Internal U.S. Customs and Border protection documents reviewed by Breitbart Texas report that human smugglers received up to $1 billion in December 2021 alone. On average, migrants claimed to have paid smugglers more than $5,000 per person – with more than 170,000 apprehended in the month.
The tentacles of criminal organizations like the Gulf Cartel or the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas do not end at the Texas border, said U.S. Congressman Chip Roy.
Congressman Roy made those statements during a series of exclusive interviews with Breitbart Texas as he traveled the Texas border in a fact-finding effort amid the current border crisis, which he attributed to the policies of the Biden Administration. Roy stepped away from the formal congressional delegations to border hotspots like McAllen, Laredo, Carrizo Springs, Eagle Pass, and others.
One of the largest takeaways of those visits is that Mexican cartels have real operational control of the border as Mexico’s government remains unable to do anything about it, Roy said.
“That’s something that the American people don’t fully understand,” he said. “The Mexican government–they can’t have their force mean anything in that area. The cartels have control there.”
However, according to Congressman Roy, the power of the cartels does not end at the border. In some cases, U.S. agencies in San Antonio and others have turned a blind eye to the presence and power of cartels, he said.
In the Rio Grande Valley, the Reynosa faction of the Gulf Cartel has been benefiting from the lack of enforcement at the border, while in Laredo the CDN-Los Zetas are the ones reaping the benefits, Roy said.
“They are the ones making a lot of money moving human beings for profit,” he said.
During those visits, Roy has encountered several groups of migrants, some of those who had been trying to run away from authorities such as in Laredo, while in the Rio Grande Valley, migrants became lost in the brush after crossing the river after not being able to find any agents.
“The word has gotten out that Border Patrol is now distracted,” Roy said, explaining that agents from other sectors have been moved to the Rio Grande Valley to man detention and processing facilities. “What does that mean? You don’t have patrols going out and stopping the flow between the ports of entry. So now we have fentanyl up, pounds of marijuana up, human smuggling between ports of entry up, and that is kind of where your bad guys are generally coming. This is the state of our border.”
HIGHLY GRAPHIC IMAGES OF AMERICA UNDER LA RAZA MEX OCCUPATION
This is what America will look like with continued open borders with Narcomex. That is the agenda of the Globalist Democrat party for endless hordes of ‘cheap’ labor.
Tom Cotton: If You’re a Human Trafficker or Drug Dealer — You’d Give Biden ‘an A-Plus’ on Immigration
JEFF POOR
Thursday, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) took a jab at the new Biden administration’s approach to immigration policy during an appearance on FNC’s “Fox News Primetime.”
The Arkansas Republican lawmaker questioned the motivations and warned Biden’s policy had consequences for the American public.
“Joe Biden is great on immigration. I guess depends on your perspective. If you’re a human trafficker, or drug dealer, or all those migrants wearing the Biden let us in shirts, you’d give him an A-plus, plus, but the American people would give him an F. The crisis we said our border, Trey, was not only entirely predictable. It was predicted. I predicted it last fall that if you campaign all year long on open borders, amnesty, and health care for illegals, you’re going to get more migrants at the border. That’s exactly what’s happened every month since the election.”
“And the principle is simple,” Cotton continued. “If you let them in, more will come. And that’s what we see with Joe Biden’s administration calling illegal aliens, customers and changing the names of detention centers to reception centers and then giving them tickets for bus rides or plane rides to wherever they want to go inside the country. And as you said, even Mexico is now grown alarmed about this. And they – Mexico knows that whenever Central Americans show up at Mexico’s southern border, they may be seeking asylum there. When they make the journey across Mexico to get to our southern border, they’re not seeking asylum. They’re seeking better jobs and better health care and better communities.”
“It’s understandable, but it’s not what our immigration laws are designed for,” he added. “And it’s not what the American people should be asked to shoulder.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
Tom Cotton: Joe Biden Will Keep Foreign Drug Dealers in U.S.
SNPNYC
NEIL MUNRO
8 Feb 2021115
4:36
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) slammed President Joe Biden’s
administration amid evidence that his deputies want to
minimize the deportation of illegal migrants who are caught
dealing deadly drugs.
“It’s the Biden administration policy to allow illegal aliens to stay in America even after they: -Deal fentanyl and heroin -Commit fraud -Commit assault -Drive drunk -Launder money,” Cotton tweeted February 8.
“More than 80,000 Americans died from drug overdoses last year. And the Biden administration just announced that deporting illegal alien cartel members who deal with fentanyl and heroin is no longer a priority for his administration,” he added.
