Free Republic

Dozens of American military personnel joined Ecuadorean police in raids, marking a new level of direct U.S. involvementEcuador’s security forces carried out a series of raids this week around the country, killing three alleged drug traffickers and capturing dozens more. At their side was a contingent of heavily armed American soldiers. The operations, which were announced by the Ecuadorean government, signal a deepening of U.S. military involvement in Latin America’s drug wars as the Trump administration pledges to go after criminal groups it has labeled narcoterrorists. On Thursday in the city of Guayaquil and several other locations, 50 U.S. military...

One of the world’s most-wanted drug traffickers owns an unsuspecting ranch in a Riverside County valley — and the federal government is trying to seize it. Juan Carlos Valencia Gonzalez, 41, of Santa Ana, is the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, nearly five months after his stepfather, Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera, was killed during a Mexican military anti-drug operation. When Valencia was just a 26-year-old living in Orange County, he bought a ranch in Hemet, California, that was offered to him for just $250,000. The property sits in a ranching community surrounded by farmland and upscale homes, according...

In the largest heroin bust Georgia’s has ever seen, DEA officials seized a massive amount of drugs this week in Atlanta. Authorities confiscated 170 kilograms of heroin, along with cocaine, marijuana, 41 guns and more than a million dollars in cash. The estimated street value of the drugs was around $8.5 million. Earlier this week, agents also announced the arrest of 46-year-old Antonio DeShawn Daniels, also known as “Freckleface Shawn.” He’s since been indicted on federal charges. According to officials, Daniels was one of the cartel’s top suppliers. “This investigation has ties all the way up to the highest cartel...

Attorney General William Barr announced the indictment of key members of the MS-13 criminal organization as a result of the ongoing Joint Task Force Vulcan initiative in a press release Thursday. The attorney general said two deadly MS-13 operatives were charged in the last week. In the Eastern District Court of Virginia, an MS-13 member was indicted on terrorism charges. In the Eastern District Court of New York, meanwhile, the attorney general has filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty for another gang member who killed seven people in the span of a year. According to the...

6 illegal immigrants linked to Mexican cartel arrested in NC for drug trafficking operation, officials saySix illegal immigrants with ties to a Mexican drug cartel — a rival of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, whose notorious leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was convicted last week — were arrested in an elaborate drug trafficking operation in North Carolina, according to reports. The massive drug operation included transporting large amounts of cocaine and methamphetamine across state lines — for instance, from Texas to Georgia and North Carolina, WSOC reported. The feds identified the suspects as Oscar Rangel-Gutierrez, Regulo Rangel-Gutierrez, Francisco Garcia-Martinez, Rodolfo Martinez,...