narco-traffick cartel

5/19

see war on drugs --> // TERROR

SEE EXTRA-JUDICAL KILLINGS

this is provisionally for bogus charge of?

both real and bogeyman target

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rww 9 26

David Gilmour @ Mediaite: Andrew Tate Indicted on Trafficking Charges in Romania – as He Fights UK Extradition From Miami Jail

Andrew Tate was formally indicted in Romania on charges including trafficking minors and money laundering on Friday, as he remains behind bars in Miami, Florida, fighting extradition to the U.K. over separate rape allegations.

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COKE IRAN CONTRA

BIZZARELY SAME TIME AS 2X TAP BOAT STRIKE HEGS 12 25

Ben Shapiro criticizes Trump pardoning former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez: “I just don't understand the president's logic here”

12/02/25

### Newsmax host on Trump's threats against Venezuela: “If it was about drugs, he'd be in Mexico right now, right?”

12/02/25 12:15 PM EST

### Tim Pool: “Trump seems to be going a little bit into the neoliberal. You know, neocon-neoliberal.”

12/02/25 12:05 PM EST

### Roger Stone claims Trump announced pardon for Juan Orlando Hernández “three hours after” he sent Trump a letter from the former Honduran president

12/01/25

Roger Stone claims Trump announced pardon for Juan Orlando Hernández “three hours after” he sent Trump a letter from the former Honduran president

Ana García de Hernández to Stone: “We also want to express our helpful gratitude for the support that you had given … to my husband and the father of my daughters. Since you start speaking about this case, you made such a huge difference.”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published 12/01/25

November 30, 2025

Audio

From the November 30, 2025, edition of WABC's The Roger Stone Show

ROGER STONE (HOST): For many months, at least six months, I have written extensively about the persecution of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who I believe was framed for drug trafficking on the basis of really no evidence whatsoever in a politically motivated act of lawfare by the Biden administration. These are the exact same tactics that were used against President Donald Trump himself by the illicit and unconstitutional investigation of Jack Smith. And I had great sympathy for President Hernández, who was framed not because there was evidence that he was actually involved in drug trafficking, but framed to get him out of the way to make way for the narco-Marxist regime to take power in Honduras. There's an election in Honduras today, but that's not what I'm really here to talk about.

On Friday, I got from the investigative journalist Shane Trejo a letter that President Hernández wrote to President Trump. It was a extraordinarily compelling nine-page letter, which frankly broke my heart because I have been where President Hernández was. I know what it is to be persecuted and have the full power and the unlimited financial and legal capacity of a corrupted, politicized Justice Department come after you, as well as the complicity of the mainstream media who never wants to pick apart the charges against him and just takes everything for granted.

...

STONE: I was delighted about three hours after I sent a copy of this letter to President Trump to read on Truth Social that he had announced the full and unconditional pardon for Juan Orlando Hernández. I think this is fitting. This is justice. Now the [unintelligible] — the US-based media has gone completely insane because they refuse to look at the facts regarding the persecution and trial of Juan Orlando Hernández. And to them, they say, “Well, why is Trump pursuing the Venezuelan dictatorship over drug trafficking at the same time that he's releasing a drug trafficker?” To which I say, there is no shred of evidence other than the testimony of convicted drug traffickers, people that Juan Orlando Hernández himself's government prosecuted, that would tie the former president to drug trafficking. He is an innocent man who was a target and victim of lawfare. And anyone who will examine his trial and the charges against him and the sham trial that they ran in New York would realize that.

Joining us now is the former first lady of Honduras, Ana García de Hernández, President Hernández's daughter, Ana Daniela Hernández, and his other daughter, Isabella Hernández. I want to welcome you to The Roger Stone Show, and I want to tell you how incredibly proud I am to have played just a small role in the justice that has now been meted out for your father and for your country and for your family.

...

ANA GARCÍA DE HERNÁNDEZ (FORMER HONDURAN FIRST LADY): Oh, thank you, Mr. Stone. This is Ana. We are so grateful because of what’s happening to our family. We’d like to say thank you for you for hosting us on your radio show today. It’s truly a pleasure speaking with you.

We also want to express our helpful gratitude for the support that you had given to our — to my husband and the father of my daughters. Since you start speaking about this case, you made such a huge difference. Because as you say, you suffered the same that my husband is suffering or was suffering before President Trump decided to give him a full pardon. So thank you, because — thank you to your efforts, in part Juan Orlando would be [unintelligible] free man, an innocent man has been pardoned and will finally be reunited with our family. So we are really deeply grateful with that.

A comprehensive guide to Trump ally Roger Stone, a racist, sexist conspiracy theorist

05/09/16

---

Right-wing media praise Trump’s made-up excuses for war against Venezuela

Trump massively inflated threat from Venezuelan “narco-terrorists” smuggling fentanyl into the US

Written by Zachary Pleat

Research contributions from Jane Lee

Published 11/24/25

President Donald Trump and right-wing media have been quick to cite fentanyl interdiction as the supposed justification for the administration’s likely illegal strikes against vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, which they have blamed on so-called “narco-terrorists” tied to the regime of President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela. But reporting has shown the Trump administration’s excuses are built on lies — with virtually no fentanyl arriving in the United States via routes currently being targeted by the military in a bombing campaign that has already claimed at least 83 lives.

This isn't the first time Trump and his media allies have used fentanyl as an excuse for his out-of-control policies, as it was used to justify his instigation of a trade war with Mexico and Canada earlier this year. The Trump administration’s military buildup also follows multiple actions that undermine efforts to combat fentanyl trafficking into the U.S.

Reporting based on government data makes clear that Venezuela is not the source of the fentanyl problem America faces

- The New York Times: Military officials have told Congress “there was no fentanyl on the boats” destroyed by Trump administration military strikes. Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) told the Times that according to briefings from military officials, the Trump administration’s “rationale for the strikes is because fentanyl is killing so many Americans, but these strikes are targeting cocaine.” Jacobs also told HuffPost that Pentagon officials “argued that cocaine is a facilitating drug of fentanyl, but that was not a satisfactory answer for most of us.” Another congressional source told HuffPost: “They’ve not recovered fentanyl in any of these cases. It’s all been cocaine.” The New York Times, [11/19/25; HuffPost, 11/4/25]

- The New York Times: Multiple government agencies have found that “Venezuela plays virtually no role in the fentanyl trade.” A September New York Times report explained: “Fentanyl is almost entirely produced in Mexico with chemicals imported from China, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Justice Department and the Congressional Research Service.” It added: “There is no proof that it is manufactured or trafficked from Venezuela or anywhere else in South America.” The New York Times, [9/3/25]

- The Atlantic: Coast Guard data shows “Fentanyl Doesn’t Come Through the Caribbean.” A September 26 article in The Atlantic countered the Trump administration’s justification for extrajudicial killings via military strikes against boats off the coast of Venezuela: “Although the United States Coast Guard interdicts staggering quantities of illegal drugs in the Caribbean each year, it does not encounter fentanyl on the high seas. South American cocaine and marijuana account for the overwhelming majority of maritime seizures, according to Coast Guard data, and there isn't a single instance of a fentanyl seizure—let alone ‘bags’ of the drug—in the agency's press releases.” The Atlantic, [9/26/25]

- According to the State Department’s March 2025 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report: “The Department of State, in consultation with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and other relevant agencies, has identified Mexico as the only significant source of illicit fentanyl and fentanyl analogues significantly affecting the United States during the preceding calendar year.” Washington Office on Latin America, [11/5/25]

## Trump has bombed boats and built up a military presence near Venezuela based on dubious fentanyl-trafficking claims

- The United States has carried out at least 21 military strikes on alleged drug-smuggling vessels, in which at least 83 people have been killed, in the Caribbean and the Pacific since September 2. Trump and the Department of Defense have claimed the boats carried fentanyl and were being operated by “narcoterrorists.” After the first strike, Trump claimed that the people on the boat were members of Tren de Aragua; the Trump administration has falsely claimed that gang is controlled by Venezuela’s government and invaded the U.S., and has used the gang to justify many unrelated immigration arrests. CNN, [11/16/25; ABC News, 11/16/25; PolitiFact, 9/3/25; ProPublica, 11/13/25]

- Trump gave the CIA permission to carry out covert operations in Venezuela and has built up a military presence in the Caribbean. The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group entered the Caribbean recently. According to Military.com, more than 2,000 Marines are also stationed nearby on amphibious landing ships, and altogether it “marks the heaviest U.S. naval concentration in the Caribbean since the Cold War era.” BBC, [10/16/25; Military.com, 11/20/25]

