[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:23] Check 1-2, check 1-2.
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[1:46] Good
[4:22] afternoon and welcome to Vallejo.
[4:26] It is truly an honor to have so many VIP guests joining us today.
[4:31] Every person in this room plays a critical role to making Vallejo safer.
[4:37] We are all in agreement that we cannot accept the violence that has taken so many lives
[4:44] while robbing others of their sense of safety and security, but it is encouraging to see
[4:52] that this level of cooperation and teamwork here today from our federal law enforcement
[4:58] partners to our many community leaders who are vital to our success.
[5:05] Now I'd like to introduce the person with the vision to make this crime reduction
[5:11] happen. That's our police chief chief talk.
[5:20] I just want to say thank you again for all the folks
[5:23] that showed up today. I know it was a last-minute invitation. Part of the reason for it was logistics
[5:30] with some of these cases that we're going to be talking about today. So we're very happy to
[5:37] bring this news to the community. I believe that when we have success, we need to celebrate
[5:44] those successes and this one is is a huge success today. So as we go through some of the introductions
[5:51] I'll speak a little bit more in depth about what is happening here in our city and and what we're
[5:58] doing to address it but thank you again so much for everybody in the community that showed up
[6:03] all of our partners here at the the federal partners and state local officials that are
[6:09] here and the media. Thank you.
[6:16] I want to thank our mayor Andrea Source and our
[6:20] council members JR Matulik and Mary Gordon for being here today.
[6:29] I also want
[6:30] to welcome city manager Andrew Murray
[6:35] along with our chaplains Mike Brown and
[6:39] Brian Harris.
[6:44] We can't do our job without your supporting guidance so we
[6:48] Thank you. It is inspiring to see so many community organizations here today with this event,
[6:55] including our Chiefs Advisory Board. I also want to warmly welcome the members of our
[7:02] Police Oversight and Accountability Commission. I'm also glad to have the members of Project
[7:08] Hope and Home here.
[7:12] Thank you
[7:16] NAACP for being here today.
[7:21] You
[7:24] do so much important work in our city.
[7:30] It's important to say that we cannot arrest our way out of the violence that has plagued our city.
[7:36] We rely on community organizations to provide the services and support that so many community members need.
[7:45] Thank you for everything that you do.
[7:48] Well,
[7:52] I'm going to also have the privilege of introducing and thanking our federal partners.
[7:59] I want to start with acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District, Michelle Beckwith,
[8:09] FBI,
[8:10] Special Agent in Charge, Sid Patel,
[8:17] and ATF Special Agent in Charge, Jennifer Ciccolani.
[8:21] so
[8:26] again I just want to welcome you guys here today the the positive energy in
[8:31] this room is to me it's it's infectious we have so much collaboration in this room
[8:38] all at the same time that's amazing to me again with the local partners that we
[8:45] have here all of our community partners here as well as our elected
[8:50] officials and our city manager so
[8:56] the purpose of our conference here today
[8:58] It really is to talk about these cases
[9:00] that we'll talk about in a moment.
[9:02] But what I wanted to do was I wanted to give you guys
[9:05] some background information so you have some context
[9:08] on how we got here today.
[9:10] So you may not realize this, but just over a year ago,
[9:13] the Department of Justice selected the City of Vallejo
[9:17] to participate in the National Public Safety
[9:19] Partnership Program, we call it PSP.
[9:22] And what PSP has done for us is it has provided us
[9:27] is cutting edge training and technical assistance in addressing violent crimes specifically related
[9:35] to gun crimes, gang crimes, and drugs.
[9:40] This is in direct alignment with our mayor's vision on creating a task force to address
[9:47] these same problems.
[9:48] So as we build out this program, it is right into her vision of how we can form this
[9:56] multi-agency team to address these issues.
[10:00] So these are some of the partners in the PSP program that you see here today.
[10:06] But some of the other partners that are not here that I think is worth mentioning is
[10:09] the California Highway Patrol, which has been very helpful, as you guys know, in the
[10:14] past couple of years to help us out.
[10:17] The Sheriff's Office has been very instrumental.
[10:19] Even though we have a few staff, we've really leveraged our partnership with the sheriff during mutual aid situations and our district attorney's office as well.
