2025.3.25 ‘Zombie drug’ smuggled across southern border a growing threat to Americans, doctor warns
Doctor who studies xylazine, which makes fentanyl deadlier, says drug is being imported into US via Mexico
A tranquilizer commonly referred to as a “zombie drug” is being manufactured and smuggled across the U.S. southern border, according to a doctor who has spent years studying it.
The drug xylazine, known as “tranq” in street lingo, is used as a tranquilizer by veterinarians.
In the 2010s, the drug made its way to the streets almost exclusively by being stolen from veterinarians and was particularly prevalent on the East Coast. Now, it is being manufactured and coming from abroad, and its footprint could dramatically scale.
“There’s evidence of it being imported into the U.S. through the southern border and also evidence of diversion of domestic veterinary supply,” Dr. Joseph Friedman, who has studied xylazine for years, told Fox News Digital.
While Friedman says he doesn’t know what proportion of the drug is being smuggled versus stolen from veterinarians in the U.S., his latest study, published in January, shows the drug’s prevalence in Tijuana and southern California.
“Our study showed it being mixed into fentanyl in Tijuana, Mexico, specifically, and it’s also present in San Diego and southern California more broadly,” he said.
“The arrival of xylazine-fentanyl co-use to the North American overdose crisis has been highly notable, and xylazine has been identified as an emerging threat by the government of the U.S., Chile, by the Organization of American States, and more recently by Mexico,” the study says.
The drug leaves users in a “zombie-like” state as it constricts blood vessels and cuts off oxygen flow to the body, causing abscesses that rot the flesh.
The drug is also uniquely dangerous because it does not respond to naloxone, which is used to counteract opioid overdoses, and when the drug is detected, it is almost always detected with the deadly synthetic opioid fentanyl.
“It’s almost exclusively used together with fentanyl to augment it, almost never by itself,” Friedman said.
In fact, in more than 98% of xylazine detections, it is detected alongside fentanyl, according to a 2022 study he published.
That study showed xylazine presence in overdose deaths had jumped from 3.6% in 2015 to 6.7% in 2020.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study published in 2022 concluded that xylazine prevalence in opioid deaths had increased from 2.9% in January 2019 to 10.9% in June 2022.
2025.3.25 Teen on Royal Caribbean cruise attacked by HIV-infected illegal immigrant: police
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem vowed to deport the suspects, one of whom allegedly has HIV, according to a police report
Two illegal immigrants from Mexico were arrested and charged Friday for allegedly molesting a minor on a Royal Caribbean cruise off the coast of Miami.
Jose Prudencio Diaz, 36, and Ricardo Daniel Mondragon Leal, 37, are charged with child molestation and exhibition on a child in connection with an incident that occurred on an Independence of the Seas cruise.
Additionally, Diaz is charged with having sex with another person without disclosing his HIV infection, and Leal is charged with sexual battery of a minor, according to arrest records.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted about the incident on X Tuesday.
“One of them has HIV. Both have ICE detainers on them. We WILL get these sickos out of our country,” Noem wrote.
The victim, identified as a 14-year-old boy, told police he was in a sauna onboard the Independence of the Seas cruise when Diaz and Leal began to masturbate in front of him, a police report from the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office states.
2025.3.24 New molestation charges against 70-year-old with alleged crimes dating back decades
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. – New charges have been filed against a 70-year-old Coweta County grandfather accused of multiple cases of child molestation.
What we know: Peachtree City police have now joined authorities in Coweta County in filing charges against Jefferson Thurmond for crimes he’s accused of committing against girls as far back as the 1980s.
In our original report last June, Coweta County authorities arrested Thurmond and reported the seizure of decades-old photos involving at least three young girls. They said they charged him with multiple counts of child molestation and manufacturing child pornography.
Now, Peachtree City police have filed new charges to add to those he’s facing in Coweta County. They say a victim who was a child at the time the crimes were committed has come forward as an adult. They also reported that some of the old photos Coweta County had seized involved their victim as well.
“The victim in this case came forward, and for us, the case goes back about a year,” said Lt. Brad Williams of the Peachtree City Police. “But for her, it goes back about 11–12 years, involving a family acquaintance when she was living in Peachtree City.”
Dig deeper: Peachtree City Police thanked investigators in Coweta County for their work on the cases there. So far, the two departments have identified a total of three victims in their two jurisdictions, but stress the investigation is ongoing and ask anyone who had information on Jefferson Thurmond to come forward.
