MIL Security Engine-1

Source: US FBI

FRESNO, Calif. — A federal grand jury returned a three-count indictment today against Jesus Valdez Castaneda, 28, of San Bernardino; Carlos German Fierro, 29, of Caruthers; and Alejandro Soto Mares, 43, of Mexico, charging them with conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, Acting United States Attorney Michele Beckwith announced. 

According to court documents, the defendants conspired with other individuals to distribute and possess with intent to distribute over 400 grams of fentanyl. The men arranged to sell 150,000 fentanyl pills in a strip mall parking lot in Madera on Feb. 21, 2025. Castaneda and Soto Mares arrived first and met with a co-conspirator who had agreed to buy the pills. After agreeing on price, Fierro and two other co-conspirators arrived with the pills in a second car. 

Before completing the deal, the men went into a nearby Panda Express restaurant to order food. Nearby officers then converged on the men and arrested them. Officers seized 150,000 pills and two firearms.

Fentanyl pills and firearms seized on Feb. 21, 2025 in Madera

This case is the product of an investigation by the High Impact Investigation Team (HIIT), which is composed of personnel from the California Department of Justice, Fresno Police Department, Fresno County Sheriff’s Office, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Madera County Sheriff’s Office, Kings County Sheriff’s Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorneys Arin C. Heinz and Cody S. Chapple are prosecuting the case.

All defendants were detained and are in custody awaiting trial. If convicted, each defendant faces a minimum statutory penalty of 10 years and maximum statutory penalty of life in prison and a $10 million fine for the drug charge. Fierro faces an additional minimum statutory penalty of five years for possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. 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

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Yasmin Charisse Millett, 22, pleaded guilty today to one count of bank robbery, Acting United States Attorney Michele Beckwith announced. 

According to court documents, from June 2023 through September 2024, Millett and coconspirators committed at least 10 bank note robberies across a string of California cities, including Sacramento, Vallejo, Suisun City, Benicia, Concord, and Antioch. As part of the conspiracy, Millett would recruit and instruct others to enter banks or credit unions with sunglasses, a purse, and a threatening demand note. Generally, the demand notes would instruct the bank employees to provide money or “I will kill everyone in here.”

On July 17, 2023, Millett and two coconspirators used a stolen white Audi A7 with dark tinted windows to commit a bank robbery at a credit union located in Suisun City. Millett provided one of the coconspirators with instructions on how to commit the robbery. Millett waited in the vehicle while the coconspirator entered the bank and handed the threatening demand note to the credit union employee. The note demanded money and threatened to shoot the employee if the employee did not comply with the demand.  After reading the note, the credit union employee gave the coconspirator money. After the coconspirator received money from the credit union employee, she returned to the waiting getaway vehicle.  Millett and the coconspirators each took a portion of the stolen money. 

The next day, law enforcement conducted a traffic stop of the stolen white Audi A7. Millett was the driver of the stolen car. During the traffic stop, law enforcement found bait money on Millett from the bank robbery that occurred the day prior in Suisun City, California.  Law enforcement also found a crumpled post-it demand note on the driver’s seat that stated, “Don’t Make eye contact Don’t look suspicious Don’t Push emergency Button Put smile on your face or I will shoot.”

Charges remain pending against codefendants Dontae Jones Jr., 20, residing in Northern California with no fixed address, and JoMya Mauriyne Futch, 21, of Richmond. Those charges are only allegations, and Jones and Futch are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This case is the product of an investigation by FBI field offices in San Francisco and Sacramento, with assistance from the Sacramento Police Department, Vacaville Police Department, Suisun City Police Department, Vallejo Police Department, Antioch Police Department, Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, Benicia Police Department, Concord Police Department, California Highway Patrol, Hayward Police Department, and Fremont Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Whitnee Goins is prosecuting the case.

Chief U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley is scheduled to sentence Millett on June 26, 2025. Millett faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 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.

Source: US FBI

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sean Arthur Robinson, 38, of Stockton, was sentenced Tuesday by Senior United States District Judge John A. Mendez to serve two years in prison followed three years of supervised release for being a felon in possession of a firearm, Acting United States Attorney Michele Beckwith announced.

According to court documents, law enforcement officers recovered a Glock 27 semiautomatic firearm and a loaded high-capacity magazine inside a vehicle while serving a search warrant at Robinson’s residence in Stockton in September 2022. The firearm had previously been reported stolen from Sacramento. On the same day in September 2022, law enforcement officers also recovered two Glock switches inside a separate residence associated with Robinson in Fairfield. Robinson is prohibited from possessing firearms due to prior convictions for elder abuse and for carrying a loaded firearm in public.

