Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: US FBI

            WASHINGTON – An Arkansas man pleaded guilty today to assaulting law enforcement during the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol. His actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the 2020 presidential election.

            David Camden, 45, of Tontitown, Arkansas, pleaded guilty to a single felony count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers before U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan. Judge Chutkan will sentence Camden on Jan. 10, 2025.

            According to court documents, Camden traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend the former president’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, 2021, and to protest the results of the 2020 presidential election.  After the rally, Camden made his way toward the U.S. Capitol building and entered the restricted permitter near the West Front of Capitol grounds. There, Camden climbed a media tower assembled for the upcoming Inauguration and waved a flag.

            At approximately 1:20 p.m. – nearly twenty minutes after rioters initially breached the restricted grounds, Camden approached a bike rack barricade separating police officers from rioters on the Capitol’s West Front. Camden then yelled at officers and forcefully pushed a bike rack barricade into a line of U.S. Capitol Police Officers. In response, officers successfully repelled Camden’s advance and deployed a chemical irritant in Camden’s direction to preempt further aggression.

            After this incident, Camden remained on Capitol grounds and joined other rioters on the West Plaza. At approximately 2:11 p.m., Camden deployed a fire extinguisher toward a police line assembled to stop rioters from advancing on the Capitol.

            The FBI arrested Camden on July 1, 2024, in Arkansas.

            This case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Arkansas.

            This case is being investigated by the FBI’s Little Rock and Washington Field Offices. Camden was identified as BOLO (Be on the Lookout) #286 on the FBI’s seeking information images. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department.

            In the 44 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,504 individuals have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 560 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, a felony. The investigation remains ongoing.

            Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.

Source: US FBI

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Fresno residents Marcus Asay, 69, and Antonio Gastelum, 53, were sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd to five years in prison and two years in prison, respectively, for committing a long-running pension fraud scheme through their company, Agricultural Contracting Services Association dba American Labor Alliance (ALA), Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith announced. 

ALA also received a corporate fine of $2.5 million. Asay and ALA were each ordered to pay $69,250 in restitution.

On June 18, 2024, Asay, Gastelum, and ALA were convicted of the pension fraud scheme following a five-week jury trial. Asay and ALA were also convicted of committing a worker’s compensation fraud scheme, a hardship exemption fraud scheme, and money laundering. The hardship exemption fraud scheme involved a supposed exemption from the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that people obtain health insurance or pay a significant shared responsibility payment when they file their taxes.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Asay was the founder and chairman of ALA, and Gastelum was the company’s Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and Compliance Officer. From 2011 through 2019, the defendants offered three sham products: retirement plan, worker’s compensation coverage, and hardship exemption.

Pension Fraud Scheme

For the pension fraud scheme, Asay, Gastelum, and ALA falsely represented to more than 3,000 people that they would protect and invest their retirement money through a 401(k) Plan when, in fact, they used the money for improper business and personal expenses. The improper expenses included restaurants, travel, credit cards, rare coins, transfers to Asay’s personal retirement account, online companion websites, and rent for Asay’s lakefront mansion in Fresno. Asay, Gastelum, and ALA then covered up the fact that the retirement money was gone by taking money the company received from the worker’s compensation fraud scheme and holding those funds out as pension funds. The loss caused by the pension fraud scheme was more than $620,000.

Asay’s money laundering conviction resulted from this scheme because he moved pension funds through multiple bank accounts to conceal the source of the funds before using them for improper expenses.

Workers’ Compensation Fraud Scheme

For the worker’s compensation fraud scheme, Asay and ALA falsely represented that national insurers backed the worker’s compensation coverage that the company offered in several states, including California. Asay and ALA did so by listing the national insurers on the certificates of insurance and policy declarations that the company issued to customers. The accuracy of the certificates of insurance and policy declarations was important to the customers because they needed to present these items to their own customers and regulators as proof of having worker’s compensation coverage in order to continue doing business. When government authorities began investigating the workers’ compensation fraud scheme, Asay and ALA sent letters to customers telling them not to cooperate. The worker’s compensation fraud scheme generated $2.25 million in premiums.

Hardship Exemption Fraud Scheme

For the hardship exemption fraud scheme, Asay and ALA falsely represented that for a few hundred dollars they could provide people with an exemption that would protect them from the Affordable Care Act’s shared responsibility payment for not having health insurance when, in fact, only government agencies could issue such exemptions. Moreover, the exemptions were free to those who qualified.