2025.3.24 New Jersey mother charged after allegedly forcing young child to wear dog shock collar
The victim’s maternal grandmother is also facing charges of hindering and tampering with evidence
A New Jersey mother was arrested after she forced her child to wear a dog shock collar, leaving marks on the neck, according to prosecutors.
Kimberly Cruz-Feliciano, 30, was charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, two counts of aggravated assault, one count of witness tampering with threat of force and one count of hindering, the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office said in a news release.
The abuse was uncovered on March 17 when the child arrived at Cape May City Elementary School with visible marks on the body, which were later determined to be caused by a dog shock collar. The prosecutor’s office’s Special Victims Unit and the Cape May City Police Department launched a joint investigation, and Cruz-Feliciano was arrested the following day.
Investigators learned that Cruz-Feliciano also threatened the child with more violence if the abuse was reported, according to the news release.
Shock collars can deliver electrical charges as high as 100 volts.
The victim told officers that the collar was kept in a bedroom with items belonging to the family’s dead dog and that the collar was charged regularly after the animal’s death, according to court documents, WPVI reported.
Cruz-Feliciano allegedly admitted to the abuse and told police she had her mother, 59-year-old Sonia Feliciano, dispose of the collar, according to the outlet.
The victim’s maternal grandmother is facing charges of hindering and tampering with evidence but was released on a summons pending court proceedings, according to the news release.
He was found to have an open Felony Warrant for Human Trafficking out of Hidalgo County.
2025.3.23 Chicago reigns as USA ‘homicide capital’ for 13th straight year
For the 13th consecutive year, the city of Chicago once again reigned as the nation’s homicide capital in 2024 with 573 murders.
Ted Dabrowski, the president of Wirepoints, believes that the illness has festered for too long.
Even as overall murder rates across the country dipped, Chicago also claimed the top spot for the highest murder rate per capita among big cities at 21.5 per 100,000 population. That’s three times the level of Los Angeles and nearly five times that of New York City.
“It means we have a real problem and we’re sick,” Dabrowski told The Center Square. “Until we get serious, this murder problem is going to be a drag on the city in terms of attracting people, attracting businesses and, worse, it’s going to keep chasing people away and chasing businesses away. It’s something we have to get our hands around.”
Dabrowski adds that while Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson often talks about crime being down in the city, the truth is numbers are down across the country, just not nearly as much in Chicago.
“It’s true the crime is down somewhat, but it’s down dramatically across the country,” he said. “It’s barely down here. You’ve got places like Jacksonville where murders are down 50%. You’ve got places like Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., where it’s down 30 to 35%. Our murders are only down 8%. We’re just part of the national wave, but we’re almost not participating in that national wave.”
In all, 19 of the top 20 cities for total homicides in 2024 saw fewer murders than the year before.
“It’s kind of sickening that we don’t think that we need to have rule of law,” Dabrowski said. “We have a mayor that makes apologies for kids doing big crimes as they’re just being kids; we’ve had a state’s attorney that has refused to prosecute in the way that she should and we have a really low arrest rate, which is a big result of low police morale due to city officials that don’t support police. It’s a broken chain of criminal justice.”
2025.3.22 ‘Happy Face’ serial killer nearly confessed brutal murders to teen daughter: ‘You’ll tell the authorities’
‘Happy Face,’ the series inspired by Melissa G. Moore’s life story, stars Dennis Quaid as Keith Jesperson
Melissa G. Moore was having breakfast with her father, Keith Jesperson, at a diner when he almost exposed his secret double life.
Moore was 15 when Jesperson, a prolific serial killer infamous for drawing smiley faces in letters to the media and prosecutors, was captured. The case is now the subject of a Paramount+ true-crime drama, “Happy Face,” starring Annaleigh Ashford and Dennis Quaid.
Jesperson was arrested in 1995 on suspicion of killing his girlfriend in Washington state. He eventually confessed to killing eight women between 1990 and 1995 in California, Washington, Oregon, Florida, Nebraska and Wyoming. The victims, who included his girlfriend, acquaintances and sex workers, were sexually assaulted and strangled.
Today, Jesperson, 69, is serving several life sentences without the possibility of parole.
“He has never explained why,” said Moore. “I am still curious why he chose the life that he did and chose to commit these crimes. I believe he felt a deep insecurity within himself and wanted to have control. I would say it was about power and control. … It made this perfect monster.”
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