## Right-wing media suggested these military strikes are necessary to stop fentanyl from being moved into the U.S.

- Eric Trump on Fox News: “Now every single time a boat goes out of Venezuela, it's get blown up into a million pieces. ... I personally have four friends that have lost children to fentanyl.” Fox News, *The Story with Martha MacCallum*, [10/15/25]

- On Fox, former acting Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Derek Maltz called fentanyl “a weapon of mass destruction” and said he’s “very thankful” for the Trump administration's “aggressive” approach in destroying boats off the Venezuela coast. He also claimed that “of course it's fair game” to attack cartels on land because “we’re at war.” Fox News, *America’s Newsroom*, [10/24/25]

- Former deputy national security adviser KT McFarland praised Trump’s “gunboat diplomacy” on Fox to target “the drug cartels that are poisoning Americans with fentanyl.” She said: “It’s all part of a bigger plan that President Trump has, which is to go after the drug cartels that are poisoning Americans with fentanyl and with the gun trafficking and the gang bangers and ruining our security in our cities.” Fox News host Brian Kilmeade added, “And we’d love to kick China, Russia, and Iran right out of Venezuela and right out of our hemisphere. And that could happen in one swoop.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [8/21/25]

- McFarland on Fox Business justified Trump's military strikes on boats near Venezuela to “stop the drug trade, stop the fentanyl into the United States.” McFarland also criticized members of Congress “complaining he has no right to bomb these cartel boats out of the water, the fentanyl.” She added: “They should be applauding President Trump's actions in stopping the fentanyl trade.” Fox Business, *Mornings with Maria*, [11/24/25]

- Fox News host Jesse Watters claimed that Democrats didn’t criticize former Presidents Barack Obama or Joe Biden for airstrikes carried out during their administrations, but “Trump sinks a boat full of narcos with enough fentanyl to kill a small city and they want to bring him to the Hague.” He added: “That speedboat was full of killers heading to our coast. That’s an enemy attack. Trump neutralized it.” Fox News, *Jesse Watters Primetime*, [9/3/25]

- Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones: “It’s clear that hundreds of thousands of people dying a year of fentanyl, most of it coming out of Venezuela.” Jones added: “Trump is doing what he must do, taking out these drug boats. ... He's doing the right thing moving to topple Maduro, the communist dictator.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [10/27/25]

- Fox & Friendsco-host Ainsley Earhardt: “Pete Hegseth said about what we’re looking at now — every boat that we strike is 25,000 American lives that have been saved. We are talking about … fentanyl pills. We’re talking about fentanyl powder.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [10/24/25]

- Fox host Laura Ingraham: “Hitting narco terrorists before they traffic their deadly drugs into the United States — good.” Ingraham continued: “Now President Trump has them looking over their shoulders, over the horizon, and up in the sky because for once, they're running scared. No more free passes into the U.S., using boats to smuggle fentanyl and other deadly junk into our country. So now instead of open waters, it's open season on the cartels. At least five drug boats off the coast of Venezuela have been blown out of the water in recent weeks. But hell won't just rain down on them in open waters.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [10/16/25]

- Fox host and former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended the legality of Trump’s boat strikes: “I want to bring up another count, it’s one we just showed in the intro: It’s the 400,000 Americans who have died of fentanyl. Four-hundred thousand daughters, sons, brothers, sisters not here because [of] an attack — I’m willing to call it an attack on the United States — drug smuggling across our border and over our seas.” Fox News, *Outnumbered*, [9/5/25]

- Fox senior strategic analyst Jack Keane on the military sinking boats: “I really applaud the administration for getting after this. … This is a focus on Venezuela where the Maduro regime, President Maduro, draws significant revenue from this narco trafficking that’s taking place. And they move this narco drugs, in this case fentanyl and other drugs like it. … And this is an attempt to stop that seaborne traffic and just completely shut it down.” Fox News, T*he Story with Martha MacCallum*, [9/4/25]

- Fox host Sean Hannity: “Yesterday, President Trump, he took decisive action to keep Americans safe from the vile scourge of fentanyl. He blew up a boat filled with drugs that were coming from Venezuela. He took 11 narco terrorists with it.” Fox News, *Hannity*, [9/3/25]

- Fox host Griff Jenkins explaining the military build-up in the Caribbean: “Remember, the first Trump administration in 2020 indicted Maduro … because Maduro has been for many years the head of the Cartel de los Soles which is responsible for so much cocaine and fentanyl trafficking.” Co-host Lawrence Jones added: “I think at its core, the issue is the American people that are dying because of the fentanyl that have come across the border.” Fox News, *Fox & Friends*, [9/2/25]

## The Trump administration has also taken many actions to undermine any fight against fentanyl

- The Trump administration has repeatedly slashed the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which provides grants to programs to reduce fentanyl deaths. A March STAT opinion piece titled “Trump administration says it wants to fight fentanyl, but it’s slashing budget to fight opioid overdoses” called out the administration for firing hundreds of SAMHSA staffers and closing offices. During the government shutdown, NPR reported that the Trump administration fired approximately 125 more staffers from the agency. STAT, [3/27/25; NPR, 10/11/25]

- The Trump administration’s focus on mass deportation has taken federal agents away from stopping fentanyl smuggling. In a January interview with The New Republic’s Greg Sargent, former senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official Deborah Fleischaker explained that “all of these other federal law enforcement agencies have now been given immigration enforcement powers and are being told to do immigration enforcement.” She mentioned that ICE Homeland Security Investigations personnel are being taken away from “fentanyl work,” and noted that this also applies to “DEA and ATF and FBI” agents: “All of those functions are going to be impacted because they’re working on immigration enforcement as opposed to their core functions.” The New Republic, [1/28/25]

- Trump emptied border checkpoints along fentanyl-smuggling routes for his mass deportation agenda. The Wall Street Journal reported: “The president’s campaign to deport immigrants in the U.S. illegally has taken federal agents away from drug-traffic interdiction. In Arizona, two Customs and Border Protection checkpoints along a main fentanyl-smuggling corridor from Mexico have been left unstaffed. Officers stationed there were sent to process detained migrants.” The Wall Street Journal, [9/16/25]

- The Trump administration redirected prosecutors with the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force to “provide focused resources and attention to immigration-related prosecutions.” According to a Department of Justice memo posted by American Immigration Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, the administration further directed assistant U.S. attorneys attached to these drug enforcement task forces “to devote significant time and attention to the investigation and prosecution of” immigration-related offenses instead of drug crimes. Reichlin-Melnick commented that “Trump is literally letting fentanyl traffickers off the hook.” Twitter/X, [2/2/25]

- According to Reuters, Trump’s freeze on foreign aid “temporarily stopped U.S.-funded anti-narcotics programs in Mexico that for years have been working to curb the flow” of fentanyl into the U.S. This freeze halted all of the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement programs in Mexico, which “include training Mexican authorities to find and destroy clandestine fentanyl labs and to stop precursor chemicals needed to manufacture the illicit drug from entering Mexico.” Former State Department official Dafna H. Rand told Reuters: “By pausing this assistance, the United States undercuts its own ability to manage a crisis affecting millions of Americans.” Reuters, [2/13/25]

- Reuters: Trump’s foreign aid freeze also stalled a U.N. program to stop Mexican cartels from obtaining fentanyl chemicals through Mexican ports. Reuters reported that “the initiative provided Mexico’s Navy with training and equipment to improve screening of cargo entering and exiting the Port of Manzanillo, the nation’s busiest container port. Two additional Mexican seaports — Lázaro Cárdenas and Veracruz — were to be added this month, a rollout that’s now on hold due to the funding cutoff.” Reuters added: “The U.S. funding freeze has also shelved, for now, future training and equipment donations at Manzanillo, four of the sources said. The port was slated to receive additional cargo scanners and drug-testing equipment, two sources said.” Reuters, [2/24/25]

- Trump redeployed hundreds of California National Guard servicemembers who had been interdicting fentanyl shipments. A June 25 press release from California Gov. Gavin Newsom stated: “An estimated 32% of CalGuard’s servicemembers dedicated to the state’s Counterdrug Task Force have been reassigned by President Trump to militarize Los Angeles. Typically, under the Governor’s command, nearly 450 servicemembers are deployed statewide, including at ports of entry, to combat transnational criminal organizations and seize illegal narcotics.” According to the press release, “since they started drug interdiction efforts in 2021, they have helped seize nearly 31,000 pounds of fentanyl and more than 50 million pills containing fentanyl, with a street value of more than $450 million.” State of California, [6/25/25]

MMA //

### Fox parrots Trump's “drug war” justification for Canada/Mexico tariffs, even as he weakened fentanyl smuggling enforcement

03/05/25 2:56 PM EST

### Right-wing media outlets are claiming regime change in Venezuela would be easy. Evidence and history suggest otherwise.

