Recently in FBI Category

Whatever happened to the unnamed victim in this story, it sure sounds ugly. Thank God the feds are keeping on eye on suspicious cops in southeast LA County. No one else seems to care.

Here's the top of Ruby Gonzales' story:

LOS ANGELES - A former Bell police officer and Pico Rivera resident was arrested Thursday for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman after a 2007 traffic stop.

A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted Feliciano Sanchez, 33, on one count of depriving the woman of her civil rights under color of law and one count of carrying a firearm during a crime of violence.

FBI agents took Sanchez into custody Thursday and he appeared in the afternoon in federal court. He is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center without bail and will be arraigned Monday on the charges, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tammy C. Spertus.

Sanchez's attorney, Ira Salzman, could not be reached for comment.

A man believed to be the Late Bloomer bandit has been apparently captured by the Whittier Police Department, although there is no information on their site.

FBI shows Late Bloomer captured on their LA Bank Robbers site.

Thanks to the Bank Terrorism blog for this tip.

Here's an excerpt from a Brian Day story about the Late Bloomer published on April 21, 2008:

The Late Bloomer Bandit earned his name because of his age, estimated between 55 and 60, said FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller.

He is believed to have struck the Whittier Union Bank branch at 8510 Painter Ave. on March 28, a Pico Rivera Banco Popular at 8500 Washington Blvd. on March 29, and a Santa Fe Springs Banco Popular at 13310 Telegraph Road on April 16, Eimiller said.

The bandit tells his victims he has a gun and isn't afraid to use it, however no weapon has been seen, Eimiller said.

He also uses profanity and appears to be growing bolder with each robbery, she said.

The Late Bloomer Bandit is described as a white or Latino man, standing about 5 feet 7 inches tall, and weighing 180 to 190 pounds, with gray hair and a mustache, Eimiller said. He wears prescription glasses with black frames and carries a newspaper or magazine where he stows the stolen cash, she said.

Pardeep Singh has left quite a trail of financial destruction in his wake.

You might remember Singh as the Covina man who rented out his home to several unsuspecting tenants via Craigslist.

Turns out he may have taken a friend for at least $100,000 as well. The friend, Kenneth Yandoli, of Glendale, said he gave Singh $100,000 in return for a deed of trust in the home at 5541 Calera Avenue in Covina.

Then we stumbled upon this great discussion of Singh and his LLC on a couple of websites including the TUG BBS, a group for Timeshare users.

Perhaps the best tidbits of information came from Singh's user profile on eBay. As well as this auction for a nonexistent property near the Las Vegas strip.

We're going to stay on top of this for the rest of the week. I'm still waiting for calls back from eBay, the Las Vegas PD, IC3 and the FBI, no doubt Singh is on all their radar screens.

A trio of men suspected of being the WWF bandits have been captured by police in Orange County following a bank robbery, officials said.

Here's a snippet from Brian Day's story on the arrests:

The suspects are Gary Edward Caruthers, 50, of Los Angeles, Jay Chandler Flott, 51, of Los Angeles, and Andre Williamson, 50, of Inglewood, police said.

All of the alleged crimes were takeover-style robberies in which the masked suspects brandished shotguns, officials said.

When the crime spree began at banks in Rowland Heights and Industry, we took to calling these guys the Lucha Libre Bandits. The FBI, not realizing the WWF is now the WWE stuck with their moniker.

The arrests come just in time for this weekend's Wrestlemania festivities.where apparently there will be a "Money in the Bank Ladder Match"  No masked wrestlers have entered the event this year though there's still time.

This comes from the FBI who are continuing to search for Emigado Preciado. You might remember that a Whittier billboard featuring a picture of preciado was defaced with gang graffiti in recent months. Basicaly, the FBI is upping their reward to $200,000. Here's an excerpt from their press release:

The reward for information leading to the arrest of fugitive from Los Angeles, Emigdio Preciado, wanted for a brutal attack on two Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputies during a routine traffic stop, has been increased to $200,000, announced Salvador Hernandez, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI in Los Angeles.

Preciado’s photograph is also being advertised on billboards throughout Los Angeles, courtesy of billboard space provided by Clearchannel, in an effort to draw attention to the reward. Emigdio Preciado, Jr., a.k.a. “Junior,” “Trigger,” “Spooky,” and “Snyper,” the alleged triggerman in the September 5, 2000 attack in Whittier, California, was the 485th person to be placed on the FBI’s historic list when he was added in March 2007.

 On the date of the attack, Deputies Michael Schaap and David Timberlake were on patrol in Whittier, California, in a marked Sheriff’s patrol car when they saw a 1979 Chevrolet van traveling toward them. As the van approached, the deputies noticed the van’s headlights were not functioning properly and proceeded to stop the driver of the vehicle. When the van came to an abrupt stop, the deputies came under immediate attack from a burst of automatic gunfire.

The gunman, one of four occupants traveling in the vehicle, appeared from an open door in the van, according to Sheriff’s detectives. Preciado, an American citizen, was identified as the alleged shooter.