Asay and Gastelum received enhanced sentences because they both testified in their own defense at trial and were found to have perjured themselves.

This case was the product of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration and Office of Labor-Management Standards, Federal Bureau of Investigation, the IRS Criminal Investigation, and the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Tierney, Joseph Barton, and Stephanie Stokman prosecuted the case.

Source: US FBI

      LITTLE ROCK—On July 30, 2024, in Houston, Texas, the Drug Enforcement Administration initiated the arrests of twenty-four co-conspirators following a superseding indictment in the Eastern District of Arkansas. The arrests follow the initial indictment and arrest of eighteen people from the Houston, Texas, area in November 2023. Defendants arrested in July appeared on the superseding indictment in the Eastern District of Arkansas today before United States Magistrate Joseph J. Volpe. The superseding indictment charges conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute Schedule II through V controlled substances, as well as pharmacy burglary, conspiracy to commit pharmacy burglary, possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Keith Brown, 34, of Houston, Texas, and 41 others were named in this superseding indictment.

      From February 2022 to November 2023, the Drug Enforcement Administration Little Rock District Office (DEA LRDO) identified more than twenty pharmacy burglaries and thefts of pharmaceutical narcotics in Arkansas. In each of the burglaries, the suspects used similar methods of entry and tools, as well as matching clothing and unique footwear. The stolen pharmaceuticals including, oxycodone, hydrocodone, alprazolam, and promethazine with codeine cough syrup, were transported to Houston, Texas, where they were sold illicitly. Intelligence developed by the DEA LRDO and the Houston Police Department Northeast Division Crime Suppression Team identified the drug trafficking organization as being comprised of documented local gang members from the 5th Ward area in Houston, Texas. Following the initial indictment, DEA identified 24 additional co-conspirators who participated in numerous burglaries in 31 states. The scope of the burglary ring encompasses the theft of hundreds of thousands of pharmaceutical drugs with a street value of more than $12 million dollars. Investigators also seized eleven firearms, approximately $79,000 in U.S. currency, and custom jewelry retailing at approximately $510,000.

      The current case is similar in kind and scope to a 2016 case indicted in the Eastern District of Arkansas in which twenty-four members of a local Houston 5th Ward gang, ‘The Trill Fam,’ were prosecuted for multi-state pharmacy burglaries and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. One current defendant, Thristian Duplechin, was prosecuted in the 2016 indictment, served a federal sentence, and returned to the same criminal activity.

      “These defendants were part of a criminal organization whose objective was to break into pharmacies nationwide to steal narcotics that they peddled on the streets,” said Jonathan D. Ross, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. “This case exemplifies the hard work put in by federal, state, and local agencies working together to infiltrate and dismantle violent gangs whose main mission is for profit and the destruction of communities. Our office is committed to prosecuting multi-state criminal organizations that effect not only the Eastern District of Arkansas, but citizens across the United States.”

      “This criminal organization prioritized money and greed over the safety and well-being of the American people. Their goal was to sell stolen pharmaceuticals in our neighborhoods for easy money,” said Special Agent in Charge Steven Hofer, DEA New Orleans Division. “Through the DEA’s investigative efforts across the country, that spanned nearly three years, we were able to link this drug trafficking organization to more than 200 pharmacy burglaries across 31 states and ultimately make our communities safer.”

      The defendants, all from the greater Houston, Texas area, were arrested in July.

      All defendants charged in Count 1 only.

      Count and Penalties

      Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute a Controlled Substance: 21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(C) & 846

      Not more than 20 years imprisonment.

      Not less than 3 years supervised release.

      Not more than $1,000,000 fine.