10/29/25 4:26 PM EDT

### Fox praised and validated Trump's legally questionable boat strikes in the Caribbean

10/29/25 3:31 PM EDT

### Right-wing media's campaign for military intervention and regime change in Venezuela

09/05/25 6:34 PM EDT

### Right-wing media concoct their own legal justification for Trump’s extrajudicial strike on Venezuelan boat

09/05/25 10:00 AM EDT

### An intelligence report debunked MAGA media claims about Tren de Aragua and Venezuela. A Trump official is now under fire for reportedly ordering the report be redone.

05/28/25

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digby an 10 25

President Donald Trump's former "tormenter" turned Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has become a "MAGA powerhouse," driving an "illegal war on Venezuela," writes Salon's Heather Digby Parton.

Digby Parton recalls Rubio's "most-cringe prime time performances" when he gave the rebuttal to President Barack Obama's 2013 State of the Union speech and, "cementing his reputation as the thirstiest man in the U.S. Senate."

What was viewed by many as the end of Rubio's career has long been forgotten, or at least ignored, and, Digby Parton writes, "it’s a testament to his limitless ambition that he came back from that and is now one of the most powerful people in the world."

The former Florida senator, she writes, "showed early on an aptitude for sensing which way the wind was blowing," and "over the years he held both moderate and conservative positions on most issues."

Rubio, she says, initially "rejected the scientific consensus on climate change and then, a few years later, decided it was true." He was also "once one of the Republican Party’s most vocal advocates for comprehensive immigration reform and even sponsored the DREAM Act," she writes.

IFrame Content

"Now he energetically supports Donald Trump on the most draconian deportation program in American history," she writes, adding that "he broke with the GOP on more than one occasion when it came to budget battles, at times striking a pose as populist defender of the little guy, but overall he was a standard-issue right-wing conservative on taxes and spending."

Rubio's focus, she says, has always been national security and foreign policy as an "unreconstructed hawk," but has also taken a hard-line stance against human rights violations in China, Turkey and Venezeula.

Rubio also served as co-chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence with Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), with whom he led a three-year investigation that found clear evidence of Russian interference on Trump’s behalf in the 2016 election, exactly as Robert Mueller’s investigation had established, Digby Parton notes.

Rubio even once taunted Trump about his "small hands," something that Digby Parton says "for a man who carries around grudges like precious offspring, it’s odd that Trump has apparently decided to overlook all that, but Rubio worked hard to abase himself and get into the inner circle."

And while the political establishment and many Democrats were "relieved" when Trump chose Rubio as Secretary of State, thinking he would "keep Trump foreign policy from going off the rails," Digby Parton writes, "little did they know that Rubio had happily made a deal with the devil and now seems to relish the idea of ripping up the world order in Trump’s image."

"They certainly couldn’t have anticipated how eagerly Rubio would join in thedeportationcrusade by targeting foreign students for visa violations, as well as for unauthorized opinions about Israel and Charlie Kirk," she writes.

Among Rubio's other turns include his endorsement of the Trump administration's shutdown of medical and food programs of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), of which Rubio had always been supportive.

"It came a something of a shock," she writes, adding "he even agreed to betray informants under U.S. protection to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in exchange for an agreement to lock up purported Venezuelan gang members in El Salvador’s gruesome gulag."

When Russia first invaded Ukraine, Rubio condemned President Vladimir Putin's aggression, but then quickly "changed his tune," "voting against military aid early on and adopting the Trump line that a negotiated settlement was the only way out."

Rubio's stance on Venezuela, she says, comes from his background as a member of "the anti-Castro Cuban-American community of South Florida."

"Rubio has a strong strain of anti-left ideology which has made him especially obsessed with Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s socialist authoritarian president," Digby Parton says.

According to recent reports in the *Wall Street Journal*, "the extrajudicial killings, CIA covert actions and pending war plans against Venezuela are all being driven by Rubio," she writes. "Rubio and deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller have carried the day with a full-fledged plan to pressure and perhaps depose the Venezuelan leader."

Rubio's future ambitions, she says, is the driving force in all of his actions.

"Marco Rubio almost certainly intends to run for president in 2028 and sees his service in that cause as the best way to fulfill his own agenda and expand both his power and his political profile," she says, adding "He’s a fully paid-up MAGA fanatic now, and no one should think otherwise."

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11 PPL ON BD SO LIKELY HUMAN SMUGGLING?

MMA

September 5, 2025, edition of Fox News' The Faulkner Focus

HARRIS FAULKNER (ANCHOR): We begin with this Fox News alert. The Trump administration ramping up its mission to stop narco-terrorists who are bringing in deadly drugs to the United States. Now he has slowed things down to a crawl at the border. So that has helped. But we have a tremendous amount of things coming into the country in other ways. I mean, you know, they are being pushed from China, we know that. That's where the original sourcing is. The Pentagon is reportedly deploying ten advanced fighter jets to Puerto Rico now to join the fight against the drug cartels. Those jets will join a growing military build-up into the Caribbean. So I want to get into how this is still getting into the country. We will. I'm Harris Faulkner. You are in the Faulkner focus.

This week the U.S. Military took out a vessel the administration says was carrying Venezuelan gang members and drugs. It's hard to believe that that wouldn't be a good thing for everybody — because it is. Somebody's not really telling the truth on this. Under a Trump administration, the people on the left and the legacy media say this is a bad thing. Why?

...

FAULKNER: I love that part about: It feels to me. That's not exactly how any of this works. So are they just fooling around on the left or do they realize what they actually sound like? Are they working against America and for the drug cartels with their support? These are questions they need to answer.

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s he moves closer and closer to the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, Donald Trump continues to face four criminal prosecutions and a variety of civil lawsuits. Two of the criminal prosecutions — one by special counsel Jack Smith for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the other by Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis for the State of Georgia — involve Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

In Willis' case, some of the co-defendants are attorneys who joined him in falsely claiming that the 2020 election was stolen from him — including Rudy Giuliani, Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell.

In an article published on February 12, Talking Points Memo's Josh Kovensky reports that newly uncovered documents illustrate the role that attorneys played in Trump's plan to stay in the White House despite losing the 2020 election to now-President Joe Biden.

READ MORE:'High-level decision': Trump lawyer details plot to fly fake elector papers to DC in new recordings

"In late 2020, a group of conservative movement attorneys set out to build a legal pathway by which Donald Trump could stay in power, having lost the election," Kovensky explains. "We've known about the outcome of their work for three years now: how it led to the violence of January 6, and fed the dream of Trump's supporters that he might continue to serve after January 20, 2021. But TPM can now reveal the ways in which their theorizing, in early stages, went even further than previously known, imagining a January 6 that lasted for not hours but days, an intervention by Supreme Court justices that they presumed to be loyal to President Trump, and a vice president who upended his constitutional duties, allowing the U.S. to descend into chaos.

A "trove of documents" that TPM has obtained, according to Kovensky, "details many of the conversations among Trump campaign lawyers, and, in particular, the theories offered by Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney who worked with the campaign in the months leading up to January 6."

Chesebro, like Ellis and Powell, has flipped on Trump and agreed to fully cooperate with the Fulton County DA's Office in order to avoid prison. But in 2020, he was determined to help keep Trump in the White House.

"Chesebro, an appellate lawyer, provided a legal framework in which, he contended, Trump could still win — or at least cause enough confusion and chaos that the conservative Supreme Court would have to get involved in picking the president," Kovensky reports. "His plan envisioned several gambits which have now become familiar building blocks of the legal portion of the coup attempt, and the basis for criminal charges across the country: creating slates of fake electors, having Mike Pence refuse to count Biden's electoral votes on January 6, and ultimately tossing the whole issue to the High Court."

READ MORE: Watch: Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro strikes last-minute plea deal with Georgia prosecutors

Kovensky notes that "TPM obtained the trove of documents after Ken Chesebro supplied e-mails, texts, and memos from his time with the Trump campaign to Michigan prosecutors in Attorney General Dana Nessel (D)’s office, which has been investigating the fake electors scheme."

The reporter adds, however, that "the thousands of e-mails, memos and texts only represent what Chesebro experienced directly and what he chose to share."

In other words, Trump lawyers' efforts to overturn the election results went way beyond the documents TPM has obtained.

"The records are not comprehensive of the Trump campaign's entire effort to reverse the President’s loss," Kovensky points out. "They reflect what Chesebro provided as he sought to avoid further prosecution, and what reached TPM."

READ MORE:Fani Willis admits to relationship with Nathan Wade but dismisses 'irrelevant allegations

Read the full Talking Points Memo report at this link.