Law enforcement’s investigation into Robinson began at least as early as May 2021, when surveillance footage captured him engaging in a violent shootout at the Grand Hyatt Hotel near San Francisco International Airport. During this incident, Robinson and a compatriot attempted to carjack at least two other vehicles. Following the shootout, law enforcement officers seized a black duffel bag that surveillance footage captured Robinson carrying just before the firefight began, and that contained three illegal firearms.

This case is the product of an investigation by the FBI, with assistance from the San Francisco Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Justin Lee and Sam Stefanki prosecuted the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results. For more information about Project Safe Neighborhoods, please visit Justice.gov/PSN.

Source: US FBI

SACRAMENTO, Calif. —Euan David MacGregor, formerly known as David Joseph Bean, 54, of Iowa City, Iowa, was sentenced by Senior Judge John A. Mendez to 41 months in prison and 36 months of supervised release for defrauding his former employer out of over $3.2 million, Acting United States Attorney Michele Beckwith announced. In addition, MacGregor was ordered to pay $3,217,456.41 in restitution to his victim.

According to court documents, between approximately November 2014 to January 2020, Euan MacGregor, then known as David Bean, used his position as a Chief Administrative Officer to execute a scheme to defraud his employer. 

According to court documents, MacGregor defrauded his former employer in two ways. First, he diverted at least 122 checks made payable to his employer to bank accounts that he controlled. MacGregor did this by creating a shell corporation that had a business name similar to the name of his employer and depositing the checks into bank accounts that he opened in the name of the shell corporation. MacGregor then presented false financial information to the company’s president and shareholders, causing them to believe they had received the monies he diverted. In addition, MacGregor falsely represented to his employer that he was outsourcing his employer’s bookkeeping work to a third party, a company named Essential Business Services. In reality, Essential Business Services was another shell company that MacGregor created and controlled. MacGregor’s false representations caused his employer to pay Essential Business Services thousands of dollars each month for bookkeeping services that it did not perform. MacGregor used the money he fraudulently obtained to pay for personal expenses for him and his family, including mortgage payments, the payment of credit cards, educational expenses, travel, and the purchase or lease of vehicles.

This case was the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Shelley D. Weger is prosecuting the case.

Source: US FBI

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Alex Altoh, 64, of Roseville, was sentenced Tuesday to three years and ten months in prison for money laundering conspiracy, Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith announced.  Altoh was also ordered to pay  $1,478,068.99 in restitution.

According to court documents, between January 2021 and November 2021, Altoh and his co-defendant Oumar Sidibe, 31, were involved in a conspiracy to launder the proceeds from two large business email compromise schemes, in which two corporate victims were tricked into making payments to bank accounts controlled by Altoh and another person, rather than to the intended beneficiaries of the payments.  Altoh, Sidibe, and others then quickly withdrew a large portion of the funds by way of check deposits, which effectively transferred the funds, concealed their unlawful nature, and prevented them from being clawed back. 

For instance, on October 26, 2021, an employee of a victim company was tricked into wiring approximately $3.5 million to Altoh’s account at Wells Fargo. That same day, in a span of less than two hours, Altoh withdrew money from the Wells Fargo account by depositing five checks in five separate transactions at multiple bank branches in the Sacramento area.  One transaction included a check for $248,000 that Altoh wrote to himself and deposited into his own Chase bank account.  In that one day, Altoh successfully withdrew approximately $1.1 million of the funds out of his Wells Fargo account, which was never recovered. Law enforcement traced Altoh and Sidibe to almost $3.9 million in laundered fraud proceeds. 

Sidibe is yet to be apprehended. The charges against Sibide are only allegations; he is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Denise N. Yasinow and Matthew Thuesen prosecuted the case.

Source: US FBI

FRESNO, Calif. — Brett Curtis Hair, 22, of Bakersfield, was arrested today for aiming the beam of a laser pointer at an aircraft, Acting U.S. Attorney Michele Beckwith announced. 

According to the indictment, on Sept. 11, 2024, Hair aimed the beam of a laser pointer at a Kern County Sheriff’s Office helicopter (Air One).

According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), laser exposure can result in visual impairment and therefore poses a serious hazard to the safe operation of an aircraft. In 2024, the FAA received 12,840 reports of laser strikes from pilots. 

This case is the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Kern County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Escobar is prosecuting the case.

If convicted, Hair faces a maximum statutory penalty of five 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 charge is only an allegation; the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.