department of justice

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Two different crimes in South Lake Tahoe on Wednesday turned out to be related and the alleged suspects were arrested near Fresh Pond, California.

On May 20 at approximately 2:50 p.m., officers from South Lake Tahoe Police Department (SLTPD) responded to the 7-11 at 2620 Lake Tahoe Boulevard after receiving a call of a robbery. Upon arrival, the clerk told officers a man and a woman had walked into the store with black masks on, approached the counter where the female demanded money.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - In just two weeks the City of South Lake Tahoe will be saying goodbye to its sixth police chief since becoming incorporated in 1965.

Chief Brian Uhler will be wrapping up a 40-year career in law enforcement when he retires from the South Lake Tahoe Police Department (SLTPD) on March 12, 2020. He has been the second-longest serving chief, coming within a couple of months of the City's second police chief, John Crow.

As soon as word spread that El Dorado County Deputy Brian Ishmael was shot and killed in the line of duty on October 23, multiple federal agencies were mobilized and went to work to not only find out who was directly responsible for the death, but also to uncover those in charge of the illegal marijuana grows at the forefront of the case.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The South Lake Tahoe man who led multiple law enforcement agencies on a high-speed pursuit in El Dorado County and Sacramento in May was indicted by a federal grand jury today on two counts.

Nationally recognized human trafficking consultant John Vanek will return to South Lake Tahoe for a May 18, 2018 presentation as a guest of the South Lake Tahoe Police Department and Live Violence Free.

Vanek, an author and retired lieutenant of the San Jose Police Human Trafficking Task Force, will speak on that date at Sierra Community Church at 6:00 p.m. Vanek is a leadership, collaboration, and anti-human trafficking consultant and speaker working with law enforcement agencies, non-governmental and community-based organizations, academic institutions and private sector companies.

A federal indictment was unsealed last week, charging 36 individuals for their alleged roles in the Infraud Organization, an Internet-based cybercriminal enterprise engaged in the large-scale acquisition, sale, and dissemination of stolen identities, compromised debit and credit cards, personally identifiable information, financial and banking information, computer malware, and other contraband.

Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions ended an Obama-era federal policy that provided legal shelter for marijuana sales in California, Nevada and four other states (Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Maine) that have allowed recreational pot, placing at risk thousands of marijuana businesses operating legally under state laws.

The Justice Department move on Thursday plunged California’s fledgling recreational pot market into further uncertainty, and was met with a bipartisan backlash from lawmakers in states where marijuana is now sold legally to any adult who wants to buy it.

Dr. Devendra I. Patel, aka Devendrakumar I. Patel, 58, of Elko, Nev., was arrested Tuesday on 39 charges of unlawful distribution of prescriptions opioids and Medicaid fraud.

Patel is charged with 36-counts of distribution of controlled substances such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, and three-counts of health care fraud. He is a cardiologist at his medical practice, Northeastern Nevada Cardiology. The statutory maximum penalty for distribution of a controlled substance is 10 years in prison and the maximum penalty for health care fraud is 10 years in prison.

Many South Lake Tahoe residents love their dogs. Most Police Officers love dogs too. I’ve heard it said by someone not so long ago…. “The more people I meet, the more I love dogs!” We at the police department understand and share in this fondness; however, we receive weekly complaints from community members regarding dogs in public parks, and most frequently dogs at the Live-at-Lakeview events. The South Lake Tahoe City Code (SLTCC), does not allow dogs, even on a leash, to be in our public parks (SLTCC §8.05.130).

The third Coffee With a Cop in the area this summer will be held on Tuesday, July 18 from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at the Starbucks at the South Y Center in South Lake Tahoe.

The community is invited to meet with members of the California Highway Patrol South Lake Tahoe office, South Lake Tahoe Police Department, El Dorado County Sheriff. Stop by and discuss issues or just meet law enforcement in an informal, neutral location.

Join law enforcement at the next Coffee With a Cop event on Friday, June 30 at the Alps Haus Cafe in Markleeville from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

Members of the California Highway Patrol's South Lake Tahoe office, Alpine County Sheriff and community members will come together in an informal, neutral space to discuss community issues, have coffee, and build relationships.

All community members are invited to attend.