      $100 Special Assessment

Defendant	Age		Defendant	Age
Paul Roosevelt Banks, III	30		Joseph Takeem Jones	34
Carl Anthony Brooks, Jr.	33		Torrey Jones	46
Christopher John Closure	39		Cameron Isiah Joshua	22
Chazz Eugene Davis	39		Dontae Eugene Lewis	43
Louis Dickerson, Jr.	42		Shaun Kardover Lewis, Jr.	25
Isaiah Dale Duncan	22		Kimia Tranese Ratcliff	26
Thristian Davonte Duplechin	31		Ario Decleo Stephens	25
Jaevion Armond Hackett	21		Keyia Rochelle Thomas	34
Markeesha Kenya Hampton	28		James Glen Turk	32
James Dionte Hood	32		Kerry Lewis Walker	37
Jasmine Shanee Howard	23		Alvin Bernard Whidby, II	43
Redrick Dewayne Jackson	33		Jonathan Marijahlee Williams	37

      Investigators with the DEA LRDO worked in conjunction with the following law enforcement partners:

      DEA New Orleans Division (Little Rock District Office, Fayetteville Resident Office, Shreveport Resident Office, Mobile Resident Office),

      DEA Special Operations Division,

      DEA Houston Division (Houston TDS Group, Galveston Resident Office),

      DEA Omaha Division,

      DEA Rocky Mountain Division (Salt Lake City District Office, Cheyenne Resident Office),

      DEA Atlanta Division (Columbia District Office),

      DEA Miami Division (Pensacola District Office),

      FBI Little Rock Field Office,

      FBI Cast Team,

      U.S. Marshals Service,

      Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics,

      Harris County Sheriff’s Office,

      Houston Police Department Northeast Division Crime Suppression Team,

      Houston Police Department CID,

      Arkansas State Police, and other Arkansas local law enforcement partners.

      This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.

      The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Anne Gardner and Amanda Fields.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

# # #

Additional information about the office of the

United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, is available online at

https://www.justice.gov/edar

X (formerly known as Twitter):

@USAO_EDAR 

Source: US FBI

FRESNO, Calif. — A federal grand jury returned a one-count indictment today against Felipe Ruiz, 51, of Fresno, and Jose Gabriel Aguirre, 52, of Clovis, charging them with conspiracy to commit health care fraud, Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith announced.

According to court documents, Ruiz was a podiatrist at West Coast Podiatry Inc. (WCP), a podiatric medical practice with locations in Fresno, Madera, and Stanislaus Counties.

Aguirre was a sales representative for several companies that sold skin grafts. Aguirre used his name, his wife’s name, and the name of a corporation registered to his wife to sell the skin grafts.

Between June 2021 and January 2024, Ruiz purchased skin grafts from Aguirre and permitted Aguirre, who was not a licensed health care provider, to apply the skin grafts to Medicare and Medi-Cal beneficiaries without Ruiz being present. Ruiz and Aguirre also allowed beneficiaries to refer to Aguirre as “Dr. Gabe,” though he was not a doctor.

Ruiz and Aguirre subsequently submitted claims to Medicare and Medi-Cal that falsely represented that Ruiz had applied the skin grafts to the beneficiaries, when Aguirre had actually rendered the services. As a result, Medicare and Medi-Cal paid Ruiz millions of dollars for the false claims. Ruiz then made payments to Aguirre. Ruiz and Aguirre used the money for their own benefit and for personal expenditures.

This case is the product of an investigation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brittany M. Gunter is prosecuting the case.

If convicted, Ruiz and Aguirre face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables. The charges are only allegations; the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Source: US FBI

A former Arkansas local district court judge was convicted of making false statements to the FBI on Friday.   

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Thomas David Carruth, 64, of Clarendon, Arkansas, served as an elected Monroe County district court judge. In that role, Carruth presided over criminal and civil matters. In April 2022, Carruth solicited sex from the girlfriend of a defendant in a criminal case pending before him. The jury found that, when questioned by the FBI, Carruth lied to agents about the incident, including by falsely stating that he did not “request,” “ask,” “offer”, make “overture[s] about”, “insinuate,” or “even [think] about,” sex with the girlfriend.  

The jury convicted Carruth of one count of making false statements. Carruth was acquitted of charges of bribery, honest services fraud, and violations of the Travel Act. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled at a later date. Carruth faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting Assistant Director James Barnacle Jr. of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division, and Special Agent in Charge Alicia D. Corder of the FBI Little Rock Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI investigated the case.

Trial Attorneys Nicholas Cannon and Madison Mumma of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section are prosecuting the case. 

