Free Republic

Civil servants, housewives and retirees alike lined up in Venezuela's capital Caracas over the weekend as thousands volunteered to join the country's militia in case there is a U.S. invasion. President Nicolas Maduro called on citizens to respond to "outlandish threats" by the U.S. and sign up over the weekend to the Bolivarian Militia, a civilian corps linked to the South American country's armed forces. The show of force is also intended to send a message to Washington, which has issued a $50 million bounty for Maduro -- who is accused by the Trump administration of leading a drug cartel...

The U.S. Coast Guard has seized more than 240,000 pounds of cocaine since the start of the Trump administration on Jan. 20, enough to kill the combined population of California, Texas, and New York, according to the Department of Homeland Security. President Donald Trump “is keeping his promise to Make America Safe Again. The Coast Guard’s tremendous work has guaranteed that these illicit drugs will never infiltrate America’s communities and take innocent lives,” Abigail Jackson, White House spokeswoman, told The Daily Signal. “The Trump administration will never stop fighting to protect Americans from the scourge of dangerous drugs,” Jackson said....

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.

Now that Republicans have narrow control of the House of Representatives, the GOP is investigating the Biden administration with gusto. Still, Republicans seem not to have noticed one major foreign policy scandal that's hiding in plain sight. As I recently reported , the rising scandal surrounding retired FBI senior official Charles McGonigal is perhaps the worst in the bureau’s history. Multiple sources have told me that McGonigal, while still serving with the FBI as head of counterintelligence in New York, shook down Balkan business people, most of them Albanian, in an audacious political corruption scheme worth many millions of dollars....

The trial of two Iranians and six others, who tried to smuggle 2.2 tons of cocaine to the island, exposed networks spanning the Middle East and Venezuela. JNS Staff. July 9, 2025 / JNS) An Irish court on July 4 sentenced two Iranian nationals in connection with a transnational drug trafficking operation involving more than 2.2 tons of cocaine, as authorities investigate suspected links to Hezbollah and the Iranian regime, Irish media reported. The men—Soheil Jelveh, 51, a former captain of the cargo vessel MV Matthew, and Saied Hassani, 39, a senior officer with significant maritime experience—received sentences of 17.5...

The leader of a Swedish criminal network accused of assisting Tehran in attacks on Israeli-linked targets in Europe is currently living in Iran under the protection of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), sources told Iran International. Rawa Majid received funds from Iran’s embassy in Denmark to help coordinate attacks against Israeli diplomatic facilities in Copenhagen and Stockholm, according to a source familiar with the matter inside the IRGC. The source also said the gang leader travels between Iran and Afghanistan for operations overseen by the IRGC. Majid leads a criminal group, Foxtrot, recently sanctioned by the UK and the...

The head of one of Sweden's biggest crime organizations, accused of instigating a surge in violent crime, has been arrested more than 1,600 miles away in Turkey, Swedish police said on Friday. Police did not identify the man by name but Swedish media named him as 35-year-old Ismail Abdo, head of the Rumba crime organization and alleged to have been orchestrating operations from abroad. Abdo is one of Sweden's most wanted criminals and the subject of an international arrest warrant since 2024. The Scandinavian country, once known for its low crime rates, has struggled for years to rein in organized...

As he enters prison, a disgraced former DEA agent who lived a decadent double life has claimed his own crimes were the tip of the iceberg... ...In interviews with the Associated Press, Irizarry, who recently began a 12-year prison sentence, has claimed that corruption is endemic in the powerful US drug agency... ...Irizarry claimed to the Associated Press that dozens of other agents joined in with his debauchery, and that they deliberately tailored drug operations so that they could visit party hotspots...

Federal authorities in Southern California filed a complaint charging three foreign nationals with conspiring to distribute nearly four tons of methamphetamine, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a June 5 statement.Suspected methamphetamine allegedly discovered in San Diego County, California, on June 2, 2025. Courtesy of San Diego County Sheriff’s OfficeErick Arriola, 27, from El Salvador, and Mexican nationals Baltazar Rodriguez Reyes, 49, and Eugenio Lizama, 35, were charged with possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. They face a minimum of 10 years in prison.According to federal prosecutors, Arriola is a felon convicted of DUI, battery...

MEXICO CITY (BNO NEWS) – The bodies of at least 72 people were found in a mass grave near San Fernando, a town located in Mexico's Tamaulipas state, officials said. The alleged dumping ground for victims of the country's drug war was discovered after a man with a gunshot wound arrived at a military checkpoint asking for medical help, the Mexican Navy said in a statement. Army forces supported by air units went to the area where the man was attacked, sighting suspected drug hitmen who opened fire on the Marines. According to the Navy, in the clashes one soldier...

