Monday, May 2, 2022

JOE BIDEN'S OPEN BORDERS AND THE LA RAZA NARCOMEX DRUG CARTELS - Exclusive — Rebecca Kleefisch: Epidemic Number of Overdoses in Wisconsin Is ‘Owed Directly’ to Border Crisis

 JOE BIDEN: AMERICA’S DRUG DEALER!

 https://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2022/05/joe-biden-americas-drug-dealer-but-then.html

From April 2020 to April 2021, more than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics. An overwhelming majority of those deaths came from opioids, and fentanyl smuggling has surged at the southern border since the start of Joe Biden's presidency. Joseph Simonson and Collin Anderson  


REMBER THAT NO LAWYER IS

 FUNDAMENTALLY CAPABLE

 OF BEING TRUTHFUL!



(CNSNews.com) - "Mr. Secretary, are you testifying as you sit here today that the southwest border is secure?" Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.) asked Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday.

"Yes, I am," Mayorkas said. "And we are continuing to work to make it more secure."

Illegal immigration is breaking records under President Joe Biden, but Mayorkas cast doubt on the numbers:


Exclusive — Rebecca Kleefisch: Epidemic Number of Overdoses in Wisconsin Is ‘Owed Directly’ to Border Crisis

In this Nov.. 7, 2018 file photo, then Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch speaks at an election night event in Pewaukee, Wis. Republican Rebecca Kleefisch, who spent eight years as lieutenant governor under Scott Walker, has launched her campaign for governor Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)
AP Photo/Morry Gash
4:12

Former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch (R) vowed during an interview with Breitbart News Saturday to put more police officers on the streets of Wisconsin to help combat a rise in drug overdoses if she is elected governor.

Kleefisch spoke specifically about fentanyl, a highly potent opioid that is manufactured illegally, primarily in Mexico and China, and is a leading cause of overdose deaths in the United States.

“Fentanyl is coming across our border in a way we have never seen in our lifetimes,” said Kleefisch, who served as lieutenant governor of Wisconsin alongside Gov. Scott Walker (R) for two terms until 2019. During that time, Kleefisch was appointed cochair of the governor’s task force on opioid abuse.

“Fentanyl is one of the most dangerous drugs, and it is a killer,” Kleefisch asserted. “The epidemic number of overdoses that we see across Wisconsin is owed directly to the crisis at our border.”

Listen:

Drug overdoses are on the rise in the United States, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. More than 100,000 overdose deaths occurred in a 12-month period through November of last year, and synthetic opioids, which include fentanyl, contributed to most of those deaths, or about 80,000 of them.

In another indication of the growing danger of fentanyl, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 11,201 pounds of the powerful drug at the border in fiscal year (FY) 2021, which is more than double the amount seized in FY 2020 and about four times the amount seized in FY 2019. FY 2022 is on pace with last year’s surge, showing seizures of 5,310 pounds in its first six months.

A display of the fentanyl and meth that was seized by Customs and Border Protection officers over the weekend at the Nogales Port of Entry is shown during a press conference on Thursday, Jan. 31, 2019, in Nogales, Ariz. As the number of U.S. overdose deaths continues to soar, states are trying to take steps to combat a flood of the drug that has proved the most lethal -- illicitly produced fentanyl. (Mamta Popat/Arizona Daily Star via AP, File)

A display of the fentanyl and meth that was seized by CBP officers over the weekend at the Nogales Port of Entry is shown during a press conference, January 31, 2019, in Nogales, Arizona. (Mamta Popat/Arizona Daily Star via AP)

Law enforcement officials, Kleefisch said, have informed her “that 95 percent of our illicit drugs in Wisconsin are coming up over that border, and those drugs are killing our friends and neighbors. … Our cities all have a problem with drugs, and those drug cartels pass those drugs up over the Mexican border to our American drug gangs, go through our freeway systems, which leads directly to the people of Wisconsin. We’ve got to shut this down.”

Kleefisch, who is hoping to unseat Gov. Tony Evers (D) in this year’s midterms, said she is “law enforcement’s choice for governor.”

