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Chinese migrants lured to Oklahoma are labour, sex trafficking victims: official

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Chinese migrants lured to Oklahoma are labour, sex trafficking victims: official


Undocumented Chinese nationals recruited on international websites to cross into the United States are becoming victims of labour and sex trafficking, often on illicit marijuana farms run by Mexican and Chinese syndicates in Oklahoma, the state’s top law enforcement official said on Wednesday.

“These ads, in Mandarin, are thinly veiled offerings to engage in criminal activity,” Gentner Drummond, Oklahoma’s attorney general, said in testimony before the US House Homeland Security Committee in Washington.

One such advertisement “offers jobs for a ‘massage spa’ to people who are ‘able to endure hardships’ and who have ‘good hygiene’,” he said.

Drummond was participating in the Republican-led panel’s first impeachment hearing for President Joe Biden’s top border official, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, over the flow of immigrants coming across the Mexican border. He agreed with his fellow Republicans that the federal government had not done enough to control the influx.

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Chinese ‘border crossers’ with ‘no future in China’ seek new life in LA suburb

He said that “every single case” of illegal marijuana growing being investigated in Oklahoma had some level of undocumented labour trafficking, “particularly in operations run by Chinese nationals”.

Drummond narrated what he called the “living horror” of two Chinese women investigators had found while executing search warrants related to illegal drug activity by Chinese nationals.

“Mattresses on the floor of their bedroom were littered with condoms, lotions and other unsavory supplies,” he said, adding that the women spoke no English and had been in the US for months but “could not say where they were”.

“They had not been out of the house since their arrival. They simply awoke every day, worked and went back to sleep,” Drummond said.

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The hearing comes as Republicans are blocking funding for Ukraine in its war against Russian invaders and threatening to force a government shutdown as part of their efforts to “secure” the southern border. Immigration remains one of the top issues for conservative voters ahead of the presidential election on November 5.

In 2023, the US Border Patrol arrested about 2 million migrants at the US-Mexico border. During Donald Trump’s presidency from 2017-2021, the year 2019 saw the most migrant arrests at 852,000.

According to US Customs and Border Protection data, US authorities encountered more than 24,000 Chinese nationals at the US-Mexico border over the 12 months ending in October 2023. Only about 2,000 Chinese came to the southern border in the previous year, the data shows.

People who leave China often are trying to escape persecution or poverty at home, reports say, as the nation struggles to restore a measure of pre-Covid growth.

Republican-led US House votes to open impeachment inquiry into Biden

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Drummond cited the execution-style murder of four Chinese nationals at an illegal marijuana farm in Oklahoma in November 2022.

The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics said at the time that close to 80 per cent of the 200 such farms shut down by between 2020 and 2022 were either run or owned by Chinese nationals.

Drummond testified on Wednesday that a “vast majority” of more than 50 “complex, multi-jurisdictional criminal cases” being investigated by Oklahoma’s Organized Crime Task Force, which was established last year, involved Mexican and Chinese drug syndicates.



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Oklahoma

Three Big 12 Transfers Oklahoma State Is Reportedly Interested In

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Three Big 12 Transfers Oklahoma State Is Reportedly Interested In


PORTAL TRACKER 

Oklahoma State’s newly constructed staff got on the board Saturday, picking up portal commitments on offense and special special teams, so how about some defense?

Three Big 12 defenders have been linked with Oklahoma State via the transfer portal over the past few days, including a pair of former OK Preps standouts. Here’s a look.

Kanijal Thomas, CB, Kansas State

Thomas is an Oklahoman, playing his high school ball at Del City. He visited Stillwater on Saturday, according to On3.

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He was a redshirt sophomore for the Wildcats in 2025, playing in seven games as a true freshman in 2023 before an injury saw his sophomore season end two games in.

Thomas played in eight games at K-State in 2025, finishing the year with five tackles, a PBU and a forced fumble. According to PFF, he gave up four catches for 21 yards this season on seven targets.

Now listed at 5-foot-11, 186 pounds, Thomas was a three-star prospect coming out of Del City in the 2023 class. He picked K-State over offers from OSU, Texas Tech, Iowa State and others.

Maurion Horn, CB, Texas Tech

Another Oklahoma kid, Maurion Horn has spent the past four seasons in Lubbock, where he has played in 30 games during that time. According to 247Sports, Horn will visit Stillwater on Monday.

