Free Republic

In a rare moment of honesty from the left, retiring Democrat Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado is sounding the alarm — not about Republicans, but about the crumbling state of his own party. During a CNN interview on Sunday, Bennet torched the Democratic brand, admitting what millions of Americans already know: today’s Democratic Party is out of touch, unpopular, and fundamentally failing. . . . Bennet, who is positioning himself for a gubernatorial run in Colorado in 2026, didn’t hold back. He expressed “fury” at his party’s inability to defeat Trump, even after years of media smears, endless investigations, and...

A former flight attendant caught smuggling over 100 pounds of a deadly new synthetic drug made of human bones faces up to 25 years in a Sri Lankan prison.Charlotte May Lee, 21, from the United Kingdom, was seized at Bandaranaike Airport in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo earlier this month after allegedly carrying suitcases full of "kush," a new[-ish] drug originating in West Africa which kills an estimated dozen people a week in Sierra Leone alone.

A psychoactive drug made from human bones is leaving addicts digging up graves in order to get their fix. Police officers are guarding cemeteries in Freetown, Sierra Leone, after more people are turning to the drug Kush. It is made from a variety of toxic substances, with one of its main ingredients is ground-up human bone. Human remains contain traces of sulphur, which allegedly can enhance the affects of drugs. It first emerged in the country around six years ago and induces a hypnotic high which can last for several hours. One former user Abu Bakhar, 25, told Channel 4...

Sierra Leone has declared a national emergency over a psychoactive drug made from human bones. The country has witnessed a sharp spike in abuse of the drug, kush, forcing police officers to guard cemeteries in the capital of Freetown, to stop young men from digging up skeletons to get high. Kush is a drug made from a variety of substances, including toxic chemicals, herbs, cannabis, disinfenctant but one of its main ingredients is ground-up human bone, as they contain traces of sulphur, which allegedly can enhance the drugs effect. In a nationwide broadcast yesterday, Sierra Leone's President Bio said: 'Our...

Patel’s warning echoes The Bureau’s exclusive reporting on a criminal convergence linking CCP-backed chemical suppliers, Iranian proxies, and Mexican cartels operating through Vancouver superlabs. WASHINGTON — In an explosive Sunday interview that will place tremendous pressure on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new Liberal government, FBI Director Kash Patel alleged that Mexican cartels, Chinese Communist Party operatives, and Iranian threat actors have forged a new axis of criminal cooperation, using Canada’s porous northern border and the Port of Vancouver—not the southern Mexican border—as their preferred entry point to flood fentanyl and terror suspects into the United States. “In the first two,...

Trump Administration Moves to Block the U.S. Travel of Mexican Politicians Who It Says Are Linked to the Drug Trade The list of Mexicans who could be targeted for U.S. visa restrictions includes leaders of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s party, state governors and former Cabinet ministers. In what could be a significant escalation of U.S. pressure on Mexico, the Trump administration has begun to impose travel restrictions and other sanctions on prominent Mexican politicians whom it believes are linked to drug corruption, U.S. officials said. So far, two Mexican political figures have acknowledged being banned from traveling to the United States....

The First Opium War ended with China surrendering Hong Kong. The Second ended with China surrendering its dignity. Now, nearly two centuries later, the Third Opium War has just ended—and once again, China lost. But this time, they weren’t importing opium. They were exporting it. The Modern Opium: Fentanyl No sails. No gunboats. No treaties. Just chemicals—sent in barrels and disguised in powders—feeding a synthetic addiction that’s killed more Americans than all our wars combined. China didn’t need to invade. They simply flooded our streets. - Synthetic precursors shipped to Mexican cartels - Distribution routes subsidized by “strategic partnerships” -...

In another significant win for law enforcement, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced one of the largest fentanyl seizures in U.S. history, underscoring the ongoing efforts to combat the drug crisis plaguing American communities. The bust, which seized enough fentanyl to kill millions, is just another stark reminder of the deadly threat posed by illegal drug trafficking and the importance of a strong, border-focused strategy that was ignored during the Biden administration. On Tuesday, Bondi announced that authorities made one of the biggest fentanyl busts in U.S. history with the seizure of 11.5 kilos of the drug, including three million fentanyl...

On Tuesday, Attorney General Pamela Bondi held a press conference announcing a week-long, multi-agency and multi-law enforcement and tribal operation headed by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the New Mexico District Attorney’s Office. The operation resulted in huge drug busts and multiple arrests of high-level members of the Sinaloa cartel. According to Bondi, the agents garnered 11.5 kilos of fentanyl, including three million fentanyl pills — the largest seizure in the nation's history. The main head of the Sinaloa cartel, Alberto Salazar Amaya, was arrested along with five others, all in the country illegally. Amaya was arrested in Salem,...

Beijing is considering ways to address the Trump administration's concerns about China's role in the fentanyl trade, potentially providing an off-ramp from hostilities to allow trade talks to start, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The paper cited unnamed people familiar with the matter as saying that Chinese Minister for Public Security Wang Xiaohong had been inquiring in recent days about what the Trump team wants China to do when it comes to the chemical ingredients used to make the potent drug fentanyl. The report said part of Beijing’s thinking involved dispatching Wang to the U.S. to meet with...

