THE DOCTRINE OF THE N.A.F.T.A. GLOBALIST DEMOCRATS IS TO SERVE THE BILLIONAIRE CLASS WITH ENDLESS WAVES OF INVADING 'CHEAP' LABOR SUBSIDIZED WITH WELFARE FUNDED BY TAXES ON MIDDLE AMERICA.
In many speeches, Mayorkas says he is building a mass migration system to deliver workers to wealthy employers and investors and “equity” to poor foreigners. The nation’s border laws are subordinate to elites’ opinion about “the values of our country,” Mayorkas claims.
Pope Francis meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Vatican in July 2019. (Photo by Vatican Pool/Getty Images)
(CNSNews.com) - At a moment of grave peril in Europe, Pope Francis on Sunday issued a direct appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time since he invaded Ukraine last February, “imploring him to stop this spiral of violence and death,also for the sake of his own people.”
In an address to thousands gathered in St. Peter’s Square, Francis appealed also to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “to be open to serious proposals for peace,” and urged world leaders to “do everything possible to bring an end to the war, without allowing themselves to be drawn into dangerous escalations, and to promote and support initiatives for dialogue.”
The Pope was speaking two days after Putin upped the ante in his standoff against the West by annexing four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine – and warned that Russia would now defend those areas, using “all available means.”
The annexation was widely denounced, although Russia hours later vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning it. Zelenskyy responded by announcing that Kyiv was applying for “accelerated accession to NATO” and ruling out any further negotiations with Putin. (“We are ready for dialogue, but with another president of Russia.”)
In his address on Sunday, Francis spoke out against Russia’s decision to annex the Ukrainian regions, a move that has been accompanied by veiled threats to use nuclear weapons in the conflict.
“I deeply deplore the grave situation that has arisen in recent days, with further actions contrary to the principles of international law,” he said. “It increases the risk of nuclear escalation, giving rise to fears of uncontrollable and catastrophic consequences worldwide.”
The Pope called the war, now in its eighth month, “an error and a horror.”
“I am saddened by the rivers of blood and tears spilled in these months. I am saddened by the thousands of victims, especially children, and the destruction which has left many people and families homeless and threaten vast territories with cold and hunger. Certain actions can never be justified, never! It is disturbing that the world is learning the geography of Ukraine through names such as Bucha, Irpin, Mariupol, Izyum, Zaporizhzhia and other areas, which have become places of indescribable suffering and fear. And what about the fact that humanity is once again faced with the atomic threat? It is absurd.
What is to happen next? How much blood must still flow for us to realize that war is never a solution, only destruction? In the name of God and in the name of the sense of humanity that dwells in every heart, I renew my call for an immediate ceasefire. Let there be a halt to arms, and let us seek the conditions for negotiations that will lead to solutions that are not imposed by force, but consensual, just and stable. And they will be so if they are based on respect for the sacrosanct value of human life, as well as the sovereignty and territorial integrity of each country, and the rights of minorities and legitimate concerns.”
The Pope has spoken out against the war before now, but has never publicly appealed directly to the Russian and Ukrainian presidents in this way.
In May, Francis in an interview with an Italian newspaper offered to meet with Putin in a bid to broker a ceasefire, disclosing that he had first made the offer – via Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin – just 20 days after the war began, but had not received any response.
At the time he suggested that NATO’s expansion into countries near Russia – or what he called “NATO’s barking at Russia’s door” – had perhaps “facilitated” the invasion.
Weeks later the Pope raised concern publicly about food price hikes and shortages arising from the conflict, urging the parties not to “use wheat, a staple food, as a weapon of war.”
“Of great concern is the blockade of grain exports from Ukraine, on which the lives of millions of people depend, especially in the poorest countries,” he said.
A U.N.- and Turkish-brokered deal reached in July providing for the shipping of Ukrainian grain that had been blocked in port as a result of the war, has helped to ease the crisis.
Senior Russian Orthodox Church leaders attended Friday’s annexation ceremony at the Kremlin. (Photo: Russian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate)
How much influence the leader of the Roman Catholic Church may be able to bear on the Russian leadership is unclear.