For more than 20 years, many Americans have been killed by drunk-driving illegals, including many killed after federal and state officials decide not to deport illegals.
It's the Biden administration policy to allow illegal aliens to stay in America even after they:
-Deal fentanyl and heroin
-Commit fraud
-Commit assault
-Drive drunk
-Launder moneyhttps://t.co/Vr0RhYAJQV
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) February 8, 2021
The Washington Post reported February 7 how Biden’s deputies are changing deportation priorities for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency:
While ICE’s new operational plans are not yet final, interim instructions sent to senior officials point to a major shift in enforcement. Agents will no longer seek to deport immigrants for crimes such as driving under the influence and assault, and will focus instead on national security threats, recent border crossers and people completing prison and jail terms for aggravated felony convictions.
“Generally, these convictions would not include drug based crimes (less serious offenses), simple assault, DUI, money laundering, property crimes, fraud, tax crimes, solicitation, or charges without convictions,” acting director Tae Johnson told senior officials in a Thursday email advising them on how to operate while new guidelines are finalized.
“The priority for the enforcement of immigration laws will be on those who are imposing a national security threat, of course, a public safety threat, and on recent arrivals,” Biden spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in the February 8 White House press briefing:
Nobody is saying that DUIs or assaults are acceptable behavior, and those arrested for such activities should be tried and sentenced as appropriate by local law enforcement. But we’re talking about the prioritization of who is going to be deported from the country.
The priority list for deportations also excludes migrants who take American’ jobs and wages. This policy will largely abandon the task of protecting Americans’ right to a national labor market.
Biden has repeatedly declared he wants to make the nation’s immigration system more “fair” to migrants. Since January 20, he has minimized deportations, stopped construction of the border wall, offered an amnesty to migrants, broken anti-migration deals with three counties, and has lowered legal barriers to migration.
However, he has said little or nothing about how he will protect Americans’ rights, wages, safe streets, and reasonable housing from foreign criminals or job seekers. A February 2 statement said:
President Biden’s strategy is centered on the basic premise that our country is safer, stronger, and more prosperous with a fair, safe and orderly immigration system that welcomes immigrants, keeps families together, and allows people—both newly arrived immigrants and people who have lived here for generations—to more fully contribute to our country.
Amid Biden’s inrush of migrants and shutdown of deportations, more than 20 million Americans are unemployed or are stuck in part-time jobs.
Biden is also rolling back protections for American graduates, who have lost at least one million jobs because Fortune 500 CEOs and their subcontractors have hired more than 1 million foreign graduates for jobs sought by Americans.
In a separate tweet, Cotton lambasted Biden’s team for dropping a rule that would protect American graduate from losing jobs to H-1B graduate visa-workers who are willing to work for low wages in the hope of getting green cards:
Big Tech abuses the H-1B visa program to hire cheap foreign labor instead of Americans. That isn’t good for American workers, but the Biden administration is letting companies get away with it.https://t.co/YIolIoyqJl
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) February 5, 2021
For years, a wide variety of pollsters have shown deep and broad opposition to labor migration — or the hiring of temporary contract workers into the jobs sought by young U.S. graduates.
The multiracial, cross-sex, non-racist, class-based, priority-driven, and solidarity-themed opposition to labor migration coexists with generally favorable personal feelings toward legal immigrants and immigration in theory.
Joe Biden's deputies attack Americans' right to their own national labor market, by quietly barring the deportation of illegal migrants who take Americans' wages and jobs.
That labor policy helps corporate donors.
But hurts blue collars & college grads. https://t.co/RNCMFv4aJh
— Neil Munro (@NeilMunroDC) February 8, 2021
How Biden helps criminals in Mexico
By Silvio Canto, Jr.
President Biden's border policy is getting mixed reviews south of the border. The biggest problem is that opening the border may be helping criminal elements in Mexico. This is from my friend Allan Wall:
On the one hand, the Mexican government likes the U.S. to have a more open border. On the other hand, that also causes problems for Mexico.
Yes, it causes problems because Mexico will now become the highway to the U.S., from Central Americans to others.
Coincidentally, I spoke with several Mexican friends who have confirmed this.
First, they don't want strangers walking across the country. I've been told that some of these strangers don't speak Spanish. In other words, they are not Central Americans.
Second, criminal elements are fully invested in the business of bringing people to the border. This is "coyotes on steroids," as a Mexican friend said on the phone. He shared a report that some of these people killed in Southern California recently had paid up to $10,000 for the trip to "el Norte."
