Free Republic

The “worst of the worst’’ MS-13 leader busted a half-hour from the US Capitol on Thursday was recruited by the killer gang while still in middle school, officials said — as they released his stone-cold mugshot. Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos, a 24-year-old illegal migrant and accused gang kingpin from El Salvador, was nabbed hiding in his mother’s home in Woodbridge, Va. “We believe he was recruited in middle school — in middle school!” US Attorney General Pam Bondi told “The Ingraham Angle’’ on Thursday night. “He’s been living here illegally with friends and family, and the Biden administration did absolutely...

A Times Square drug kingpin nabbed in an “around-the-clock” crack-peddling operation is back on the streets of the Big Apple — thanks to former President Joe Biden, The Post has learned. Johnny Perez, a 32-year-old convict nicknamed “Ghost,” was one of nearly 2,500 convicted federal criminals who had their sentences commuted by Biden on Jan. 17 before he left office — including at least three other dealers busted with him in 2021, records show. Federal prison records show that Perez, who was one of eight suspected drug dealers rounded up in a raid by the NYPD and federal agents, is...

A highly sought-after drug kingpin was captured when officials tracked his wife’s social media account and pinpointed his location during their lavish European vacation. Luis Manuel Picado Grijalba, 43, was arrested at a London airport in December after he was accused of shipping cocaine from Limón, Costa Rica to the US, Nicaragua’s La Prensa reported. Grijabla, who goes by his alias “Shock,” was wanted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration for several months for his alleged involvement in international drug trafficking, said Randall Zúñiga the director of Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Department (OIJ). The alleged kingpin – who rarely traveled...

A dual U.S.-Mexican citizen pleaded guilty today to willfully engaging in financial dealings with Mexican companies that had been identified as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). According to court documents, Jessica Johanna Oseguera Gonzalez, 34, of Guadalajara, Mexico, violated the criminal penalties of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (the Kingpin Act) by engaging in property transactions with six Mexican businesses that OFAC previously designated to be “specially designated narcotics traffickers.” These six businesses were so designated because they provided material support to the Mexican drug trafficking organization...

On Monday, during an interview with the Des Moines Register, 2020 presidential hopeful mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg said drug possession should not result in jail time. Buttigieg said, “Incarceration should not even be a response to drug possession. What I have seen is while there continues to be all kinds of harms associated with drug possession and use, it is also the case that we have created in an effort to deal with a public health problem, we have created an even bigger problem — a justice problem, and it’s own form of a health problem when...

Photos of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar’s abandoned private island At the height of his power, Pablo Escobar was worth an estimated $3 billion (USD) and his Medellín Cartel controlled 80% of the global cocaine market. So he may have had a few extra dollars to throw around on a private island. In fact, many drug lords had luxurious villas on small islands off the coast of Cartagena, islands that have since been abandoned by their human occupants. Urban explorer and photographer Stefaan Beernaert, also known as Fotantje, has explored the islands off Catagena and photographed the so-called "Drug Islands."...

As we continue to watch the general uproar over the Operation Fast and Furious program, and specifically what Attorney General Holder knew and when he knew it, it needs to be noted that perjury is not the only apparent violation of law to have occurred. I refer to the apparent violation of at least one (probably two) major U.S. laws by the Holder Justice Department. A few years ago, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701, the follow-on to the Trading with the Enemy Act) was expanded in order to criminalize any transactions between U.S. entities — to...

Suddenly wishes Viagra was harder to come byNotorious spammer Christopher "Rizler" Smith was sentenced to 30 years in prison by a federal judge on Wednesday. US District Judge Michael Davis called Smith a "drug kingpin" before throwing the book at him. Smith was convicted on charges of conspiracy, illegal distribution of drugs, money laundering and operating a continuing criminal enterprise. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that the judge was somewhat hesitant about the length of the prison term recommended by sentencing guidelines, but in the end, decided it was reasonable. Smith hasn't exactly been a darling to the court...

