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Fugitive mobster was spotted in London in September, FBI says 01/04/2003 Associated Press BOSTON - The fugitive mobster brother of University of Massachusetts President William Bulger was sighted in London a few months ago, sporting a tan and a gray goatee, the FBI said Friday. A British businessman who had met James "Whitey" Bulger years ago spotted him in September - the most reliable tip on his whereabouts in three years, Boston FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said. The mobster, a longtime FBI informant, fled in 1995, just before his indictment on charges of racketeering, extortion and drug trafficking. Mr....

Acknowledging Americans might not “be ready for it,” Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump called for the death penalty for drug dealers to help combat the effects of becoming a “drug-infested nation.” Trump made the comments during a speech at a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, carried live by Newsmax on Friday, a key battleground in the upcoming election. Trump said a drug dealer in the U.S. kills 500 people, on average, over the course of dealing fentanyl and other dangerous drugs. “So a drug dealer kills 500 people. And the only thing they would understand would be the death penalty. If...

In what is hopefully a significant blow to drug trafficking operations, the Costa Rican Coast Guard intercepted a semi-submersible vessel yesterday, seizing approximately two tons of cocaine. The operation, which took place 148 kilometers off our southern Pacific coast, demonstrated the unwavering commitment of our nation’s authorities in the fight against narcotics trade. Acting on intelligence provided by U.S. patrol aircraft, our Coast Guard swiftly located and intercepted the vessel. In a dramatic turn of events, the three suspects aboard – two Colombians and one Ecuadorian – attempted to sink their craft to destroy evidence. However, our skilled officers thwarted...

The United States managed to arrest Mexico’s most-wanted drug lord, but Mexican prosecutors — and the president — now say they are considering bringing treason charges against those who handed him over. It’s part of the long, strange trail of Sinaloa cartel leader Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, who unexpectedly appeared on a flight that landed near El Paso, Texas in July. That private plane flight was arranged by another drug capo who decided to turn himself in. U.S. officials say Joaquín Guzmán López — a son of imprisoned cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán — flew to the United States...

A study of more than 200,000 people by researchers found at least a 17% reduction in dementia diagnoses in the six years after the new recombinant shingles vaccination, equating to 164 or more additional days lived without dementia. The benefit was seen in both sexes but was greater in women, and the findings suggest that the recombinant shingles vaccine may have additional value in terms of protection against dementia. Shingles is a painful and serious condition afflicting many elderly people. It is caused by the Herpes zoster virus that can flare up in people who previously had chicken pox. After...

One of the world's biggest drug lords, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, has been arrested by US federal agents in El Paso, Texas. Zambada, 76, founded the criminal organisation with Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who is currently jailed in the US. Arrested with Zambada on Thursday was Guzman's son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez, said the US justice department. In February, Zambada was charged by US prosecutors with a conspiracy to make and distribute fentanyl, a drug more powerful than heroin that has been blamed for the US opioid crisis. In a written statement on Thursday evening, US...

A Mexican woman believed to be a witch with cartel ties, was killed after she tried to snatch an 18-month-old out his parents' arms with the stated intent of killing the child as sacrifice to the patron saint of cartels. Before Maria Guadalupe R.M., 33, tried to kidnap the child, she had made it known to her nephew, also the father of the child, that she believed a dead family member had been reincarnated as his son, reported local newspaper Norte Digital. Sunday, she broke into her relatives' Ciudad Juarez home as her nephew slept with his wife and son...

DUSHANBE, Tajikistan (AP) — Russia began deporting Tajik migrants Tuesday, the first in a wave of expulsions in apparent retaliation for the jailing of a Russian pilot in the Central Asian nation, officials in Tajikistan said. The spat threatens to imperil the livelihood of thousands of Tajik laborers and stir discontent in a country struggling to protect its border with Afghanistan. The former Soviet nation's economy relies heavily on the remittances provided by the many hundreds of thousands of Tajiks working in Russia. Over the past year, Moscow has been attempting to strong-arm Tajikistan into permitting Russian border troops to...

The new research is more evidence linking cannabis to an increased risk of mental health disorders, including schizophrenia, anxiety and depression, particularly in adolescence. Teenagers who used cannabis within the last year had a dramatically higher rate of developing a psychotic disorder, according to a study published Wednesday. The study, led by researchers from the University of Toronto, found an 11 times higher risk of developing a psychotic disorder among teenagers who used cannabis compared with those who did not. When the analysis was limited to just emergency room visits and hospitalizations, there was a 27-fold increase in psychotic disorders...

Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration quietly ended a $200 million program aimed at helping disadvantaged entrepreneurs open cannabis dispensaries, amid allegations of predatory lending practices. The Social Equity Cannabis Investment Fund, which was overseen by DASNY, came under fire last month after a report by local nonprofit news outlet The City alleged that DASNY entered into an agreement that allowed a private equity firm to provide $50 million to the fund at a 15% interest rate.

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration will take a historic step toward easing federal restrictions on cannabis, with plans to announce an interim rule soon reclassifying the drug for the first time since the Controlled Substances Act was enacted more than 50 years ago, four sources with knowledge of the decision said. The Drug Enforcement Administration is expected to approve an opinion by the Department of Health and Human Services that marijuana should be reclassified from the strictest Schedule I to the less stringent Schedule III. It would be the first time that the U.S. government has acknowledged its potential medical...

A secret recording was leaked on Friday showing New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham slamming Joe Biden's border policies, but not for the reason one might think. Her anger at the administration wasn't for not securing the border. Instead, her anger was being pointed at Border Patrol agents for doing their job and seizing drugs.

In a recent interview on Fox News, former President Donald Trump warned, "Our country is being poisoned from within by the drugs and by all of the other crime that's taking place." According to the latest provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between November 2019 and October 2023, there have been a shocking 270,000 overdose deaths from synthetic opioids - or about 80,000 overdose deaths per year - across the nation. Under the Biden administration's first term, Americans have been increasingly traumatized by the tsunami of overdose deaths as disastrous open southern border policies flood the...

Police tracking drugs in our area are sounding the alarm with cocaine and meth making a comeback. Metro Detroit law enforcement is warning of an uptick in meth and cocaine use across the area. "The danger of this is significant to everybody," said Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard. "Basically the cost of cocaine, the cost of meth, all of that has gone down to about a third of what it was two years ago." Bouchard says it is a supply and demand issue, combined with the already troubling amounts of fentanyl coming into the states. He says it is a...

Chinese gangs have set up thousands of illicit weed farms across the US as they begin to challenge Mexican cartels for supremacy as America's cannabis kingpins. Authorities in Oklahoma, Oregon, California, New Mexico and Maine have all been battling a surge in Chinese weed farms, with some thought to be linked to criminal gangs known as 'triads'. The spread is seemingly uncontainable, with police in Penobscot County, Maine, last week arresting three Chinese nationals at a weed farm and seizing 40 pounds of the drug alongside $4,700 in cash. It is thought to be one of around 270 illegal weed...

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who has been strikingly absent from the national fentanyl conversation, has “financial connections to individuals involved with criminal networks in Southern California, many of whom are tied to money laundering and the drug trade,” according to Peter Schweizer’s new book Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans. In Blood Money, Schweizer highlights Schiff’s astonishingly empty record regarding the fentanyl crisis before suggesting that the congressman could potentially risk “undue attention to his own financial” ties if he were to address the issue meaningfully.

State’s licensing process has created too much product and not enough places to sell it, a consultant and retail-store applicant sayNew York state has only opened about 50 legal stores, yet state-legal cannabis farmers grew enough product this past summer and fall to supply up to 1,500 stores, a consultant who works in the industry said. [Snip] Meanwhile, the illicit market continues to thrive, with thousands of unlicensed shops. While the state has issued 460 retail licenses to nonprofits and people displaced by the war on drugs under its CAURD program, it’s been difficult for most licensees to find real...

PORTLAND, Maine — Illegal marijuana grows run by Chinese nationals have sprung up all across the state of Maine, and residents say law enforcement isn’t doing enough to stop their spread. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identified 270 suspected Chinese illegal marijuana grow operations in the state that could be making an estimated $4.37 billion in revenue, which are often used for more criminal activities or are sent back to China, the DCNF exclusively reported in August.

Former FBI agent Peter Strzok said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that he believed supporters of former President Donald Trump were “engaging in threats of violence,” while supporters of President Joe Biden were not prone to violence. Strzok said, “My biggest concern is that we have the presumptive Republican nominee for president who has and continues to engage in calls for violence from his supporters. Look, there’s an interesting data point here. Just shortly after the Michigan Supreme Court indicated they weren’t going to take this up, Donald Trump took to Truth Social and lauded their decision, talked about how they...

President Joe Biden took major action ahead of the holiday and pardoned all Americans arrested, prosecuted, or convicted on federal charges for marijuana use, following through on his 2020 campaign promise to expunge cannabis use offenses. Biden signed a proclamation Friday that forgives U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents caught by law enforcement for possessing the drug and charged, going far beyond the sweeping actions he took last year for thousands of people convicted of possession. The new action includes "additional offenses of simple possession and use of marijuana under federal and D.C. law," the White House said in a...