News

FRESNO — Jorge Luis Velasquez, 33, of Mexico, Omar Velazquez Landeros, 27, of Bakersfield, and Victor Romero Galvan, 29, of Mexico, were indicted today for conspiring and possessing with intent to distribute over 10,000 counterfeit oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl and approximately 10 pounds of methamphetamine, and for carrying firearms in furtherance of these crimes, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced.

According to court documents, on or about January 28, 2020, in Kern County, Landeros distributed approximately one pound of nearly pure methamphetamine to an undercover officer in Bakersfield. Velasquez assisted with coordinating that transaction. On or about March 13, 2020, Landeros distributed approximately 1,000 fentanyl-laced counterfeit oxycodone pills, which Velasquez helped to coordinate as well.

FRESNO — A federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment yesterday against Thomas Layman Binford, 55, of Clovis, California, charging him with separate counts of attempting coercion and enticement of a minor and receipt of material involving the sexual exploitation of minors, as well as receipt of child pornography, United States Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced. 

According to court documents, Binford traveled to a park in Fresno, California on the evening of July 28, 2020, with the intent of meeting and engaging in illegal sex acts with a 13-year-old minor he had earlier met online through the Skout social media application. Upon his arrest at the park, his cell phone was seized and subsequently searched, where over 250 images of minors being sexually exploited were found.

FRESNO — Bryan Connor Herrell, 26, of Aurora, Colorado, was sentenced today by United States District Court Judge Dale A. Drozd to 11 years in prison, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott for the Eastern District of California and Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division announced.

According to court documents, Herrell was a moderator on the AlphaBay marketplace, an illegal website that operated on the so-called darknet. On AlphaBay, vendors, and purchasers engaged in hundreds of thousands of illicit transactions for guns, drugs, stolen identity information, credit card numbers, and other illegal items. At the time, AlphaBay was the world’s largest online drug marketplace.

MADERA - Madera County is reporting a fatality from St. Louis Encephalitis Virus (SLEV) in a male in his 90s from August 2020. This is the first confirmed case of SLEV in the state of California in 2020 and the first case in Madera County since 1976. While preliminary testing originally suggested the West Nile Virus, further testing has now confirmed SLEV as the final diagnosis.

Saint Louis Encephalitis is transmitted to people through the bite of an infected mosquito. Testing of mosquitos in Madera had demonstrated one pool testing positive recently for SLEV. Mosquito abatement control was notified at the time of the original diagnosis and has been spraying in the areas where the positive tests were localized. SLEV is similar to West Nile Virus: both can result in infections of the brain, paralysis, and rarely death.

ATWATER - The Atwater Police Department has initiated a hate crime investigation after a report of an African American Teacher at Buhach Colony High School being subjected to racial epitaphs and slurs during a Zoom online classroom event on Thursday, August 27.

Officers are investigating the circumstances around the event and are collecting digital evidence to determine the persons responsible. Due to this incident occurring across a computer network, responsible parties may be charged not only with a hate crime but with using a computer network to commit a crime.

SACRAMENTO  -   A former PG&E employee pleaded guilty today to one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and admitted to receiving kickback payments from a Stockton transportation company owned by his cousin, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced.

According to the plea agreement, Ronald S. Schoenfeld, 65, of Goodyear, Arizona, formerly of Dublin, California, while employed at Pacific Gas and Electric Company, conspired to obtain contracts from PG&E for his cousin’s transportation business in exchange for kickbacks from that business worth approximately 2.5% of the value of the contracts.