In this Jan. 22, 2019, file photo Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers addresses a joint session of the Legislature in the Assembly chambers during the Governor's State of the State speech at the state Capitol in Madison, Wis. The Democratic Governor says a judge should suspend Republicans' lame duck law limiting his powers. Labor unions filed a lawsuit this month challenging the law, which prohibits Evers from pulling the state out of lawsuits without legislative approval and requires state agencies to take down publications explaining how they interpret state law by July unless they send the documents through a public comment period. (AP Photo/Andy Manis, File)

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers addresses a joint session of the legislature in the Assembly chambers during the governor’s State of the State speech in Madison. (AP Photo/Andy Manis)

The Wisconsin Republican noted the weighty endorsements she has received from the law enforcement sector, including from the Milwaukee Police Association, the Kenosha Police Association, the Wisconsin Fraternal Order of Police, and more than half of the state’s sheriffs.

In terms of her action plan, Kleefisch said southern border control is a priority. “You do it by just going around the federal government, by doing what the Republican governors are doing,” she said, adding she would join onto the newly formed American Governor’s Border Strike Force with most other Republican governors if she were elected to office.

Kleefisch said she would also bolster police presence in the Badger State by adding 1,000 more officers to the state’s police force.

“Even after you shut down that type of drug trade, you need to shut down the selling of drugs. You need to shut down the human trafficking where it’s already happening and where it’s spreading,” Kleefisch said. “That means we need more cops on the streets.”

Kleefisch’s comments on tackling drug abuse come as she has made the broader issue of crime a focus of her campaign. Her positions stand in contrast to those of Evers, who gained a reputation in 2020 for sympathizing with Black Lives Matter protesters and rioters, some of whom pushed aggressive anti-police sentiments and ravaged Wisconsin’s small city of Kenosha.

“Tony Evers’ rhetoric has discouraged people who stand on the thin blue line every single day,” Kleefisch said. She added that Evers “would rather pander to far fringes of the woke left than he would protect the communities of the state of Wisconsin.”

Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.

Democratic Texas Mayor: This is affecting us in 'many' ways



Mayorkas: 'We Will Continue to Enforce Our Immigration Laws'; 'We

 Have Effectively Managed an Unprecedented Number of

 Noncitizens'  I.E., WE'VE ILLEGALLYE USHERED MILLIONS OF ILLEGALS INTO AMERICAN JOBS TO KEEP WAGES DEPRESSED AND BUILD OUR PARTY BASE OF ILLEGALS.

“Heroin is highly addictive. People who regularly use heroin often develop a tolerance, which means that they need higher and/or more frequent doses of the drug to get the desired effects,” the institute said.


PHOTOS: K-9 Helps in Nearly $700K Drug Bust, Arrest of Illegals

K9 Titan
Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles
2:13

A Florida K-9 used his skills to help in a major drug bust recently in Hernando County, and citizens are praising his efforts.

The Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) said this week the bust took place on Tuesday when a trooper pulled over a Jeep Grand Cherokee on I-75 with a fraudulent Arizona license plate, WFLA reported.

Troopers also learned the driver was unlicensed, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles noted in a social media post.

However, it was not long before K-9 Titan sniffed out 5.5 pounds of heroin that was worth $693,000.

“Both occupants of the vehicle, 33-year-old Maurilio Garcia-Torres and 19-year-old Ivania Riestra-Garcia were determined to be undocumented aliens from Mexico,” the WFLA report said.

Illegal aliens arrested for heroin trafficking and distribution

Maurilio Garcia-Torres and Ivania Riestra-Garcia, illegal aliens arrested for heroin trafficking and distribution. (courtesy Hernando County Sheriff’s Office)

The pair was arrested, transported to the Hernando County Jail, and charged with heroin trafficking, distribution of heroin, and possession of a vehicle for drug trafficking.

Officials shared images taken after the bust, with K-9 Titan sitting next to an FHP vehicle while proudly displaying his find:

“Give that pupper a steak along with everyone else! Great job!!” one social media user commented, while another said, “Great job FHP & Titan! Keep this drugs off our streets!”

