- Jose Hernandez-Morales, 31, a Mexican national and member of the Latin Kings, was arrested in Chicago for re-entry of a previously removed alien
- Serhiy Hudz, 27, who is a Ukrainian national and legal permanent resident, is a member of the Warlocks outlaw motorcycle gang. He was arrested in Philadelphia for parole violations.
- Amado Arellano, 44, a U.S. citizen and member of the Mexican Mafia, was arrested in San Antonio, Texas, on state charges for parole violations.
Notice there is no mention of drugs or weapons charges, just illegal reentry and parole violations.
The agency assures us that "Nearly 50 percent of those arrested during this operation were members or associates of gangs with ties to drug trafficking organizations in Mexico, South America and Asia." There's that meaningless word again, "associates of."
The release goes on to say that since 2005, when the new information-sharing policies went into effect that allowed various agencies to combine their intel and act together, 16,144 street gang members and associates have been arrested.
- 202 were gang leaders and 2,898 were MS-13 gang members or associates.
- 949 firearms were seized
- 6,805 have been charged criminally
- 9,339 have been charged with immigration violations and processed for removal.
So, 9,000 of the 16,000 arrested were not charged with crimes. That's a huge number of innocent people to arrest. 9,339 of the 16,000 arrested were simply undocumented residents with civil immigration violations.
As for the danger factor, out of 16,000 arrests they got 1,000 guns. So at least 15,000 of those arrested had no weapons and the number is probably higher since a few of those arrested likely had multiple firearms.
ICE isn't the only Homeland Security agency jumping into the war on drugs. There's the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Here's their stated function:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.
They too seem to have morphed into the DEA, with glossy pictures and all. Today's headlines:
Terrorist activity? Not one listed in all these busts. The agency says:
During the weekend, CBP officers at the El Paso port of entry made nine additional drug busts, seizing 597 pounds of marijuana. While anti-terrorism is the primary mission of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the inspection process at the ports of entry associated with this mission results in impressive numbers of enforcement actions in all categories.
On non-agency websites the past two days, we have these CBP busts:
Back to CBP, the list of drug busts goes on and on.
Who's watching the terrorists if everybody's watching mom & pop drug traffickers and undocumented residents who haven't committed any cirmes? I guess the DEA, who now thinks it's their job to go to Africa and stop drugs headed not for the U.S. but to Europe.
And so, the massive war on drugs continues, at taxpayer expense.
