Crime
‘Do You Hear Yourself?’: JD Vance Stunned After Raddatz Minimizes Migrant Gang Takeover Of Apartment Complexes
From the Daily Caller News Foundation
By Hailey Gomez
Republican Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance appeared shocked Sunday on ABC News when co-host Martha Raddatz interrupted him mid-statement and attempted to downplay Venezuelan gangs’ takeover of Colorado apartment complexes.
The Tren de Aragua gang made U.S. headlines in September after officials confirmed ten members were involved in an investigation into a string of alleged criminal incidents at an Aurora, Colorado apartment complex, according to FOX 31. On ABC’s “This Week,” Raddatz pressed Vance on former President Donald Trump’s response, noting Trump claimed the city had been “invaded and conquered” by migrants, while the mayor called the statement “grossly exaggerated.”
“Well, Martha, you just said the mayor said they were exaggerated. That means that there’s gotta be some element of truth here,” Vance began. “Of course, President Trump was actually in Aurora, Colorado talking to people on the ground, and what we’re hearing is people are terrified by what has happened with some of these Venezuelan gangs — ”
“Senator Vance, I’m going to stop you because I know exactly what happened. I’m going to stop you. The incidents were limited to a handful of apartment complexes and the mayor said, ‘Our dedicated police officers have acted on those concerns.’ A handful of problems,” Raddatz said.
Vance pushed back on Raddatz, questioning her issue with Trump and her refusal to acknowledge that U.S. apartment complexes are “being taken over by violent gangs.”
“Only, Martha? Do you hear yourself? Only a handful of apartment complexes were taken over by Venezuelan gangs, and Donald Trump is the problem, not Kamala Harris’ open border? Americans are so fed up with what’s going on, and they have every right to be,” Vance responded. “I really find this exchange, Martha, sort of interesting because you seem to be more focused with nitpicking everything that Donald Trump has said, rather than acknowledging that apartment complexes in the United States of America are being taken over by violent gangs.”
WATCH:
“I worry so much more about that problem than anything else here. We’ve got to get American communities in a safe space again, and unfortunately, when you let people in by the millions — most of whom are unvetted, most of whom you don’t know who they really are — you’re going to have problems like this,” Vance added. “Kamala Harris — 94 executive orders that undid Donald Trump’s successful border policies, we knew this stuff would happen. They bragged about opening the border, and now we have the consequences and we’re living with it. We can do so much better, but frankly we’re not going to do better, Martha, unless Donald Trump calls this stuff out.”
The Venezuelan gang, which reportedly began as a prison gang in 2014 in the northern Venezuelan state of Aragua, has rapidly grown into one of the country’s largest criminal organizations. In mid-September, the Aurora Police Department confirmed that ten gang members in the area had been living in the city “and committing acts of violence against members of the migrant community,” according to FOX 31.
In response, property management company CBZ Management allegedly shut down three locations in the city — Edge at Lowry, Fitzsimons Place, and Whispering Pines — due to being “taken over” by the gang, according to the Denver Post. Charges against the arrested group include felony menacing, assault, motor vehicle theft and numerous shootings.
While speaking at a rally in Aurora on Friday, Trump addressed the ongoing migrant issue with supporters, reflecting on how the gang has been “taking over” the city.
“I will rescue Aurora and every town that has been invaded and conquered,” Trump stated.
However, Republican Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman released a statement a day earlier, claiming the “reality” is that concerns over gang activity in the city and state have been “grossly exaggerated and have unfairly hurt the city’s identity and sense of safety.”
Featured Image: Screenshot/ABC News/”This Week”
Business
Canada’s struggle against transnational crime & money laundering
From the Macdonald-Laurier Institute
By Alex Dalziel and Jamie Ferrill
In this episode of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s Inside Policy Talks podcast, Senior Fellow and National Security Project Lead Alex Dalziel explores the underreported issue of trade-based money laundering (TBML) with Dr. Jamie Ferrill, the head of financial crime studies at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, Australia and a former Canada Border Services Agency officer.
The discussion focuses on how organized crime groups use global trade transactions to disguise illicit proceeds and the threat this presents to the Canada’s trade relationship with the US and beyond.
Definition of TBML: Trade-based money laundering disguises criminal proceeds by moving value through trade transactions instead of transferring physical cash. Criminals (usually) exploit international trade by manipulating trade documents, engaging in phantom shipping, and altering invoices to disguise illicit funds as legitimate commerce, bypassing conventional financial scrutiny. As Dr. Ferrill explains, “we have dirty money that’s been generated through things like drug trafficking, human trafficking, arms trafficking, sex trafficking, and that money needs to be cleaned in one way or another. Trade is one of the ways that that’s done.”
A Pervasive Problem: TBML is challenging to detect due to the vast scale and complexity of global trade, making it an attractive channel for organized crime groups. Although global estimates are imprecise, the Financial Action Task Force and The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) suggests 2-5% of GDP could be tied to money laundering, representing trillions of dollars annually. In Canada, this could mean over $70 billion in potentially laundered funds each year. Despite the scope of TBML, Canada has seen no successful prosecutions for criminal money laundering through trade, highlighting significant gaps in identifying, investigating and prosecuting these complex cases.
