trafficking

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Nev. - The Douglas County Sheriff's Office (DCSO) arrested three Reno residents after they were pulled over on suspicion of a speeding violation.

On October 22 at approximately 2:30 a.m., deputies on US395 stopped a vehicle for the violation. When they contacted the occupants they said they smelled the strong odor of marijuana from inside the car.

A field narcotics investigation was conducted and deputies said they recovered approximately eight pounds of marijuana, 627 grams of concentrated THC, just under $2,000 in US Currency and a Glock-19 handgun.

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Nev. - A five-month-long investigation into the alleged methamphetamine distribution activities of a Gardnerville resident led to an early morning execution of a search warrant at the Helman Drive home of Melissa White on Friday, May 29. Arrested were White and three others, John Neese, Mark Gregg, and Lori Wright.

The Douglas County Sheriff's Office (DCSO) says approximately 60 grams of methamphetamine was purchased from White during undercover operations and another 55.3 grams was found in the home Friday. Also located were several tabs of suspected LSD.

Over seven years after the death of a juvenile, the person found responsible plead guilty Monday in federal court to distribution of a controlled substance known as 25I-NBOMe that caused death the death of the minor in 2012.

According to court documents, during September 2012, Elijah Richter, 28, of Camino, Calif. imported hallucinogenic drugs, including a controlled substance known as 25I-NBOMe, from Europe to his residence in El Dorado County. He placed orders on his computer through Silk Road, a now-defunct “dark” website.

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.

DOUGLAS COUNTY, Nev. - A months-long investigation into drug activity in Douglas County has resulted in the arrest of a Minden, Nevada man.

On Wednesday, October 16, 2019, members of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office Street Enforcement Team (DCSET) served a search warrant at the Esther Way home of Robert Wilson. Inside they found almost $10,000 in cash, five pounds of Psilocybin Mushrooms, 21 firearms and a marijuana THC extraction lab with approximately seven pounds of a marijuana extract.

Live Violence Free has announced their next fundraiser, An Afternoon of Peace & Harmony, that will be held at the Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena at Harveys on Saturday, September 7, 2019 from 04:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

STATELINE, Nev. - Two local residents were arrested early Tuesday after a months-long narcotics investigation by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office Street Enforcement Team and State of Nevada Tri Net Investigators.

Timothy Hecox, 61-years-old, and Holly Anderson, 50-years-old, both of Stateline, Nevada, were arrested after a search warrant was served at 169 Faris Court #8 on July 17, 2019. They were booked for trafficking of narcotics and several other drug-related charges.

The El Dorado County (EDC) District Attorney's Office recently helped with a state-wide investigation focused on offenders operating a criminal enterprise from both inside and outside state prisons.

Sixteen members and associates of a prison-based gang have been charged after a long-running investigation into drug trafficking and murders inside and outside of California’s prisons.

The EDC DA office's investigative division has the kind of highly trained and experienced detectives that are often called in to help with operations of this magnitude.

After a six-month investigation into drug transactions in the Lake Tahoe Basin, the El Dorado Sheriff's Department Narcotics Task Force executed search warrants at two locations in South Lake Tahoe on August 23, 2017. Large amounts of heroin, methamphetamine and approximately 12 firearms were seized in the search. Lynwood Towle, Shawn German, Melissa Griffis, Paul Ryan, and Krystal Long were all arrested, charged, and eventually pleaded guilty to various charges stemming from those searches.

As January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month, one might ask, “exactly what is human trafficking?”

Human trafficking is defined as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, or receipt of persons by means of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, for the purpose of exploitation. Sex trafficking is defined as a commercial sex act that is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age. Of particular note is the automatic classification of trafficking in children under 18 years of age.

The South Lake Tahoe Police Department (SLTPD) and Douglas County Sheriff's Office (DCSO) Street Enforcement Team have conducted a joint investigation over the last nine months into the trafficking and sales of heroin and methamphetamine in the area.

A major drug ring that stretched from Mexico into El Dorado and Placer Counties and beyond was broken up with the arrest, conviction and sentencing of Francisco Felix, 45, of Mountain House on July 13, 2018.

Felix will be in prison for up to 20 years for his role in leading a large, multi-defendant drug-trafficking conspiracy that moved significant quantities of methamphetamine from Mexico into California and throughout the United States, and that controlled at least three large marijuana grows in the Central Valley of California, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced.