He started all of Tech’s games in 2024, finishing that season with 56 tackles, three tackles for loss and five pass breakups. He played in seven games and dealt with some sort of injury, appearing on Tech’s availability report in Weeks 4, 14 and 15.

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Horn has been targeted 88 times in his career, per PFF, where he has allowed just 47 catches.

He was a four-star prospect in the 2022 recruiting class out of Broken Arrow. He ended up picking Tech over offers from OSU, OU, Texas, Baylor, Arkansas and others.

Braylon Rigsby, Edge, Texas Tech

Listed at 6-foot-2, 275 pounds, Braylon Rigsby will join his Texas Tech teammate in Stillwater on Monday, according to 247Sports.

He’s played in 26 games across the past two seasons in Lubbock, accumulating 25 tackles and three tackles for loss during that time.

Per PFF, Rigsby has 21 QB pressures in his career to go with two QB hits.

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He hails from Woodsville, Texas, which is near the Louisiana border. Rigsby was a three-star prospect in the 2023 recruiting class, coming in as the No. 861 player in the 247Sports Composite ranking.



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Capture of Nicolas Maduro: What it could mean for Oklahoma

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Capture of Nicolas Maduro: What it could mean for Oklahoma


Elite Delta Force captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife about 2 a.m. Saturday morning.

It happened in the Caracas, the capitol of Venezuela.

Social media posts how strikes ordered by President Trump into Venezuela and its military bases.

News 9 political analyst Scott Mitchell said the relationship between the U.S. and Latin America has not always been smooth and adds so many dominos will fall as a result.

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“Venezuela is the beachhead for our adversaries that’s Cuba and Russia and China and Iran and it looks as if this latest situation where that they were assembling Iran swift attack boats that was sort of the last straw,” said Mitchell.

Retired war correspondent Mike Boettcher said the planning on capturing Maduro began in mid-December.

He adds Venezuela is a massive oil supplier whose oil has been taken off the market for years because of sanctions.

He has concerns about what comes next.

“That disrupts a lot of things.It even has an effect on the war in Ukraine, as Russia, you know, has used higher oil revenue because Venezuela’s oil was off the market.Oil prices went up.It helps fund the war in Ukraine,” said Boettcher.

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The ramifications could even reach Oklahoma.

“China gets a 30 percent discount on the oil.If Venezuela goes for a more legitimate government and the sanctions are lifting, then they’re flooding the oil markets and that means bad news for the Oklahoma economy,” added Mitchell.

Following the capture of Maduro, President Trump said the U.S. will take control of the oil reserves in Venezuela.

Sources also say there are plans from the current administration to recruit American companies to invest billions of dollars in their oil industry.

A verified video shows the current state of Venezuela after the military operation.

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Oklahoma State expected to lose talented EDGE to transfer portal

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Oklahoma State expected to lose talented EDGE to transfer portal


Oklahoma State EDGE Kyran Duhon plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal, On3 has learned. Duhon was a member of the 2024 recruiting class.

Duhon spent one year at Oklahoma State, logged 16 total tackles (eight solo) across nine games. He began his career at UTEP, where he had a productive true freshman season, Duhon finished 2024 with 43 total tackles, including seven sacks and two PBUs.

At UTEP, his one season there resulted in second team All-Conference USA honors. He was also named to the On3 True Freshman All-America Team as well as the the Conference USA All-Freshman team.

However, Duhon’s stay in Stillwater didn’t go as expected. Oklahoma State finished the season with a 1-11 record, which included the Cowboys firing longtime head coach Mike Gundy after a 1-2 start. Doug Meacham was named interim head coach but ended the year 0-9.

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Eric Morris has since been named as the program’s next head coach. He comes from North Texas, which finished with an 11-2 record and a trip to the American Conference championship game this past season. However, it doesn’t appear that Duhon will be sticking around during the changing of the guard at Oklahoma State this offseason.

Before college, Duhon was the No. 1,706 overall player in the class, and was recruited as the the No. 165 linebacker during the cycle, per the Rivals Industry Rankings, which is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. He was ranked as the No. 242 overall player out of Texas.

Once the NCAA transfer portal opens on Jan. 2, players can officially enter their names in the NCAA transfer portal and go on to initiate contact with their preferred schools. The portal will be open for 15 days and close on Jan. 16.

Notably, players who are on teams competing in the national championship game are allowed five extra days to make their portal decision. The College Football Playoff championship game will be played on Jan. 19, so the players on those teams will be allowed until Jan. 24 to enter the portal and choose their next school.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.

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