The Law: We doubt anyone's facing worse charges in U.S. courts than drug lord Francisco Javier Arellano Felix. So why is the Justice Department hesitating to suggest the death penalty? To put it delicately, this guy's a monster. Apprehended in August by the Drug Enforcement Administration in international waters off Baja California, Arellano was charged in U.S. federal court in San Diego on Wednesday in a string of grotesque crimes on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border. The seven-count indictment covers crimes mostly connected to operating a continuing criminal enterprise. He's also charged with murder. But that seems only to...

MEXICO CITY - Mexico extradited accused drug kingpin Francisco Rafael Arellano Felix to the United States on Saturday, making him the first major Mexican drug lord to be sent north to face trial on drug charges. Mexico's extradition of the man who once ran the Arellano Felix drug clan was a victory for U.S. officials who have been pushing Mexico to send them more drug lords. After serving a 10-year sentence in Mexico, Arellano Felix was loaded into a helicopter to the Mexican border town of Matamoros, then flown across and handed over to Texas officials in Brownsville. He will...

Fresh details of the crimes of Randy “Duke” Cunningham make clear why he has never cited the corrupting culture of Washington as an excuse for his behavior. Cunningham, we now know, took to corruption with an enthusiasm and single-mindedness that are rare even by Washington standards. His conduct over six years, as spelled out Friday by federal prosecutors seeking a maximum 10-year prison sentence, was unflinchingly mercenary, especially as it pertained to his love of extravagant living and expensive toys. Once, he demanded the use of a private jet to take him yacht shopping, with no intention of paying for...

1/3/2006 - BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- When Soldiers and Marines call in an air strike on an enemy position, the 727th Expeditionary Air Control Squadron tracks the airplanes and allocates the airspace for the mission. The squadron, known as Kingpin, is a radar control and identification agency responsible for identifying all aircraft flying in the 270,000 square miles of airspace over Iraq. The unit is deployed in three separate locations in the region. By rapidly identifying air traffic, military or civilian, Kingpin creates a real-time "air picture" that the combined air operation center uses to maintain control of...

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - The suspected architect of Rwanda's 1994 genocide begins a fourth week of testimony on Monday defying accusers in the biggest trial to date over the central African nation's 100 days of slaughter. Prosecutors at the UN's Tanzania-based International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) say former army colonel Theoneste Bagosora, now 64, was in charge as troops and machete-wielding militiamen butchered some 800,000 people. But in lengthy comments from the stand, Bagosora has accused rebel-turned-president Paul Kagame of triggering the bloodshed, blamed the chief of UN peacekeepers for the murder of Rwanda's prime minister and even...

NEW YORK - A Taliban-linked drug lord who allegedly sought to poison U.S. streets with millions of dollars of heroin in a deadly "American jihad" has become the first person extradited from Afghanistan to face federal charges, officials said Monday. Haji Baz Mohammad, one of the world's "most wanted, most powerful and most dangerous" drug kingpins, had helped finance the Taliban by selling opium since 1990, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administrator Karen Tandy said. "In return, the Taliban protected Mohammad's crops, his heroin labs, his drug transportation labs and his associates," Tandy said after a conspiracy indictment was unsealed accusing Mohammad...

BOGOTA, Colombia - Drug kingpin Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, wearing handcuffs and a bulletproof vest, flew late Friday aboard U.S. government plane for trial in the United States, becoming the most powerful Colombian trafficker to ever be extradited to the United States.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) - A drug kingpin was convicted Thursday of murdering five people in a scheme to silence two former dealers turned informants, a verdict that could make him the first person sentenced to death in Iowa in more than 40 years. The 15-member federal jury deliberated for 15 hours before convicting Dustin Honken, who already is serving a 27-year prison term on a federal drug conviction. The penalty phase of the trial was set to begin Monday. Honken's attorneys argued that the government's case lacked critical physical evidence tying Honken to the 1993 murders, such as blood...