Tag: crime

Federal Marijuana Prosecutions Hit Another Record Low In 2025 As State Legalization Expands, Government Report Shows

Federal marijuana trafficking cases fell to another record-low in 2025, with a new report from the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC) revealing a continued trend amid the expanding state-level reform movement that has given consumers more places to buy legal cannabis.

A recently published USSC fact sheet on drug prosecution trends shows just 383 federal cannabis trafficking cases in the last fiscal year. That marks a decline from the 471 cases reported in 2024.

More broadly, USSC said, marijuana trafficking prosecutions have dropped 62 percent from fiscal year 2021 to 2025.

Shifting federal priorities, which seem to have coincided with state-level marijuana reform efforts, have gradually pushed cannabis near the bottom of the list of drug trafficking cases.

The 383 cases from last year stands in stark contrast to the nearly 3,500 cannabis trafficking cases that were reported in 2015. Just two years before that, in 2013, the marijuana prosecutions amounted to approximately 5,000.

Colorado and Washington State became the first two states to approve recreational marijuana legalization in 2012.

Methamphetamine trafficking cases have dominated the list over the past decade, the USSC document published last month shows. In 2024, cases targeting fentanyl took over as the second most common drug trafficking target, followed by crack cocaine and powder cocaine. The number of heroin trafficking cases (356) was marginally lower than marijuana last year.

Keep reading

Andrew Left faces 20 years in prison — but having a correct opinion about a stock shouldn’t be a crime

This past Tuesday afternoon, I rang up Andrew Left, the high-profile short seller long known for meticulously documenting allegations of alleged corporate malfeasance and placing bets against companies like Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Shopify and Chinese real estate giant Evergrande.

“Hey Charlie, I’m at the airport,” Left said as he picked up. “I’m sitting down, having a vodka.”

Given what had transpired just hours earlier, it wasn’t hard to understand the sitting-down-having-a-vodka part. Late Monday night, after a two-week trial, Left was convicted in Los Angeles federal court of 13 counts of securities fraud.

Prosecutors alleged Left circulated his research on social media and financial TV to move a bunch of stocks and make a ton of money. That constituted market manipulation, they said, and got a jury to agree with them.

It sounds to me like what Wall Street does every day — people who “talk their book” — not to mention all the retail trolls you see on X trying to gin up interest in speculative stuff that loses money. Even so, Left now faces 20 years in prison when he is sentenced in ­August.

Truth be told, there’s something unsettling in what Left admits he did: Purposely pushing stock prices around to make a quick buck. Big firms have strict rules around trading off research, placing stocks on so-called restricted lists. Reporters like myself don’t buy individual stocks out of fear our reporting will get us jammed up because we can move prices.

Yes, the trading may look fishy, and this type of trading around ­research reports and public comments has been a legal gray area. Purposely moving stocks can be construed as stock manipulation. Fishy, though, isn’t something that’s supposed to land you in prison for 20 years.

Try telling that to a jury — as Left’s lawyers did. In one day of trading, Left could make more than most of those people earned in a lifetime. It didn’t help that Left made his bones as a short seller. Making money from pushing stocks down in value just doesn’t sit well with most people, even if it means exposing various abuses and is necessary for markets to function properly.

Keep reading

Violent Teen Takeover, Brawls Shut Down Church Fundraiser in Columbus, Ohio – 11 Arrested for Fighting, Theft, and Vandalism

Nearly a dozen arrests were made on Friday during a fundraising festival for St. Catharine Catholic Church near the Columbus, Ohio, suburb of Bexley, after a teen takeover event led to multiple fights. 

Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther condemned the behavior in a statement, saying, “Our neighborhood events should be welcoming places for residents and families to come together, and this behavior is unacceptable.”

Additionally, “a few businesses reported criminal mischief during the period,” Bexley Mayor Ben Kessler said.

Video from the teen takeover shows the chaotic scene with two females fighting as a mob surrounds them, cheering the brawl on with cameras. Police intervened and separated the two youths.

One young black female said, “Ss a teen, I am really embarrassed that you guys are out here acting like this.” She continued, “We came out here to have fun. We can never do anything right. You guys always act up, and this is completely embarrassing.”

Keep reading

Calif.: Man pleads guilty to ‘doxing’ ICE lawyer

A California man pleaded guilty to a federal criminal charge for doxing an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lawyer.

According to a Friday press release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, Gregory Curcio, 68 years old, shared personal information about an ICE attorney on social media.

The office defined doxing as “publishing private or identifying information about an individual on the internet with malicious intent.”

“In February 2025, Curcio created a Facebook post in which he identified the victim — an ICE attorney — as an ICE agent, posted her home address, and directed others to ‘swat’ her at that address,” the release stated.