The Russian Orthodox Church has thrown its significant weight behind Putin’s war, to the extent that it sent high-ranking representatives, including the head of the Moscow Patriarchate, to Friday’s ornate annexation ceremony at the Kremlin.
Last week the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch of Moscow Kirill, sent a senior church official, Vakhtang Kipshidze, to a “multireligious peace roundtable” in Tokyo, where he again laid out the church’s position.
According to Department for External Church Relations, Kipshidze “said that the Russian Orthodox Church has been praying for peace in Ukraine since 2014 with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus, and considers the NATO members, which reckon Russia as an enemy, guilty of escalation of the conflict rather than the peoples of Russia and Ukraine.”
He denied reports the Kirill had given his “blessing” to the war, calling them part of a disinformation campaign spread by media outlets because they want the Patriarch to take “the side of NATO in this conflict,” and side against the Russian government.
Patriarch Kirill and Pope Francis held a virtual meeting in mid-March, just weeks after the invasion began. In a statement afterwards the Vatican said the conversation had focused “on the war in Ukraine and on the role of Christians and their pastors in doing everything to ensure that peace prevails.”
It added that the Pope, in agreement with the Patriarch, said that “The church must not use the language of politics, but the language of Jesus.”
Biden, Democrats approve spending bill with no funds for pandemic, $12 billion for Ukraine war
The Democratic-controlled Congress completed voting on a bill to authorize federal spending through December 16 and President Joe Biden signed it into law. The measure provides an additional $12.3 billion for the war against Russia in Ukraine, but nothing for public health measures against an impending fall and winter surge of the coronavirus pandemic.
There was bipartisan support for the bill, which passed the Senate by 72–25, well over the 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster. However, it passed the House by a much narrower margin of 230–201, with only 10 Republicans joining all the Democrats in approving it.
Biden signed the bill into law late Friday night, just before the midnight deadline when federal government spending authority would have ended with the ending of the old fiscal year. Federal agencies had already begun activating plans for limited weekend shutdowns and then a full-scale shutdown on Monday, October 3, affecting all agencies except the vast military-intelligence apparatus.
The bill was the last piece of legislation required to pass Congress before the November 8 midterm elections, and both the House and Senate then adjourned for 38 days of uninterrupted campaigning. Some 435 House seats are at stake, as well as one-third of the Senate seats, some 34 in all. Both houses are now under narrow Democratic Party control, the House by only four seats, the Senate by the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Kamala Harris.
The bill was in the form of a “continuing resolution,” authorizing all federal agencies to continue spending at their current rate through December 16, when Congress will again have a deadline to approve 12 separate appropriations bills—or, more likely, an “omnibus” package—or face a federal shutdown.
There were only a handful of significant additions to spending, mainly a further escalation of the US military intervention in the war against Russia in Ukraine. The resolution approves an additional $12.3 billion in military and economic aid to Ukraine, as well as direct Pentagon outlays.
This adds to the $54 billion already approved this year. As the New York Times reported, “Congress has now committed more military aid to Ukraine than it has to any country in a single year since the Vietnam War, reflecting a remarkable bipartisan consensus in favor of pouring huge amounts of American resources” into the war with Russia.
The latest $12.3 billion includes $5.2 billion for the Pentagon, of which $1.5 billion is to replenish weapons supplies already shipped to Ukraine, and $3.7 billion for future transfers of weapons and equipment. There is another $3 billion to Ukraine to spend on military purchases, and $4.5 billion “to maintain the operation of Ukraine’s national government,” according to a Biden administration fact sheet.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, right, speak to reporters after a bill designed to encourage more semiconductor companies to build chip plants in the United States passed the Senate, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, July 27, 2022. [AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite]
In effect, the Ukrainian regime exists as a wholly American-funded extension of the NATO imperialist military alliance. It is an independent government in name only.
To obtain enough Republican support to quash a filibuster and gain passage through the Senate, the Biden administration and congressional Democratic leaders agreed to drop their proposal for another $22.4 billion in emergency spending on the coronavirus pandemic, expected to explode again in the colder weather of the fall and winter, as well as the spreading monkeypox infection.
Republicans have demanded that any additional funding for COVID-19 vaccines and mitigation measures be clawed back from funds already sent to the various states for COVID-19 relief but not yet expended.