===

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Kyle Mantyla (https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post_author/kyle-mantyla/) | February 12, 2024 3:23 pm

Mark Meckler (https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/06/the-dark-money-behind-mark-mecklers-convention-of-states.html) is the president of the Convention of States Foundation (https://conventionofstates.com/) and a leading proponent of the right-wing movement to get state legislatures (https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/mike-farris-has-a-plan-to-get-even-blue-states-to-support-a-convention-of-states/) to call for a dangerous (https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/convention-states-constitution/) Article V convention that will consider constitutional amendments to radically alter American government and society by making much of what the federal government now does unconstitutional.

As Right Wing Watch reported (https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/a-modern-fabrication-mark-meckler-spreads-false-christian-nationalist-history/) last year, Meckler appears to be a fan of Christian nationalist pseudo-historian David Barton, so it was no surprise when Meckler appeared on (https://wallbuilders.show/2077254/14484098-texas-takes-charge-state-sovereignty-and-the-immigration-crisis?t=0) Barton’s “WallBuilders Live” radio program today. The episode turned out to be part of an interview that co-host Rick Green, founder of Patriot Academy, (https://www.patriotacademy.com/) did with Meckler for his own “The Tavern (https://www.patriotacademy.network/watch/channel/shows/series/NlzmnklZ9LO7-the-tavern/episode/rKUAqlkGYZEn-the-tavern-19?t=0)” program last week.

The topic of the interview was immigration and the southern border, which Meckler said can only be properly solved by the government carrying out military strikes within the United States and then invading Mexico and overthrowing its government.

“I don’t think there’s any way to solve this permanently without military action,” Meckler declared. “[We need a buffer zone] like the DMZ between the Koreas. It needs to be a kilometer of cleared territory that is a no man zone; you come in here and we believe you have hostile intent, we’re going to clear you out.”

“That would require military action,” Meckler added. “I think that we ought to acknowledge that the cartels have declared war on the United States of America. Whether they say it or not, in their actions they’ve declared war on us.”

“They control our border,” he continued. “We have to have operational control and the only way to do it is militarily. I think that the federal government ought to go in and make military strikes against the cartels. We know where they are. We know where they’re headquartered. We know where their people are. We need to do it in this country in a mass coordinated fashion because the cartels are well ensconced in this country, pretty much in every major city and most of the minor cities in this country. We need to round them up, throw them in prison, send them back to Mexico.”

“We need to exterminate the cartels and that means going into Mexico,” Meckler asserted. “Now people would say, ‘You’re violating a sovereign country’s territory.’ Well, Mexico is not a sovereign country any longer. Mexico is a failed narco state. The federal government is not in control of their military. The federal government is not in control of their police Their state governments are not, their local governments are not in control of their police forces. That is a failed narco-terrorist state and so we have to treat it as such.”

“Let’s clean out the cartels,” he said. “Let’s do what has to be done. Prop up a government that is actually a government that is going to be friendly the United States and is going to continue to work with us to limit cartel activity in Mexico. If we don’t do that, we’re gonna have a terrorist state—which we have right now on our border—forever. To me, this is like Gaza. They’re invading our country. They’re invading our country every day. They’re killing our people, and we have to go in and use maximum force to oust them and create a buffer zone along the border. If we do that, we’ll have border security. It’s that simple.”

===

BS bogeyman

an 1 24

Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) served up wild accusations against President Joe Biden and his administration on Monday during a House Republicans’ press conference on the border. After making demands of the Biden Administration to send an ultra-conservative bill that includes funding and stringent policies for the U.S. border, and funding to support fighting in Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, Republicans are now rejecting what they requested after decrees from Donald Trump.

Back in October, after far-right House Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy and were struggling to find a new Speaker, President Joe Biden requested a $105 billion aid package for the U.S. southern border, Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. Of the $105 billion, $50 billion would go to U.S. defense industry manufacturers to “expand production lines, strengthen the American economy, keep us safe, and create new American jobs,” Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young said, CNBC reported at the time.

“Additionally,” CNBC explained, “the White House is seeking $6.4 billion for border operations, pushing back against Republicans who have criticized it for not doing enough to contend with migration from Latin America. The request also includes about $1.2 billion for efforts aimed at countering fentanyl, which has driven a wave of deadly overdoses in the United States.”

“Some in Congress have said a lot about doing something on border security while refusing to take up the $4 billion request we sent in August to Congress,” Young said. “We will not be lectured by those who refuse to act. As we’ve said repeatedly, Congress needs to take action to provide sufficient resources for the border.”

Three months later, House Republicans under direction of Donald Trump have decided to reject any legislation that is not “perfect.” Just as he did when he launched his xenophobic presidential campaign in 2015, and throughout his 2016 campaign, Trump aims to use immigration as a wedge issue to win the White House in November.

But now, Trump has the support and influence of the Republican Party, and many – especially House Republicans – willing to obey him via often-angry rants he posts on his Truth Social platform.

Congresswoman Van Duyne, a Texas backbencher who failed at her attempt to be elevated into House leadership when Mike Johnson was made Speaker, on Monday in a little-noticed speech served up allegations of “traitorous acts,” “usher[ing] in a new era of slave trade,” and promoting the “endless rapes” of women and children and a “lifetime of sex trafficking enslavement,” against President Biden and his administration.

“Joe Biden and the extremists in his administration are arsonists,” Congresswoman Van Duyne declared. “From day one they have burned down every shred of strong, effective, Trump-era border security policy that was protecting America.”

“Their purposeful and persistent actions, the arsonists of the Biden administration have created a national security and humanitarian nightmare. By turning over control of our southern border to the Mexican cartels, Biden, the Democrats, have ushered in a new massive era of slave trade here in America that is cursing the lives of illegal immigrant women, little girls and little boys. But Biden, [DHS Secretary] Mayorkas, and the Democrats couldn’t care less about the lives of these small children. They’re condemning them to endless rapes in a lifetime of sex trafficking enslavement.”

“And rather than using the power that they already have in existing law, to this end is utter catastrophe,” she continued. “Biden is salivating at the prospect of some staggeringly horrible Senate compromise bill to enshrine that this ongoing disaster continues.”

The Senate bill was drafted by hard-core conservative U.S. Senator Jim Lankford, Republican of Oklahoma, and it is far more extreme than Democrats would ordinarily support, yet has the approval of Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“I’ve got news for the Senate: You don’t reward arsonists by handing them gasoline. Instead, you do what Texas is doing: you dig in, you fight, you hold the line and you never give in when our national security is constantly being threatened by the traitorous actions of the executive branch. Stand with Texas. Hold the line and never back down.”

Watch Van Duyne’s remarks below or at this link.

===

note same time as razor wire kia texas

https://www.alternet.org/bombing-mexico-shoplifting-terrorist-activity/

an 7 23 no lnx

Fox hosts: Bombing Mexico 'a good idea' because shoplifting is 'terrorist activity'

Maya Boddie July 26, 2023

During the Wednesday, July 25, segment ofFox News' The Five, the conservative co-hosts Jesse Watters, Jeanine Pirro, Dana Perino and Greg Gutfeld suggested Mexican drug cartels are behind a shoplifting surge in America, and to combat the alleged issue — the U.S. military should bomb them.

:{:{}:

Host Jesse Watters began the conversation saying, "While the liberal media gets a crash course on crime, we're learning that Mexican drug cartels are fueling America's shoplifting surge. They're selling the stolen stuff online and then laundering the profits through, guess where?Chinese brokers. So, Dana, CNN finally discovered crime is a crisis in San Francisco."

Dana Perino replied, "This is after they made fun of us for pointing it out last year...On this point, I think that finding out that there areMexican cartels behind this, makes me feel maybe there's hope that we could figure out a way to do something about it. So the state attorneys general are banding together and they're like let's go after it. But also they need help from the retailers. The retailers don't want to be looted like this either. But the problem, to me, is that all this stuff gets taken and then it's resold online. Like on Amazon, for example. So can Amazon help us out? Somehow, can they figure out a way to track them? We've got AI, we've got all these other tools. There must be a way to try to prevent all of this from happening."

READ MORE: Donald Trump complains that 'somebody leaked' his plans to launch Patriot missiles at Mexican cartels

In April, CNN interviewed Mission Local managing editor Joe Eskenazi about San Francisco's surge in crime, and the editor noted, "There is crime in downtown San Francisco, but there always has been.I think the notion that these businesses were driven out by crime is frankly dishonest. That's always been a factor."

Eskenazi later added, "San Francisco also has lots of property crime because there's a great divergence of wealth and people steal things. But San Francisco’s violent crime rate is at a near historic low right now."

Watters then said, "You can put up the task force, maybe with the FBI, bring in the DEA, make it transnational Greg, since the cartels are involved."