Where in the world does a person in Mexico get $10,000? The rich or middle class don't need to pay anyone to go to the U.S. They get on a plane and fly north.
So how are these people coming up with that kind of money? I've heard all kinds of horror stories, from mortgaging their farm tractors to paying the balance once they cross the border.
It's a horrible policy that will promote criminal elements in Mexico.
PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk).
Biden Nominee Vanita Gupta Holds Stock in Enterprise Accused of Enabling Mexican Cartels’ Heroin Manufacturing
AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File
WENDELL HUSEBO
1:54
President Joe Biden’s nominee for Associate Attorney General, Vanita Gupta, owns between $11 million and $55 million of stock in her father’s company that sold acetic anhydride to Mexican cartels, which is used to make “high-grade ‘china white’ heroin and methamphetamine,” according to reports.
However, when Biden campaigned for president, his platform stated he would “hold accountable big Pharma companies, executives, and others responsible for their role in triggering the opioid crisis.” Noting that he intends to “[d]irect the U.S. Justice Department to make actions that spurred this crisis a top investigative and, where appropriate, civil and criminal enforcement priority.”
“Biden’s campaign vowed to hold companies accountable for their roles in the opioid crises, but now one of his Justice Department nominees is linked to a firm whose product was reportedly sold to Mexican drug cartels.”https://t.co/XA1IZYzG06
— Tommy Pigott (@TCPigott) March 10, 2021
Raj Gupta, father of Vanita Gupta and chairman of a company named Avantor, has stopped selling “acetic anhydride in Mexico, as the country’s authorities announced a criminal investigation,” according to Fox Business.
Vanita Gupta has agreed not to engage with her father’s business.
Gupta’s nomination hearing was on March 9, when Sen. Ted Cruz posed questions to her on gun rights, abortion, and religious liberty – subjects on which she had previously voiced her views. “On every issue, Gupta evaded the question about her own views, saying that she would only apply the law of the land,” Joel B Pollak reported for Breitbart News.
Texas Governor: Biden Border Policies Enrich Mexican Cartels, Overwhelm Border Patrol
BOB PRICE
Texas Governor Greg Abbott accused the Biden Administration of enriching Mexican drug and human smuggling cartels with the changes of border security policies put in place after January 20. The governor said President Joe Biden’s policies enable the cartels to exploit women and children from Central America.
Speaking to reporters along the Texas border with Mexico and flanked by Texas Department of Public Safety assets deployed for border security, Governor Abbott told reporters, “Border Patrol officials warned the Biden Administration in advance” about the consequences of changing border security and immigration policies.
Abbott said the cartels are overwhelming Border Patrol agents by flooding the border with families and unaccompanied minors. He said this puts Border Patrol agents in babysitting roles that pull them away from securing the U.S.-Mexico Border.
“The cartels are quite literally being enriched,” Abbott stated. “The Biden Administration is helping cartels make more money.”
Cartels making money through human smuggling is not a new issue, however. In 2019, Breitbart Texas reported that Mexican cartels were charging Central American migrants up to $9,000 each to bring them through Mexico and up to the U.S. border.
“They were paying something like $1,500 as early as 24 months ago. Now they’re charging them $8,000 to $9,000. It’s gone up with the demand, and it’s usually paid upfront,” El Paso Sector Spokesman Fidel Baca explained at the time. “And really all they have to do is take them down to the border and tell them which way to walk. Most times, they (the smugglers) don’t even want to run the risk of getting apprehended by us.”
In October 2014, Breitbart Texas’ Ildefonso Oritz reported the growing revenue stream for the Mexican drug cartels and many shifted their efforts to human smuggling.
Ortiz wrote:
While Most people understand why drugs are so expensive and why cartels are involved, it is important to understand that in the minds of human smugglers, illegal immigrants are just another black market commodity
…
As Breitbart Texas had previously reported, the ransom amounts being collected by smuggling groups add up to large amounts of cash.
…
While in previous years human smuggling had been a criminal activity with minimal violence, the dynamic changed in the mid 1990’s when drug cartels began splitting Mexico into territories where they exacted absolute control over every criminal activity.
Governor Abbott expressed outrage after learning that Border Patrol agents are not provided COVID-19 vaccinations like other federal front-line workers.
“What I am about to tell you may be one of the most reprehensible things I’ve heard this whole time,” he said. “The Biden administration is not providing vaccinations for the Border Patrol.”
“We have Border Patrol [agents] whose lives are on the line of a daily basis — an hourly basis — and the Biden administration will not provide those Border Patrol [agents] with the vaccinations they need” the outraged governor stated. “The Biden administration should surge vaccines to Texas to all men and women on the Border Patrol this week.”
