American Politics > Tariffs - Economic Madness; Over 400kg of Cocaine and Meth stopped at Alberta border crossing in past few months

 Tariffs

Warren Buffet said it was like an act of war, economic war. President Trump needs to be told that America cannot prosper by driving the rest of the world into recession or depression which will surely happen.

His vacillating comments have already stopped many investments in other countries and have thrown budget preparations into chaos. Does he not realize this, or does he just not care?

I am not anti-Trump! I love many of the things he is doing although I wish he was not quite so frantic in his pace - he could avoid a lot of pain with a little more care and consideration.

He's trashing Canada's economy because of a small amount of fentanyl crossing the border, and yet...

108-Kilo Cocaine Shipment From US Seized at Alberta Border Crossing

Canada Border Services Agency officers confiscated more than 100 kilograms of cocaine earlier this month from a commercial transport vehicle at the Coutts border crossing in southern Alberta.

Border officers seized approximately 108 kilograms of cocaine following a secondary examination of the vehicle that was attempting to enter Canada from the United States, the CBSA said in a March 20 press release. 

The border agency said a Canadian was driving the vehicle, but its load originated from the United States.

Twenty-six-year-old Calgary resident Arshdeep Singh has been charged with importing a controlled substance and possessing a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking in connection with the seizure. 

Singh is scheduled to appear in a Lethbridge court on May 7.

The Integrated Border Enforcement Team in Alberta, a joint force operation between the RCMP Federal Policing Northwest Region, CBSA, and Calgary Police Service are collaborating on the investigation.

“Working together with our law enforcement partners is key to stopping drug trafficking,” Calgary Police Service Supt. Jeff Bell said in the release. “By intercepting these drugs, which came through the USA, we’ve kept harmful substances out of our communities and collectively made our cities safer.”

Other Drug Seizures at Coutts

The most recent incident is the latest in a string of drug seizures involving the Coutts border crossing. Coutts is the busiest crossing in Alberta and shares a border with Sweetgrass, Montana.

Nearly $3 million worth of methamphetamine and cocaine destined for Canada was seized at the border during two separate incidents in December and January.

The first seizure occurred on Christmas Eve 2024 when border officers discovered 186 kilograms of methamphetamine in a commercial truck, valued at approximately $1.86 million.

The second seizure occurred on Jan. 18 when officers found two cardboard boxes in a truck trailer containing multiple bricks of cocaine weighing 42 kilograms. The drugs had an estimated street value of more than $1 million.

The drivers of both vehicles were arrested and handed over to the RCMP.

Coutts border officers also discovered 189 kilograms of cocaine in a commercial truck in November with an approximate wholesale value of $2 million.

The drug seizures come at a time when the United States has initiated a trade war with Canada in part due to cross-border drug trafficking. U.S. President Donald Trump has accused Canada of having lax border security, saying fentanyl is flowing into his country as a result.

Trump said he told then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier this month that there hasn’t been enough done by Ottawa to address the issue.

White House senior counsellor Peter Navarro has dismissed accusations of the Trump administration launching a trade war against Canada.

“The president is fighting a drug war,” Navarro said on Feb. 4. “This is not a trade war.”

Funny! It feels like a trade war, and it feels like Trump wants Canada to fight it alone since he seems to be doing nothing to stop the incessant flow of drugs northward.

The Prime Minister’s Office said in a January press release that less than 0.2 percent of fentanyl seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection comes from Canada.

The Islamization of Europe > Next probable Chancellor of Germany will close borders to asylum seekers, he says; Eritrean horror stories of being trafficked to Europe; Dutch offering Syrians €900 to go home

 

Germany's Friedrich Merz calls for permanent border controls after knife attack

By Doug Cunningham

Friedrich Merz, currently leading in polls to become German chancellor, said Thursday if elected he will impose strict border controls. Photo by Clemens Bilan/EPA-EFE

Jan. 23 (UPI) -- Friedrich Merz, currently leading in polls to become German chancellor, said Thursday if elected he will impose strict border controls.

Merz, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union Party, cited a fatal knife attack by an Afghan asylum-seeker as evidence the immigration system has failed and all illegal migrant entries should be stopped.

"On the first day of my tenure as chancellor, I will instruct the interior ministry to impose permanent border controls with all our neighbors and refuse all attempts at illegal entry," Merz said in a speech Thursday.

He said even people seeking asylum would be barred from entering Germany.

His position is seen as an effort to take support away from the far-right Alternative for Germany Party, or AfD which has also attempted to link violent crime to immigration.

"Attempted to link", as if there was any question that Germany's soaring crime and violence rates might not be associated with the influx of unvetted Muslims.

