Free Republic

Under Joe Biden, or whoever was running the country between 2021 and 2024, over 470,000 unaccompanied migrant children waltzed into the country. Many of these kids promptly vanished into a bureaucratic black hole. Since then, in a move both heroic and horrifyingly necessary, the Trump administration has located over 22,000 of these kids, arrested 400 traffickers, and uncovered the grim reality that 27 children met tragic ends through murder, overdose, or suicide. Yes, Epstein’s operation was a master class in depravity, but Biden’s border policies might just take the cake, and it’s a moldy, taxpayer-funded one at that. While Epstein...

Homeland ministers from Britain, the United States and the other "Five Eyes" alliance will announce new measures this week to increase border security and target people smugglers, British interior minister Shabana Mahmood said on Sunday. The ministers from the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network - the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - will meet in London on Monday and Tuesday, Britain's Home Office said, with measures to "smash criminal smuggling gangs" the focus of the talks.

Note: View a copy of the criminal complaint.Four people were charged for their roles in a scheme to smuggle children from Mexico into the United States, sometimes using candy laced with THC to sedate them during smuggling events.“This Department of Justice is investigating and prosecuting human smuggling more aggressively than ever before, and Joint Task Force Alpha is the tip of the spear,” said U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “We will not rest until those who profit from the suffering of vulnerable people — including many unaccompanied children — face severe, comprehensive justice.”“These defendants allegedly risked the lives of children...

President Trump's high-seas Navy strike on a boat full of illegal drugs and 11 narcos, taking it out and feeding the local sharks, didn't go over well with the Chavista elites in Caracas. But instead of pretending they had no idea drugs were being trafficked from Venezuela to the U.S., or at least pretending that they didn't know the particular criminals aboard, a leading Chavista kingpin went full frontal 'thug' instead: [X post in Spanish at link] Google Translation: #URGENT | Direct threat from Diosdado Cabello against María Corina due to the US offensive: "If they squeeze us, we squeeze...

The Trump administration aims to carry out more violent strikes against drug cartels, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said as he met with Ecuador’s president.Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that the Trump administration wants to help partner governments conduct violent strikes against criminal groups, following the playbook the U.S. military used this week to carry out a lethal attack on a boat in the Caribbean.“Those governments will help us find these people and blow them up,” he said at a news conference in Ecuador. “They might do it themselves, and we’ll help them do it.”Mr. Rubio made his...

There probably isn't a more useful policy aim for the U.S. than taking out Venezuela's socialist regime. President Trump has hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan illegal aliens, including many criminals who have wrought mayhem, to deported and sending back to a democracy will be a lot easier. Venezuela's regime has served as a useful catspaw to multiple anti-American dictators, including China's oligarchs, the Russian regime, and the Iranian mullahs to keep the U.S. in check, propping up the otherwise bankrupt regime in power to harass the U.S. They've threatened and attempted to destabilize their neighbors. And close to President Trump's...

A strike carried out by US forces on a boat in the Caribbean Sea - which the White House says killed 11 drug traffickers - may have violated international human rights and maritime law, legal experts have told BBC Verify.President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that US forces destroyed a vessel which he said had departed from Venezuela. He said the boat was operated by the Tren de Aragua cartel and was carrying drugs bound for the US.US defence officials have so far declined to offer details on the strike, footage of which Trump shared on Truth Social, including what...

The president of the leading cocaine producer in the world said Wednesday morning that the U.S. strike on a Tren de Aragua drug trafficking vessel Tuesday was tantamount to “murder.” Colombian President Gustavo Petro said, in in a post translated by the Daily Caller News Foundation, that the pilots of the boat were likely “poor young people” and that the killing was unjust because the transporters weren’t the “big narcos.” Colombia is not only the world’s largest exporter of cocaine, but also plays host to some of Latin America’s most vicious cartels and militias. “We have been capturing civilians who...

(The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.)The lopsided trade that sprung basketball player Brittney Griner didn’t include U.S. Marine Paul Whelan—because the Kremlin demanded convicted assassin Vadim Krasikov be freed from a German prison in exchange, according to the New York Times and multiple other outlets. The murderous Krasikov was once a colonel in the notorious Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor to the KGB.After Germany refused to take part in a three-way deal to free Krasikov, the United States instead settled on swapping Griner for “Merchant of Death”...

Judge Boasberg blocks Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Tren de Aragua, despite intelligence linking the gang to Venezuela’s government and acts of sabotage in the U.S. As President Trump fulfills his campaign promise to deport criminal illegal aliens, a blatantly corrupt judge is trying to stop him. Judge James Boasberg, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, has abandoned all pretense to fairness. I will leave it to others to focus on his conflicts of interest (the FISA Court, his wife, his daughter) and his double standard of justice. This article...

