Tag: the war on (some) drugs

Feds Take Back Notorious L.A. Open-Air Drug Market, Humiliating Karen Bass’ Failed Leadership


For years, MacArthur Park has been a glaring symbol of Los Angeles’s decline, an open-air drug market and a haven for crime hiding in plain sight.

Despite repeated denials and false assurances from Democrat officials like Mayor Karen Bass, the truth couldn’t be denied any longer.

Federal law enforcement finally stepped in and did what the city’s so-called leadership refused to do: take back control and clean up one of the most dangerous public spaces in Los Angeles.

Back in July, the park was already infamous for its heavy drug activity, rampant homelessness, and frequent violence.

When federal agents launched an immigration sweep at the time, Bass and then-Rep. Eric Swalwell jumped to condemn the operation, mocking concerns about safety and insisting the park was “family-friendly.”

Anyone who had actually been there or lived nearby knew that claim was laughable.

As locals complained about the needles, overdoses, and nonstop criminal activity, Bass secretly approved a multi-million-dollar “revitalization” project months later, quietly acknowledging the mess she had spent months pretending didn’t exist.

Her “solution,” like most Democrat urban policies, was more about optics than outcomes.

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Spain’s Socialist Government Is Sacrificing Its Own Police to Ruthless Drug Cartels — Another Officer Dead as Spain Becomes Europe’s Weak Link for Drugs and Illegal Migration

Picture Mexican and Colombian cartels using high-speed go-fast boats to flood cocaine and hashish into the U.S. via Florida or California, while U.S. agents chase them in outdated vessels — all while millions of illegal immigrants pour across the border using the same smuggling networks.

Replace the U.S. southern border with Spain’s southern coast, and that’s the crisis unfolding in Europe right now under Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government.

Americans familiar with border security debates at home will recognize the pattern: when politicians deprioritize enforcement, criminals and cartels exploit the vacuum.

Today, two Guardia Civil officers were killed in the line of duty off Huelva in Andalusia, southern Spain. Three more agents were injured — one seriously — when their patrol boat collided with a narcolancha (a powerful drug-smuggling speedboat) during a dangerous pursuit.

This tragedy is the direct, predictable outcome of chronic underfunding, outdated equipment, and a policy of weakness that has turned Spain into one of Europe’s softest entry points for both narcotics and illegal immigration.

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Democrat Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger Responds to FBI Raid on Office of Ally State Senate Pro Tem L. Louise Lucas

Democrat Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger on Wednesday afternoon responded to the FBI raid on her friend and ally L Louise Lucas.

The FBI on Wednesday raided the office of Virginia’s Democrat Senate President Pro Tempore L Louise Lucas in connection to a major corruption probe, Fox News reported.

Federal agents served multiple search warrants, approved by a federal judge, at Lucas’ office and the cannabis dispensary next door, Fox News’ Bill Melugin reported.

Lucas is a close ally of Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger.

Fox News reported that Lucas showed up on the scene as the FBI raided her office.

Fox News and The New York Times are reporting that the corruption probe into Lucas was opened by the FBI during the Biden Administration.

Federal officers raided the cannabis dispensary with their weapons drawn.

Three people from the cannabis dispensary were taken into custody.

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300 Federal Agents Descend on LA’s MacArthur Park in Massive Raid Targeting Mexican Drug Cartels 

At least 300 federal agents descended on Los Angeles’s MacArthur Park in a massive drug raid targeting Mexican cartels.

At least 17 people were arrested and 19 kilos of fentanyl were seized.

The Sinaloa cartel brought the fentanyl and meth to the area controlled by the 18th street gang and rival MS-13, according to Fox News reporter Matt Finn.

Fox 11 reported:

Federal and local law enforcement are conducting a massive drug raid at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles Wednesday afternoon.

The raid is spearheaded by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and also involves Los Angeles police, authorities said.

At least 17 people have been arrested, FOX LA confirmed. The raid is part of the Department of Justice’s Free MacArthur Park operation, which aims to address the park’s “open air drug market.”

The operation also included arrests in San Gabriel and Calabasas, authorities said.

Federal authorities say they have recovered 19 kilograms of fentanyl, worth more than $10 million.

The DEA says it’s targeting drug dealers related to cartels.

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Trump’s Killing Spree Isn’t Stopping the Flow of Drugs Into the U.S.

The Pentagon claims that attacks on civilian boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific have severely curtailed the import of illegal drugs to the United States. And President Donald Trump says this has saved more than 1 million American lives. Experts call these assertions laughable and reporting by The Intercept shows that claims by the White House and War Department are baseless, phony, or both.