[10:32] From a local perspective, I want to be just very clear. As your police chief, my number one priority is to reduce violent crime and gun violence.
[10:44] I'm going to do this in three ways, in three different areas of approach, and PSP and the
[10:49] community will help me along the way.
[10:52] So the first area is earning and maintaining community trust and intervention.
[10:58] The second area is strategic and surgical, crime suppression and enforcement.
[11:05] And the third category is using technology and innovation to our benefit.
[11:11] it. So starting with the first area, earning and maintaining community trust, we know that
[11:18] as a policing agency and every law enforcement entity, you have to have community trust to
[11:26] be successful.
[11:29] That means that we have to work side by side with our community day
[11:33] in and day out. One of the programs that I wanted to talk about just really briefly
[11:38] was the PSP program that we are developing, and we're calling this program
[11:44] Vallejo Vision. And Vision is an acronym that stands for violence, intervention,
[11:51] support, improving our neighborhood's vision.
[11:58] So with PSP we have received
[12:00] extensive guidance building out this program. It really focuses on providing
[12:06] services and support to the people who need it the most. This program will
[12:11] help us identify candidates that are considered high risk of being involved as a victim of
[12:17] violent crime and gun violence or potentially as somebody that could be involved in committing
[12:23] these offenses. Our goal is to get them back on track, provide them the resources they
[12:29] need to be successful and a productive member of our community.
[12:34] Another vital part of our community partnership is our iHeart program.
[12:39] iHeart started about, I want to say coming up on a year, I think April of summertime, we rolled out the iHeart program.
[12:46] iHeart stands for Integrated Health and Resource Team.
[12:52] So these are individuals, I'm sorry, correction, the iHeart team deals with individuals experiencing mental and behavioral health crises.
[13:02] This program aims to replace the traditional police response to some of these instances.
[13:12] Our team consists of crises worker and a medical professional.
[13:18] They are trained in evidence-based practices and they are trauma-informed.
[13:24] So they are the right people to get help to some of these individuals where enforcement
[13:29] or suppression is really not the right course of action.
[13:33] Eidhart is part of a larger concept that we have.
[13:37] We call this concept the Neighborhood Impact Team.
[13:40] We used this team this week and last week with the conclusion of some of these operations.
[13:46] What the Neighborhood Impact Team does is essentially they knock on doors.
[13:52] So if there is some sort of police action in the neighborhood,
[13:54] Often times when the officers leave,
[13:59] the neighborhood doesn't know what's happening.
[14:01] And so we feel that it's vitally important to keep people informed.
[14:06] This reduces fear.
[14:08] And it is essential to our work as we build a team approach to combat and crime.
[14:14] So we used iHeart for this fashion.
[14:16] We also use other community volunteers for this.
[14:21] I want to talk about our community partners again.
[14:23] And I am very happy to see at the last minute how many partners have shown up today.
[14:30] You guys care?
[14:31] I know you do.
[14:33] Now the public knows you do.
[14:34] Everybody watching this conference knows you do.
[14:40] So what you do, I want to just recognize that you help reduce crime and you make this progress
[14:51] constitutionally in a manner that treats everybody with dignity and respect.
[14:56] And that's important as well.
[14:58] So at this moment I-
[15:00] I'd like for our community partners to stand, if you could, to stand up.
[15:17] Thank you all. Thank
[15:17] you for what you do on a daily basis. Sometimes it doesn't get recognized in a big press conference,
[15:23] but we recognize it, we appreciate it, and we cannot do it without your help. Our second
[15:29] focus area is conducting strategic and surgical enforcement. And this is why we are going
[15:37] to be piloting a POP team. So POP stands for Problem Oriented Policing. This group
[15:43] of officers will identify problems and resolve these issues, connecting residents to services
[15:50] and also conduct suppression techniques.
[15:56] Their areas could be different areas of concern.
[15:59] It could be a crime problem. It could be anything from violent crime to drug crime
[16:04] to quality of life issues.
[16:07] So it's concerns that are
[16:09] contemporarily affecting our community.
[16:13] We know we can't arrest our way out of these problems
[16:15] and challenges that we face,
[16:18] but we need a surgical and very strategic approach
[16:21] in dealing with suppression and enforcement.