“Curcio also posted the victim’s home address on another social media account with instructions to swat her,” it continued.

It noted that “swatting” is a form of harassment that often includes a false emergency call being made that is meant to provoke a “significant” response from law enforcement.

According to previously filed court documents, the victim said Curcio was a former resident at her mother’s apartment building in Santa Monica, California, per the release.

“The victim said she never met Curcio, but that he had harassed and threatened her mother for years and engaged in a campaign to harass the victim and her family beginning from at least January, 2024,” the office stated.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 21st, and Curcio could face up to five years in federal prison.

Keep reading

The managed decline of Cobourg parks and playgrounds

Last summer, a five-year-old boy picked up a used needle while playing at a park in Cobourg, Ontario. His mom says they’re not going back unless something changes, but Cobourg has launched a new 10-year Parks and Recreation Master Plan project that doesn’t include a plan of how to fix the squalor, but instead chooses to cede public spaces to it.

Cobourg was coined Ontario’s feel good town for it’s pristine beach, safe streets, and irresistible charm. Now, woke bureaucrats and ideologue politicians seem determined to manage its decline instead of protecting its legacy.

Case in point: families now scour every crevice of every park before letting their kids play, if they dare go at all. They must sweep public bathrooms for needles and paraphernalia before entering, while port-a-potties at local parks risk fentanyl-laced exposure.

What makes this proposed plan even more concerning is that it will be at the centre of every Cobourg kids’ childhood for the next decade.

With families avoiding parks because of encampments, discarded needles, open drug use, crime, disorder and disarray; drug fuelled criminality has turned quiet streets into hubs of chaos and it’s pulling kids away from public spaces.

Keep reading

Socialist Mayor Responds After Seattle Residents Use Steel Planters to Block Streets from Criminals

Desperate Seattle residents putting up steel flower planters as barriers to block off their streets to quell runaway crime have finally drawn the attention of the city’s socialist mayor.

Mayor Katie Wilson said this week that Seattle is “acting now” on shootings and drug and human trafficking-related crime after being pressed by a local news anchor on why citizens had to take matters into their own hands before City Hall did anything.

The location at issue is the neighborhood hit by reoccurring violence tied to Aurora Avenue on the city’s north side.

Fox 13 co-anchor Hana Kim told the mayor:

We’re hearing from residents saying there are constant shootings there, bullets going through homes, human trafficking is up, prostitution is up. Desperate residents put up steel planters to block some of the crime. They say it was working, but then the city took it away and said that they need to have a permanent solution, so they want to study it. But at what point do you act?

“So we are acting now,” Wilson responded. “A number of members of my team… were up doing a walk with the neighborhood a few days ago, and I totally understand why people put the barriers in the streets.”

Residents along the corridor spent Memorial Day weekend constructing the barriers out of metal planters, concrete blocks, and other items to block streets “after weeks of shootings, high-speed chases, and crime concerns tied to prostitution, trafficking, and alleged turf wars,” Fox News reported.

One resident, Peter Orr, told KTVB 7, “It’s either this, or bullets in my neighbor’s houses.” The Mayor was mocked online for her residents taking such drastic action to ensure their own safety.

Conservative commentator Paul Szypula wrote on X, “When progressive policies result in neighborhoods literally barricading themselves off… that says everything.”

Keep reading

FEDs Target Las Vegas Businessman Rick Saga After He Exposed Nevada State Money Laundering Scheme

The founding and growth of Las Vegas is part of the American story.  Colorful figures abound, and many are etched into exhibits in the city’s Mob Museum.  From the early 1940s into the early 1980s, the mob ruthlessly shaped the city’s image, fighting for power and money for approximately 40 years.  Now, the hundreds of millions of dollars made by the mob in Las Vegas are insignificant in comparison to what occurs across the country in government and political fraud annually.

After President Trump won the 2024 election and was sworn in on January 20, 2025, we learned that the real corruption in this country is happening within the government. Some of this corruption is happening in Nevada.

Many readers may recall that after President Trump’s 2024 reelection and before his inauguration, the defeated Biden Administration frantically dispersed government funds to political friends to hide money from the incoming Trump Administration.

A $375 billion slush fund handled by corrupt deep state insider John Podesta gave billions to Democrat Non-Profit Organizations (NGOs) throughout Biden’s time in office.

Keep reading

“F*ck You Cracker!” – Karmelo Anthony Supporters Hurl Racist Insults, Threaten Austin Metcalf Rally Organizers Outside Courthouse

Karmelo Anthony supporters on Thursday hurled racist insults and threatened Austin Metcalf rally organizers outside the Collin County Courthouse.

