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Worries about retail theft and fentanyl deaths shaped a November ballot measure that would toughen some criminal penalties. Here are the facts about California crime trends.

In 2019, Brandon McDowell was contacted by a sophomore in college who asked to buy Percocet, a prescription painkiller. What the 20-year-old sold her instead were counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl, a deadly synthetic opioid that can be lethal in a dose as small as 2 milligrams. Hours later, Alexandra Capelouto, also 20, was dead in her Temecula, California, home. It is an increasingly common scenario as fentanyl overdoses have become a leading cause of death for minors in the last five years, with more than 74,000 people dying in the U.S. from a synthetic opioid in 2023, according to...

"Agents say it’s a major tool when it comes to tracking so-called “gotaways,” people who are trying to evade detection after crossing the border between ports of entry. "Just two years ago, DHS tethered one blimp in Nogales, Arizona, where the majority of fentanyl has been seized. Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz., pushed back on the decision to remove what he called “critical security technology” from the U.S. border. “Now we’re blind, not knowing what’s coming in. It’s a lot of help for us to have info,” he said. “Not just [on] immigrants that come looking for work, that come through...

Acknowledging Americans might not “be ready for it,” Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump called for the death penalty for drug dealers to help combat the effects of becoming a “drug-infested nation.” Trump made the comments during a speech at a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, carried live by Newsmax on Friday, a key battleground in the upcoming election. Trump said a drug dealer in the U.S. kills 500 people, on average, over the course of dealing fentanyl and other dangerous drugs. “So a drug dealer kills 500 people. And the only thing they would understand would be the death penalty. If...

The task force responsible for seizing the fentanyl has focused on points of entry along the southern border. Newsom doubled down on the program in June, increasing the California National Guard Deployment by 152% at the San Ysidro, Otay Mesa, Tecate, and Calexico Ports of Entry.

U.S. President Joe Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan is embarking on several days of talks with top Chinese officials in Beijing this week aimed at quieting tensions between the two superpowers ahead of the Nov. 5 U.S. election. Sullivan, China's top diplomat Wang Yi and others meet for the Aug. 27-29 talks as the two countries are at odds over the Middle East and Ukraine, Chinese territorial claims from Taiwan to the South China Sea, and trade. Advertisement · Scroll to continue Biden, who is in the final months of his presidency, has pushed direct diplomacy to influence Chinese...

Anne Milgram, a former New Jersey attorney general and current Administrator at the Drug Enforcement Agency, went on CBS’s “Face the Nation” yesterday, revealing that “for the first time,” transnational drug cartels, namely the Sinaloa and Jalisco syndicates, were trafficking fentanyl under the guise of prescription medication. Per Milgram, via a report at Newsmax:‘[F]or the first time, the cartels are hiding fentanyl in other drugs.‘They’re making them look like real prescription medicines, which are all fentanyl and filler. And so this is just a dramatically changed landscape that we’ve now pivoted to address and take head on.…‘[T]his is the cheapest...

Two people were arrested and around 276,000 fentanyl pills seized during an I-5 traffic stop in Jackson County on Monday, Oregon State Police said. Daniel Pena Gragoso, 42, and Josue Itzel Gomez, 28, both of Mexico, were taken into custody and booked into Jackson County Jail, police said. Gragoso and Gomez were no longer listed in Jackson County jail records on Wednesday. Gomez — listed under the last name Gomez Parra in court records — was approved Tuesday to travel back to his residence of Sonora, Mexico, with his “co-defendant,” according to Jackson County Circuit Court records. Gomez’s next court...

Their lies know no bounds. The Kamala campaign is running an ad this morning claiming she is tough on border policies. Kamala Harris is the border czar responsible for the greatest illegal migrant invasion in US history. Over ten million illegals have walked across the open US border since Kamala and Joe took over. It’s not a secret. But now Kamala Harris and Democrats are running one of the most dishonest political ads in US history. They have no respect for the hundreds of grieving American families who have lost loved ones to the fentanyl crisis or to a violent...

Mason Police District – Detectives from our Gang Investigations Unit (GIU) seized over 9,400 suspected fentanyl pills and two stolen firearms after arresting a man in Seven Corners. On August 2, detectives were on active patrol in the area of Glen Carlyn Drive and Arglye Drive in Seven Corners. Detectives spotted a wanted man and quickly took him into custody. During the arrest, detectives discovered over 250 suspected fentanyl pills and a stolen firearm. Through their investigation, detectives seized an additional 9,200 suspected fentanyl pills and a stolen firearm from the home of the arrested man. Marco Domingo Juarez, 19,...