[16:24] This is vital in holding criminal offenders accountable.
[16:30] And then lastly, I just wanna talk briefly
[16:32] about technology and innovation.
[16:35] We need to use technology. We need to work smarter.
[16:38] We need to do more with less.
[16:40] This is occurring not only in our agency but other agencies.
[16:44] In Vallejo, we were early adopters of technology.
[16:48] One example that I will give is our license plate reader program.
[16:52] That has been extremely successful.
[16:55] It has helped us identify and apprehend countless violent offenders.
[16:59] We're building upon this program with our vendor Flock Safety, and we have recently piloted an auditory detection program, sometimes known as a gunshot detection program.
[17:12] So this program allows our officers to receive real-time alerts to their cars so they can respond quicker to give victims aid and to increase apprehension possibilities.
[17:26] To achieve all these areas of focus and success, we must rely on all of our partners.
[17:34] Our community partners, our local state and federal law enforcement partners, and today's
[17:40] event really underscores that partnership.
[17:44] So again, I wanted to say just very much from the bottom of my heart, thank you all
[17:48] for being here today and then we will talk more about these cases.
[17:55] Next I would like to invite Mayor Sorsch to the podium.
[18:04] Thank you very much and I want to thank everyone again, the folks up here and in the audience
[18:09] for coming here and for your partnership in these critical issues and I want to thank
[18:14] those that were involved specifically in this operation for undertaking important work and
[18:18] often dangerous work and on behalf of the community in Vallejo we truly do appreciate it.
[18:25] As the chief said this effort speaks to the value of collaboration and interagency partnership
[18:31] and collaboration particularly when we are dealing with issues of trafficking and gang
[18:36] activity that plague not just Vallejo but communities throughout the region.
[18:41] On behalf of the entire Vallejo City Council I want to thank everyone for that partnership.
[18:46] We are unanimously aligned in our vision to prioritize public safety in our community.
[18:53] We held a public safety workshop earlier this month.
[18:55] We have multiple council members who are actively working to identify resources and funding
[19:01] for gun violence, intervention programming and interruption programming.
[19:06] And we're going to have City Council meeting special meetings next week to address our
[19:18] We are taking this very seriously and we have sent a clear message that we are prioritizing
[19:23] public safety.
[19:24] And I want to thank my colleagues, J. R. Matulik and Helen Marie Gordon who are here.
[19:29] They represent North and South Filet, respectively.
[19:32] And also our colleagues that weren't able to make it because we truly are united in
[19:36] this effort.
[19:36] So we have our vice mayor, Peter Bergenzer, and our council members, Tanya Lettingeau,
[19:41] Charles Palmares and Alex Matias.
[19:50] We have a duty to keep our community safe
[19:53] and to build up law enforcement capacity in Vallejo.
[19:57] And also to do that in a way that aligns
[19:59] with our community's needs
[20:01] and the need to provide culturally responsive services,
[20:05] acknowledge the very real trauma and history in our city.
[20:09] And we are committed to building up our ability
[20:11] to enforce our laws while also staying true
[20:14] to our need to implement reform work
[20:16] and rebuild trust in law enforcement in this city.
[20:19] And again, that is going to come through partnership.
[20:22] I want to highlight not only the interagency collaboration
[20:25] here at levels of local, state and federal government,
[20:29] but also the partnerships of our elected officials
[20:31] at the county, state and federal levels.
[20:34] And we have representatives in the room
[20:36] from Supervisor Cassandra James's office,
[20:39] State Senator Christopher Cobaldon,
[20:41] I believe our state assembly member Lori Wilson and Congressman John Garamendi.
[20:47] So in addition to our law enforcement agencies working together, our elected officials are
[20:51] also working together to identify these priorities and identify funding so that we can bring
[20:56] resources to our community.
[20:58] We are committed to building up our ability to enforce our laws, keep everyone safe because
[21:04] that is our responsibility and again to do it in a way that is going to include everyone.
[21:09] I want to send a message to the criminal element that the days of thinking that you can come
[21:14] to Vallejo and do your business with impunity are over.
[21:17] This is the beginning.
