Several convenience stores in San Francisco's notorious Tenderloin district have been providing cover for illegal activity, city leaders announced Thursday.
The post San Francisco Uncovers Gambling Dens Fronting as Convenience Stores: ‘Magnets for Drug Activity’ appeared first on Breitbart.
The Canadian province of British Columbia (BC) has ended its experiment with legalizing hard drugs, and the consensus among both public officials and citizens is that the program was a complete failure.
The post Canada’s British Columbia Ends Failed Experiment in Hard Drug Legalization appeared first on Breitbart.
Authorities announced Wednesday that an elderly man who used his 2010 lottery winnings to run a drug empire from his cottage alongside his son and two accomplices, has been sentenced to jail.
John Eric Spiby, 80, was sentenced to 16 years in prison in England after an investigation uncovered counterfeit pills worth up to $400 million, Greater Manchester Police said. His son, John Colin Spiby, 37, was sentenced to nine years.
"They operated a fully industrialized drug manufacturing business capable of producing millions of counterfeit tablets containing a highly dangerous substance," Alex Brown, detective inspector of the Serious Organized Crime Group that led the investigation, said in a statement.
FEDS ARREST FELON ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT AFTER SEIZING TENS OF MILLIONS IN METH STASHED IN BLACKBERRIES
"The volume of tablets we recovered — along with the sophisticated machinery — demonstrated how deeply embedded this group was in the illicit drug supply chain."
Local United Kingdom outlet LBC reported that Spiby won the National Lottery in 2010, at around 65 years old, cashing in £2.4 million, equivalent to roughly $3.3 million in 2026.
During the sentencing, Judge Nicholas Clarke KC told LBC that, "despite your lottery win, you continued to live your life of crime beyond what would be a normal retirement age."
Sometime between November 2021 and May 2022, Spiby equipped his cottage behind his home with an "industrial‑scale tablet manufacturing set-up capable of producing tens of thousands of tablets per hour," police said. According to a court hearing, they were also able to "hide" his lab by frosting the windows, LBC reported.
The organization allegedly produced counterfeit diazepam tablets, also known as Valium, laced with etizolam, a substance banned in the U.S. normally prescribed for insomnia and anxiety. In high doses, etizolam can cause severe central nervous system depression, potentially leading to unconsciousness, respiratory failure and death.
The group also facilitated and supplied firearms including AK‑47s, an Uzi, Tec‑9s, a Scorpion, a Grand Power pistol, silencers and ammunition, police said.
FLORIDA SHERIFF CALLS MASSIVE DRUG OPERATION ''BREAKING BAD' ON STEROIDS' AFTER RECORD-BREAKING BUST
In the early stages of the operation in August 2020, the group reportedly operated "under the guise of a lawful business" by creating a fake company along with a website advertising tablet presses, mixers, packaging machines and powdered supplements.
During the operation, the suspects rented a shipping container to store materials and millions of counterfeit tablets awaiting distribution. Officers, however, intercepted them in April 2022 and found a vehicle containing 2.6 million counterfeit diazepam tablets with an estimated street value between $1.4 million and $7 million.
The following month, a warrant led to the seizure of guns, ammunition, cash, machinery, counterfeit drugs and raw materials.
Police estimated the crime ring produced drugs with a potential street value equivalent to roughly $80 million to $400 million.
Of the other two accomplices, Callum Dorian, 35, received a 12‑year prison sentence in September 2024, while Lee Ryan Drury, 45, was sentenced to nine years.
The four members faced charges that included conspiracy to produce and supply Class C drugs, conspiracy to supply firearms, possession of firearms and ammunition and perverting the course of justice.
"These four individuals showed absolutely no regard for human life or public safety," Brown said. "All they were interested in was lining their own pockets with significant financial gain."
Fox News Digital reached out to Greater Manchester Police for more information.
Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodríguez has appeared in U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) intelligence files dating back several years and was labeled a "priority target" in 2022, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
The documents show the DEA has intelligence files on Rodríguez going back to at least 2018, with her name appearing in multiple investigations across several U.S. and international field offices, though she has never been publicly accused of any criminal wrongdoing, the outlet reported.
The DEA did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The "priority target" designation is used by the agency to focus investigative resources on individuals or organizations believed to play a significant role in major drug trafficking or money laundering operations affecting the United States, according to a 2008 DEA assessment.
Rodríguez was formally sworn in as Venezuela's new leader on Jan. 5, just two days after U.S. forces extracted Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores from their compound in Caracas in an early-morning military operation.
Maduro and Flores were taken into U.S. custody and flown to New York to face federal charges.
Maduro is charged with four counts: narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine-guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine-guns and destructive devices. His wife is charged with three counts: cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine-guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine-guns and destructive devices.
TRUMP PLANS TO MEET WITH VENEZUELA OPPOSITION LEADER MARIA CORINA MACHADO NEXT WEEK
The White House has been working with Rodríguez in the weeks since Maduro was ousted. President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday that he spoke with Rodríguez by phone and praised her as a "terrific person."
"We discussed a lot of things and I think we’re getting along very well with Venezuela," he said.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado criticized Rodríguez as the Trump administration engages with the Maduro ally, arguing she does not represent the Venezuelan people.
"I want to insist on this: Delcy Rodríguez, yes, she’s a communist. She’s the main ally and representation of the Russian regime, the Chinese and the Iranians, but that’s not the Venezuelan people and that’s not the armed forces, as well," Machado said at a Heritage Foundation event on Friday.
"So I am profoundly, profoundly confident that we will have an orderly transition. This is a complex phase we are in right now. Some of the dirty work is being done by them," she added. "But then, the result of a stable transition will be a proud Venezuela who is going to be the best ally the United States has ever had in the Americas."
For decades, the development of new drugs has been one of the slowest, most expensive, and most failure-prone processes in modern science. With artificial intelligence however, that bottleneck may be breaking. An […]
The post First AI Designed Drug Is Nearing Approval – Can It Be Trusted? first appeared on The Expose.