“Anything less than that is the epitome of inhumanity,” Abbot stated.
While border security is a federal government responsibility, Abbott said, “Texas will not shy away from filling the gap” created by the Biden administration’s reversal of successful border security policies.
He explained that ranchers in South Texas and homeowners along the border are experiencing “mayhem” as the ever-increasing numbers of migrants cross the border unchecked.
The Texas governor expressed concern about what will follow the current surge of migrants. In a message to future migrant caravans, Abbott said, “We are ready, we are waiting for you, we will enforce the law.” He stated the caravan migrants “will not be accepted into Texas.”
Last week, Abbott announced “Operation Lone Star” and ordered the deployment of the Texas National Guard and additional DPS resources.
Texas National Guard Adjutant General, Major General Tracy Norris told the reporters she is deploying more than 500 soldiers this week to support the Texas Department of Public Safety.
“We’re going to be doing observation posts along the area that DPS designates for us,” General Norris stated. “We currently have soldiers already trained for this event.”
Abbott expressed concern over the rapidly growing number of apprehension in the Rio Grande Valley Sector. He reported Border Patrol numbers indicating more than 90,000 apprehensions in all of FY 2020. During the first few months of this fiscal year, that number jumped to more than 108,000.
“We are on a scale where it is going to more than double or triple, or maybe quadruple or quintuple, made just in the Rio Grande Valley Sector alone because of the new policies of the Biden Administration,” he said.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.
IMAGES OF MEX-OCCUPIED LOS ANGELES - MEXICO'S SECOND LARGEST CITY
Gang Lands # 9 The Last Crips of Boyle Heights
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSvU7tt12Y8
Gang Lands # 10 Gangs of Downtown Los Angeles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBs7M28EwF0
Central America Town in Los Angeles California
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChLZy9bSLXQ
A HISTORY OF MEX GANGS
VERDUGO MEXICAN GANGS
https://unitedgangs.com/verdugo-gangsters/
When La Raza “The Race” Supremacist Kamala Harris was Attorney General of California, she announced that nearly half the murders in Mex-occupied California were perpetrated by Mexican gangs. That didn’t stop her hispandering!
If you go to the Los Angeles Police 200 most wanted criminals, 186 are Mexicans.
When Mexican M.E.Ch.A. separatist and La Raza member Xavier Becerra became Attorney General of California, the first thing he did as AG was delete from the State of California AG website the list of California's ten most wanted criminals: they were all Mexicans
Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute has testified before a Congressional committee that in 2004, 95% of all outstanding warrants for murder in Los Angeles were for illegal aliens; in 2000, 23% of all Los Angeles County jail inmates were illegal aliens and that in 1995, 60% of Los Angeles’s largest street gang, the 18th Street gang, were illegal aliens.
Congressman: Illegal Antelope Valley Pot Grows Being Run By International Drug Cartels
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-XCBPMgDUc
FBI Arrests Dozens of Drug Ring Members Around Inland Empire | NBCLA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMt5JUwDhMo
“Joe Biden is great on immigration. I guess depends on your perspective. If you’re a human trafficker, or drug dealer, you’d give him an A-plus, but theAmerican people would give him an F. The crisis at our border was not only entirely predictable, it was predicted. I predicted that if you campaign all year long on open borders, amnesty, and health care for illegals, you’re going to get more migrants at the border. That’s what’s happened since the election.”
SEN. TOM COTTON
MEXICO = DRUGS AND UNREGISTERED DEM VOTERS!
Desert towns in California have seen a dramatic increase of illegal marijuana plantations, operating through means of water theft, human trafficking, and violence.
How Foreign Drug Operations Are Taking Over California’s Desert Towns: Jorge Ventura
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL86snd4dP8
“All our street gangs are a problem,” Lawhead said. “They create an environment of fear. Gangs in general are responsible for a majority of our homicides and a lot of the other illegal activity in the city.”
The release said the Verdugo gang and its affiliates are linked to the Mexican Mafia prison gang. The indictment outlines how some of the proceeds generated by narcotic sales were funneled to the Mexican Mafia.
“Joe Biden is great on immigration. I guess depends on your perspective. If you’re a human trafficker, or drug dealer, you’d give him an A-plus, but theAmerican people would give him an F. The crisis at our border was not only entirely predictable, it was predicted. I predicted that if you campaign all year long on open borders, amnesty, and health care for illegals, you’re going to get more migrants at the border. That’s what’s happened since the election.” SEN. TOM COTTON
JUDICIAL WATCH
THE GRUESOME MS-13 GANGS FROM LOS ANGELES: THEIR MURDER, RAPE, AND CRIME TIDAL WAVE IN AMERICA’S OPEN BORDERS
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2017/11/judicial-watch-deported-gangster.html
The illegal stabbed her to death with a screwdriver and then ran her over with her car.