Heroin is described as an opioid drug in the form of powder, or a black substance, known as black tar heroin, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Individuals using heroin over a long period of time can experience symptoms such as insomnia, collapsed veins for those who inject it, damaged tissue in the nose for people who sniff or snort the drug, liver and kidney disease, lung problems, and mental disorders.

“Heroin is highly addictive. People who regularly use heroin often develop a tolerance, which means that they need higher and/or more frequent doses of the drug to get the desired effects,” the institute said.

WATCH: 50 Migrants Cross Heavily Polluted Border River into California

50 Migrants cross polluted New River from Mexico into California. (U.S. Border Patrol/El Centro Sector)
U.S. Border Patrol/El Centro Sector
2:51

El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended a group of more than 50 migrants after they illegally crossed the New River into California. Officials called the river “one of the most polluted bodies of water in North America.”

El Centro Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gregory K. Bovino tweeted a video showing a group of more than 50 migrants illegally crossing a polluted border river from Mexico into California.

Chief Bovino called the New River one of the most polluted bodies of water in North America. Two of the migrants appeared to be pushing a raft with no one in it. The group appears to be mostly single adult migrants.

The chief also tweeted a video showing highlights of the past week of migrant encounters in the El Centro Sector.

Those actions along the border include the discovery of $418K worth of fentanyl and cocaine in a gym back during a vehicle search, the arrest of a previously deported child sex offender, the seizure of 86 pounds of methamphetamine hidden in a piece of furniture, more than $350K in methamphetamine and heroin, the interdiction of 13 human smuggling loads, and the apprehension of 1,545 migrants who illegally crossed the border.

The video also the conviction for illegal re-entry after removal that came with an 18-month prison sentence, and the seizure of ten vehicles used in human smuggling attempts in the sector.

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.


Exclusive–Clay Higgins: DHS Chief Mayorkas Carrying Out ‘Insidious Agenda’ to Transform America with Illegal Immigration

Alejandro Mayorkas
Drew Angerer/PEDRO PARDO/AFP via Getty Images

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) says Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is currently carrying out an “insidious agenda” to transform the United States with illegal immigration.

During an exclusive interview with SiriusXM Patriot’s Breitbart News Daily, Higgins accused President Joe Biden of using Mayorkas to abolish the nation’s borders.

LISTEN: 

“We’ve lost our sovereignty down there [at the border],” Higgins said. “The nation has been generationally impacted. There’s no guarantee we can ever really recover.”

“They have effectively injured America to the extent of the collapse and open border … they have potentially injured America to the extent that we’ll have generational change that will be sort of a post-Biden reality of what America looks like because of what’s going on at the border,” He continued. “Mayorkas knows this and he’s like talking to a machine … he is quite focused as he delivers the insidious agenda and chosen lines and talking points of the Left.”

The Biden administration’s goal, Higgins said, is using mass immigration to the U.S. to change the American electorate so that Democrats are more easily elected in congressional and presidential elections.

“[Mayorkas] has been the instrument that they’ve used to pry open America’s sovereignty and destroy us from within — setting the stage for permanent Democrat control over congress and perhaps presidential elections as well,” Higgins said. “They completely intend to have these illegals you know ultimately given the right to vote. That’s obviously their plan.”

“Mayorkas has to know, it’s impossible to not know, that he’s being used as an instrument to advance the agenda of evil which is to erode America’s very fabric … our cultural fabric, our law and order, and to disintegrate our sovereignty at the southern border to allow literally millions and millions of illegal aliens to enter into our country — unsustainable,” he continued.

As Breitbart News has reported, nearly 840,000 border crossers and illegal aliens have been released into American communities since Biden took office — a foreign population larger than the state of North Dakota.

This figure does not include the hundreds of thousands of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) that have been resettled in the U.S. by the federal government and the hundreds of thousands of got-aways who successfully entered the U.S. illegally.

recent analysis by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) suggests that Biden, in his first year, added over a million illegal aliens to the U.S. population.

Already, the nation’s foreign-born population has hit an unprecedented 46.2 million. By 2060, the foreign-born population is expected to hit 70 million if illegal immigration is not stemmed and legal immigration levels are not reduced.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here


DHS Secretary Could Not Say If 42 Aliens on the Terrorist Watch List or No-Fly List Were Released Into U.S.

