Deputy caught with 100 pounds of fentanyl was working for El Chapo’s cartel, report says

The former Riverside County Sheriff’s deputy who was allegedly caught with more than 100 pounds of fentanyl pills last year was nabbed as part of a high-profile investigation into the cartel once led by the drug lord known as “El Chapo,” according to a report in the Press-Enterprise.

Banning resident Jorge Oceguera-Rocha, 25, resigned his position as a correctional deputy after his arrest in September 2023.

According to officials, he was driving his private vehicle in Calimesa when he was pulled over. Inside his car, investigators say they found a gun and 104 pounds of fentanyl pills.

Investigators did not detail how they learned of Oceguera-Rocha’s alleged involvement in drug trafficking, but now it’s apparent that he was the “corrupt Riverside County Correctional Deputy” mentioned in a Wednesday press release touting Operation Hotline Bling, the Press-Enterprise explained.

That operation, which led to 15 arrests and the seizure of $16 million in narcotics, was aimed at the Sinaloa cartel’s activity in the Inland Empire.

That cartel was once helmed by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, perhaps one of the most prominent and powerful drug lords since the height of Pablo Escobar’s empire in the 1980s and early ’90s.

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Republicans made a ‘tacit admission’ about midterms — and it could blow up in their face



A conservative columnist warned on Monday that her Republican colleagues just made a "tacit admission" about the 2026 midterms that could blow up in their face.

S.E. Cupp, a columnist for CNN, said during a segment on "The Source" with host Kaitlan Collins that Republicans have all but admitted that they don't stand a chance during the midterms with their push for mid-cycle redistricting. While those efforts seem to have paid off so far, Cupp warned that they could energize the Democratic base in a way that thwarts all the time Republicans spent trying to rig the election in their favor.

"Here's the thing that I think is important to point out if you care about democracy," Cupp said. "The republicans have done what they've done because they've been allowed to. But it's also a tacit admission that they know they cannot win without rigging it. They're out of ideas. They're not even attempting to win new voters or win back the voters that they've been losing since gaining them in 2024."

Several Republican states from Texas to Louisiana and Tennessee have adopted new election maps ahead of the midterms in an effort to preserve the Republican majority in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Cupp warned that voters can see through the Republicans' plans, and that may cause them to backfire in November.

"So this is the giddiness and the crowing I'm seeing from republicans about the state of the redistricting math and how it's helping Republicans," she said. "What they're not saying out loud is what I think a lot of voters can see, which is you had to rig it to make yourself competitive. And I don't even know if this will still make them competitive. They might actually be handing Democrats an advantage by really ginning up that base, firing them up to go and vote."

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