Coffee with a Cop provides a unique opportunity for community members to ask questions and learn more about the Department’s work in Alpine County’s neighborhoods.

Teresa Marty will be spending the next ten years in prison after causing the IRS to pay more than $9 million in false refunds.

The 57-year-old Pollock Pines woman owned Advanced Financial Services (AFS), a tax return preparation business located in Placerville. She conspired with her office manager, Pamela Harris and Rebecca Bandera-Marty to file more than 250 fraudulent federal tax returns claiming more than $60 million in refunds.

Placerville resident Jeffrey Scott Davis, 59 has been charged on six counts of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and mail fraud along with Glen Michael Martinka, 67, of Phoenix, Arizona.

A federal grand jury returned the indictment after Davis and Martinka allegedly conspired to embezzle approximately $218,000 from an organic food company by submitting false invoices between December 2008 and April 2012.

9:00AM Update 11/22/16: The South Lake Tahoe Police Department believes the same person is responsible for recent food tampering incidents at Baja Fresh and Raley's due to similarities in the cases. The unidentified suspect is described as a white male adult, 5'7" with a thin build.

A whistleblower will earn about $430,000 after leading investigators to orthopedic clinics in Reno, Chico and Redlands for their allegedly using discounted and reimported osteoarthritis medications, but billing the government for full value.

The three clinics will pay a combined $2.39 million to resolve federal and state False Claims Act allegations that they knowingly billed federal and state health care programs for the unauthorized viscosupplements.

The father of two South Lake Tahoe children who failed to return them to their mother on August 15 has been arrested in the Rosarito Beach area of Mexico.

Scott Selger of Chula Vista, Calif., was arrested by the Baja California State Preventive Police on September 1 and the children were safely returned to their mother, Jenn Luckman Conant.

Investigators from several agencies had been searching for Selger and the children after their mother realized her children, 9-year-old twins Ava and Paolo, were not on their scheduled return flight home after visiting with their father.

Briant Benson, 59, of El Dorado Hills, pleaded guilty today to tax evasion after failing to file tax returns or pay any personal income tax to the IRS, despite receiving at least $2 million dollars in income.

Many people find law enforcement officers intimidating and unapproachable, so the South Lake Tahoe CHP office is holding "Coffee with a Cop" on Friday, June 24 starting at 9:00 a.m. at Alpina Coffee Cafe on Emerald Bay Road.

All community members are invited to stop by and chat, discuss community issues, have coffee, and build relationships.

Coffee with a Cop provides a unique opportunity for community members to ask questions and learn more about the Department’s work in El Dorado County’s neighborhoods.

Matthew Keys, 29, former web producer and network site administrator for KTXL FOX40, a Sacramento television station, was sentenced today to two years in prison for inciting, assisting, and conducting a weeks-long campaign of online attacks against FOX40 and The Los Angeles Times, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner and FBI Special Agent in Charge Monica M. Miller announced.

According to the California Department of Justice, Human Trafficking is a $32 billion a year global enterprise and the fastest growing criminal industry. It is a form of modern day slavery that profits from the exploitation of our most vulnerable populations. California's Attorney General Kamala Harris is focused on combating the pervasive issue of human trafficking in California and has made it one of her top priorities.

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A baby’s brain is like a flower, if it’s stressed, it wilts; If the flower is nourished, it blooms.

Those are the telling words used to open the film, Effects of Domestic Violence on Children. As our brains grow, they create a blueprint for every new experience we have, the sounds, the touches and the sights. We may not remember what happens to us as a baby but our experiences are forever etched in our brains and create the building blocks of our lives.

A federal grand jury returned a 70-count indictment today against eight men, charging them with various firearms offenses involving manufacturing and dealing firearms without a license, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner and ATF Special Agent in Charge Jill A. Snyder announced.

Authorities have found the remains of at least two people inside a Garden Valley home found burned on September 13, 2015. The home belongs to a Benicia, CA family, Adam Buchanan, his 7-year-old son Gavin and Gavin’s mother Molly McAfee, who have been missing since September 11.

A federal grand jury returned a five-count indictment Thursday against Jesus Gonzalez-Alvizo, 25, and Reimundo Arriaga-Arriaga, 37, residents of Mexico, charging them with conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, manufacture of marijuana, possession of firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and depredation of public lands and resources.