DOJ Refuses To ID Drug-Ring Operators As Illegal Immigrants

The Obama Justice Department and the mainstream media have conveniently failed to identify as illegal immigrants more than two dozen people arrested in a major drug-trafficking ring near the capital, but a conservative newspaper stepped up to the plate and revealed this important fact.

The sophisticated operation for years smuggled cocaine from Honduras to northern Virginia, which is considered part of the Washington Metropolitan area that surrounds the capital. Couriers smuggled large amounts of drugs by hiding them in shoes and decorative wooden frames, according to federal prosecutors. The feds also believe that members of the trafficking ring wired more than $1 million from the United States back to cocaine suppliers in Honduras.

May 15, 2012
Judicial Watch

In all, 28 people from a “tight network of Honduran immigrants” have been arrested, according to Neil MacBride, the U.S. Attorney that heads the DOJ’s Eastern District of Virginia office handling the case. His announcement, posted on the Department of Justice (DOJ) website, goes into tremendous detail about the operation and mentions how the suspects distributed vast amounts of cocaine throughout Northern Virginia and the mid-Atlantic.

However, there is no mention that the criminal enterprise was run by illegal immigrants, not simply “Honduran immigrants,” which implies they lived in the U.S. legally. Local and national media followed the DOJ’s cover-up lead. One local news report simply reprinted the DOJ press release, which identifies the suspects by name. Maryland’s largest newspaper dedicated a two-paragraph brief to the story because three state “residents” were arrested but, again, no mention of any illegal immigrants being involved.

The area’s conservative newspaper, the Washington Examiner, was the only to contact federal immigration authorities to inquire about the status of the arrestees in this case. This is a relevant fact, considering the Obama Administration is granting backdoor amnesty to thousands of illegal aliens. The short piece quotes an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official confirming the agency had lodged detainers against all 28 defendants. The information came via electronic mail after an Examiner reporter took the time to do her job.