The Afghan man charged in a Wednesday stabbing attack on a group of kindergartners killed two people, including a 2-year-old boy, was due in court Thursday.

The Wednesday stabbing is the most recent in a series of violent, fatal assaults by suspects seeking asylum in Germany that occurred in Mannheim last May, Solingen in August and Magdeburg last month.

If elected, Merz plans to order the interior ministry to take permanent control of Germany's borders on his first day in office.

He described European Union asylum rules as "recognizably dysfunctional" and declared Germany should "exercise its right to the primacy of national law."

EU law allows temporary border controls to deter illegal immigration, but not permanent control measures.

If elected Merz and his center-right party would need to govern in a coalition with other parties. His plans on immigration would not likely be supported by left-leaning parties like the Free Democratic Party, Social Democrats or the Green Party.

It would be supported by the AfD, of course, but will the CDU have the courage to ask them? The rest of the Bundestag would go into hysterics preferring nothing be done to right the sinking ship.

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Eritrean asylum seekers trafficked, abused, extorted by network operating in Netherlands

A group of Eritrean human traffickers, who partly operated from the Netherlands, committed large-scale human trafficking, violence, and other atrocities against asylum seekers from Eritrea, according to a study by the National Rapporteur on Human Trafficking. Asylum seekers were locked up in warehouses, starved, extorted, beaten up, sold, or left behind in the desert to die, the investigation shows, NOS reports.

Rapporteur Conny Rijken based the investigation on 124 witness statements in an international criminal investigation by the Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM) into this criminal organization. In almost all cases, the witnesses were Eritrean asylum seekers who paid smugglers to bring them to the Netherlands. Instead, they became victims of human trafficking in Libya.

The victims fled their country looking for prospects for the future, Rijken said. They mostly had to use smugglers because they did not have the documents needed to travel legally. The human traffickers took them to Libya, where they locked them up in warehouses with too many people in too small a space and with no sanitary facilities. The traffickers subjected the victims to physical and verbal violence, gave them little food and drink, and forced the victims to call family members to transfer more money.

“Some victims were beaten with garden hoses. These hoses were made wet, which is more painful. Some witnesses state that people were injured and left behind in the desert to die,” Rijken said. It is unknown how many people died.

Some victims had to perform work in the warehouses for the traffickers, ranging from preparing food to abusing other asylum seekers. Many were abducted or sold during their stay in Libya, sometimes multiple times, after which they had to pay again for their release.

The OM suspects seven men of operating this human trafficking network. The two main suspects ran reception camps in Libya - Walid, who is currently on trial in the Netherlands, and Kidane, who will soon be extradited by the United Arab Emirates, the OM told NOS. The other five are suspected of organizing extortion and money flows in the Netherlands. Many of the victims already had family in the Netherlands and the suspects visited them at home to extort money from them.

Dutch gov't offering Syrians €900 to return

to Damascus and not come back

The Dutch government is offering Syrians 900 euros in cash to voluntarily return to Damascus - almost double the maximum of 500 euros in cash typically given to asylum seekers upon voluntary departure. In return, the Syrians must sign a statement in which they withdraw their asylum application or return their temporary residency permit. Returning to the Netherlands is not possible after that, AD reports.

The Return and Departure Service (DTenV) told the newspaper that since the fall of the Assad regime, it has received “requests and telephone calls” from “Syrians who want to return to Syria.” During an intake interview, the service does warn of the risks of returning to Syria as it is not clear whether the country is safe. Declaring parts of Syria safe was one of the measures the Cabinet announced after giving up on declaring an asylum emergency, but it has not been implemented yet.

DTenV set up a special website for helping Syrians return to Syria. Surprisingly, the information on the site is only in Dutch. Though the video that Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber (PVV) posted on social media, announcing that the government will help Syrians return, was subtitled in Arabic and English. Earlier this month, she told RTL that the government plans to eventually force Syrian refugees to return.

The site stresses that it does not help with “family visits or to collect belongings,” only with “sustainable return.” Dutch officials will even help arrange the trip for Syrians living in the Netherlands, although the site does not make clear whether the Dutch government will also cover the costs of the trip.

Syrians can make use of this offer if they are still waiting for the outcome of their asylum application, have a temporary residence permit, or are living undocumented in the Netherlands. They must have a passport, valid or expired. Those who don’t can arrange travel documents through the Syrian embassy in Brussels. The DTenV can ensure that they “get permission to travel through Belgian territory if necessary.”