Canada’s Vulnerabilities: Along with the sheer volume and complexity of global trade, Canada’s vulnerabilities stem from gaps in anti-money laundering regulation, particularly in high-risk sectors like real estate, luxury goods, and legal services, where criminals exploit weak oversight. Global trade exemplifies the vulnerabilities in oversight, where gaps and limited controls create substantial opportunities for money laundering. A lack of comprehensive export controls also limits Canada’s ability to monitor goods leaving the country effectively. Dr. Ferrill notes that “If we’re seen as this weak link in the process, that’s going to have significant implications on trade partnerships,” underscoring the potential political risks to bilateral trade if Canada fails to address these issues.
International and Private Sector Cooperation: Combating TBML effectively requires strong international cooperation, particularly between Canada and key trade partners like the U.S. The private sector—including freight forwarders, customs brokers, and financial institutions—plays a crucial role in spotting suspicious activities along the supply chain. As Dr. Ferrill emphasizes, “Canada and the U.S. can definitely work together more efficiently and effectively to share and then come up with some better strategies,” pointing to the need for increased collaboration to strengthen oversight and disrupt these transnational crime networks.
Looking to further understand the threat of transnational organized crime to Canada’s borders?
Check out Inside Policy Talks recent podcasts with Christian Leuprecht, Todd Hataley and Alan Bersin.
To learn more about Dr. Ferrill’s research on TBML, check out her chapter in Dirty Money: Financial Crime in Canada.
Crime
Trudeau’s pro-transgender regime is a get-out-of-jail-free card for Canada’s most violent criminals
From LifeSiteNews
Canada’s most dangerous criminals are being sent to women’s prisons simply by identifying as such. This can only happen because the country is run by people like Justin Trudeau, who believes gender ideology with every fibre of his being.
You’ve probably heard plenty from Justin Trudeau and his progressive clones about conservative premiers “attacking” and “targeting” the so-called “LGBT community” for legislation protecting children from sex change surgeries. But you won’t hear a word about the victims of LGBT ideology – and you won’t hear a thing about the growing list of insanities inflicted on Canada by the policies they have passed and supported.
Consider the case of Adam Laboucan, who as a teenager brutally raped a 3-month-old infant and allegedly drowned a toddler – he was convicted only of the violent pedophilic assault, because he was less than 12 years old when he drowned the 3-year-old boy, and under Canadian law you must be at least 12 to be prosecuted.
Laboucan’s case – which LifeSiteNews reported on last year – was so disturbing that he became Canada’s “youngest designated dangerous offender.”
Now, according to The Canadian Press, Laboucan is “seeking escorted leave from prison to attend Indigenous cultural ceremonies in Vancouver.” You see, Adam Laboucan has changed his name. He is now known as Tara Desousa, and the CP obediently refers to him by his preferred pronouns, leading to ludicrous sentences such as this one:
Desousa, then named Adam Laboucan, was 15 years old in 1997 when she sexually assaulted an infant she was babysitting in Quesnel, B.C. The baby required surgery to repair the injuries.
Laboucan, of course, was not a woman when he attacked the infant and drowned the child. He is not a woman now, despite having obtained sex change surgeries since then (he is 43). He is considered so dangerous that B.C. Supreme Court Judge Victor Curtis imposed an indefinite sentence on him in 1999 because there was, in the view of the court, no foreseeable “time span in which Adam Laboucan may be cured.” The B.C. Court of Appeal affirmed the dangerous offender designation in 2002.
They did so for good reason. Expert psychiatrists stated that Laboucan exhibited everything from “transsexual to pedophilic tendencies.” He was given to self-mutilation and even self-cannibalism. He was promiscuous and volatile, threatening to kill a female guard and behaving so erratically that a 2010 parole review again affirmed his dangerous offender designation due to his problems with “gender identity, impulsive behavior, violence and sexual deviance.” But in 2018, he began to identify as a woman. As LifeSiteNews reported shortly thereafter:
In a 2021 brief to members of the House of Commons, incarcerated women’s rights advocate Heather Mason told a House Committee that numerous women prisoners had been subject to sexual harassment by males who call themselves females who are living in female prisons. Mason made special mention of Laboucan (Desousa) stating: “One of these women reported that while in the mother-child program, two transgender individuals with convictions for pedophilia, Madilyn Harks and Tara Desousa, would loiter near her and her child, making sexist and inappropriate antagonizing comments.” The person who calls himself Madilyn but was named Matthew has been labelled a serial pedophile with an “all-encompassing preoccupation in sexually abusing young girls.”
Note well: the reason one of Canada’s most dangerous criminals, a man with violent pedophilic impulses and a history of profound mental disturbance, can get sent to a women’s prison is because our country is run by people like Trudeau, who believes gender ideology with every fibre of his being.
Now, Laboucan – wearing his new female identity like a skin suit – has applied in Federal Court in Vancouver to attend a “healing centre for women” run by the Circles of Eagles Lodge Society, an Indigenous organization.
Laboucan’s most recent attempt at parole – in June 2024– was denied, with the Parole Board of Canada stating that that the victim of Laboucan’s assault and the family “have suffered pain, anxiety and anguish and long-term emotional impacts resulting from your offending. Each time you come up for parole, they are haunted by your offending and the damage you inflicted on their defenceless son/grandson.”
Of course, the government now expects you to believe that these crimes were committed by a woman – and the board did say that “escorted temporary absences” were “the next logical step in reintegration and gradual release,” despite the fact that he is “an undue risk to society.”
Laboucan’s Vancouver-based lawyer, Caroline North, declined to comment on the Federal Court application when asked by the Canadian Press.
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