The proposal from the Biden White House was for $22.4 billion for the COVID-19 pandemic, mainly for development of vaccines for future mutations of SARS-CoV-2, as well as $4.5 billion for improved vaccines and treatment for monkeypox. But neither the administration nor congressional Democrats mounted any type of public campaign for the spending on the twin pandemics, in keeping with their electioneering posture that COVID-19 has become “endemic” and that the American people must learn to “live with the virus.”
Meanwhile, the daily death toll from COVID-19 remains well over 300, daily new infections are averaging over 50,000, and both figures are expected to skyrocket as colder weather drives people indoors into more confined and dangerous settings. According the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 25,000 Americans have contracted monkeypox, a highly infectious and dangerous disease which can be life-threatening, especially for children, and with no known cure.
Congressional leaders of both parties praised the bipartisan consensus on more billions for the war against Russia in Ukraine. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed, “This package comes at a critical moment,” citing Biden’s public promise to do whatever it takes to defeat Russia. “With this supplemental, we take another strong step toward honoring that pledge, our country’s pledge,” she said.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said the aid to Ukraine was “literally an investment in our own national security.” He claimed that the aid would not only hinder Putin’s “capacity to threaten other targets throughout the free world… it will help deter other authoritarian regimes like China.”
Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the Republican whip, praised the Ukrainian armed forces, saying, “if you look at what they’ve been able to accomplish, how they’ve degraded Russia’s conventional war-making capabilities, this is all in our, NATO’s and, I would argue, in the world’s best interest.”
As part of the agreement with the Republicans to pass the continuing resolution, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia agreed to drop his bid to include a measure to make it easier to obtain permits for energy infrastructure, as well as authorizing the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline to bring shale energy from his state through Virginia to the coast.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer agreed to the Manchin bill as part of a deal to get Manchin’s vote on the “Inflation Reduction Act” passed by Congress during the summer. Republicans wanted to punish Manchin for making that deal by blocking his reward, even though they generally support anything that favors fossil fuel energy development.
In a demonstration of the real priorities of both capitalist parties, the bill provides an insulting $20 million in new funding for the water system in Jackson, Mississippi, which collapsed under the impact of a sudden storm deluge in August. It would also add $1 billion to the LIHEAP program, which aids low-income households to pay their heating bills during the winter months. These bills will skyrocket under the impact of rising costs for heating oil, fueled by the war in Ukraine and more general inflationary pressures.
Only $2 billion is added to federal programs to provide financial assistance to communities hit by natural disasters, including wildfires in the west and flooding that preceded September’s hurricane disasters in Puerto Rico and Florida.
Retreating Russians leave their comrades' bodies behind
ADAM SCHRECK and VASILISA STEPANENKO
·5 min read
In this article:
Vladimir Putin
President of Russia
Volodymyr Zelensky
Sixth and current President of Ukraine
LYMAN, Ukraine (AP) — Russian troops abandoned a key Ukrainian city so rapidly that they left the bodies of their comrades in the streets, offering more evidence Tuesday of Moscow's latest military defeat as it struggles to hang on to four regions of Ukraine that it illegally annexed last week.
Meanwhile, Russia’s upper house of parliament rubber-stamped the annexations following “referendums” that Ukraine and its Western allies dismissed as fraudulent.
Responding to the move, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy formally ruled out talks with Russia, declaring that negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin are impossible after his decision to take over the regions.
The Kremlin replied by saying that it will wait for Ukraine to agree to sit down for talks, noting that it may not happen until a new Ukrainian president takes office.
“We will wait for the incumbent president to change his position or wait for a future Ukrainian president who would revise his stand in the interests of the Ukrainian people,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Despite the Kremlin's apparent political bravado, the picture on the ground underscored the disarray Putin faces in his response to Ukrainian advances and attempts to establish new Russian borders.
Over the weekend, Russian troops pulled back from Lyman, a strategic eastern city that the Russians had used as a logistics and transport hub, to avoid being encircled by Ukrainian forces. The city's liberation gave Ukraine a key vantage point for pressing its offensive deeper into Russian-held territories.
Two days later, an Associated Press team reporting from the town saw at least 18 bodies of Russian soldiers still on the ground. The Ukrainian military appeared to have collected the bodies of their comrades after fierce battles for control of Lyman, but they did not immediately remove those of the Russians.