Greg Gutfeldreplied, "It's weird to see these cartels diversify. They're almost like Amazon now. They're doing drugs, smuggling and theft, pretty soon they're gonna have their own podcast. There's another thing that we said a long time ago and I bet we don't -- bombing the car-- remember we said we were talking about bombing the cartels? And people were going, 'No, no, no, that's an act of war, that's in another country.' Yeah, but we do that to terrorists as well, and this is kind of a terrorist activity. And the thing is, now, we see this at least on the Republican side, a lot of candidates are talking about doing it and I think it's a good idea. I think we need to elect a president who values a border. That's the important thing. Bomb these. And there's, like, one cartel we can cooperate with, let them kill the rest. Encourage them to kill the rest."

READ MORE: MTG says U.S. should be 'bombing Mexican cartels' and 'Antifa BLM rioters' instead of 'aiding' Ukraine

Watters then asked Pirro, "Remember when theChinesewere ripping off our DVDs and we sent the entire federal government after them and we actually were pretty effective. This is pretty similar in terms of now it's shoplifting.

She said, "Yeah, and I remember prosecuting a case for the Motion Picture Association because what they were doing was people were going in and they were just making copies of movies," to which Watters replied, "I've watched a few movies like that where the guy just holds the camcorder and the finger? I mean, my friend watched it."

Pirro added, "This is part of a, you know, global organized criminal activity. The problem is that this organization is not just doing retail theft. They're also doing human trafficking. They're doing fentanyl. They're doing all kinds of crime and so they're expanding their criminal network. And now they're going to be so powerful, I don't know if we're ever going to be able to defeat them. Because we've got a president right now, who, you know, with the border -- and they're in charge at the border -- there is nothing going on that's preventing the fentanyl from coming in. We hear about an arrest every now and then. It's usually the locals making the arrests, not the federal government. But the issue is whether or not these criminals are being prosecuted. That guy walked out, right, and then the person in the store says it's a police state for everyone. So for the victims it's a police state, with the criminal, it's not a police state.

That's the actual problem. It's low risk and it's high reward. Low risk because the employee's not gonna punch you out, you're not gonna get arrested, you're gonna make a fortune. You're gonna start this business and you're gonna launder your money through China. And unless we get serious about this, whether it's bombing or whatever -- you have to come up with something. These organizations are dangerous. They are absolutely dangerous. And for everybody at home, your insurance is gonna go up because of it. The cost of retail and consumer products are gonna go up. You're paying for this."

The New York Times' Maggie Haberman reported last year that "President Donald J. Trump in 2020 asked Mark T. Esper, his defense secretary, about the possibility of launching missiles into Mexico to “destroy the drug labs” and wipe out the cartels, maintaining that the United States’ involvement in a strike against its southern neighbor could be kept secret, Mr. Esper recounts in his upcoming memoir. When Mr. Esper raised various objections, Mr. Trump said that 'we could just shoot some Patriot missiles and take out the labs, quietly,' adding that 'no one would know it was us.'"

READ MORE: 'Bomb the Mexicans' is the GOP’s new 'build the wall': columnist

However, Haberman wrote experts argue that, "Patriot missiles are the primary surface-to-air missile used by the U.S. military, which is designed as anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic missile interceptors.As there are no reports of airborne drug labs in Mexican air space.

Trump supporter U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) complained earlier this year that American is "not bombing the Mexican cartels who are poisoning Americans every single day. And I know that sounds extreme. I'm not talking about the Mexican government or the Mexican people. I'm talking about the cartels. They're murdering Americans."

Miami Herald columnist Jean Guerrero notes the "Calls for U.S. attacks on Mexican drug cartels, recently discussed in secret if at all, have become a loudly expressed talking point for Republicans who are trying to exploit the violent rhetoric for political gain," highlighting Trump's 2024 GOP opponent and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' "recent promises to deploy the military against drug cartels, along with his support for executing smugglers and his assertion that 'you absolutely can use deadly force.'"

She argues, "Republicans aren't making a good faith argument, and that their rhetoric has more to do with racism than finding solutions to the ongoing opioid crisis."

Axios reports earlier this year, Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) said, "If my colleagues were serious about addressing the cartels, they would start with addressing guns here in America," noting that the cartels "are able to outgun Mexican local law enforcement because of American guns."

READ MORE: 'Time to reverse course': NYT Editorial Board endorses ending the War on Drugs

Watch Media Matters' video below or at this link.

READ MORE: Lawmakers readying bipartisan bills to authorize Pentagon resources to combat fentanyl: report

CNN's full report is available at this link. Axios' report is here.

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

Republican senator: Mexico 'would be eating cat food' without the United States ›

Arizona GOP 'voter fraud' witness implicates Trump-loving lawmaker in drug cartel bribe claims ›

'Bomb the Mexicans' is the GOP’s new 'build the wall': columnist ›

History

Societal effects

The countries of drug production and transit are some of the most affected by the drug trade, though countries receiving the illegally imported substances are also adversely affected. For example, Ecuador has absorbed up to 300,000 refugees from Colombia who are running from guerrillas, paramilitaries and drug lords. While some applied for asylum, others are still illegal immigrants. The drugs that pass from Colombia through Ecuador to other parts of South America create economic and social problems.^[19]

Honduras, through which an estimated 79% of cocaine passes on its way to the United States,^[20] has the highest murder rate in the world.^[21] According to the International Crisis Group, the most violent regions in Central America, particularly along the Guatemala–Honduras border, are highly correlated with an abundance of drug trafficking activity.^[22]

Violent crime

After a crackdown by US and Mexican authorities in the first decade of the 21st century as part of tightened border security in the wake of the September 11 attacks, border violence inside Mexico surged. The Mexican government estimates that 90% of the killings are drug-related.^[26]In many countries, the illegal drug trade is thought to be directly linked to violent crimes such as murder. This is especially true in all developing countries, such as Honduras, but is also an issue for many developed countries worldwide.^[23][24] In the late 1990s in the United States the Federal Bureau of Investigation estimated that 5% of murders were drug-related.^[23] In Colombia, Drug violence can be caused by factors such as, the economy, poor governments, and no authority within the law enforcement.^[25]

A report by the UK government's Drug Strategy Unit that was leaked to the press, stated that due to the expensive price of highly addictive drugs heroin and cocaine, drug use was responsible for the great majority of crime, including 85% of shoplifting, 70–80% of burglaries and 54% of robberies. It concluded that "[t]he cost of crime committed to support illegal cocaine and heroin habits amounts to £16 billion a year in the UK" ^[27]

Drug trafficking routes

The nephews of President Nicolás **Maduro**, Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas, after their arrest by the DEA on 10 November 2015.

South America

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Further information: Corruption in Venezuela and Illegal drug trade in Venezuela

Venezuela has been a path to the United States and Europe for illegal drugs originating in Colombia, through Central America, Mexico and Caribbean countries such as Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico.

According to the United Nations, there was an increase of cocaine trafficking through Venezuela since 2002.^[28] In 2005, the government of Hugo Chávez severed ties with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), accusing its representatives of spying.^[29] Following the departure of the DEA from Venezuela and the expansion of DEA's partnership with Colombia in 2005, Venezuela became more attractive to drug traffickers.^[30] Between 2008 and 2012, Venezuela's cocaine seizure ranking among other countries declined, going from being ranked fourth in the world for cocaine seizures in 2008^[31] to sixth in the world in 2012.^[32]

On 18 November 2016, following what was known as the Narcosobrinos incident, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's two nephews were found guilty of trying to ship drugs into the United States so they could "obtain a large amount of cash to help their family stay in power".^[33]

West Africa

Eastern and southern Africa

Heroin is increasingly trafficked from Afghanistan to Europe and America through eastern and southern African countries. This path is known as the “southern route” or “smack track.” Repercussions of this trade include burgeoning heroin use and political corruption among intermediary African nations.^[38]

Asia

Drugs in Asia traditionally traveled the southern routes – the main caravan axes of Southeast Asia and Southern China – and include the former opium-producing countries of Thailand, Iran, and Pakistan.^[39] After the 1990s, particularly after the Cold War ended, borders were opened and trading and customs agreements were signed so that the routes expanded to include China, Central Asia, and Russia.^[39] There is, therefore, a diversified drug trafficking routes available today, particularly in the heroin trade and these thrive due to the continuous development of new markets. A large amount of drugs are smuggled into Europe from Asia. The main sources of these drugs are Afghanistan, along with countries that constituted the so-called Golden Crescent. From these producers, drugs are smuggled into the West and Central Asia to its destinations in Europe and the United States.^[40] Iran is now the route for smugglers, having been previously a primary trading route, due to its large-scale and costly war against drug trafficking.^[39] The Border Police Chief of Iran said that his country "is a strong barrier against the trafficking of illegal drugs to Caucasus, especially the Republic of Azerbaijan."^[41] The drugs produced by the Golden Triangle of Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand, on the other hand, pass through the southern routes to feed the Australian, U.S., and Asian markets.^[42]

Online

Drugs are increasingly traded online on the dark web on darknet markets.^[43]

Profits

US$207 million and additional amounts in other currencies were confiscated from Mexican Zhenli Ye Gon in 2007.