[21:19] We are committed to increasing our resources and building on these efforts and we are
[21:23] ready to hold ourselves accountable just as we are going to be holding offenders accountable.
[21:28] We have a responsibility.
[21:29] Thank you.
[21:30] It is true.
[21:32] We are all accountable together.
[21:36] we have a responsibility to ensure that everyone in our community feels safe
[21:41] regardless of their background and any demographic characteristic and we take
[21:45] that incredibly seriously. So thank you again to everyone who was part of this
[21:49] and our community partners. Thank you so much.
[21:56] Next I'd like to invite our city manager Andrew Murray.
[22:05] Good afternoon and thank you for coming. My name is Andrew Murray
[22:09] and I have the privilege of serving as the Vallejo City Manager.
[22:12] As you all know, Vallejo is one of the most diverse cities in the entire state, if not
[22:17] the entire nation.
[22:18] And one of the reasons that Vallejo is such a diverse community is we have welcomed people
[22:24] from all over the country, in fact all over the world, of all sorts of ethnicities, orientations
[22:30] and economic conditions to come to our community to make a better life for themselves and
[22:35] pursue their dreams.
[22:36] But, unfortunately, in recent years, a very strong criminal element has been preying on
[22:42] the leowens.
[22:43] I want to express my appreciation to our partners for working with us and inviting us into the
[22:50] Federal Public Safety Partnerships Program.
[22:53] Through this program, we are going to be collaborating on three main areas.
[22:59] We receive enhanced public safety and law enforcement assistance from our federal
[23:04] partners.
[23:04] And we're going to hear a little bit more about the significant cases and arrests that
[23:08] concluded today as a result of our partnership in that program.
[23:13] We also, as Chief Taw mentioned, receive pretty significant technical assistance and training
[23:18] to help build up our capacity to provide the safe, equitable law enforcement services
[23:25] that you all deserve.
[23:26] So I'm also, as Chief Taw mentioned, very, very grateful to our many community partners
[23:32] that provide violence prevention services day in and day out.
[23:36] As you know, there are many steps in orienting all of our community members
[23:40] towards productive contributions.
[23:42] And that includes starting with prevention services.
[23:46] Policing and suppression of crime is the last resort really.
[23:50] We want to be providing services further and advance upstream
[23:53] so that we're providing people with the resources that they need to succeed.
[23:57] And our community-based organizations and partners
[24:00] partners are really the experts in that. So our federal partners bring extra resources
[24:05] and expertise to the police department in the city. Our community-based organizations
[24:09] bring their expertise, and I'm really looking forward to continuing to move forward per
[24:16] the program that Chief Todd described today, Vallejo Visions, to intercede and stop crime
[24:22] before it happens, but also deal very, very seriously with the serious criminals
[24:27] that are in our community so just want to say those words I also want to share
[24:31] some appreciation to the governor and the CHP as Chief Tom mentioned for their
[24:36] short-term support on various quality of life and criminal activities and let you
[24:42] know that we're all very invested between the city staff team and our elected
[24:48] officials in helping Vallejo again return to being the spirit of the
[24:54] base. So thank you very much.
[25:00] Next, I'd like to invite the acting U.S. Attorney for the
[25:04] Eastern District of California, Michelle Beckwith.
[25:12] Thank you. Again, I'm Michelle Beckwith. I'm
[25:15] the acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California. Solano County is one of
[25:23] the 34 counties that my office covers, and Vallejo is one of the major population centers
[25:29] and is also just a very special city and community,
[25:34] which I think is evidenced by the amazing turnout today.
[25:36] So thank you for being here.
[25:39] So I'm really proud that our office is part
[25:42] of the Public Safety Partnership Program.
[25:45] We call it PSP.
[25:47] It's a competitive application process.
[25:50] Lots of cities apply and not everybody gets in.
[25:54] So we are really thrilled to hear
[25:56] that Vallejo PD was accepted into the program. It's a three-year program and we're in our
[26:02] first year. And I think you can see by the turnout today in the cases that we're going
[26:06] to talk about that it is a worthy investment and one we're very excited to be a part of
[26:10] and continue on with them in the next couple of years.