“We fight for our land, for our children, so that our people can live better, but all this comes at a very high price,” said a Ukrainian soldier who goes by the nom de guerre Rud.
Lyman residents emerged from basements where they had hidden during the battle and built bonfires for cooking. The city has had no water, electricity or gas since May. Residential buildings were burned. A few residents emerged on bicycles.
An 85-year-old woman, who identified herself by her name and patronymic, Valentyna Kuzmivna, recalled a recent explosion nearby.
“I was standing in the hall, about five meters away, when it boomed," she said. "God forbid, now I can’t hear well.”
The Russian forces launched more missile strikes at Ukrainian cities Tuesday as Kyiv's forces pressed their counteroffensives in the east and the south.
Several missiles hit Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv, damaging its infrastructure and causing power cuts. Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said one person was killed and at least two others, including a 9-year-old girl, were wounded.
In the south, four civilians were wounded when Russian missiles struck the city of Nikopol.
After reclaiming control of Lyman in the Donetsk region, Ukrainian forces pushed further east and may have gone as far as the border of the neighboring Luhansk region as they advance toward Kreminna, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said in its latest analysis of the combat situation.
On Monday, Ukrainian forces also scored significant gains in the south, raising flags over the villages of Arkhanhelske, Myroliubivka, Khreshchenivka, Mykhalivka and Novovorontsovka.
Despite the latest military gains, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevhen Perebyinis called for the deployment of more weapons to Ukraine following the partial mobilization announcement by Russia last month.
In a video address to a conference in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Russia’s war against Ukraine on Tuesday, Perebyinis said the additional weapons wouldn't lead to an escalation but instead would help to end the war sooner.
“We need additional long-range artillery and ammunition, combat aircraft and armed vehicles to continue the liberation of the occupied territories,” the deputy minister said. “We need anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems to secure our civilians and critical infrastructure from the terrorist attacks on the Russian forces.”
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that the military has recruited more than 200,000 reservists as part of a partial mobilization launched two weeks ago. He said that the recruits were undergoing training at 80 firing ranges before being deployed to the front lines in Ukraine.
Putin's mobilization order said that up to 300,000 reservists were to be called up, but it held the door open for an even bigger activation. It sparked protests in many areas across Russia and drove tens of thousands of men to flee Russia in a challenge to the Kremlin.
The Ukrainian successes in the east and the south came even as Russia moved to absorb four Ukrainian regions amid the fighting there.
The upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, voted Tuesday to ratify treaties to make the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk and the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions part of Russia. The lower house did so on Monday.
Putin is expected to quickly endorse the annexation treaties.
Russia’s moves to incorporate the Ukrainian regions have been done so hastily that even the exact borders of the territories being absorbed were unclear.
In other developments, the head of the company operating Europe’s largest nuclear plant said Ukraine is considering restarting the Russian-occupied facility to ensure its safety as winter approaches.
In an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Energoatom President Petro Kotin said the company could restart two of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant’s reactors in a matter of days.
“If you have low temperature, you will just freeze everything inside. The safety equipment will be damaged,” he said.
Fears that the war in Ukraine could cause a radiation leak at the Zaporizhzhia plant prompted the shutdown of its remaining reactors. The plant has been damaged by shelling, prompting international alarm over the potential for a disaster.
The Democrats are obsessed with racism, sexism, terrorism, and LGBTQ+. Why then, are they encouraging an open southern border, and giving preferences to Muslim immigrants, when both increase all of the above because ingrained biases travel with immigrants across America’s borders?
Since Biden came into office, there have been 4.5 million encounters at the southern border. The number of crossers remaining in the United States legally and illegally is a well-guarded secret. Perhaps it’s because Mayorkas and Biden are leveraging the use of temporary parole, refugee, and temporary protection (TPS) statuses to import “legally” an unlimited number of immigrants with minimal qualifications and background checks.
People from 13 countries can come to the border and qualify for TPS. This includes people from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen. Many TPS immigrants have lived here for over 10 years. In 2021, more “temporary” immigrants became citizens than new arrivals.