JUDICIAL WATCH:
“The greatest criminal threat to the daily lives of American citizens are the Mexican drug cartels.”
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-american-border-with-narcomex.html
“Mexican drug cartels are the “other” terrorist threat to America. Militant Islamists have the goal of destroying the United States. Mexican drug cartels are now accomplishing that mission – from within, every day, in virtually every community across this country.” JUDICIAL WATCH
“Mexican authorities have arrested the former mayor of a rural community in the border state of Coahuila in connection with the kidnapping, murder and incineration of hundreds of victims through a network of ovens at the hands of the Los Zetas cartel. The arrest comes after Breitbart Texas exposed not only the horrors of the mass extermination, but also the cover-up and complicity of the Mexican government.”
“Heroin is not produced in the United States. Every gram of heroin present in the United States provides unequivocal evidence of a failure of border security because every gram of heroin was smuggled into the United States. Indeed, this is precisely a point that Attorney General Jeff Sessions made during his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on October 18, 2017 when he again raised the need to secure the U.S./Mexican border to protect American lives.” Michael Cutler …..FrontPageMag.com
A HISTORY OF MEX GANGS
VERDUGO MEXICAN GANGS
https://unitedgangs.com/verdugo-gangsters/
Attorney General Bonta Announces 180 Felony Arrests During Investigation Targeting Westside Verdugo Criminal Street Gang in San Bernardino
Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov
SAN BERNARDINO – California Attorney General Rob Bonta, San Bernardino Police Chief David Green, and San Bernardino District Attorney Jason Anderson today announced the results of a joint investigation into the Westside Verdugo criminal street gang. In June, the police department requested assistance with its investigation of the gang’s violent criminal activity from the California Department of Justice’s Special Operations Unit. Together with the district attorney’s office and other local law enforcement partners, the team made 180 felony arrests, shut down 30 illegal gambling establishments, and seized 92 handguns, 19 assault weapons, $295,870 in U.S. currency, as well as hundreds of pounds of illicit drugs over the course of the investigation. Yesterday, the investigation culminated in a largescale operation with agents executing 34 search warrants, arresting 31 suspects, and seizing 11 firearms at multiple sites in San Bernardino County.
“Members and associates of this gang have committed violent crimes in San Bernardino with no regard for the people in the community who are directly or indirectly harmed,” said Attorney General Rob Bonta. “This investigation and yesterday’s arrests and seizures have removed dangerous individuals from our streets and firearms from the hands of those who would choose to commit violent crimes. The results of this investigation could also assist law enforcement in solving other cases in the area. The partnership between our agents and local law enforcement made this possible, and I’m thankful to every person involved in this successful investigation.”
“As decriminalization initiatives continue to undermine the safety of our community, we have never been more reliant on our law enforcement partners,” said San Bernardino Police Chief David Green.
“The scale of this multiagency operation speaks to the commitment we have to eradicate criminal street gangs across San Bernardino County, particularly one with such a violent history as the Westside Verdugo gang,” said San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson. “Violent crime is on the rise, and several of the defendants we have filed against are facing their 3rd strike, indicating a propensity for criminal behavior. The success of this takedown was due to the tremendous efforts of the San Bernardino Police Department and the Department of Justice in conducting the investigation, and the tenacity of our specialized gang unit prosecutors. We will use everything in our toolkit including weapon enhancements, gang enhancements, prior convictions, and prior strike convictions to ensure maximum accountability from these defendants, keeping career criminals off the streets of San Bernardino and out of our communities.”
Westside Verdugo has an extensive criminal history in the San Bernardino area. The gang is suspected of multiple violent crimes including assault, attempted murder, and murder.
Over the course of the investigation, numerous violent crimes were prevented, including shootings and armed robberies. Evidence collected during the investigation also assisted in solving two homicides in the area. Agents also shut down 30 illegal gambling establishments and seized over 100 illegal gambling machines and devices. These establishments were operated by members and associates of Westside Verdugo and brought in tens of thousands of dollars a week for the gang. In 2021, five homicides, four attempted murders, and multiple other crimes were linked to these sites.