The FBI's wanted poster is here.

The feds are rounding up Puente 13 members in connection with a methamphetamine distribution ring, according to the FBI.

Already arrested are:

John Antonio Dacosta, 28, Steven Mark Mancha, 34, Ernest George Mancha, 34, and Lenny Robert Casas, 18, all of Whittier; Lorraine Christina Lopez, 34, Josue Deloen, 26, Rene Valdez, 39, Rafael Munoz Gonzalez, 38,
Steven Burgan, 25, Noel Gonzalez, 56, Noel Gonzalez III, 35, Michael Anthony Ortega, 35, Henry Collao, 20, and Joventino Garcia III, 18, all of La Puente; Andy Villa, 27, of Glendora; Hoia Thanh Nguyen, 32, of El Monte; Wayne Arthur Goik, 59, of West Covina; and Antonio Torres, 20, of Phoenix, who was arrested
in Arizona.

From the wire services and an FBI Press Release:

Last December, the Sheriff’s Department created a task force along with the U.S. Attorney’s
Office, DEA and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives, to
investigate the drug and firearms trafficking operations of Puente 13, prosecutors
said.

Puente 13 distributed large quantities of methamphetamine, a portion of which was produced
locally in clandestine laboratories, prosecutors said.

Puente 13 members also allegedly sold cocaine, marijuana and oxycodine in Los Angeles,
Seattle, Arizona, Alaska and North Carolina.

Authorities executed 35 federal search warrants, which yielded one pound of suspected
methamphetamine, 20 pounds of marijuana and 16 firearms, prosecutors said.

“Today’s arrests will severely disrupt firearms and methamphetamine trafficking operations
in the San Gabriel Valley,” said DEA Special Agent Timothy Landrum in a
statement.

Attention Aaron Proctor:

The tag team duo hitting area banks wearing luchador masks reminescent of Rey Mysterio have now been named by the FBI (they liked our suggestion, but chose to stick with something a little more English sounding).

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the WWF Shotgun Bandits, whom the FBI describes as Black Males, Mid 20s to Late 30s, Robbed in City of Industry and Rowland Heights:

We're not sure why the FBI chose WWF as opposed to WWE, WCW or ECW, but they did.

BTW we're only 23 days away from Wrestlemania. This year it's in Vega$. I've got the Undertaker beating Edge.

 I also like Floyd Mayweather over the Big Show...

This comes from Laura Eimiller at the FBI's Los Angeles press office:

The second annual International Chiefs of Police Summit on Transnational Gangs will be held this week over a three-day period at the Universal Hilton Hotel in Hollywood, California.

The summit will conclude on Wednesday, March 5th.

Law enforcement officials at the local, state and federal level from Los Angeles and international cities directly impacted by the criminal activity of transnational gangs will attend the three-day summit, and will be joined by international Chiefs of Police from the nations of El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico, Canada, Nicaragua and Spain, where MS-13 criminal activity and organized crime trends of other Central American gangs has increased.

The Summit is being hosted by the following agencies:

FBI and the National Gang Task Force

United States Department of Justice

Drug Enforcement Agency

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

United States Marshals Service

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

United States Department of State

Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department

Los Angeles Police Department

Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office

The United States Attorney’s Office/U.S. Department of Justice

The Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office and the Los Angeles Mayor’s Office will also participate in the summit.

Forget about the war on terror. Forget too about helping out on the streets where gang violence is out of control.

The FBI has bigger fish to fry, according to the NY Post:

February 8, 2008 -- THE FBI is poking around the celebrity magazine world on the West Coast, investigating allegations of kickbacks and pay-for-play schemes, according to a source who was contacted by investigators.

The source was told that the probe, which appears to be at a preliminary stage, involved "paparazzi and In Touch" magazine.

The source was contacted by an agent named Dennis Webster in the FBI's Los Angeles office. Webster had not returned calls to Media Ink by presstime.

Specifics about what the feds are looking into remain murky, but people at the celebrity magazines have been burning up the lines in recent days since a story about the FBI probe was posted Wednesday on the complex.com Web site and picked up by gawker.com and jossip.com.

However, the source said that West Coast legal circles have been buzzing that Hollywood stars who have long felt they were being harassed by the paparazzi were perhaps pushing the feds to act.

Stars have long been frustrated that local law enforcement has been unable to thwart the paparazzi unless they either pose a real threat to someone or are trespassing on private property.

The Los Angeles FBI field office unveiled a website at www.labankrobbers.org Friday designed to help the agency catch bank robbers.

This is some of the press release touting the site.

By visiting the site, users can view photos of current bank bandits being sought by the FBI and local law enforcement agencies, many of whom are wanted for robberies in multiple counties. The website contains photos of recent captures, reward information and a list of the FBI’s law enforcement partners. The website also links users to other regional websites that concern bank robbers.

One of the great things about the FBI's bank robbery detail is that they name their suspects. Who can forget the "Landscape Bandit" captured earlier this week. The man earned the name because bank tellers told investigators "he smelled like dirt."