and experience as a...

In the 1990s, it was our collective national will to do what was necessary, however distasteful to some, to rescue our society from catastrophe.As the nation prepares for the incoming Biden-Harris administration the new president promises will be “the most progressive in history,” many drug policy practitioners wonder with trepidation what this will mean for the country’s drug crisis. Record levels of methamphetamine, heroin, and fentanyl, not to mention surging tonnage of cocaine and black market marijuana, are pouring across our borders at the hands of ruthless Mexican drug cartels, directly fueling ever-increasing overdose deaths and crime. So leftists’ stated...

The Trump administration announced on Wednesday the results from a massive federal operation targeting the Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG), which is one of the most notorious drug cartels in Mexico. The Justice Department (DOJ) and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) revealed that over 600 arrests had been made as a result of Project Python, which started late last year. “Project Python marks the most comprehensive action to date in the Department of Justice’s campaign to disrupt, dismantle, and ultimately destroy CJNG,” Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Criminal Division said during a press conference. “When President...

Mexico's cartels always find ways to put on some kind of sick clown show to draw attention, and sure enough they did so again with some sort of victory parade of vehicles through a Mexican town in the state of Guanajuato. According to the U.K. Daily Star (hat tip: Drudge Report): A convoy of armoured cars reportedly belonging to El Chapo’s cartel have been filmed brazenly driving into a Mexican town in a show of strength. The scenes were recorded in Guanajuato in central Mexico as the Sinaloa Cartel were reportedly showing their strength after forming an alliance with a local gang. In the video, filmed by...

58 Bodies Found — 60 Miles from Arizona Volunteers from Madres Buscadoras de Sonora search a mass grave near the city of Puerto Peñasco. [VIDEO] Mexican authorities reported the discovery of a mass grave containing at least 10 bodies on the outskirts of a popular tourist port city 60 miles south of Arizona. The .... Investigative personnel from the state attorney general's office working with a group of volunteers located the mass grave, according to local reports. Madres Buscadoras de Sonora is a group made of mothers searching for their missing children. Most are believed kidnapped and murdered by local...

The Mexican ambassador to the United States responded to Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley’s call to sanction Mexico for the recent escalation of violence from the nation’s ruling drug cartels by blaming the American public’s demand for black-market drugs.“My government categorically rejects your recent mischaracterization on Mexico not actively combating transnational organized crime and suggesting to impose sanctions on Mexican officials,” Ambassador Martha Barcena wrote to Hawley, adding in a handwritten note at the end of the letter that she hopes to address the matter with the senator personally to discuss how to “reduce drug demand in the U.S.” In...

The southwest U.S. border might be quieter now than it was this spring at the height of the migrant crisis, but south of the Rio Grande the Mexican state is disintegrating.Last Thursday in the city of Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, a battle erupted between government forces and drug cartel gunmen after the Mexican military captured two sons of jailed drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. The elder son, Ivan, was quickly freed by his men, who overpowered government forces and secured his release. Ivan then launched an all-out siege of the entire city in an effort to...

After the surprise resignation of Secretary of Defense James Mattis last December, Democrats were quick to politicize the news, and have certainly been hoping ever since that Mattis would provide them with new information they could use to attack Donald Trump. He does have a memoir coming out, Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead, but it looks like it’s Barack Obama and Joe Biden who get the bulk of the criticism. Prior be being Secretary of Defense under Trump, Mattis served as commander of U.S. Central Command under Obama and Biden. Mattis had predicted that Iran would continue to provoke...

As California's leftist Gov. Gavin Newsom grandstands about suing the Trump administration over its construction of a concrete border wall, Mexico's human smugglers are having a grand old time, ramming through the corrugated junk metal fencing that's there with heavy smuggling vehicles, terrorist-style. Here's the U.S. Customs and Border Protection photo from independent San Diego television news station KUSI, reporting the matter last night...(snip) KUSI, if you recall, was the local San Diego television news station that was just doing its job when CNN asked its top reporter, Dan Plante, a grizzled old newsman who knows border issues like the...

For over a decade, under multiple administrations, the U.S. government had a secret agreement with the ruthless Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel that allowed it to operate with impunity, an in-depth investigation by a leading Mexican newspaper confirmed this week. In exchange for information and assistance in quashing competing criminal syndicates, the Bush and Obama administrations let the Sinaloa cartel import tons of drugs into the United States while wiping out Sinaloa competitors and ensuring that its leaders would not be prosecuted for their long list of major crimes. Other revelations also point strongly to massive but clandestine U.S. government involvement...

For over a decade, under multiple administrations, the U.S. government had a secret agreement with the ruthless Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel that allowed it to operate with impunity, an in-depth investigation by a leading Mexican newspaper confirmed this week. In exchange for information and assistance in quashing competing criminal syndicates, the Bush and Obama administrations let the Sinaloa cartel import tons of drugs into the United States while wiping out Sinaloa competitors and ensuring that its leaders would not be prosecuted for their long list of major crimes. Other revelations also point strongly to massive but clandestine U.S. government involvement...

A verified and convicted terrorist who attacked a U.S. Consulate with a grenade and automatic rifle fire has taken over the ruthless Los Zetas cartel, a group headquartered at the Texas border in the Nuevo Laredo-Laredo metropolitan border area. Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, sits immediately across the border from Laredo, Texas, and is the only urban location along the entire U.S.-Mexico Border that does not have any fencing or constructed security barrier of any kind. The convicted terrorist, Hector Raul Luna Luna, is known as “El Tory” and was convicted in the 2008 terror attack on the U.S. Consulate in Monterrey,...

Seven million dollars might not seem like a lot when you consider that the illegal drug business generates hundreds of billions of dollars of revenue for organized crime all over the world. But, at least there’s $7 million worth of hard drugs off the streets. A major drug bust occurred earlier this week at the U.S./Mexico border in Texas. Border officials said that an estimated $6,998,000 worth of methamphetamine, cocaine and what is believed to be heroin were discovered. Border agents at the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge cargo facility were alerted to a commercial shipment of stone blocks on Monday. Officers...

Texas Representative Beto O’Rourke, who is seeking to unseat Incumbent Senator Ted Cruz, has been linked to a family that has had skirmishes with law enforcement, as well as the federal government over the past few decades, as well as covering potential ties to aiding drug cartels in El Paso since the 1980s, evidence shows. O’Rourke, who is playing up a “family man” and “good boy” picture, is quickly trying to scrub or censor any mention of his family’s wrongdoings, as well as his ethical violations from public view on social media. The criminal-like behavior and history dates back to...

Cuba turns to a model Communist Party official, Miguel Diaz-Canel, to steer it through a period of uncertainty when it finally turns the page on the Castro era in a vote on Thursday. The 57-year-old First Vice President is the pre-ordained choice of Raul Castro as he steps down, ensuring that the vote in the National Assembly to appoint him will be little more than a formality.