“The administration has failed to explain the long-term objectives of this mission or provide any evidence of reduced drug flows into the United States,” Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee said about the campaign on Thursday. “I would ask for a credible answer to this most fundamental question: What is the operation actually meant to accomplish?”

Under Operation Southern Spear, the U.S. military has conducted attacks on 54 so-called drug boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific Ocean, killing more than 185 civilians, since September. The latest strike, on April 26 in the Pacific, killed three people. The Trump administration claims its victims are members of at least one of 24 or more cartels and criminal gangs with whom it claims to be at war but refuses to name.

Experts in the laws of war, as well as members of Congress from both parties, say the strikes are illegal, extrajudicial killings because the military is not permitted to deliberately target civilians — even suspected criminals — who do not pose an imminent threat of violence. These summary killings are a deviation from the standard practice in the long-running U.S. war on drugs, in which law enforcement agencies generally detained suspected drug smugglers and brought them to trial on criminal charges.

“These are extrajudicial executions, or even just murders — something similar to a cop shooting a fleeing suspect in the back when there is no self-defense justification,” said Adam Isacson, the director for defense oversight at Washington Office on Latin America, a human rights group. He called the growing death toll “a gross human rights violation.”

While Trump consistently lies about various aspects of the boat strikes, including the illicit narcotics allegedly on the boats and the number of lives supposedly saved by the attacks, the Pentagon has followed suit, using rhetorical sleight of hand and seemingly disingenuous statistics to bolster the claims of their commander-in-chief.

“I can’t imagine how you could come to some of these conclusions regarding illegal smuggling and drug overdose deaths based on the facts as we know them,” said retired Rear Adm. William Baumgartner, the former commander of the Seventh Coast Guard District, who oversaw drug-interdiction operations in the Southeast U.S. and the Caribbean Basin.

The Pentagon and White House for months failed to respond to detailed questions from The Intercept on the boat strike campaign.

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Rare Survivors of Pacific Boat Strikes Allege U.S. Forces Kidnapped and Tortured Them

The extraordinary story you’re about to read, by Camila Lourdes Galarza, is a dark look into what it’s like to live and die on the other side of U.S. headlines. As we expand deeper into reporting on South and Central America, particularly with the hiring of our Latin America bureau chief José Luis Granados Ceja, this is the kind of journalism we hope to be bringing you more of. (Granados Ceja just returned from a reporting trip to Cuba; watch him discuss the situation there on Breaking Points.)

The last time Roxanna Mero heard from her husband Carlos was January 19. Calling from sea on an emergency line, he said an “American aircraft, two drones, and a blue patrol ship” had been circling La Fiorella, the Ecuadorian fishing boat he captained. The presence of an airplane worried him, given that Trump’s extrajudicial airstrikes across the Pacific and Caribbean have killed more than 170 people in 6 months, but a local coast guard had already inspected the vessel, found nothing and cleared them to continue.

The next day, the boat went up in smoke. The eight fishermen aboard have not been seen since.

Three independent accounts from relatives of the missing crew assert that eyewitnesses, on a nearby raft at the time of the incident, saw La Fiorella engulfed in flames. “They’ve been threatened not to speak to the press. They’re scared for their lives,” said Angelica Lourdes Mero, whose son and spouse are among the disappeared men.

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Small-Town Virginia Mayor Arrested for Showing Up Drunk to Train Derailment

A small-town Virginia mayor was arrested this week after he allegedly showed up intoxicated at the scene of a train derailment.

The derailment and arrest happened this past Tuesday near the West Virginia border, where emergency crews were responding to a Norfolk Southern derailment.

According to WSLS-TV, Rich Creek Mayor Paul Morrison was taken into custody at the scene.

Jail records showed the 57-year-old was arrested by deputies from the Giles County Sheriff’s Office on a public intoxication charge.

Authorities have not released further details about what led directly to the arrest.

Morrison was later released on his own recognizance.

According to the New York Post, Morrison was cuffed and booked after allegedly arriving inebriated at the derailment scene.

The derailment itself involved a train that spilled soybean oil into the Bluestone River.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection said the oil was not hazardous.

Morrison was elected mayor this past November through a write-in campaign.

He won 77 out of 106 votes cast in the town of roughly 700 residents, according to WSLS.

Morrison issued an apology for the arrest on Thursday.

“To my Family, the First Responders, the Town’s Employees, Town Council and the residents of Rich Creek, I would like to offer apologies for my state and any actions on 04/28 at the railroad incident,” the mayor said.

He added that he regretted “any inconvenience as well as embarrassment this may have caused.”

“I am truly sorry to have let you down and can assure you that nothing like this will happen again,” Morrison said.

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New Buffalo Township tries to rein in cannabis boom it helped create

A booming cannabis market that turned New Buffalo Township into one of Michigan’s busiest marijuana destinations is now prompting local leaders to ask a difficult question:

How much is too much?