By Susan Jones | April 29, 2022 | 6:38am EDT

  
Illegal immigrants are detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the border near San Luis, Arizona. (Photo by Nick Ut/Getty Images)
Illegal immigrants are detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the border near San Luis, Arizona. (Photo by Nick Ut/Getty Images)

(CNSNews.com) - In an often-heated hearing on Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was challenged over his management -- or failure to manage -- the overrun southwest border.

In one of those contentious moments, Rep. Jim Jordan asked Mayorkas about a Fox News report that 42 people on the terror watch list or no-fly list have been apprehended trying to sneak into the country since Joe Biden became president.

"Secretary, have any of the 42 illegal migrants on the terrorist watch list or no-fly list encountered on our southwest border been released into the United States?" Jordan asked Mayorkas.

"Ranking Member Jordan, as I mentioned before, I will provide that data to you with respect to the disposition of each one. I do not know the answer to your question," the secretary said.

Jordan responded: "The Secretary of Homeland Security does not know the answer to the status of 42 individuals who came to our southern border illegally, are on the no fly list, and the -- and the no -- and the terrorist watch list. You do not -- do not know whether they have been released or not into the country. That's your testimony."

"Ranking Member Jordan, as I've said before, I will provide you the data. I do want to --"

Jordan interrupted him: "I yield back to the gentleman. That's amazing. I yield back."

Fox News first reported that 23 people on the terror watch list or no-fly list had been apprehended at the southern border between Jan. 20 and the end of December.

Later, Fox put the number at 42, noting that "This latest figure includes the Office of Field Operations (OFO) data, and therefore includes those encountered at ports of entry. The information includes nationwide arrests and is not specific to the southern border," Fox reported.

Of course, as various Republicans have noted, no one knows how many dangerous people have entered the country undetected.


Also See:
Illegal Alien With Links to Terrorism Removed from US -- Seven Months After His Arrest

Mayorkas: 'We Will Continue to Enforce Our Immigration Laws'; 'We Have Effectively Managed an Unprecedented Number of Noncitizens'


DHS Secretary: 'The Border Is, in Fact, Not Open'

By Susan Jones | April 28, 2022 | 6:56am EDT

  

Migrant families wait on the shore of the Rio Grande to board rafts to cross the US-Mexico border into the United States in Tamaulipas, Mexico, as seen from Roma, Texas. (Photo by PAUL RATJE/AFP via Getty Images)
Migrant families wait on the shore of the Rio Grande to board rafts to cross the US-Mexico border into the United States in Tamaulipas, Mexico, as seen from Roma, Texas. (Photo by PAUL RATJE/AFP via Getty Images)

(CNSNews.com) - "Mr. Secretary, are you testifying as you sit here today that the southwest border is secure?" Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.) asked Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday.

"Yes, I am," Mayorkas said. "And we are continuing to work to make it more secure."

Illegal immigration is breaking records under President Joe Biden, but Mayorkas cast doubt on the numbers:

"And if I can correct one thing about the statistics you are using and also mention one important factor. Number one, please understand that under Title 42, a Title 42 expulsion is not a formal removal under immigration law under Title eight of the United States Code.

"And what happens under Title 42 is because it is an expulsion and not a formal removal, we're seeing a great deal of recidivism. So the same individual will try again to enter the United States.

“And so the number of encounters is different than the number of unique individuals seeking entry into the United States between the ports of entry. Number one. So the encounters does not equal the number of unique individuals.

"Number two, the transnational criminal organizations, the smuggling networks are spreading misinformation to vulnerable migrants that the border is open. And the reality is the fact of the matter is that individuals who are encountered at the border make claims for relief under our asylum laws. That is what our law provides.

"Those whose claims succeed in immigration enforcement proceedings have established a basis to remain in the United States. Those who do not are removed from the United States, and therefore, the border is in fact not open."

'The wall is not the right solution for the border'

"Explain why a wall will not solve the problem at the border, please?" Rep. Al Green (R-Texas) asked Secretary Mayorkas on Wednesday.