Things got heated outside the courthouse as apening arguments began in the Karmelo Anthony murder trial on Thursday.

As TGP previously reported, 16-year-old track and football star Austin Metcalf was brutally stabbed to death in April 2025 during a championship track meet at Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco, Texas.

Metcalf, a junior at Frisco Memorial High School, was attacked in broad daylight — at a school-sanctioned event meant to showcase hard work, discipline, and sportsmanship.

Austin Metcalf died in his twin brother Hunter Metcalf’s arms.

The suspect, (now 18-year-old) Karmelo Anthony of rival school Frisco Centennial, was charged with first-degree murder and faces between 5 and 99 years in prison.

Karmelo Anthony supporters called Metcalf rally organizers “crackers” and threatened to kill them.

“Imma push you if I get close enough…push you right into that grave….f*ck you cracker…Neanderthal!” a Karmelo Anthony supporter shouted.

“You gone end up like Metcalf, you gone be pushing up daisies,” another Karmelo Anthony supporter said.

Keep reading

Report: Bolton to plead guilty to retaining classified documents, faces $2.25M fine

Former White House National Security Advisor John Bolton reportedly plans to plead guilty to a single felony count of unauthorized retention of classified information in a private diary, according to several reports citing sources familiar with the matter.

The plea deal, reported on Thursday, would resolve a criminal case filed in October after a federal grand jury charged him with 10 counts of retaining national defense information and eight counts of transmission of classified information. The materials included notes from his time in government, which he allegedly shared with his family while writing a memoir about his tenure in the first Trump administration, from 2018 to 2019.

In August, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided his home in Bethesda, Maryland, where he allegedly kept the sensitive materials.

“From on or about April 9, 2018, through at least on or about August 22, 2025, BOLTON abused his position as National Security Advisor by sharing more than a thousand pages of information about his day-to-day activities as the National Security Advisor—including information relating to the national defense which was classified up to the TOP SECRET/SCI level—with two unauthorized individuals,” the indictment read.

“BOLTON also unlawfully retained documents, writings, and notes relating to the national defense, including information classified up to the TOP SECRET/SCI level, in his home in Montgomery County, Maryland,” it continued.

Under the proposed plea agreement, Bolton would face a $2.25 million fine and any prison sentence would be capped at five years, according to an anonymous source who spoke to the Associated Press. The sentence would ultimately be at the judge’s discretion.

Keep reading

New York DA Indicts Uzbek Truck Hijackers in $4.5 Million Theft Ring

Authorities in New York have busted a truck cargo hijacking ring allegedly run by Uzbek national Murodullo “Murad” Khasanov that they say has stolen at least $4.5 million in cargo.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office has handed down indictments for Khasanov and seven of his associates in a scheme using warehouse insiders who passed the crooks tips about what sort of cargo was being stored in their facilities. With that insider info, the crooks forged fake transit papers and then simply drove in and picked up the merchandise, then drove off without any questions asked.

Authorities also say the crooks hacked into warehouse computer systems to create their fake transit documents.

The ring stole a wide variety of expensive products including high-end cheeses, copper wire, meats, and cigarettes.

The DA’s office has focused on six thefts totaling $4.5 million.

The suspects are all from the country of Uzbekistan, which is a northern neighbor of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan and is about 800 miles from Iran’s northern border.

Alleged ringleader Khasanov was taken into custody on Wednesday morning during a raid on his ritzy Surf Avenue high-rise apartment in New York City, according to the New York Post.

All eight of the suspects arrested in the scheme are in the U.S. illegally and entered the country during the Biden administration. Officials also say they speak little to no English.

The indictment alleges that the crew stole $165,000 worth of lamb, $266,000 worth of copper, $295,000 worth of beef, $432,000 worth of cheese, and $3.3 million worth of cigarettes. The crooks then reportedly moved to sell the items on the black market.

“What is very disturbing here is that the victims, the owners of the goods and the legitimate shipping companies had no idea this was occurring until the damage is done,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said at Thursday’s press conference.

“We believe at least some of the food was meant for grocery stores, like a Costco for example. When food orders go missing and shelves are empty, prices go up,” he added.

Some of the stolen items were recovered and found in a storage facility in New York City.

Suspects Nodir Kobilov and Aleksey Vorobyev pleaded not guilty at their arraignment in court on Thursday morning. Both were given supervised release.

But prosecutors insisted that Khasanov — the alleged ringleader who also has an Interpol “red-notice” out against him — be held on $1.5 million cash bail. A judge ruled that he be held at least until June 11 for his bail application hearing.

Keep reading