Fact Check

The DEA Just Raided a United States Senator -- Dems in a Panic?

Reports that the DEA raided the vacation ranch of U.S. Senator Hal Lindsay of New Jersey and seized large quantities of illegal drugs are fake news

Published June 10, 2017

Claim:
The DEA raided the vacation ranch of U.S. Senator Hal Lindsay of New Jersey and seized large quantities of illegal drugs.

On 10 June 2017, the America's Last Line of Defense web site published an article positing that the DEA had recently raided the vacation ranch of Senator Hal Lindsay of New Jersey and seized large quantities of illegal drugs:

The DEA just raided the vacation ranch of Democrat Senator Hal Lindsay (D-NJ), seizing more than 400 marijuana plants, 2 greenhouses full of opium-producing poppies and a small lab that was pumping out massive amounts of refined, finished product. The ranch, just a few hundred miles north of anything in Wyoming, was also seized along with a fleet of automobiles, recreational vehicles and other property now considered the spoils of the drug trade.

The bust itself yielded more than $6 million in finished drugs alone, never mind the plants and raw product waiting for packaging. All in all, Senator Lindsay is looking at 70 years behind bars on the opium alone. He was taken into custody at his office in Washington DC and has since been booked and released on $10 million bail.

There was no truth to this story, which originated with America's Last Line of Defense, a fake news web site whose disclaimer notes that it "is a satirical publication" which presents "fiction as fact" and uses "sources [that] don’t actually exist."

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.