"Congressman, we have -- we have observed individuals bypassing the wall, intruding beyond it, cutting it, climbing over it, and like the border requires a layered solution to its security," Mayorkas said:

“The greatest force multiplier there is -- is technology. And that is why we in our fiscal year 2023 budget are requesting that Congress allow us to invest further in technology.

"We are also seeking to resource our Border Patrol agents. We make for the first time since 2011 a request to increase our Border Patrol forces by 300 personnel, not to mention additional case processors in the like, so that we can get our Border Patrol agents out into the field.

“The fact of the matter is that the border is not the right solution -- I'm sorry, the wall is not the right solution for the board -- for the border.

"We have to harness innovation and technology as the most economic efficient means as a force multiplier to our extraordinary personnel."

The War America Should be Fighting

From Breitbart News, April 19:

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, California — Four times as much fentanyl is flowing across the United States-Mexico border under President Joe Biden compared to two years prior when former President Trump was in office.

The U.S.-Mexican border exists in name only.  Joe Biden erased it.  His is a wanton act of disregard for the welfare, safety, and security of Americans.  Impeachment is a must, should Republicans take charge of the U.S. House next January.  Biden’s actions amount to willful dereliction of duty that constitutes “high crimes.”  Ranking Biden administration officials running national security or law enforcement departments and agencies are culpable, too.  They should be subject to removal proceedings.  

The Biden administration is dropping Title 42 this May.  That merely opens wider the floodgates to illegals and worse aggressions by Mexico’s cartels, which are pumping phenomenal amounts of killer drugs into the country.  The mainland Chinese are accessories in this for-profit assault.  Fentanyl and meth ingredients are produced by them.  Those products are shipped to Mexican cartels, which finish the manufacture, then distribute and sell these poisons in the U.S.  An estimate 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year, a record.  Human trafficking is a lucrative side venture for the cartels, too. 

Lax border enforcement has occurred under Democrat and Republican administrations, but never has the southern border been deliberately undone. 

President Trump aggressively addressed the border crisis, only to be fought by open border Democrats and stonewalled by pro-cheap labor Republicans. 

Make no mistake, the southern border debacle is the result of intentional policy.  Biden and Democrats are brazenly advancing the Democrat Party’s narrow political aims over America’s vital interests.  Democrats seek new constituents and voters; illegals furnish both.  The damage being done by this massive influx to communities across the nation has just begun.  The longer-term harm caused by this invasion is incalculable.     

From Just the News, April 19:

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) on Tuesday told Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that illegal immigration is an "attack" on American sovereignty and a "conscious decision to rewrite the rules of civilization.

That’s not Gaetz grandstanding.  An attack on U.S. sovereignty -- on the very fabric of American society -- is underway.  Biden and Democrats are permitting the cartels and China to wage war against their own country.    

From Yahoo!News, October 6, 2021:

MISSION, Texas -- Mexican cartel members dressed in military-like outfits and toting AK-47 rifles have been taunting U.S. soldiers assigned to the southern border, an unprecedented act of aggression, Texas authorities say.      

We have to wrap our minds around this: the cartels aren’t mere criminal enterprises; they’re paramilitary outfits.  They’ve got firepower like light infantry and employ terrorist tactics.  Many of their members are corrupt ex-police and former Mexican military skilled and experienced in combat and killing.  Mostly unreported in the U.S., a war is raging in Mexico among cartels vying for turf and power.  Biden’s open borders practically ensures that that war migrates north.    

Now, though, cartels are waging irregular warfare against the U.S. in cahoots with the PRC.  Both are motived by profit, not territorial conquest, but the Chinese see advantages in vexing the U.S. by stoking the country’s violent drug trade and degrading society.  Chinese criminal gangs are blamed for the trouble, but that’s naïve.  Xi and the Communist Party have an iron grip on the mainland.  So lucrative a trade isn’t happening without their knowledge and, dare say, the approval of Xi and his cronies.  Xi’s goal is to replace the U.S. as the global superpower. 

Law enforcement and cross-border policing in cooperation with the Mexican government -- such as it is -- aren’t defeating the cartels.  The U.S. is fighting a version of the Vietnam War: there are drug interdiction and seizure metrics and body counts, in that some cartel members are captured or killed, but there’s no actual progress in winning the fight.  Where’s the light at the end of the tunnel?  