Source: US FBI

TEXARKANA, AR – A Texarkana Physician was sentenced today to 87 months in prison followed by three years of supervised on two counts of Distribution of a Schedule II Controlled Substance Without an Effective Prescription and 12 months in prison followed by one year of supervised release on two counts of Distribution of a Schedule V Controlled Substance Without an Effective Prescription, all to run concurrently. The Honorable Chief Judge Susan O. Hickey presided over the sentencing hearing in the United States District Court in Texarkana.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Little Rock District Office (LRDO), Tactical Diversion and Diversion Groups initiated an investigation into Dr. Lonnie Parker, age 59, of Texarkana, Arkansas in 2018 after receiving complaints from local law enforcement about a suspected pill mill and possible overdose death of a patient.  Investigators analyzed prescription drug monitoring data attributed to Dr. Parker, and the investigation revealed Dr. Parker prescribing controlled substances, to include opiates, benzodiazepines, and promethazine with codeine cough syrup with unusual frequency and in unusually large quantities in the Texarkana area.  In the two-year period analyzed, Dr. Parker prescribed approximately 1.2 million dosage units of opiates, including oxycodone and hydrocodone, to approximately 1,508 patients (approximately 847 dosage units per patient). Dr. Parker also prescribed approximately 16 gallons of Promethazine with Codeine cough syrup to approximately 29 patients during the same time period. These prescriptions included several for combinations of narcotics and sedatives to high diversion-risk patients.

U.S. Attorney David Clay Fowlkes made the announcement.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Little Rock District Office (LRDO), Tactical Diversion and Diversion Group, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Texarkana Police Department, and the United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS) investigated the case.

Special Assistant United States Attorney Anne Gardner and Assistant United Sates Attorney Graham Jones prosecuted the case for the United States.

This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.

Related court documents may be found on the Public Access to Electronic Records website @ www.pacer.gov. 

Source: US FBI

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After an 11-day trial, a federal jury returned a guilty verdict yesterday against Zimnako Salah, 45, of Phoenix, Arizona, convicting him of strapping a backpack around the toilet of a Christian church in Roseville with the intent to convey a hoax bomb threat and to obstruct the free exercise of religion of the congregants who worshipped there. The jury’s verdict included a special finding that Salah targeted the church because of the religion of the people who worshipped there, making the offense a hate crime.

According to the evidence presented at trial, from September to November of 2023, Salah traveled to four Christian churches in Arizona, California, and Colorado, wearing black backpacks. At two of those churches, Salah planted those backpacks, placing congregants in fear that they contained bombs. At the other two churches, Salah was confronted by security before he got the chance to plant those backpacks.

While Salah had been making bomb threats by planting backpacks in Christian churches, he had been building a bomb capable of fitting in a backpack. During a search of Salah’s storage unit, an FBI Bomb Technician seized items that an FBI Bomb Expert testified at trial served as component parts of an improvised explosive device (IED):

IED bomb components seized from Salah’s storage unit

A search of Salah’s social media records revealed that he had consumed extremist propaganda online. Specifically, those records showed that Salah had searched for videos of “Infidels dying,” and he had watched videos depicting ISIS terrorists murdering people.

“This Department of Justice has no tolerance for anyone who targets religious Americans for their faith,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said. “The perpetrator of this abhorrent hate crime against Christians will face severe punishment.”

“Planting a hoax bomb at the Roseville church was not an isolated incident or a prank for this defendant,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith. “His actions were designed to threaten and intimidate the congregation because he disagreed with their religious beliefs. Thanks to the coordinated efforts of federal and local law enforcement and the attorneys from my office and our DOJ partners in Washington D.C., our communities are safer with yesterday’s verdict. People of all religions should be able to worship freely and exercise their First Amendment rights in this country without fear of violence.”

“The Sacramento Division of the FBI is proud of our collaboration with our local partners in bringing Mr. Salah to justice. His deliberate targeting of multiple places of worship and calculated efforts to spread panic were intended to terrorize people of faith and disrupt the peace of our communities,” said Special Agent in Charge Sid Patel. “The FBI remains committed to protecting the American people and will continue to work within the confines of the law to hold individuals accountable for acts of terrorism whether those acts are true threats or intended as hoaxes.”

Salah is scheduled to be sentenced on July 18, 2025, by U.S. District Judge Dena Coggins. Salah faces a maximum statutory penalty of six years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of variables.

This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Roseville Police Department, the San Diego Police Department, the San Diego Harbor Police Department, and the Arapahoe County (CO) Sheriff’s Office. The case is being prosecuted by Special Litigation Counsel Christopher Perras and Trial Attorney Sarah Howard of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Shea Kenny for the Eastern District of California.