DOJ’s Special Operations Unit is a collaborative investigative effort between DOJ and the California Highway Patrol. The unit provides statewide enforcement for combating violent career criminals, gangs, and organized crime groups, along with intrastate drug traffickers. These unique and essential teams use the latest technology and advanced investigative techniques and work alongside local law enforcement to enhance investigations into violent criminals and organized crime throughout the state.
SAN BERNARDINO: 52 gang members indicted in drug sales, smuggling case
By BRIAN ROKOS | brokos@scng.com | The Press-Enterprise
Fifty-two members and associates of San Bernardino’s largest criminal gang were indicted Thursday on narcotics trafficking charges, the FBI said.
Of those 52, 21 people were arrested Thursday, and 22 already were in custody on unrelated charges, according to an FBI news release. The other nine are being sought.
All were charged with conspiracy to distribute and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and heroin. Seven also are charged with distributing the narcotics, the FBI said. The indictment, unsealed Thursday, was the result of a yearslong investigation by federal, state, county and city authorities that targeted the West Side Verdugo gang.
The defendants face 10 years to life in prison if convicted, the FBI said.
San Bernardino police Lt. Rich Lawhead, who was part of the team that made the arrests, said that in addition to drug pushing, West Side Verdugo members are responsible for several homicides and assaults in the city.
“All our street gangs are a problem,” Lawhead said. “They create an environment of fear. Gangs in general are responsible for a majority of our homicides and a lot of the other illegal activity in the city.”
Most of the 90-page indictment is devoted to summaries of 502 separate phone calls or text messages intercepted by authorities in which the sales of heroin and meth were discussed in coded language. Other messages discussed smuggling drugs to inmates, including those in the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, and Corcoran and Ironwood state prisons.
There were also conversations about money owed, the collection of “drug taxes” from dealers allowed to set up in gang territory, and the enforcement of gang rules.
The conversations occurred from Aug. 26, 2010, to Jan. 16, 2012.
“A lot of these people were shocked when we showed up,” Lawhead said, noting the amount of time that had passed since the investigation began. “But the wheels of justice do move.”
Lawhead said he hoped the arrests would dissuade youngsters from joining gangs.
The release said the Verdugo gang and its affiliates are linked to the Mexican Mafia prison gang. The indictment outlines how some of the proceeds generated by narcotic sales were funneled to the Mexican Mafia.
Some of the drugs were dealt at what was described as the “7th Street Park.” FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said that was a reference to La Plaza Park on Mt. Vernon Avenue, at Seventh Street on San Bernardino’s west side.
Lawhead said heroin has been sold at that park for years, and that the city’s officers patrol La Plaza and other parks in an effort to deter drug dealers.
Gang members went to great lengths to smuggle drugs to inmates, according to the indictment. One person, identified as “Martinez,” was told to sneak drugs into West Valley Detention Center by getting himself arrested and booked into the facility. His plan was foiled, however, when a police officer merely wrote a citation for an unspecified offense.
“There wasn’t anyone who wanted to go to jail today – I guarantee you that,” Lawhead said.
Other agencies participating in the investigation and arrests, according to the FBI, were the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, San Bernardino County Probation Department, Los Angeles Police Department, LA County Sheriff’s Department, California Highway Patrol, Drug Enforcement Administration and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Joint investigation into San Bernardino street gang nets 180 arrests, firearms, drugs
Tentacles of operation allegedly reached into Los Angeles and Orange counties
·
By JOE NELSON | San Bernardino Sun
A yearlong investigation into a San Bernardino street gang’s criminal activity has netted 180 arrests, shuttered 30 illegal gambling operations and resulted in the seizure of more than 100 assault weapons and handguns, authorities announced Thursday.
San Bernardino police last year began investigating illegal firearms sales involving Westside Verdugo, a Latino street gang rooted in the city for roughly 70 years.
But early on in the investigation, police realized they were dealing with something much bigger than just illicit gun sales, Police Chief David Green said during a news conference Thursday at the San Bernardino Police Department, where dozens of assault weapons and handguns seized by police during the investigation were spread across a table. Also on display was a large electronic gambling machine.San Bernardino Police Chief David Green announces 180 arrests made and 111 firearms seized during a multiagency operation targeting the Westside Verdugo criminal street gang during a press conference at the San Bernardino Police Station in San Bernardino on Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
“As they started doing more analysis on these cases, they were recognizing it was a little more coordinated and a little more significant than what they initially realized, and that’s when they started pursuing it as more of a conspiracy type of investigation,” Green said. The investigation and subsequent arrests extended into Orange and Los Angeles counties, he said.