[26:15] Our partnership with Vallejo, as other folks have mentioned, allows us to leverage
[26:20] federal resources to help fight the violent crime problem in the lejo and
[26:26] that's a multi-pronged multidisciplinary approach which uses evidence
[26:31] and evidence-based techniques and tries to do like Chief Tom mentioned surgical
[26:37] precision targeting as well as supporting the community efforts that
[26:43] are already really robust as you can see here but providing additional
[26:47] resources to bolster that community engagement which is a really important part of the program.
[26:54] And I think as you mentioned that's already evidenced that these two operations we're
[26:58] going to talk about today with the neighborhood impact team was already out in the community
[27:02] trying to answer questions and explain the law enforcement activity.
[27:06] So I'm really proud to see that already in place.
[27:10] So there's all that part and of course the enforcement part which is the cases
[27:15] that we're gonna talk a little bit about today
[27:17] and hopefully answer some questions about.
[27:20] And that's holding people accountable for their violent crime
[27:22] and trying to go after people
[27:25] who are really driving violent crime
[27:27] or making the community more unsafe through their actions.
[27:31] And we have two federal investigations
[27:33] that led to a arrest last week and more today.
[27:37] The first one, you'll hear more about from the ATF SAC,
[27:42] But that targeted a lot of criminal activity going on at the Super 8 Motel in Solano Avenue.
[27:51] And there are four federal arrests last week of people who are trafficking firearms, selling
[27:57] them to people who should not, who aren't allowed to have firearms.
[28:00] And these are all kinds of firearms.
[28:02] Obviously firearms are deadly, but these include machine guns and we call them PMFs,
[28:08] personally manufactured firearms or ghost guns.
[28:11] And, you know, those are hard guns to trace
[28:14] and that's why criminal actors seek those out.
[28:17] So that was a long-term investigation by our ATF partners
[28:20] and they should be commended for putting a stop
[28:22] to that kind of hub of violent and gang activity
[28:25] happening at the super eight.
[28:28] The second case, well, actually I think,
[28:30] I don't know if it's accurate to say gang
[28:31] but a group of loosely affiliated people acting
[28:34] together to sell firearms.
[28:35] The second case does involve a gang that's been based in Balejo since at least the 90s.
[28:42] The Brown Brotherhood Gang, that's a Serrano-affiliated gang.
[28:46] And that, we call it a takedown, the arrests and search warrants happened today in partnership
[28:52] with the FBI through the Solano County Violent Crimes Task Force with a huge role played
[28:59] by the Solano County Sheriff's Office.
[29:01] That case involved five federal warrants that were executed to state search warrants that were executed.
[29:11] And the investigation was about firearms trafficking and drug trafficking.
[29:16] And they covered locations in Vallejo, of course, Dixon, Feerfield, and Sassoon City.
[29:22] And I just want to point out one surprise that came up in the search warrants that were executed today.
[29:29] one of the locations where they found 12 firearms,
[29:34] a silencer, M80 explosives, 11,000 fentanyl
[29:38] or suspected fentanyl pills,
[29:40] and $100,000 in suspected drug cash
[29:44] was actually at a daycare location,
[29:47] a home that was used for daycare.
[29:51] And I understand that a parent
[29:53] was trying to drop a child off
[29:54] right around the search mark.
[29:56] So I just offer that to show you
[29:58] that these really are public safety.
[30:00] Operations were focused on really bad actors in the community and one of the
[30:05] arrestees, I believe, was involved in a shootout. The LAHO PD was responding to
[30:11] and the police officers, their car was shot at into the front cab. You can see
[30:16] the screen and in the steering wheel column. So our information is that person
[30:21] who was arrested today was involved in that as well. So just a number of pills
[30:25] which I think our FBI SAC will talk about a little bit more total. And the other gang activity I'd
[30:32] mentioned just shows the true danger that these folks were causing in the community.
[30:38] And we're committed to keep doing cases like this. And I just want to thank the partners,
[30:44] federal partners, and Chief Ta and just reiterate that my office is very, very proud to be part
[30:51] of this partnership, and thank you for having us here today.
[31:00] Our next speaker is the FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Sacramento Field Office, Sid
[31:07] Patel.
[31:11] Thank you very much.