A mother and son from Arizona are facing charges after they were allegedly caught trying to smuggle thousands of fentanyl pills through northwest suburban McHenry County. Gloria Gastelum, 54, and her son, German Vargas, 22, were charged with felony drug charges. They were driving through Marengo on Thursday when they were stopped by McHenry County sheriff's deputies, police said. They were stopped in a rental car near West Grant Highway and Ford Street. Officers said they found 120,000 fentanyl pills in their car. They were arrested without incident. The sheriff's office said they were tipped off by an undercover detective...

Handing women a note on a piece of paper laced with drugs!................... . 1 Minute video at link.................

Dozens more babies in the US have been born with a frightening new condition linked to fentanyl abuse during pregnancy. Known as fetal fentanyl syndrome, the disorder causes multiple physical and brain defects, including conjoined fingers and toes and deformed heads. Dr Miguel Del Campo, at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, has seen 20 babies with the syndrome and fears the issue is far more widespread and going undetected. The condition was only identified last fall and there is no national or state-level data to track how prevalent it is. Dr Del Campo was inspired by that research, which...

Overdose deaths linked to a synthetic opioid 100 times stronger than fentanyl have more than doubled in the city — while a new lethal sedative has been detected for the first time in the Big Apple’s drug supply. Both terrifying drugs have created a perfect public-health storm, prompting city officials on Thursday to issue a warning about carfentanil — powerful enough to sedate an elephant — and medetomidine, an animal tranquilizer experts say is more potent than “zombie drug” xylazine. Yet, despite the two poisons making the city’s cocaine and heroin supply an even more deadly gamble, the city’s Health...

One of the world's biggest drug lords, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, has been arrested by US federal agents in El Paso, Texas. Zambada, 76, founded the criminal organisation with Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who is currently jailed in the US. Arrested with Zambada on Thursday was Guzman's son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, said the US justice department. In February, Zambada was charged by US prosecutors with a conspiracy to make and distribute fentanyl, a drug more powerful than heroin that has been blamed for the US opioid crisis. In a written statement on Thursday evening, US...

Cambridge suspect faces federal charges An alleged meth and fentanyl kingpin of a “sprawling” Greater Boston empire was arrested and charged following an investigation which indicated he could have produced millions of counterfeit pills — partially funded through Paycheck Protection Program loan fraud. Schuyler Oppenheimer, 33, of Cambridge, who allegedly conducted illicit trade with Chinese suppliers under the name “Michael Sylvain,” was arrested last week and charged in federal court in Boston with possession of 500 grams and more of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine and two counts of wire fraud. The drug charge carries...

A synthetic opioid described as 'fentanyl on steroids' was seized in a Florida drug bust, according to police. West Palm Beach police confiscated $1.6 million worth of N-Desethyl Isotonitazene - known as ISO - during a raid, reported WPBF. Authorities discovered the deadly drug in powder, pill and brick form while executing search warrants on a home and a storage unit earlier in July. '[The substances] came back as 50 times more potent than normal fentanyl that we normally deal with,' Lt. Joe Herb said. 'Fentanyl is normally very dangerous. Now, we're talking about 50 times stronger.' Police said the...

Opioids, like morphine, are effective painkillers but have led to widespread addiction and serious side effects like respiratory depression, notably seen in the U.S. opioid crisis that claimed nearly 645,000 lives from 1999 to 2021. Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz have identified a potential alternative, aniquinazolin B, from the marine fungus Aspergillus nidulans, which binds to opioid receptors and could replace opioids with fewer undesirable effects, after rigorous testing including over 750,000 calculations per substance using the MOGON supercomputer. Researchers at Mainz University have discovered a natural compound that could potentially serve as a long-term alternative to opioids and...

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It’s been six months since three Kansas City Chiefs fans were found dead in a friend’s backyard after gathering to watch their favorite football team play, but the victims’ families are apparently no closer to getting answers about the tragic incident. This week “the families of those three dead men have few answers, and they say their questions are being ignored,” local news outlet WDAF-TV reported. The frozen bodies of David Harrington, 37, Ricky Johnson, 38, and Clayton McGeeney, 36, were found Jan. 9 in the backyard of a home rented by their friend Jordan Willis. They had gathered at...