Several agencies enlisted
In June, the investigation ramped up when the San Bernardino Police Department asked the state attorney general’s Special Operations Unit to join in. The Santa Ana Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the California Highway Patrol also assisted in the investigation, which culminated Wednesday when officers fanned out across San Bernardino County, serving 34 search warrants, arresting 31 people and seizing 111 firearms at multiple locations.
During the course of the investigation, coined “Operation Westside Jenga,” police seized 92 handguns, 19 assault weapons, more than $295,000 in cash and hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine, marijuana, heroin and fentanyl. Several potential shootings and armed robberies were thwarted, and evidence collected by investigators during the investigation assisted in the closure of two homicide cases, police said.
Additionally, investigators infiltrated and shut down 30 illegal gambling operations and seized more than 100 high-end gambling machines. The facilities were linked to five homicides, four attempted murders and other crimes in 2021, authorities said.
Gambling operations
The gambling operations — which housed high-end gambling machines, most of them acquired on the black market and imported from China — were bringing in tens of thousands of dollars a week and were operated out of private residences, warehouses and closed businesses, Green said.
He said the gambling facilities were a joint-enterprise between Westside Verdugo and the Mexican Mafia, the patriarchal prison gang that receives a share of profits from drug sales and other illicit business carried out by Westside Verdugo and other Latino street gangs in the form of “taxes.” Some of that revenue was reinvested into the gambling operations.
“It has a hierarchy. It has its own business model. It’s an illicit business model, but it’s one that’s very lucrative nonetheless,” Green said.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the people of San Bernardino “can go to bed tonight knowing their community is safer.”
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announces the results of a multiagency operation targeting the Westside Verdugo criminal street gang that resulted in 180 arrests and shutdown of 30 illegal gambling operations during a press conference at the San Bernardino Police Station in San Bernardino on Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
“We’re putting serious criminals behind bars,” Bonta said, adding that he was proud of the results of the investigation not only as attorney general, but also as a father. “Every child in California deserves to grow up in a safe neighborhood — a neighborhood that is free from violence, a neighborhood without gun violence.”
Feds not involved
Green said authorities opted to handle the prosecution locally without the help of the federal government, which often takes down such large criminal enterprises using the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act, referred to as the RICO Act.
“We’re not pursuing a federal prosecution in this case because we have the local District Attorney’s Office that we feel is going to be able to give us a successful prosecutorial outcome,” Green said. “But these types of cases are often handled by federal prosecutors under that RICO statute.”
San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson said his office has so far charged 45 defendants with various felony offenses, which include a total of 57 firearm enhancements and 41 gang enhancements. Six of the defendants are facing third strikes, Anderson said.
“Our role is twofold in this particular instance. Number one is we are going to punish these individuals as severely as we possibly can, and number two, we’re going to separate them from an otherwise law-abiding community for as long as we can,” Anderson said.
San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson speaks during a press conference at the San Bernardino Police Station in San Bernardino on Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021. Authorities announced the results of a multiagency operation targeting the Westside Verdugo criminal street gang that resulted in 180 arrests and shutdown of 30 illegal gambling operations. (Photo by Watchara Phomicinda, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)
More criminal charges are expected, authorities said.
“Many of these cases are still under review, and we are expecting many more charges to be filed,” Green said. “Some of them will be tried jointly, and some of them will be parsed out separately.”
A secret look at a Mexican cartel's low-tech, multimillion-dollar fentanyl operation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdoRAjilrhs
Fentanyl is making its way into various drugs sold in the U.S. Here's how it gets there
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH_OJbfFuN0
Cartels Are Making Millions on Fentanyl-Laced Medicine | Crimewave
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EV6qS8xH24M
"This is how they will destroy America from within. The leftist billionaires who orchestrate these plans are wealthy. Those tasked with representing us in Congress will never be exposed to the cost of the invasion of millions of migrants. They have nothing but contempt for those of us who must endure the consequences of our communities being intruded upon by gang members, drug dealers and human traffickers. These people have no intention of becoming Americans; like the Democrats who welcome them, they have contempt for us." PATRICIA McCARTHY
Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute has testified before a Congressional committee that in 2004, 95% of all outstanding warrants for murder in Los Angeles were for illegal aliens; in 2000, 23% of all Los Angeles County jail inmates were illegal aliens and that in 1995, 60% of Los Angeles’s largest street gang, the 18th Street gang, were illegal aliens.
Texas DPS: Mexican Cartels Committing Murders in the U.S.