Unaccompanied minors (under 21) are immediately designated as refugees, but not counted as refugees. Under Biden, over 260,000 unaccompanied minors have been processed, of which 82% were from Central America. (Between 2014 and 2017, the total was 3,092.) A 2015 study showed that 12% of minors were sponsored by criminals, including human traffickers.
In 2021, 66% of the unaccompanied minors were males, and 72% were 15-17 years old. It’s unknown how many will join gangs or work for cartels because post-release follow-up is optional. When Team Biden says the border is secure, it’s concealing that hundreds of thousands of virtually unvetted people walk across the border and live in the United States “legally.” The absence of transparency on immigration is scandalous.
There are also completely unvetted illegal immigrants. Between January 2021 and January 2022, an estimated additional 1.13 million illegal aliens arrived. The majority are Latinos living in sanctuary cities, where most unacceptable behaviors are concealed.
In the United States, anyone who questions the goodness of legal or
illegal immigrants is silenced as a racist. The result is that many
Americans don’t know that the immigrants themselves are a
continuous source of racists, sexists, and terrorists to America.
The increasing Latino population parallels increasing gang membership. Between 2010 and 2015, membership increased by 11%. This is tied to reintroducing a policy to give refuge to minors from Central America. The average age of a gang member is 17-18. Latinos make up 18.5% of the population, but they are an estimated 46% of gang members, while Blacks are 35%, Whites 13%, and Asians 4%.
Gangs are responsible for 13% of all murders, 48.9% of violent crimes, 42.9% of property crimes, and 39.9% of drug sales. Gangs are terrorists, but the FBI appears to see “White” as a requirement for categorizing someone as a domestic terrorist.
Gang members can arrive through the southern border, but most are homegrown. Young Latinos are marked by gang recruiters; the same goes for young first- or second-generation Muslims. They are marked by militant recruiters. Since 2007, there have been, respectively, 23 and 16 documented cases of young Somali-Americans joining or trying to join Al-Shabaab and ISIS.
The so-called “brothers in the fight for equality,” Blacks and Latinos are anything but. Most countries see discrimination as useful for hierarchically ordering societies, and they carry their discriminatory practices across the border. Nations in LatAm are no different. That’s not good for Native Latin Americans and Afro-Latinos living in the United States.
African American gang members are also well acquainted with the missing Black and Latino brotherhood. In 2007, 2011, 2016, and 2018, there were documented incidents of Latino gangs in Los Angeles engaging in ethnic cleansing and fire-bombing Black communities. African-American job seekers are also most likely to lose jobs to Latinos.
The U.S. Muslim population has grown by 3000% since 1965. The Administration decides which refugees come to America. Since 2010, including paroled Afghan refugees, upwards of 50% of refugees have come from Muslim-majority nations. Some have arrived through America’s Diversity Visa lottery. In FY 2023, Muslims will make up more than half the winners.
Many refugees and “temporary” aliens come from countries like Iran, Afghanistan, and Venezuela that don’t keep or share records of their citizens with the United States, and U.S. data on foreigners is limited. After the 2022 Afghan refugee airlift, it was discovered that 31 had red flags. Homeland Security located three. Another 50 “indicated potentially significant security concerns” because their fingerprints had been found on improvised explosive devices.
In August 2022, Muslims and non-Muslim Americans were busy accusing White people of a murderous hate crime against four Muslim men. It turns out the perpetrator was a wife-beating, serial-killer Afghan refugee.
Many Muslims are anti-Semitic, racist, sexist, and anti-LGBTQ+. The Muslim population’s increases have paralleled an increase in anti-Semitic hate crimes, and this rises when conflicts flare up between Israel and the Palestinians. White Muslims have a long history of bias against Blacks that ties to the Arab slave trade that ended in 1962.
That hatred doesn’t stop at the border, and it doesn’t stop when Muslims are Black. Homosexuality and changing genders are illegal in most Muslim-majority countries, where those behaviors are abhorred. Muslim men “are allowed more sexual freedom, but homosexuality is still seen by some as beyond the pale.” Muslim-Americans have argued in court that “sex is binary, fixed, and immutable.”
