Former FBI agent: What Trump says about guns, crime and drugs is wrong

Retired FBI agent Frank Figliuzzi writes on the MSNBC website about the internal dangers facing America. It comes not from immigrants, who are generally more law-abiding than natives, but from neo-Nazi gangs.

He writes:

The federal indictment of 68 defendants accused of being members of (or associated with) a criminal gang motivated by racial hatred followed an investigation that led to the seizure of Nazi paraphernalia, including Adolf Hitler posters and 97 pounds of fentanyl. Officials said this on Wednesday. U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada, who announced the charges, called it one of the “largest actions in the history of the Department of Justice against a neo-Nazi, white supremacist, violent extremist organization.”

That announcement, coming in the final weeks of the presidential election, prompts us to contrast the facts of our crime problem with the fiction that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance, would have us believe.

The dismantling of the group calling itself the Peckerwoods, a San Fernando Valley branch of the infamous white supremacist organization Aryan Brotherhood, came in the form of charges alleging racketeering, firearms trafficking, drug trafficking and financial fraud. If some members, who adorn themselves with tattoos of swastikas and other hate symbols, are convicted as charged, they could face life behind bars. The group was so heavily armed and so violent that the FBI deployed its elite Hostage Rescue Team from Quantico, Virginia, to support the arrests. According to the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, the Peckerwoods, a derogatory name historically used against white people, “has as its mission to plan attacks against racial, ethnic, and religious minorities.”

According to law enforcement officials, agents seized an arsenal of illegal weapons, “bomb-making parts” and dozens of pounds of fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin.

The details of this multifaceted investigation reveal a key part of America’s crime problem: hardened, American-born criminals who traffic in the drugs, guns and violence plaguing our country. This contrasts with the fact-free, fear-mongering fabrications sold to MAGA believers. It’s not that minorities don’t commit crimes; Nor is it the case that migrants never kill or rape. But Trump and Vance want voters to believe that our gun, drug, and violence problems are caused by immigrants, when the opposite is true…

During the vice presidential debate, Vance claimed that the vast majority of illegal guns used in crimes here come from Mexican cartels. The truth is very different; it is the US arming Mexican cartels. We have detailed data showing the extent to which American weapons are fueling violence in Mexico, right down to the make and model of weapons found at crime scenes across the border.

Open the link to read more about crime statistics and Trump-Vance’s hateful and false war on immigrants.