ILDEFONSO ORTIZ and BRANDON DARBY
Drug cartel gunmen are crossing the border to commit murders in Texas, authorities claim. The statements by officials from the Texas Department of Public Safety directly clash with longstanding claims by local police chiefs who routinely say that border cities are safe.
“These criminal organizations come across from Mexico to the U.S. side and they kill individuals. they murder individuals,” Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Lieutenant Chris Olivarez told Sara Carter with Fox News. “We have had several incidents that have taken place along the border using professional-type weapons the way they carry out these killings, very professional, very methodical.”
The statements by Olivarez come at a time when both DPS and the Texas National Guard increased their law enforcement presence along the border in response to record-breaking human and drug smuggling activity by criminal organizations like the Gulf Cartel and the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas.
The statements made by Olivarez clash with the longstanding narrative by several politicians, local police chiefs, and sheriffs who claim that border cities are safe. Those claims are usually backed up by statistics from the FBI Uniform Crime Report. However as Breitbart Texas has reported, the UCR only looks at seven specific crimes and does not account for criminal activity that is specific to border cities such as kidnappings, extortion, drug trafficking, human smuggling, and human trafficking.
Additionally, the terminology used by police departments for the UCR report allows them to hide the severity of certain crimes. One example particular to border cities deals with home invasions, where teams of gunmen storm into a house looking for drugs or cash. As Breitbart Texas has reported, home invasions are reported in the UCR report only as robberies.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
Surge in Fentanyl Seizures Show Cartels Taking Advantage of Lax Border Policies, DHS Officials Say
A DEA agent checks pills containing fentanyl / Getty ImagesJoseph Simonson • November 17, 2021 5:00 am
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Customs and Border Protection's fentanyl seizures skyrocketed by over 40 percent in the month of October, as drug traffickers and cartels take advantage of the border crisis.
Agency data show that CBP agents last month captured nearly 1,050 pounds of the lethal opioid, the fifth-highest amount in three years. For comparison, the amount of fentanyl seized in October is more than 2.5 times the amount the agency seized in the first three months of 2019 and roughly 40 percent of the amount seized in all of 2019.
The high amount of fentanyl busts coincides with skyrocketing opiate overdoses across the country—the Centers for Disease Control recorded a record-high 12-month overdose death toll between March 2020 and March 2021 with no signs of deceleration through the end of this year. The seizures also come as President Joe Biden reverses a number of border policies, a decision that critics say grants more opportunities for criminal elements to smuggle drugs into the country.
One senior Department of Homeland Security official told the Washington Free Beacon that drug smugglers are accelerating their operations as agents on the border face resource and manpower constraints with processing asylum claims instead of trying to stop drug smugglers.
"Cartels are exploiting the migrant crisis to expand drug and human smuggling," one senior DHS official said. "The administration knew full well that using agents to process mass groups of economic migrants would mean reducing the effort to combat crime. They alone own these failures."
The Biden administration has touted high seizure numbers as a success. Deputy White House Press Secretary Andrew Bates on Nov. 2 tweeted out an excerpt from an MSNBC piece that said, "The [fentanyl] seizures disprove one of the [GOP's] favorite talking points: If the president had implemented an ‘open-border' policy, as the right routinely claims, U.S. Customs and Border Protection wouldn't have stopped these shipments."
Officials within Border Patrol and DHS disputed that characterization by the White House, with the senior DHS official calling Bates's comment "galaxy brain" thinking.
Many states have pinned much of the blame for the opioid crisis on the Biden administration's immigration policies, calling them reckless and a public health threat.
West Virginia, which has been among the states hardest hit by the opioid crisis, in August filed a lawsuit against DHS and Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over the department's decision to end the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols, which force asylum seekers to remain in Mexico before their court dates in the United States. The state alleged in court that the decision contributed to the "devastating deadly flood of fentanyl across the Southwest border."
"By its consequences burdening and distracting the Border Patrol, the termination of the [Migrant Protection Protocols] decreases the security of the border against fentanyl trafficking between ports of entry, leading directly to both increased numbers of smuggling attempts and increased rates of success in evading Border Patrol," the lawsuit stated. Missouri in April filed a similar suit against DHS.
Research has found that just two milligrams of fentanyl can cause a lethal overdose in people with no prior use of the drug, meaning the amount of the drug seized in October alone could kill over 200 million people.
The influx of fentanyl from across the border has led to bipartisan efforts in Congress to ramp up law-enforcement efforts to arrest and prosecute dealers and traffickers. A group of Republican and Democratic senators in September introduced the Providing Officers with Electronic Resources Act, which provides grants to local law-enforcement agencies for portable fentanyl screening devices.