On CNN's State of the Union, ESPN's Stephen A. Smith repeatedly described himself as a centrist and moderate. But at one point, Smith said: "I'm socially liberal. I'm liberal when it comes to social issues. Pretty much across the board. I believe in living and let living."Smith didn't specifically say that he supported abortion rights. But if someone is liberal "across the board" on social issues, the issue at the top of the board would surely be abortion. The irony--or hypocrisy--of Smith claiming "I believe in living and let living" is glaring. When it comes to unborn children, Smith's theme...

An MS-13 gangbanger will spend the next 17 years behind bars for orchestrating a transnational fentanyl trafficking ring while incarcerated at a Florida prison, according to federal prosecutors. Mario Clifford Rivera, 32, whose alias is “Chuky,” was sentenced Wednesday for using the US Postal Service to smuggle more than three kilograms of the deadly drug across the border from Mexico into the Sunshine State, according to the the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida. Rivera’s legal status was not immediately clear. “Rivera’s 17-year federal prison sentence should serve as a warning to MS-13 and other terrorist gangs...

A sprawling fentanyl trafficking network stretching from Albuquerque to Salem, Oregon, has been shattered by federal authorities in what’s being called one of the largest operations of its kind in U.S. history. The takedown, made public this week, culminated in a massive sweep across New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Oregon. Federal agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration seized staggering amounts of contraband: over 4 million fentanyl pills, $4.4 million in cash, 79 pounds of meth, along with heroin, cocaine, and more than 41 firearms, according to records from the U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. At the helm of...

The Trump administration has seized over 22 million fentanyl-laced pills since he took office in January, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced this week. “Today is Fentanyl Awareness Day,” Bondi wrote on the X platform on Tuesday. “In President Trump’s first 100 days, we’ve seized over 22 million fentanyl-laced pills, saving over 119 million lives.” “We are fighting relentlessly for the families of loved ones lost, for those whose lives are at risk, and for the soul of our nation. ”We will not rest until this poison is off our streets and those peddling it are behind bars.”

The fentanyl seized by our team in this case could have yielded over 1.5 million lethal doses - enough to kill everyone in Portland twice.".. Federal and local law enforcement agencies arrested 46 Honduran nationals on drug trafficking charges in Portland, Oregon, following an extensive joint operation to disrupt open-air drug markets in Multnomah County. Authorities seized an array of illicit drugs, firearms, and cash. The Honduran nationals were reportedly working on behalf of the Mexican Sinaloa Drug Cartel, a designated foreign terror group, according to a press release. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Seattle Field Division said that the...

Two Honduran nationals were charged in connection with an alleged drug trafficking organization. Jorge Luis Hernandez-Valle, 36, and Luis Alfredo Hernandez, 35, both of Honduras, were living in Salt Lake County, the U.S. Attorney's Office District of Utah said. Detectives with the Utah County Major Crimes Task Force had been investigating an alleged drug trafficking organization since March 2025. They reportedly purchased narcotics during a controlled buy and identified two possible "drug runners" and their vehicles. On April 8, 2025, one of the vehicles, a Toyota 4-Runner, was stopped in Kearns

A Southern California mayor is under fire for wanting to eliminate his city’s homeless population by giving them “all the fentanyl they want” — a shocking remark he reinforced by calling for a federal “purge.” Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris shared his controversial views during a Feb. 25 city council meeting when a resident took issue with the city’s attempt to address the homeless crisis by “enclosing” the unhoused at an abandoned golf course near a residential neighborhood. “What I want to do is give them free fentanyl,” Parris said as he interrupted the woman’s comments, according to footage of...

Dr. Robert Marbut has consulted with more communities and organizations on issues of homelessness than anyone else in the USA. He is a disruptor who understands that the status quo approaches have not been working, and there is urgent need to help communities change how they address homelessness in order to successfully reduce homelessness. Dr. Marbut has worked on issues of homelessness for more than three decades: first as a volunteer, then as chief of staff to San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros, next as a White House Fellow to President H.W. Bush (41, the Father), later as a San Antonio...

Opioid overdose deaths in the U.S. rose dramatically after 1999, but also exhibited substantial geographic variation. Job loss due to international trade is positively associated with opioid overdose mortality at the county-level. This association is significantly stronger in areas in which fentanyl is present in the heroin supply. In general, the loss of 1,000 trade-related jobs was associated with a 2.7 percent increase in opioid-related deaths. When fentanyl was present, the same number of job losses was associated with a 11.3 percent increase in such deaths. The positive relationship between trade-related job loss and opioid-related overdose death is well illustrated...

The Senate passed a bipartisan bill Friday that will permanently classify fentanyl-related substances, also known as fentanyl analogs, as Schedule I substances under the Controlled Substances Act. The HALT Fentanyl Act passed with overwhelming support, earning 84 Senate votes while 16 opposed it. The bill aims to close loopholes exploited by drug traffickers who smuggle substances with chemical compositions similar to fentanyl but are different enough to evade legal penalties. "What this bill does — it says, 'OK, it's illegal to bring in fentanyl.' But it recognizes that some of those attempting to bring in fentanyl will try and circumvent...