In December 2009 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa claimed illegal drug money saved the banking industry from collapse. He claimed he had seen evidence that the proceeds of organized crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse during 2008. He said that a majority of the $352 billion (£216bn) of drug profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result:Statistics about profits from the drug trade are largely unknown due to its illicit nature. In its 1997 World Drugs Report the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimated the value of the market at $4 trillion, ranking drugs alongside arms and oil among the world's largest traded goods.^[44] An online report published by the UK Home Office in 2007 estimated the illicit drug market in the UK at £4–6.6 billion a year^[45]

"In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system's main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor...Inter-bank loans were funded by money that originated from the drugs trade and other illegal activities...there were signs that some banks were rescued that way".^[46]

Costa declined to identify countries or banks that may have received any drug money, saying that would be inappropriate because his office is supposed to address the problem, not apportion blame.

Though street-level drug sales are widely viewed as lucrative, a study by Sudhir Venkatesh suggested that many low-level employees receive low wages. In a study he made in the 1990s working closely with members of the Black Gangster Disciple Nation in Chicago, he found that one gang (essentially a franchise) consisted of a leader (a college graduate named J.T.), three senior officers, and 25 to 75 street level salesmen ('foot soldiers') depending on season. Selling crack cocaine, they took in approximately $32,000 per month over a six-year period. This was spent as follows: $5,000 to the board of twenty directors of the Black Gangster Disciple Nation, who oversaw 100 such gangs for approximately $500,000 in monthly income. Another $5,000 monthly was paid for cocaine, and $4,000 for other non-wage expenses. J.T. took $8,500 monthly for his own salary. The remaining $9,500 monthly went to pay the employees a $7 per hour wage for officers and a $3.30 per hour wage for foot soldiers. Contrary to a popular image of drug sales as a lucrative profession, many of the employees were living with their mothers by necessity. Despite this, the gang had four times as many unpaid members who dreamed of becoming foot soldiers.^[47]

Free trade link

There are several arguments on whether or not free trade has a correlation to an increased activity in the illicit drug trade. Currently, the structure and operation of the illicit drug industry is described mainly in terms of an international division of labor.^[48] Free trade can open new markets to domestic producers who would otherwise resort to exporting illicit drugs. Additionally, extensive free trade among states increases cross-border drug enforcement and coordination between law enforcement agencies in different countries.^[48] However, free trade also increases the sheer volume of legal cross-border trade and provides cover for drug smuggling—by providing ample opportunity to conceal illicit cargo in legal trade. While international free trade continues to expand the volume of legal trade, the ability to detect and interdict drug trafficking is severely diminished. Towards the late 1990s, the top ten seaports in the world processed 33.6 million containers.^[48] Free trade has fostered integration of financial markets and has provided drug traffickers with more opportunities to launder money and invest in other activities. This strengthens the drug industry while weakening the efforts of law enforcement to monitor the flow of drug money into the legitimate economy. Cooperation among cartels expands their scope to distant markets and strengthens their abilities to evade detection by local law enforcement.^[48] Additionally, criminal organizations work together to coordinate money-laundering activities by having separate organizations handle specific stages of laundering process.^[48] One organization structures the process of how financial transactions will be laundered, while another criminal group provides the “dirty” money to be cleaned.^[48] By fostering expansion of trade and global transportation networks, free trade encourages cooperation and formation of alliances among criminal organizations across different countries. The drug trade in Latin America emerged in the early 1930s.^[49] It saw significant growth in the Andean countries, including Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.^[49] The underground market in the early half of the 20th century mainly had ties to Europe. After World War II, the Andean countries saw an expansion of trade, specifically with cocaine.^[49]

Drug trafficking by country

United States

The effects of the illegal drug trade in the United States can be seen in a range of political, economic and social aspects. Increasing drug related violence can be tied to the racial tension that arose during the late 20th century along with the political upheaval prevalent throughout the 1960s and 70s.[citation ^needed]^ The second half of the 20th century was a period when increased wealth, and increased discretionary spending, increased the demand for illicit drugs in certain areas of the United States. Large-scale drug trafficking is one of the few capital crimes, and may result in a death sentence prescribed at the federal level.

Background

Political impact

A large generation, the baby boomers, came of age in the 1960s. Their social tendency to confront the law on specific issues, including illegal drugs, overwhelmed the understaffed judicial system. The federal government attempted to enforce the law, but with meager effect.[citation ^needed]

Marijuana was a popular drug seen through the Latin American trade route in the 1960s. Cocaine became a major drug product in the later decades.^[50] Much of the cocaine is smuggled from Colombia and Mexico via Jamaica.^[51] This led to several administrations combating the popularity of these drugs. Due to the influence of this development on the U.S. economy, the Reagan administration began "certifying" countries for their attempts at controlling drug trafficking.^[50] This allowed the United States to intervene in activities related to illegal drug transport in Latin America. Continuing into the 1980s, the United States instated stricter policy pertaining to drug transit through sea. As a result, there was an influx in drug-trafficking across the Mexico–U.S. border. This increased the drug cartel activity in Mexico. By the early 1990s, so much as 50% of the cocaine available in the United States market originated from Mexico, and by the 2000s, over 90% of the cocaine in the United States was imported from Mexico.^[50] In Colombia, however, there was a fall of the major drug cartels in the mid-1990s. Visible shifts occurred in the drug market in the United States. Between the 1996 and 2000, U.S. cocaine consumption dropped by 11%.^[52]

In 2008, the U.S. government initiated another program, known as the Merida Initiative, to help combat drug trafficking in Mexico. This program increased U.S. security assistance to $1.4 billion over several years, which helped supply Mexican forces with "high-end equipment from helicopters to surveillance technology".^[53] Despite U.S. aid, Mexican "narcogangs" continue to outnumber and outgun the Mexican Army, allowing for continued activities of drug cartels across the U.S.–Mexico border.^[53]

Social impacts

Throughout the 20th century, narcotics other than cocaine also crossed the Mexican border, meeting the US demand for alcohol during the 1920s Prohibition, opiates in the 1940s, marijuana in the 1960s, and heroin in the 1970s.^[56] Most of the U.S. imports of drugs come from Mexican drug cartels. In the United States, around 195 cities have been infiltrated by drug trafficking that originated in Mexico.^[54] An estimated $10bn of the Mexican drug cartel's profits come from the United States, not only supplying the Mexican drug cartels with the profit necessary for survival, but also furthering America's economic dependence on drugs.^[54]Although narcotics are illegal in the US, they have become integrated into the nation's culture and are seen as a recreational activity by sections of the population.^[54] Illicit drugs are considered to be a commodity with strong demand, as they are typically sold at a high value. This high price is caused by a combination of factors that include the potential legal ramifications that exist for suppliers of illicit drugs and their high demand.^[55] Despite the constant effort by politicians to win the war on drugs, the US is still the world's largest importer of illegal drugs.^[55]

Demographics

With a large wave of immigrants in the 1960s and onwards, the United States saw an increased heterogeneity in its public.^[57] In the 1980s and 90s, drug related homicide was at a record high. This increase in drug violence became increasingly tied to these ethnic minorities. Though the rate of violence varied tremendously among cities in America, it was a common anxiety in communities across urban America. An example of this could be seen in Miami, a city with a host of ethnic enclaves.^[57] Between 1985 and 1995, the homicide rate in Miami was one of the highest in the nation—four times the national homicide average. This crime rate was correlated with regions with low employment and was not entirely dependent on ethnicity.^[57]

The baby boomer generation also felt the effects of the drug trade in their increased drug use from the 1960s to 80s.^[58] Along with substance abuse, criminal involvement, suicide and murder were also on the rise. Due to the large amount of baby boomers, commercial marijuana use was on the rise. This increased the supply and demand for marijuana during this time period.^[58]

Mexico

Political influences

Corruption in Mexico has contributed to the domination of Mexican cartels in the illicit drug trade. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Mexico's political environment allowed the growth of drug-related activity. The loose regulation over the transportation of illegal drugs and the failure to prosecute known drug traffickers and gangs increased the growth of the drug industry. Toleration of drug trafficking has undermined the authority of the Mexican government and has decreased the power of law enforcement officers in regulation over such activities. These policies of tolerance fostered the growing power of drug cartels in the Mexican economy and have made drug traders wealthier.^[59] Many states in Mexico lack policies that establish stability in governance. There also is a lack of local stability, as mayors cannot be re-elected. This requires electing a new mayor each term. Drug gangs have manipulated this, using vacuums in local leadership to their own advantage.^[50]