Recent reporting by Crain’s Chicago Business and Crain’s Grand Rapids Business highlights a community trying to regain control of an industry it once aggressively welcomed — even as it continues to benefit from the revenue those businesses generate.

From opportunity to overload

In just a few years, New Buffalo Township has gone from cannabis newcomer to one of the most concentrated retail markets in the state.

Today, nearly 30 dispensaries operate within the township — a remarkable number for a community of roughly 2,500 residents. Several more have been proposed or approved, creating a level of density that has drawn attention well beyond Southwest Michigan.

The location tells much of the story. Positioned along the I-94 corridor near the Indiana line, the township has become a convenient stop for out-of-state customers, particularly from Illinois, where prices and taxes are typically higher, and Indiana, where cannabis is still illegal.

That steady stream of traffic helped fuel rapid growth — and a steady flow of revenue.

A shift in tone at the Township Hall

Now, township officials are signaling that the rapid expansion may have gone too far.

According to Crain’s reporting, local leaders have begun taking steps aimed at reducing the number of dispensaries, not by banning cannabis outright, but by tightening oversight and enforcement.

Those efforts include:

  • Reviewing and, in some cases, seeking to revoke special land use permits
  • Holding public hearings tied to compliance concerns
  • Working more closely with the state on enforcement actions involving individual operators

The approach reflects a notable shift — from encouraging development to managing its consequences.

The revenue reality

Complicating the picture is the financial upside.

Cannabis sales have generated significant tax revenue for Michigan communities, and New Buffalo Township has been among the biggest beneficiaries due to its unusually high concentration of stores.

That revenue supports local services and budgets, making it difficult to simply shut the door on the industry.

At the same time, more dispensaries mean the pie is divided into smaller slices. As additional licenses come online, the amount of state-distributed revenue tied to each location can decline — raising questions about whether continued growth actually benefits the township in the long run.

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West Virginia Supreme Court Considers Whether Smell Of Marijuana Can Be Basis For Police To Search Homes

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia is considering a case that questions whether the odor of marijuana alone is enough for law enforcement to obtain a warrant to search a person’s home.

The Supreme Court is expected to rule on an appeal of Berkeley County Circuit Court’s decision to throw out evidence Martinsburg police officers found in a home after detecting the “strong odor” of the drug. Excluding the evidence effectively stopped the state from prosecuting a man on drug charges, an attorney told justices last week.

Aaron Lewis was arrested in 2020 on three counts of drug possession with intent to deliver and being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, according to reporting by the Herald-Mail.

Court documents say Martinsburg police were answering another man’s call about a suicidal woman who had reportedly stabbed herself when they came across Lewis while searching the caller’s backyard. Officers were unable to locate the woman so they started going door-to-door looking for her.

The officers went to Lewis’s home where his son, Aaron Lewis Jr. answered the door. The officers detected the “strong odor of marijuana,” according to court documents. The younger Lewis refused to give officers permission to search the home.

Before they obtained a search warrant, they entered the home to conduct a “protective sweep,” during which they found a bundle of money and two clear bowls with a leafy substance on the kitchen stove, court documents say. Two officers then left to obtain the search warrant while other officers stayed on scene to secure the apartment.

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Michigan State University Forced to Close Academic Building After Discovery of a METH LAB

Police were forced to shut down the largest academic building at Michigan State University this week after it was discovered that it was housing a meth lab.

This sounds like something out of the TV series ‘Breaking Bad.’

It’s another embarrassing black eye for higher education but on the bright side, at least the lab didn’t blow up first.

NBC News reports:

Man arrested and charged in meth incident at Michigan State University

A 31-year-old man has been arrested and charged in an incident involving methamphetamines at Michigan State University, prompting the closure of Wells Hall, the largest academic building on campus, this week.

Xin Tong faces charges of malicious destruction of property over $20,000 and operating or maintaining a methamphetamine lab, state police said in a news release. He is being held at the Ingham County Jail on a $500,000 cash surety bond. It is not clear whether Tong has an attorney.

Campus Public Safety Chief Mike Yankowski said at a news conference Wednesday that the incident involved an unknown substance found on flooring and doors throughout the building in East Lansing.

At around 9:30 p.m. Sunday, campus police responded to a report of possible trespassing. Officers found Tong on the fifth floor with four or five backpacks and duffel bags, Yankowski said.

Police obtained a search warrant and found “several labeled and unlabeled containers of an unknown liquid substance inside,” the safety chief said.

The news release identified the substances as sodium hydroxide pellets, hydrochloric acid, methanol, isopropyl alcohol, acetone and butane. Police said the substances can be purchased legally online and in stores.

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