Enemies are defeated by destroying them.  Destroying the cartels means U.S. military forces on ground in Mexico.  This, then, requires Mexico’s cooperation.  Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador must permit U.S. military intervention in alliance with his military.  Obrador surely worries about the ongoing threat posed by the cartels to the Mexican government’s authority and stability.  He should have every incentive to end the terror cartels inflict on the Mexican people.

Yet, the U.S. may have to persuade Obrador with carrots and sticks.  China increasingly has its hooks in the Mexican economy.    

From Forbes, February 23:

Over the last few years China’s presence in Mexico has expanded in both legal and illegal activities. According to preliminary data, trade between China and Mexico topped $100 billion in 2021, a new record. Imports from China account for over 90% of total trade between China and Mexico. Chinese foreign direct investments in Mexico tallied $189 billion in 2020.             

Moreover, the U.S. must call out and sanction the PRC for its role -- directly or indirectly -- as the cartels’ chief fentanyl supplier.  No slaps on the wrist.  Sanctions must be punitive, focusing on curtailment of trade and imposition of painful tariffs.  The U.S., coordinating with the Mexican government, must interdict fentanyl and other illicit drug shipments from China or those routed through third parties. 

A Republican Congress needs to put legislation on Biden’s (or Harris’) desk that finishes the wall and hikes budgets for the border patrol, DEA, and ICE.  Calls must be made for military action cross border.  Anticipating vetoes, Republicans should repeatedly present measures that underscore these aims.  Voters in 2024 deserve to see how starkly different Republicans are from Democrats.  America First Republicans must lead.                     

A southern border wall – perhaps, with Mexico’s consent, a security zone south of the wall – and greater policing are necessary defensive measures.  As President Trump’s policies proved, a wall (where completed) and beefed-up border security curtailed the flow of illegals into the country.  Among illegals are drug mules and gangsters, so keeping illegals out is critical.  Yet border measures alone are inadequate. 

The next president must enact a comprehensive “roundup and return” policy of illegals who will have entered the country during Biden’s term.  Laws must be pursued that end “anchor babies” as illegals’ means of remaining in the U.S.  Extensive sweeps of communities are required to remove the worst criminal elements that are now entering the country.  States and localities have no constitutional right to establish “sanctuaries” for illegal aliens.        

The cartels are run by ruthlessly ambitious, scheming men.  The U.S. is their prime market.  Cartel bosses are thoroughly incentivized to work overtime conniving ways to skirt obstacles.  Hence, taking the fight to the cartels and destroying their networks and operations is imperative. 

It’s important to note that while staunching the flow of drugs into the U.S. is critical, it isn’t the sole determiner in ending the drug scourge.  Consumer demand drives cartels and others in the pursuit of profit.  Hedonism and despair seem the principal motivators for Americans’ appetite for drugs.  Modern culture is broken.  The repair is a return to faith, traditional values, and intact families.  Life must be valued as greater than a thrill or an escape from woes.    

Yet, unscrupulous men will seek to exploit weaknesses for money and power.  Their evil and the harm it’s inflicting on Americans cannot be permitted to stand.  With courageous leaders, the U.S. can be made freer from the poison, violence, and societal rot that the drug trade brings.    

The war Americans need to fight isn’t against the Russians in Ukraine.  It’s right across the Rio Grande.  It’s a war the U.S. must fight and win.  

J. Robert Smith can be found regularly at Gab @JRobertSmith.  He also blogs at Flyover. 


The South Carolina Democratic Party Has a Cocaine (Trafficking) Problem

 • May 2, 2022 4:59 am

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In the last three years, political operative Jason Belton joined a billionaire Democrat's presidential campaign, became a campaign manager for a U.S. Senate race, and won election to a South Carolina Democratic Party leadership position—all while under federal indictment for trafficking nearly nine pounds of cocaine.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Belton and a co-conspirator in February 2017 contacted a drug source in California to request large quantities of cocaine, which they planned to distribute out of Columbia, S.C. Days later, the indictment states, Belton accepted a package containing four kilograms of coke from San Bernardino drug dealer Estevan Ortiz, who is also known as "Stevie," "Wonder," and "Little Man."