The corruption cartels created resulted in distrust of government by the Mexican public.^[61] This distrust became more prominent after the collapse of the PRI party.^[61] In response, the presidents of Mexico, in the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century, implemented several different programs relating to law enforcement and regulation. In 1993, President Salinas created the National Institute for the Combat of Drugs in Mexico. From 1995–1998, President Zedillo established policies regarding increased punishment of organized crime, allowing "[wire taps], protected witnesses, covert agents and seizures of goods", and increasing the quality of law enforcement at the federal level. From 2001–2005, President Vicente Fox created the Federal Agency of Investigation.^[59] These policies resulted in the arrests of major drug-trafficking bosses:In 1929, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was formed to resolve the chaos resulting from the Mexican Revolution. Over time, this party gained political influence and had a major impact on Mexico's social and economic policies.^[50] The party created ties with various groups as a power play in order to gain influence, and as a result created more corruption in the government. One such power play was an alliance with drug traffickers. This political corruption obscured justice, making it difficult to identify violence when it related to drugs.^[60] By the 1940s, the tie between the drug cartels and the PRI had solidified. This arrangement created immunity for the leaders of the drug cartels and allowed drug trafficking to grow under the protection of the government officials. During the 1990s, the PRI lost some elections to the new National Action Party(PAN). Chaos again emerged as elected government in Mexico changed drastically.^[61] As the PAN party took control, drug cartel leaders took advantage of the ensuing confusion and used their existing influence to further gain power.^[61] Instead of negotiating with the central government as was done with the PRI party, drug cartels utilized new ways to distribute their supply and continued operating through force and intimidation.^[61] As Mexico became more democratized, the corruption fell from a centralized power to the local authorities.^[61] Cartels began to bribe local authorities, thus eliminating the structure and rules placed by the government—giving cartels more freedom.^[61] As a response, Mexico saw an increase in violence caused by drug trafficking.

Arrested Drug Traffickers| Year | Person | Cartel |

1989	Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo	Sinaloa Cartel
1993	Joaquín Guzmán Loera	Sinaloa Cartel
1995	Héctor Luis Palma
1996	Juan Garcia Abrego	Gulf Cartel
2002	Ismael Higuera Guerrero^[59]	Tijuana Cartel
Jesus Labra	Tijuana Cartel	Tijuana Cartel
Adan Amezcua	Colima Cartel	Colima Cartel
Benjamin Arellano Felix	Tijuana Cartel	Tijuana Cartel
2003	Osiel Cardenas^[59]	Gulf Cartel

Mexico's economy

Over the past few decades drug cartels have become integrated into Mexico's economy. Approximately 500 cities are directly engaged in drug trafficking and nearly 450,000 people are employed by drug cartels.^[61]Additionally, the livelihood of 3.2 million people is dependent on the drug cartels.^[61] Between local and international sales, such as to Europe and the United States, drug cartels in Mexico see a $25–30bn yearly profit, a great deal of which circulates through international banks such as HSBC.^[61] Drug cartels are fundamental in local economics. A percentage of the profits seen from the trade are invested in the local community.^[61]Such profits contribute to the education and healthcare of the community.^[61] While these cartels bring violence and hazards into communities, they create jobs and provide income for its many members.^[61]

Culture of drug cartels

Major cartels saw growth due to a prominent set culture of Mexican society that created the means for drug capital. One of the sites of origin for drug trafficking within Mexico, was the state of Michoacán. In the past, Michoacán was mainly an agricultural society. This provided an initial growth of trade. Industrialization of rural areas of Mexico facilitated a greater distribution of drugs, expanding the drug market into different provinces.^[60] Once towns became industrialized, cartels such as the Sinaloa Cartel started to form and expand. The proliferation of drug cartel culture largely stemmed from the ranchero culture seen in Michoacán. Ranchero culture values the individual as opposed to the society as a whole.^[60] This culture fostered the drug culture of valuing the family that is formed within the cartel. This ideal allowed for greater organization within the cartels. Gangs play a major role in the activity of drug cartels. MS-13 and the 18th Street gang are notorious for their contributions and influence over drug trafficking throughout Latin America. MS-13 has controlled much of the activity in the drug trade spanning from Mexico to Panama^[62] Female involvement is present in the Mexican drug culture. Although females are not treated as equals to males, they typically hold more power than their culture allows and acquire some independence. The increase in power has attracted females from higher social classes.^[63] Financial gain has also prompted women to become involved in the illegal drug market. Many women in the lower levels of major drug cartels belong to a low economic class. Drug trafficking offers women an accessible way to earn income.^[63] Females from all social classes have become involved in the trade due to outside pressure from their social and economic environments.

Colombia

Main article: Illegal drug trade in Colombia

It was common for smugglers in Colombia to import liquor, alcohol, cigarettes and textiles, while exporting cocaine.^[49] Personnel with knowledge of the terrain were able to supply the local market while also exporting a large amount of product.^[49] The established trade that began in the 1960s involved Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela and Cuba. Peasant farmers produced coca paste in Peru and Bolivia, while Colombian smugglers would process the coca paste into cocaine in Colombia, and trafficked product through Cuba.^[49] This trade route established ties between Cuban and Colombian organized crime. From Cuba, cocaine would be transported to Miami, Florida; and Union City, New Jersey. Quantities of the drug were then smuggled throughout the US.^[49] The international drug trade created political ties between the involved countries, encouraging the governments of the countries involved to collaborate and instate common policies to eradicate drug cartels. Cuba stopped being a center for transport of cocaine following the establishment of a communist government in 1959. As a result, Miami and Union City became the sole locations for trafficking.^[49] The relations between Cuban and Colombian organized crime remained strong until the 1970s, when Colombian cartels began to vie for power. In the 1980s and 90s, Colombia emerged as a key contributor of the drug trade industry in the Western Hemisphere. While the smuggling of drugs such as marijuana, poppy, opium and heroin became more ubiquitous during this time period, the activity of cocaine cartels drove the development of the Latin American drug trade. The trade emerged as a multinational effort as supplies (i.e. coca plant substances) were imported from countries such as Bolivia and Peru, were refined in Colombian cocaine labs and smuggled through Colombia, and exported to countries such as the US.^[64]

Political ties

Colombia's economy

Colombia has had a significant role in the illegal drug trade in Latin America. While active in the drug trade since the 1930s, Colombia's role in the drug trade did not truly become dominant until the 1970s.^[64] When Mexico eradicated marijuana plantations, demand stayed the same. Colombia met much of the demand by growing more marijuana. Grown in the strategic northeast region of Colombia, marijuana soon became the leading cash crop in Colombia.^[49] This success was short-lived due to anti-marijuana campaigns that were enforced by the US military throughout the Caribbean.^[49] Instead, drug traffickers in Colombia continued their focus on the exportation of cocaine.^[49] Having been an export of Colombia since the early 1950s, cocaine remained popular for a host of reasons. Colombia's location facilitated its transportation from South America into Central America, and then to its destination of North America. This continued into the 1990s, when Colombia remained the chief exporter of cocaine.^[52] The business of drug trafficking can be seen in several stages in Colombia towards the latter half of the 20th century. Colombia served as the dominant force in the distribution and sale of cocaine by the 1980s. As drug producers gained more power, they became more centralized and organized into what became drug cartels.^[52] Cartels controlled the major aspects of each stage in the traffic of their product. Their organization allowed cocaine to be distributed in great amounts throughout the United States. By the late 1980s, intra-industry strife arose within the cartels.^[52] This stage was marked by increased violence as different cartels fought for control of export markets. Despite this strife, this power struggle led to then having multiple producers of coca leaf farms. This in turn caused an improvement in quality control and reduction of police interdiction in the distribution of cocaine.^[52] This also led to cartels attempting to repatriate their earnings which would eventually make up 5.5% of Colombia's GDP.^[52] This drive to repatriate earnings led to the pressure of legitimizing their wealth, causing an increase in violence throughout Colombia.^[52]

Social impactsThroughout the 1980s, estimates of illegal drug value in Colombia ranged from $2bn to $4bn.^[64] This made up about 7–10% of the $36bn estimated GNP of Colombia during this decade. In the 1990s, the estimates of the illegal drug value remained roughly within the same range (_$2.5bn).^[64] As the Colombian GNP rose throughout the 90's ($68.5bn in 1994 and $96.3bn in 1997),^[64] illegal drug values began to comprise a decreasing fraction of the national economy.^[64] By the early 1990s, although Colombia led in the exportation of cocaine, it found increasing confrontations within its state. These confrontations were primarily between cartels and government institutions. This led to a decrease in the drug trade's contribution to the GDP of Colombia; dropping from 5.5% to 2.6%.^[52] Though a contributor of wealth, the distribution of cocaine has had negative effects on the socio-political situation of Colombia and has weakened its economy as well.^[52]