Asylum seekers who voluntarily return to their country of origin can always receive money to get through the first weeks. The “basic departure support” is 200 euros for an adult and 40 euros for a child. They can sometimes also apply for a “reintegration allowance” of up to 1,800 euros per adult, to help them set up a small business or get training for a job. Only 300 euros of that amount can be given in cash. That amounts to a maximum of 500 euros in cash per adult. Syrians can get almost double that amount. 

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Will Trump save America from becoming a Narco State? Tren de Aragua storming border crossings

 

Knife-wielding Tren de Aragua gangbangers are repeatedly attacking border crossings in desperate move to force their way into US before Trump takes office

By 

Jennie Taer, NYPost

Published Dec. 31, 2024, 6:38 a.m. ET

Knife-wielding Tren de Aragua gang members are mobbing border crossings at El Paso, Texas, in an attempt to break into the US — and have said they will attack border guards who try to stop them, according to a shocking Texas law enforcement memo leaked to The Post.

Last week, 20 of the Venezuelan gangbangers — armed with blades, tire irons and broken liquor bottles — tried to force their way into the US at a border gate, the missive from the Texas Department of Public Safety read.

Another attempt to break through is expected on New Year’s Day, the memo warned.

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Migrants break through Texas’ razor wire during a border riot on March 21, 2024, in El Paso.

James Breeden for NY Post

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The Post’s cover after capturing shocking footage of the border bum rush on March 21 in El Paso, Texas.

James Breeden for NY Post

The brutal prison gang is becoming increasingly desperate to salt more members into the US before President-elect Donald Trump takes over, said Victor Avila, a retired agent for Homeland Security Investigations.

“You’re seeing that violence at the border because they know that it’s going to change in 27 days. It’s going to change. It’s going to be different, and they’re going to be sought after,” he told The Post.

Texas authorities were alerted to the gangbangers’ attempts to force their way into the US by an anonymous informant, who said the violent border break-ins by the gang “would continue every night” around 3 a.m.

See Also

Tren de Aragua has already set up shop in these 16 states, Homeland Security warns

The tipster said the gang intends to “cause harm” to the Texas National Guard soldiers who are stationed there — “especially when they are left alone with no agents” to help them.

A Texas law enforcement source told The Post that “gunfire has picked up big time” along the El Paso border in recent days, adding that authorities have also had to fire more pepperballs at groups trying to breach the border.

DPS didn’t immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.

The renewed violence is centered just a few miles down the border wall from where The Post witnessed a violent El Paso border riot on March 21.

In that assault, more than 200 illegal migrants broke through razor wire and dashed to the wall. Some of them brutally assaulted Texas National Guard soldiers in the melee.

At least one of the rioters was seen stomping on a service member’s knee as the group tried to break through.

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The gangbangers will attack border guards who try to stop them, according to a shocking Texas law enforcement memo leaked to The Post.

Omar Ornelas / El Paso Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Migrants battle Texas National Guard soldiers at the border in El Paso, Texas.

James Breeden for NY Post

See Also

Tren de Aragua gangbanger dressed in drag to evade cops after brutal kidnapping in Denver suburb

El Paso is a headquarters for Tren de Aragua, with many members passing through the border town before heading out for other areas of the country, including New York City and Aurora, Colorado.

Avila, the retired DHS agent, said the gang has “teamed up” with cartels on the Mexican side of the border to conduct smuggling operations.

The latest warning of the gang’s increased violence is linked to anti-American ideology that Avila compared to that of terrorist groups.

“I think that TdA is coming in with an instruction from their home country. And I think that their ideology is more of a terrorist ideology of destruction,” said Avila.

“They hate the United States just like terrorists do and they will kill, destroy, take over businesses, take over stores and take over apartment complexes, do whatever they have to do to destroy our way of life in the US,” he added.

In September, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared TdA a foreign terrorist organization and revealed that more than 100 of the rioters witnessed by The Post in March were believed to be members of the Venezuelan gang.

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The tipster said the gang intends to “cause harm” to the Texas National Guard soldiers who are stationed there — “especially when they are left alone with no agents” to help them.

Omar Ornelas/El Paso Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said more than 100 of the rioters are suspected members of Tren de Aragua.

James Breeden for NY Post

The state also deployed additional state law enforcement resources to tackle the gang’s growing presence in the Lone Star State.

Abbott also instituted a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence for TdA smugglers moving migrants into Texas.

“Texas is aggressively going after these foreign terrorist organizations of TdA,” the governor declared at the time.

“Our goal among law enforcement in the state of Texas is to defend our state from the growing threat of TdA. We are not going to allow them to use Texas as a base of operations to terrorize our citizens,” he fumed.