Memo lists possible border terror plot Officials play down plan described in secret FBI bulletin 11:03 PM CDT on Saturday, July 16, 2005 By ALFREDO CORCHADO and JASON TRAHAN / The Dallas Morning News Dirt roads trace pale lines across a desolate landscape of bald peaks and plunging canyons near Texas' Big Bend and bridge the border at dozens of improvised crossings. For decades, these routes have been used to smuggle drugs and humans. Now there is growing concern they could become deadly conduits for terrorism. The concern is buttressed by a confidential but unclassified FBI intelligence bulletin, obtained by...

FBI bulletin outlines possible terrorist plot at Texas border BY ALFREDO CORCHADO AND JASON TRAHAN The Dallas Morning News DALLAS - (KRT) - Dirt roads trace pale lines across a desolate landscape of bald peaks and plunging canyons near Texas' Big Bend and bridge the international boundary at dozens of improvised crossings. For decades, these routes have been used to smuggle drugs and humans. Now there is growing concern they could become deadly conduits for terrorism. The concern is buttressed by a confidential but unclassified FBI intelligence bulletin, obtained by The Dallas Morning News, that contains the vague outlines of...

CARACAS (Reuters) – Russia has agreed to lend Venezuela over $2 billion to finance the purchase of weapons including tanks and advanced anti-aircraft missiles, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday. Chavez said the purchases agreed on a trip to Moscow last week included 92 tanks and the S-300 missile system, which is capable of shooting down fighter jets and cruise missiles. "We have to thank the Russian government, which approved a $2.2 billion loan for arms spending," Chavez said on his weekly television show. He did not say how much the new weapons cost. A major oil exporter, Venezuela's...

A senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary committee is demanding that U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram address allegations of improper hiring and contracting of her past associates. The request Thursday by Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa follows an Associated Press investigation finding that a federal watchdog is investigating whether strict federal rules on no-bid contracting and hiring may have been violated to channel DEA work to Milgram’s associates. “These are serious allegations, and DEA must respond to them and clear the air,” Grassley wrote in a letter sent to Milgram’s office, a copy of which was obtained by...

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,...

A new deadly drug called carfentanil is in Santa Clara County, medical experts say. It's a synthetic opioid like fentanyl, but much stronger. On Wednesday, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Michelle Jordan announced that the county's first overdose death due to carfentanil was reported last week. "Carfentanil is 100 times more potent than fentanyl," Dr. Jordan said. National Fentanyl Awareness Day highlights the dangers of the drug causing a crisis in San Francisco and killing thousands across the country. Last week, a 39-year-old man was found dead with M30 pills, counterfeit pills made to look like prescription oxycodone. "What I'm really...

Federal authorities announced Sunday that more than a hundred illegal immigrants were detained in a massive raid at an underground nightclub in Colorado Springs that officials say was "frequented by TdA and MS-13 terrorists." The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Rocky Mountain Division led a multi-agency operation early Sunday morning and arrested 114 illegal immigrants at the venue that contained more than 200 people inside. Authorities uncovered drugs, including pink cocaine, as well as evidence of prostitution and multiple firearms during the operation, according to the DEA. "@DHSgov has taken more than 100 illegal aliens into custody," DEA Rocky Mountain said...

The first RICO racketeering charges against members and associates of the migrant terrorist group Tren de Aragua were filed this week in New York. A statement by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said that the case is part of "Operation Take Back America," which it said is a "nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Justice Department to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime." According to the statement, the charges filed...

(CNSNews.com) - Amid growing concern about the illicit drug trade across the U.S.-Mexico border, the terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas have been linked to South American drug trafficking organizations–and the money Hezbollah and Hamas make from narco-trafficking is used to finance their organizations, according to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS). “International terrorist groups, including Hamas and Hezbollah, have also reportedly raised funding for their terrorist activities through linkages formed with DTOs in South America, particularly those operating in the tri-border area (TBA) of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina,” stated CRS in an April 30 report. As evidence that Hezbollah and...

The president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, declared a state of emergency in the capital city, Lima, on March 18. The decree, which came amid a wave of violence, gives the police and military full control of the security situation there for a period of 30 days. Peru is no stranger to emergencies of this kind. Only last year, in September 2024, Boluarte’s government declared a 60-day state of emergency in 12 districts of the capital. The rationale for declaring the emergency now, as in the past, remains the same: to address the threat posed by criminal gangs. The latest emergency...