By the 1980s, Colombian cartels became the dominant cocaine distributors in the US.^[49] This led to the spread of increased violence throughout both Latin America and Miami.^[49] In the 1980s, two major drug cartels emerged in Colombia: the Medellin and Cali groups. Throughout the 90's however, several factors led to the decline of these major cartels and to the rise of smaller Colombian cartels.^[64] The U.S. demand for cocaine dropped while Colombian production rose, pressuring traffickers to find new drugs and markets. In this time period, there was an increase in activity of Caribbean cartels that led to the rise of an alternate route of smuggling through Mexico. This led to the increased collaboration between major Colombian and Mexican drug traffickers. Such drastic changes in the execution of drug trade in Colombia paired with the political instabilities and rise of drug wars in Medellin and Cali, gave way for the rise of the smaller Colombian drug trafficking organizations (and the rise of heroin trade).^[64] As the drug trade's influence over the economy increased, drug lords and their networks grew in their power and influence in society. The occurrences in drug-related violence increased during this time period as drug lords fought to maintain their control in the economy.^[64] Typically a drug cartel had support networks that consisted of a number of individuals. These people individuals ranged from those directly involved in the trade (such as suppliers, chemists, transporters, smugglers, etc.) as well as those involved indirectly in the trade (such as politicians, bankers, police, etc.). As these smaller Colombian drug cartels grew in prevalence, several notable aspects of the Colombian society gave way for further development of the Colombian drug industry. For example, until the late 1980s, the long-term effects of the drug industry were not realized by much of society. Additionally, there was a lack of regulation in prisons where captured traffickers were sent. These prisons were under-regulated, under-funded, and under-staffed, which allowed for the formation of prison gangs, for the smuggling of arms/weapons/etc., for feasible escapes, and even for captured drug lords to continue running their businesses from prison.^[64]

Trade in specific drugs

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https://www.foxnews.com/world/drug-trafficking-maduro-venezuela

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Drug trafficking keeping Maduro in power in Venezuela, analysts say

Hollie McKay [who?]

By Hollie McKay | Fox News

Pence says Venezuela ambassador 'shouldn't be here' while addressing the UN Security CouncilVideo

Pence says Venezuela ambassador 'shouldn't be here' while addressing the UN Security Council]

It has been more than three months since the U.S. accelerated its onslaught of economic sanctions on Venezuela, coupled with the back of a new interim President – heightening official expectation that the Nicolas Maduro-led regime would crumble.

Only the socialist dictatorship has failed to fall. While there an array of factors to blame, analysts are pointing to illicit trafficking rings as a fundamental Maduro lifeline.

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“The Venezuelan military forces has become a narco-criminal, armed organization. Most of the top and mid-commanders are deeply involved in corruption, drug operations, and serious human rights abuses,” Johan Obdola, president of Latin America-focused global intelligence and security firm IOSI, told Fox News, noting that cartel-led, massive drug operations continue to spawn the country keeping the top echelon well-fed and financed. “Small pro-regime policing agencies and military units across the nation conduct these criminal operations centered on drug trafficking, kidnapping, and robbery to survive the crisis.”}:

Kevin Ivers, Vice President and Latin America expert at public policy firm DCI Group, pointed out that years ago, the elite of the Venezuelan military was put in charge of the core elements of the domestic economy, such as the importation and distribution of food and consumer goods.

[In this Feb. 14, 2019 file photo, Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro speaks during an interview at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela. (???????AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

“This has encouraged corruption and profiteering that has made key elements of the military part of what can be called the regime’s ‘mafia,’ and this has extended beyond consumer goods to drug trafficking,” he explained. “Maduro has also spent years systematically splintering the military into factions and playing them off each other to make it difficult for them to unite against him.”

PENCE CONFRONTS VENEZUELAN AMBASSADOR AT UN: ‘YOU SHOULDN’T BE HERE’

Emanuele Ottolenghi, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, concurred that many in the upper echelons receive a cut from the regime’s illicit trafficking network – from drugs to food and medicine racketeering.

“There aren’t enough incentives(for military leaders) to leave and disincentives to stay to tip the balance, especially at the top,” he noted.

Indeed, military defections – once considered key to Maduro’s expulsion – have dipped from 80 to 100 per day earlier this year to just two or three, according to the Washington Post. And of those, very few have come from the highest ranks and thus failed to generate a game-changing ripple effect.

“There were no key defections, roughly 500 members of the military without any real commanders. In a 110,000 military it had no impact,” explained Carlos Ponce, a senior fellow, and director of Latin America Programs at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. “There was no real analysis of the military structure and the breaking points.”

Ponce said that former leader Hugo Chavez intentionally dismembered the lines of command to avoid a coup d’état while he was in power. He also pointed out that those who did make the leap have been paying the price.

“The commanders and high-ranking officials allegedly caught in anti-Maduro meetings have been tortured and their families isolated from any social or food program,” Ponce noted. “So there is a disincentive for anyone who showed discontent with the regime – jail or torture and abandonment to their families.”

Maduro’s reign is also being held together by external players. The U.S estimates that more than 20,000 Cuban agents alone are now planted within the Venezuelan military and law enforcement, presiding over internal operations and the movements of the top brass.

“Maduro relies heavily on foreigners to prop up his regime – Cuba, Russia, and Iran. They have a vested economic and political interest in ensuring he succeeds. Economically, to ensure that it is they that control the largest proven oil reserves in the world,” said John Wood, analyst and author of 'Russia, the Asymmetric Threat to the United States.' “Politically, to render the U.S. visibly impotent in its own backyard and thereby lay the groundwork forbuilding a viable military threat to the USA in its own hemisphere.”

[Eight-year-old Franyelis feeds her baby brother Joneiber as their mother Francibel Contreras holds a bowl of scrambled eggs and rice, at a soup kitchen in the Petare slum, Caracas, Venezuela. Contreras brings her three malnourished children to the soup kitchen in the dangerous hillside slum where they scoop in spoonfuls of food in what could be their only meal of the day. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

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Obdola also underscored that the Cubans have “established an intense regional intelligence and surveillance operation” in bordering areas and in countries that support regime change in Venezuela.

“This operation is intense and mostly in Colombia, Brazil and other nearby nations where a very unique gathering of spies, intelligence and even terrorist operations are very active,” he said.

FIRST SHIPMENT OF RED CROSS AID ARRIVES IN VENEZUELA]

But the U.S., which has vowed to refurbish the rule of law and bring about new leadership in Venezuela, is yet to dramatically change its strategy.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last week that “all options” are on the table when it comes to Venezuela, insisting that the strategy is “not just an American strategy” but the “Venezuelan’s people’s strategy.”

“Sometimes people think Maduro is winning, and yet he’s handed over all his power to the Cubans, to the Russians,” Pompeo told theVoice of AmericaSpanish. “This is weakness from Maduro. And so this weakness will ultimately lead to his departure, and democracy and prosperity will be restored in Venezuela.”

He has also taken aim at China’s role in standing by Maduro financially, mandating that their role is prolonging the protracted crisis in Venezuela.

[People cross the Tachira River into Colombia near the Simon Bolivar International bridge, which Venezuelan authorities only open to students and the sick, in Cucuta, Colombia, Tuesday, March 12, 2019, on the border with Venezuela. People crossing the river are using makeshift bridges as the water level grows with the approaching rainy season. (AP Photo/Schneyder Mendoza)

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Once awash will oil wealth and deemed the richest country in Latin America, Venezuela has been beleaguered by an economic crisis since 2015 which has since spiraled into a grave humanitarian catastrophe and prompted the exodus of almost four million into now overburdened neighboring nations. Maduro has consistently blamed the U.S. for purporting to wage "economic war," but has largely denied that there are mass problems.

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On the ground in the poverty-plagued Venezuela, it’s a mix of exasperation and desperation with the vast majority continuing to push for change and turn to the U.S. for support as time rolls on.

“There is more room for applying sanctions,” Ivers added. “Anything that cuts off the regime’s ability to generate cash, that disrupts its flow ofcontrabandgoods and drug trafficking finances, and increases the pressure of possible prosecution of senior military and regime figures for crimes against humanity or other criminal acts, will bring the regime closer to the negotiating table to seek an end to the conflict.”

Hollie McKay has a been a Fox News Digital staff reporter since 2007. She has extensively reported from war zones including Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma, and Latin America investigates global conflicts, war crimes and terrorism around the world. Follow her on Twitter.

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