Federal agents went on to arrest Belton in South Carolina in January 2018. As the case progressed, however, Belton became implicated in a nationwide drug trafficking ring that federal authorities busted in 2020 following a three-year investigation. Belton's California connects were caught with 77 kilograms of cocaine, 9 kilograms of heroin, 150 pounds of methamphetamine, 989 fentanyl pills, 19 guns, and nearly $2 million in cash, the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a January 2020 press release. Following the bust, federal prosecutors moved Belton's case to the Golden State, where it remains active.

But Belton's apparent criminality has done little to deter his career—in fact, the operative's political sphere expanded significantly after his arrest. In August 2019, Belton joined liberal billionaire Tom Steyer's presidential campaign as its deputy political director, a gig that earned him more than $40,000 over a six-months period. After Steyer left the race in February 2020, Belton cofounded a political consulting firm, C&J Consulting, which boasts at least one client: Democratic South Carolina state legislator Krystle Matthews, who is challenging Republican senator Tim Scott. Belton, who in January was elected the third chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party Black Caucus, has described himself as Matthews's campaign manager.

Belton's political work did overlap with his criminal indictment in one instance. In March 2020, Belton successfully persuaded the court to remove his GPS ankle monitor because he said it interfered with his work as a "lobbyist."

"Belton now wishes to eliminate the GPS location monitoring condition which requires him to wear an electronic ankle bracelet," Belton's attorney wrote in a court filing. "Belton has advised me that he is a lobbyist and the electronic ankle bracelet presents a problem for him with security on his frequent entries into the State House in Columbia, South Carolina."

Belton and the South Carolina Democratic Party did not return requests for comment.

In addition to his affiliation with Steyer and Matthews, Belton has worked with an array of prominent South Carolina Democrats through his state party leadership role. Gubernatorial candidates Joe Cunningham and Mia McLeod attended the South Carolina Democratic Party Black Caucus's "Sunday Dinner" event in March, as did former presidential candidate Jesse Jackson. Belton's self-described "grassroots political action" nonprofit, Vision Walkers, also provided security for House majority whip Jim Clyburn (D., S.C.) during an August 2020 event in Columbia.

Due to the size and complexity of Belton's federal drug case—the indictment lists 23 additional defendants—the operative's trial has been delayed on at least four occasions as attorneys sort through evidence. Belton is scheduled to travel to California for trial in August, just two months after Matthews will face off against two opponents in South Carolina's Democratic Senate primary election. He won't have to worry about covering the travel costs, however. In March 2021, the court granted a request from Belton's attorney that orders the U.S. Marshals Service to "furnish defendant Jason Donnell Belton with air fare, lodging, and per diem subsistence expenses in connection with the trial of this case."

Belton's 2018 arrest was not his first significant run-in with law enforcement. In 2007, local police arrested Belton over his involvement in a drive-by shooting. Belton, who was 19 at the time, received six months' probation for "criminal conspiracy," court records show.

But the political operative's criminal history and active legal battle are not the only sources of controversy for South Carolina Democrats. Belton's business partner, fellow C&J Consulting and Vision Walkers cofounder Craig Khanwell, is a longtime follower of anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who has compared Jews to termites. Khanwell—who serves as South Carolina Democratic Party Black Caucus second chair—has referred to Farrakhan as his father figure, praised Farrakhan as "the epitome of the greatest among men," and argued that accusations of anti-Semitism are merely "a trick" to "stifle legitimate criticism of Jews and Zionist Israel."

Khanwell has also espoused extreme anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. In one Instagram post, he said taking the vaccine would mean giving Bill Gates, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and other "white" men "control of my molecular information." In another post, Khanwell shared a TikTok that called COVID the "biggest hoax of America" and speculated that those who died from the virus may have actually died from the flu. In June 2021, the South Carolina Democratic Party blamed Republicans for the state's "extremely low vaccination rates."

Published under: CrimeDemocratic PartyDrugsSouth Carolina

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