Free Republic

Rep. Gabe Evans isn’t a career politician. Before being elected to his first term as a Colorado State representative on Nov. 8, 2022, Evans served 12 years in the U.S. Army and Colorado Army National Guard, and 10 years as an Arvada, Colorado, police officer, sergeant, and lieutenant.As such, Evans has extensive experience in law enforcement and combating crime. When he was asked about a March report from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that found that among the 22 most populous states, Colorado was number one for violent crime and what’s led to the increase, Evans was quick to...

A new study by the non-partisan RAND Corporation helps explain why it’s going to be difficult, if not impossible, to ever stop the illicit drug trade: It’s worth tens of billions of dollars per year. Researchers at the think tank wrote in their report that illegal narcotics generate some $150 billion annually, or as much as the amusement and gambling industry generated in 2016. The exhaustive analysis of drug use and spending data contained in the report indicates that there are about 30 million chronic drug users in the U.S. alone as of 2016, with major increases in the number...

Despite the capture of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the criminal group continues to export "wholesale" quantities of methamphetamine, marijuana, cocaine, heroin and fentanyl through crossing points located along the Mexican-California border: AZ, NM, and W. Texas.... the Sinaloa cartel "maintains an international expansionary footprint" in comparison with other groups, says the Drug Control Administration (DEA) in its annual report on drug trafficking which was published this Friday. SINALOA- continues to export "wholesale" amounts of methamphetamine, marijuana, cocaine, heroin and fentanyl through crossing points located along the Mexican border .... These drugs are distributed in cities such as Chicago, Phoenix, Los...

16-years after the Bush administration began military operations in Afghanistan, President Trump has just launched a military campaign of his own using high-tech stealth fighters to bomb drug labs in the country....On Monday, the Defense Department said it unleashed F-22 Raptor stealth fighters to bomb narcotic production facilities in southern Afghanistan targeting the revenue streams of the Taliban... .....Every since the U.S. started occupying the country in the early 2000s, OPIUM PRODUCTION SOARED. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said without drugs, the war in Afghanistan “would have been long over.”....."In 2017, Afghanistan’s opium crop and production both HIT A RECORD HIGH.....The strikes Sunday hit...

Okay, it’s not exactly an apology tour because he spoke the words while on U.S. soil. But it was an apology for America by Trump Secretary of State Rex Tillerson while standing alongside Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Videgaray Caso and Mexican Secretary of Government Miguel Angel Osorio Chong on Thursday during a press conference at the State Department. Speaking about the “illicit drug trade” while holding his hand over his chest for several seconds as a symbol of admitted guilt, Trump Secretary of State Rex Tillerson argued that Mexico’s organized crime problem is the fault of the Unites States and...

In 2001 a group of Castroite spies in south Florida known as the Wasp Network were convicted of charges ranging from espionage to conspiracy to commit murder (of U.S. citizens.) They were sentenced to terms ranging from 15 years to two life sentences. According to the FBI’s affidavit, the charges against these KGB-trained Communist spies included: • Compiling the names, home addresses, and medical files of the U.S. Southern Command’s top officers and that of hundreds of officers stationed at Boca Chica Naval Station in Key West.• Infiltrating the headquarters of the U.S. Southern Command.This past April, on Obama’s orders,...

The two most recent victims of the raging wave of violence that continues to strike this city were tortured and had their throats slit. Almost a day after the murder, the Tamaulipas government had not issued a public statement about the murders.

A Georgetown lawyer representing members of the Myrtle Beach Hells Angels said in a statement Friday that more than 100 charges against his clients related to arrests in April 2012, have been dismissed. John M. Hilliard III said his clients were charged in what Horry County Police called Operation Red Harvest, where he said allegations included charges of kidnapping and lynching along with various marijuana-related charges against members of the club. “There was never any credible evidence against any of my clients, a fact that I have repeatedly pointed out to the prosecution since the time of the original arrests,”...

WASHINGTON — The United States is "deeply disappointed" the Netherlands released a former Venezuelan military intelligence chief detained over U.S. drug trafficking allegations, and is "disturbed" at reports indicating Caracas used threats to obtain his freedom, the State Department said on Monday. Instead of being extradited to the United States, retired Venezuelan General Hugo Carvajal flew home on Sunday from the Netherlands' Caribbean island of Aruba after the Dutch government ruled he had diplomatic immunity. He had been arrested on Aruba on Wednesday. Jubilant Venezuelan officials hailed Carvajal's release at a ruling Socialist Party congress, calling it a "victory" over...

Reports: CIA Working with Mexican Drug Cartels By Alex Newman | The New American | Aug. 17, 2011 The Central Intelligence Agency was intimately involved with the federal government’s infamous “Operation Fast and Furious” scheme to send American weapons to Mexican drug cartels while simultaneously working with other agencies allowing narcotics to be shipped over the border, according to a series of explosive reports. Map courtesy of Stratfor.com, see their Drug Cartel analysis here Citing an unnamed CIA source, a Washington Times article theorizes that U.S. officials were actively aiding organizations such as the Sinaloa cartel with guns and immunity...