Most Muslim nations are non-secular. Depending on interpretations of Islamic law, forced marriage, child marriage, and polygyny are legal; women are the property of their husbands and fathers; it’s legal to beat a disobedient wife; and spousal rape is impossible. Women have restrictions on non-marital sex, what they wear, and where they go. In U.S. training centers, refugees are taught which Islamic legal behaviors are illegal, but ingrained behaviors are hard to change. Several Afghan refugees have been charged with sex with a minor and wife beating.
Sexism is also rife in Latin America, a top region for intimate partner violence and femicide. But battered undocumented Latinas, like Muslim women in America, do not seek help. Latinas fear deportation, while Muslim women fear their families.
Honor killings are new to America, and about 25 occur annually. The perpetrators are mostly Muslim residents. Female genital mutilation (FGM) was foreign to the United States. That is no longer true, and most victims are Muslim residents. Femicide is up in the United States. Is this due to the increasing Latino population? That’s unknown.
The FBI categorizes people by race. “This is white, black, Asian, and American Indian.” Latinos, unless they are Black (3.7%), are categorized as White. This ends up allocating extra blame to Whites for crimes like femicide, and gang-related crimes. FBI Data limitations notwithstanding, immigrants with an unequal view of women may help to explain why, despite #MeToo, sexual assaults have been increasing.
When will the government remove its blinders and recognize that outside the West, racism, sexism, and anti-LGBTQ+ are ordinary, tolerated, and often legal? Violent criminals are also common because policing is corrupt or in a nascent state. The Administration’s deceptive immigration practices are endangering Americans. Where is the truth and transparency Biden promised?
3 MS-13 Leaders Convicted of Racketeering in MD, VA: ‘Extortion, Fear, and Murder’
(CNS News) – Three MS-13 gang leaders have been convicted by a federal jury of participating in a transnational criminal enterprise through “a pattern of racketeering activity … murder, extortion, drug trafficking, money laundering, and witness tampering,” according to a Sept. 29 Department of Justice press release.
The three men convicted are Luis Flores-Reyes, 41, of Arlington, Virginia, Jairo Jacome, 40, of Langley Park, Maryland, and Brayan Contreras-Avalos, 27, of Langley Park, Maryland.
La Mara Salvatrucha, the gang known as MS-13, is described by the DOJ as a “transnational criminal enterprise.”
According to the DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs, “MS-13 was formed by Salvadoran immigrants that came to the United States in order to escape the civil war in their home country. Some of its members were trained in guerilla warfare and the use of military weapons. The gang is well-organized and is heavily involved in lucrative illegal enterprises, being notorious for its use of violence to achieve its objectives.”
As the press release explains, “MS-13 is organized into a series of sub-units or ‘cliques’ that operate in specific geographic locations.”
Among the three men convicted, Jacome was the “highest ranking member” of a local MS-13 clique in Langley Park, Md., known as “Langley Park Salvatrucha (LPS).” The other two men, Flores-Reyes and Contreras-Avalos were both “leaders” within the “Sailors Clique.”
(For illustration purposes only, Getty Images)
As DOJ reports, the Sailors Clique held territory in Maryland, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, Texas, and El Salvador.
All three men took part in operating an MS-13 “protection scheme” in the Langley Park area, which extorted local businesses, charging them “rent” for operating within MS-13’s “territory.”
During the time of the conspiracy, the three convicted men took part in a minimum of six murders. According to the DOJ, most of the murder victims were people the three men believed to be gang rivals.
For example, Contreras-Avalos, along with other MS-13 members, stabbed two homeless individuals to death in June 2016 in Hyattsville, Maryland because they allegedly belonged to the rival 18th Street gang, said the DOJ.
In December 2016, the DOJ reported that Jacome ordered the murder of a 14-year-old MS-13 member who he suspected was cooperating with law enforcement. Jacome helped carry out the murder of the young boy, whose remains were discovered in woods near Germantown, Md., 18 months later.
Such actions taken against suspected informants is an integral part of MS-13 operations. MS-13 operates under the maxim “ver, oir, y callar,” which means “see, hear, and say nothing.” The murder orchestrated by Jacome was an example of the gang enforcing “very, oir, y caller.”
In March 2017, a member of the Sailors Clique was hiding from law enforcement near Lynchburg, Va., when he had a dispute with a student at the local high school over marijuana. After the dispute, Flores-Reyes commanded a group of MS-13 gang members to drive down to Lynchburg and kill the local high school student, said the Justice Department.