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 31-year-old man from Michoacán, Mexico was sentenced Monday to two years and two months in prison and ordered to pay $32,712 in restitution to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for the damage to public land and natural resources.

Washoe County Sheriff’s Office deputies successfully arrested two drug trafficking suspects who attempted to flee and fight with deputies and a K9 in two separate incidents over the weekend.

The first incident occurred at approximately 9:15 p.m. on Friday, March 9, 2018 when a Washoe County Sheriff’s Office K9 unit attempted to make a traffic stop on the I-80 eastbound near Nugget Avenue. The deputy called for backup after his K9 made a positive alert for drugs.

Nearly two dozen people were arrested during a monthlong Carson City area drug sweep that involved multiple agencies, the Carson City Sheriff's Office Special Enforcement Team announced Friday.

The Carson City SET, with the assistance from multiple agencies to include, the Department of Public Safety Tri Net Narcotics task force, the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office Special Investigation Unit and the Reno Police Department Street Enforcement Team conducted the narcotics suppression operation targeting those using and selling narcotics in the Carson City area.

The question I get asked the most when sharing that I’m a member of PATH (Partners Against the Trafficking of Humans) is: Is human trafficking happening here in South Lake Tahoe? The answer is yes, although solid numbers are hard to come by. Recently, it was reported in local media that 14 people were arrested and one 17 year old girl rescued from a trafficking ring in El Dorado County that included South Lake Tahoe, Placerville, and El Dorado Hills.

The El Dorado County Sheriff's Department joined forces with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and El Dorado County District Attorney's Office in conducting "Victim Centered," to identify human trafficking victims and suspects.

They began the investigation by looking into escort/ dating sites on the internet and those ads coming from El Dorado Hills, Cameron Park and Placerville. The main purpose of the investigation was to identify the human trafficking victims who are being prostituted and to identify the suspects who are pimping and trafficking these victims in El Dorado County.

South Lake Tahoe and Gardnerville men were arrested in Douglas County on November 19, 2017 on suspicion of drug trafficking and related charges.

Almost five years after a 15-year-old El Dorado High School student died after ingesting a designer drug, a Camino man has been indicted by a federal grand jury for his death.

Elijah Lee Richter, 26, is charged with knowingly and intentionally distributing 25i-nBOME, the drug that killed Alejandro Nunez Avila in a Pollock Pines home on on September 8, 2012.

Richter had been arrested at the time with Jesse Howard Roberts, then 21. Roberts has already convicted in the case and sentenced to six years. He currently is listed as being an inmate at Mule Creek State Prison in Ione, Calif.

SAN DIEGO, CALIF. - The U.S. Coast Guard unloaded 22 tons of seized cocaine this week, six in San Diego, 16 in Florida. The wholesale value of the cocaine is about $577.5 million.

The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Stratton offloaded the cocaine in San Diego during a media event Friday. Several cutters in the Eastern Pacific Ocean area seized the drugs mid-January through February.

The drugs were intercepted in international waters off the coast of Central and South America.

The Vagina Monologues returns for its 15th year in South Lake Tahoe on February 25 and 25 for two shows at the Beach Retreat & Lodge. The unforgettable event is two evenings of sharing prose, pain, love, laughter and life. The cast is made up of a diverse group of community members including students, mothers, daughters, sisters new-to-the-stage and seasoned performers.

South Lake Tahoe is a community of diverse backgrounds reaching around the world, and with President Trump's current dialog on immigration, concerns are arising among immigrants who call Tahoe home, and from those that represent them in the area.

The current enrollment of Lake Tahoe Unified School District shows 42.4 percent are Hispanic, 3.6 percent Filipino, 1.2 percent Asian, 48.1 percent white and the rest of other nationalities.

Since January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month, what do you think of when you hear the term "human trafficking"? If you're like most people, you think of a story like the following true story, where police conduct an operation at a suspected residential brothel and encounter Sally, a 25-year-old citizen of Korea. Sally came to the U.S. having been promised a job as a maid. Instead, she was threatened with violence and forced to work in a brothel until she made $15,000. But the brothel owner retained $10,000, plus additional fees for food and a motel room when she could not work.