MINNEAPOLIS – A man who authorities believe might have been part of an al-Qaida "sleeper cell" obtained a license to haul hazardous materials months after he was identified as a suspected terrorist by the FBI, officials said. The FBI identified Mohamad Kamal Elzahabi as a suspected terrorist before the attacks of 2001, the Star Tribune reported Wednesday, citing unidentified law enforcement officials. Yet Minnesota Department of Public Safety officials said they did not know that Elzahabi was suspected of having al-Qaida connections when he applied in early 2002 for a commercial license to drive a school bus and haul hazardous...

Authorities say the cocaine haul, part of a $473 million drug seizure, carried enough lethal doses to kill every resident of Florida.The U.S. Coast Guard on Monday apprehended suspected drug smugglers and seized drugs off the coast of Florida. It was one of several operations aimed at preventing drugs from reaching the United States. The drugs were part of a recent haul that included more than 61,000 pounds of cocaine and 14,000 pounds of marijuana, worth an estimated $473 million. In total, authorities said the drugs came from 19 different interceptions in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea between...

Someone in the cartel is in trouble. The U.S. Coast Guard, in partnership with the Department of Defense, seized over 75,000 pounds of illegal narcotics. The value of the rugs is estimated to be nearly $500 million. Most of the drugs were seized near the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. The Washington Examiner reported more in-depth details about the drug seizure: The Coast Guard seized more than 75,000 pounds of illegal narcotics, valued at $473 million, from late June to mid-August, the service announced on Monday. The 76,140-pound haul, which was obtained in 19 different interdictions in the Eastern...

The U.S. Coast Guard achieved a milestone with the offload of a record 76,140 pounds of illicit narcotics, valued at $473 million, at Port Everglades on Monday. This marks the largest quantity of drugs offloaded in Coast Guard history. Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton’s crew offloaded approximately 61,740 pounds of cocaine and 14,400 pounds of marijuana, preventing an estimated 23 million potential lethal doses from reaching the United States.

Russell Bentley, a self-described “Donbass Cowboy,” joined Russian forces soon after they created a proxy state in eastern Ukraine in 2014. He quickly became one of Russian propaganda’s favorite Americans, receiving a Russian passport and a gig with state-run Sputnik TV. On April 8, the 64-year-old Austin native better known under his call sign “Texas” was detained by Russian soldiers in the city of Donetsk, occupied by Russia for the past decade, according to his wife. Eleven days later, he turned up dead. He is the latest in a string of figures involved in Russia’s 2014 takeover of parts of...

Drug traffickers are spending $1 million a pop to build boats that look like submarines and can carry 4 tons of cocaine for 2,000 miles without refueling. Nicknamed "narco subs," they're made to sneak loads up from South America to Mexico, where the drugs are offloaded and taken overland into the United States. "It is a semi-submersible coffin," said Jay Bergman, Andean regional director for the Drug Enforcement Administration. "You batten down the hatches and you are doing everything to not be detected sailing in the middle of the ocean." At least 13 of the craft have been stopped and...

For US, a terror threat lurks in drug smuggling subs Shift of cargo to arms and people is feared By Bryan Bender KEY WEST, Fla. - Skimming just below the surface, they are extremely difficult to detect from surveillance aircraft or patrol boats. Their sleek design, up to 80 feet in length, can secretly carry several tons of cargo thousands of miles. These "semi-submersibles," which exhibit some of the same characteristics as military submarines, mark a significant advancement in the ability of drug smugglers to slip past coastal defenses. So far this year, the Coast Guard says it has encountered...

The Biden administration placed thousands of illegal alien children in the care of unvetted sponsors, according to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley. The Iowa Republican has released Department of Health and Human Services data showing that during President Joe Biden’s administration, over 11,000 unaccompanied alien children were placed with unvetted sponsors who were not the children’s parents or legal guardians. Additionally, no home visits were conducted for over 79,000 illegal immigrant children. Moreover, some children were “allowed to be placed with sponsors who were actually smugglers and sex traffickers,” according to the Department of Homeland Security. “My oversight continues...

The United States has ordered the deployment of U.S. air and naval forces to the Southern Caribbean Sea to address threats from Latin American drug cartels, two sources briefed on the decision told Reuters on Thursday. The sources had few details of the operation, but President Donald Trump has wanted to use the military to go after Latin American drug gangs that have been designated as global terrorist organizations. The Pentagon had been directed to prepare options. Trump has made cracking down on drug cartels a central goal of his administration, part of a wider effort to limit migration and...

BREAKING: President Trump and SecDef Pete Hegseth just sent out 3 United States Navy destroyers, joined by an attack submarine, near Venezuela to crack down on the cartels. The gloves are finally coming off.