(For illustration purposes only, Getty Images)
The gang followed Flores-Reyes’s orders by kidnapping the student from his front lawn, cutting off his hand, and then murdering him. Flores-Reyes then helped the killers hide from law enforcement, states the press release.
Additionally, the gang trafficked marijuana, heroin, and cocaine, with “a large share of the proceeds” being “sent to gang leadership in El Salvador to further promote the illicit activities of the gang.” The gang used “structured transactions and intermediaries to avoid law enforcement scrutiny,” the DOJ reports.
All three gang members, Flores-Reyes, Jacome, and Contreras-Avalos were convicted of racketeering conspiracy. Additionally, Flores-Reyes and Jacome received convictions of murder “in aid of racketeering and extortion conspiracy.” Flores-Reyes and Contreras-Alvalos were also convicted of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
According to the DOJ, Flores-Reyes and Jacome face mandatory life in prison while Contreras-Avalos only faces a “maximum penalty of life in prison.” The date of sentencing has yet to be set.
The case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office, HIS Baltimore, DEA New York Field Division, DEA Baltimore District Office, Prince George’s Country Police Department, Montgomery County Police Department, Virginia State Police, Lynchburg Police Department, Prince William County Police Department, and Bedford County Sheriff’s Office, with the “valuable assistance” of the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office. This mass-cooperation among departments at the federal, state, and local levels reflect the widespread reign of the convicts’ criminal activities.
“Today’s conviction,” said Steve K. Francis, Acting Executive Associate Director of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), “highlights HSI’s commitment to protecting public security and to keeping our communities safe. We will continue working with our local, state, and federal partners to disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal organizations such as MS-13.”
“These defendants wreaked havoc within our communities through drug trafficking, extortion, fear, and murder – now they will be held accountable,” said Erek L. Barron, U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland. “We will relentlessly prosecute those who terrorize our communities with intimidation and violence.”
(Getty Images)
Steven M. D’Antuono, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office, said the following of the recent conviction: “Members of MS-13, including Flores-Reyes, Jacome, and Contreras-Avalos, sow fear and violence in local communities through murder, extortion, drug trafficking, and witness tampering. Today’s convictions represent some of the finest work the FBI and its partners undertake to hold violent gang members to account for the irreparable harm they have inflicted on humanity.”
U.S. Border Arrests of Migrants with Criminal Histories Up 350% Since 2020
New Hampshire National Guard Military Police Units Deploy to Texas-Mexico Border
New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (R) attended the deployment ceremony for two National Guard Military Police units being sent to the Texas border with Mexico. The MPs will have no law enforcement authority and will conduct command and control services along with border surveillance.
“New Hampshire is grateful for the heroic men and women of our National Guard,” New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (R) said in a written statement. “They answered the call to serve during the COVID pandemic, and are now answering our nation’s call — deploying to the ongoing humanitarian crisis along our southern border. As these brave men and women deploy, New Hampshire stands by our National Guard and we wish everyone a safe and speedy return home.”
The State is deploying two MP units to cover an area along the Texas border with Mexico that is approximately 250 miles long and ends at the Gulf of Mexico, the governor’s office stated.
The 941st Military Police Battalion HQ will deploy 44 soldiers to provide command and control of subordinate companies from New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Illinois, and Kentucky. Those units total about 500 soldiers, officials stated. It is the unit’s first deployment to the U.S. southern border.
In addition, approximately 120 members of the 237th Military Police Company will take up surveillance sites along the border. Their job will be to observe illegal activity along the border and report it to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Border Patrol. The soldiers are “prohibited from being in contact with illegal migrants,” the statement reads.
“A previous NH National Guard unit deployed to the southwest border from October 2020 through November 2021, which helped result in 207,320 assisted apprehensions, $893 million in illegal drug seizures, and 20 migrant lives saved,” New Hampshire officials stated.
It appears the units are being deployed under federal National Guard orders and not as part of Texas’ Operation Lone Star. The deployment is expected to last 12 months.
Breitbart Texas reached out to the offices of Governors Chris Sununu and Greg Abbott for additional information about the National Guard deployment. An immediate response was not available.