Tens of millions of U.S. dollars in cash were delivered by the CIA in suitcases, backpacks and plastic shopping bags to the office of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai for more than a decade, according to the New York Times, citing current and former advisers to the Afghan leader. The so-called "ghost money" was meant to buy influence for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) but instead fuelled corruption and empowered warlords, undermining Washington's exit strategy from Afghanistan, the newspaper quoted U.S. officials as saying. "The biggest source of corruption in Afghanistan", one American official said, "was the United States."

WASHINGTON — When the U.S. State Department announced this week that it finally is going to designate the Haqqani network as a foreign terrorist organization, it was a nonevent for most of our countrymen. That's because few Americans know how deadly the organization is. For that we can thank those at Foggy Bottom who are wedded to the naive hope of a near-term "diplomatic breakthrough" in Afghanistan. Couple that misguided belief with the Obama administration's self-deception that the radical Islamic jihad against the West ended with the demise of Osama bin Laden and it's understandable why the Haqqani network...

When opium was cheaper than whiskey – and Great Britain waged a "wicked" drug war When Opium Was Cheaper Than Whiskey - and Great Britain waged a "wicked" drug war The bottles have a beautiful aqua color to them. If you hold them up to the light, rainbows fire across the delicate patina. But their beauty belies the deadly reality behind the delicate hues. The bottles once held opium based "elixirs," such as Dr. McMunn's Elixir of Opium, most claiming to be a cure for a host of ailments, including the relief of "convulsions and spasmodic action," as well as...

The Mexican political world was sent reeling this weekend after a former PRI politician admitted his party had exercised strong control over Mexico's drug trafficking routes. During a recent university conference, former Nuevo Leon governor Socrates Rizzo said that previous PRI presidents had formalized agreements with drug cartel leaders to coordinate and protect Mexico's lucrative drug trade, Milenio reports. Rizzo argued that presidential control over smuggling prevented the widespread violence that has been commonplace since the 2000 election of PAN president Vicente Fox, which ended more than 70 years of PRI control. To add insult to injury, in a Wikileaks...

Most of the groups busted by the Utah County Major Crimes task force are made up of Hispanics, said director Lt. Phil Murphy. "The majority of them are not residents," . His Weber-Morgan county counterparts have kept statistics on their drugs busts. Of the 483 busts made between May 2009 and May 2010, 8 percent involved undocumented immigrants. But those 38 people were responsible for 82 percent of the total amount of drugs seized. Just a few short years ago, Utah was infamous across the country for having a massive number of meth labs. Strict laws have since cut the...

Note: Photo included. "2 Canadians slain in Mexico tied to drug trade: police 3 gunmen believed responsible for shootings" Last Updated: Monday, September 28, 2009 | 9:56 PM ET The Associated Press SNIPPET: "Gang investigators in British Columbia say two men gunned down in Mexico were involved in the drug trade, and had been on the radar of gang investigators before they were found shot to death in a Puerto Vallarta condo complex."

Last week the Washington Times reported that Hezbollah is using the same southern narcotics routes that Mexican drug kingpins do to smuggle drugs and people into the United States, reaping money to finance its operations and threatening U.S. national security. The Iran-backed Lebanese group has long been involved in narcotics and human trafficking in South America's tri-border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil. Increasingly, however, it is relying on Mexican narcotics syndicates that control access to transit routes into the U.S. Hezbollah relies on "the same criminal weapons smugglers, document traffickers and transportation experts as the drug cartels," said Michael...

I believe it is long past time to end the War on Drugs. That’s not because I approve of drug use or have any desire to encourage it. But this particular war has already gone on longer than the ones in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, put together, with no end in sight and far less to show for it. I would not only decriminalize drug use, I would give it the same legal status as tobacco and alcohol, and with the same age restrictions. For one thing, this would provide a great source of new tax revenue. Also, it...

Afghanistan Earmarks by: Lance Nation, October 14, 2008 Seven years ago the United States military entered Afghanistan to eliminate Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Now this once straightforward mission is becoming increasingly complex as politicians continue to tack on non-military objectives. “The military had initially resisted other attempts to broaden its mission in Afghanistan, and yet ended up adopting those expanded roles within months,” stated Dr. Ted Galen Carpenter. “For example, the military command insisted that it would not take part in nation-building activities and would not try to maintain security on the country’s far-flung road system. It has since...

Diamonds are no longer a girl's best friend By Chris Hastings, Stephanie Plentl and Beth Jones, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:29am GMT 07/01/2007 Diamonds have been synonymous with Hollywood glamour since Marilyn Monroe declared them to be a girl's best friend in the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. But now a new generation of Hollywood stars is shunning the stones as a new film exposes the darker side of the international diamond trade. Blood Diamond tells the story of forced-labour diamond mines For the first time in the 79-year history of the Oscars, certain kinds of diamond will be absent from...