[31:12] My name's Sid Patel.
[31:13] I'm the Special Agent in Charge for the Sacramento Field Office.
[31:16] Before I begin, I want to say thank you.
[31:19] I'm privileged to be with these men and women and the agencies that they represent,
[31:23] and I'm in awe to see all the community partners stand up and the energy that
[31:27] and a positive vibe that I've seen here.
[31:29] So I just want to start with that.
[31:30] Thank you very much.
[31:31] It's a great community out here.
[31:33] It's a privilege to be here.
[31:36] Today's a great day for the Vallejo community
[31:39] and the members of the FBI, Solano County
[31:41] Violent Crime Task Force.
[31:44] I'd like to thank the following SWAT teams.
[31:46] We had various agencies and SWAT teams
[31:48] are a part of this for their efforts
[31:49] to ensure the safe and swift apprehension
[31:52] of the individuals arrested today
[31:54] as part of this multi-location, organized crime, drug enforcement task force.
[32:00] We call it OSDEF, OSDEF operations.
[32:03] The FBI Sacramento team, we also have the FBI San Francisco team,
[32:08] we have the Fairfield Police Department, we have Vacaville Police Department,
[32:13] and Vallejo Police Department, all of their SWAT teams.
[32:16] So thank you for your support and help on this.
[32:18] It's a team effort as you can see.
[32:20] We work together, we work hand in hand.
[32:22] and we have a very close partnership here.
[32:24] Thank everyone on stage, the chief,
[32:27] and the community here for allowing that.
[32:29] We also thank the ATF for their continued partnership
[32:32] and the Dixon Police Department
[32:33] for their assistance with search force today.
[32:36] In addition to the FBI,
[32:38] the Solana County Violent Crime Task Force
[32:40] includes personnel from Mallejo PD,
[32:43] Vacaville PD, Fairfield PD,
[32:47] Solana County Sheriff's Department,
[32:49] and Solana County District Attorney's Office.
[32:52] All have had an active role in this investigation.
[32:56] So OSEDF cases, they identify, disrupt and dismantle the highest level drug traffickers,
[33:03] money launderers, gangs and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United
[33:09] States.
[33:10] It's a major priority for us.
[33:12] Task forces unite agencies and leverage the unique scales and talents each has
[33:17] to offer to effectively target and disrupt criminal networks.
[33:20] As I mentioned, we have to do this collaboratively as a team.
[33:25] The FBI leverages relationships domestically and abroad to combat the influence and reach
[33:30] of criminal organizations and groups, ensuring a criminal organization is investigated as
[33:36] a whole, not just solely as a local group.
[33:40] When combined with local law enforcement, that understands its community,
[33:47] like this
[33:48] support the community, other community, as we saw earlier today with everyone standing
[33:52] up in the big crowd here. We can be sure to save from brighter future. Today's arrests
[33:59] are a result of hundreds of hours of collaborative investigative effort focused on disrupting
[34:04] and disbanding violent criminal networks that exploit and erode our communities that
[34:09] we serve.
[34:12] The threat the Brown Brotherhood, a serenio-affiliated criminal street gang
[34:17] poses is significant. It is a large and very active criminal gang here in
[34:23] Vallejo. The gang is known to be involved in various criminal activities
[34:27] including murder, robbery, extortion, drug trafficking, fire and trafficking,
[34:35] burglary, stolen vehicles, victim witness intimidation. I can I can go
[34:42] Over the course of the investigation, task force members collected evidence of alleged
[34:48] large-scale cocaine, meth amphetamine, fentanyl, and firearms trafficking.
[34:55] Neighborhood gangs posed the most significant threat to communities across the United States.
[35:01] Every family deserves to live, work, and thrive in a community free of violence,
[35:06] illegal drugs, and other criminal activity.
[35:11] Today's arrests are not the end of our efforts.
[35:13] We will continue to identify, disrupt and dismantle criminal organizations that threaten
[35:19] the safety and security of our communities.
[35:22] The FBI is dedicated to working with all law enforcement partners to most effectively
[35:27] target all gang violence.
[35:30] We will continue to seek for tips from you, the public, all of you, to identify those
[35:36] who prey upon your community.
[35:39] We urge you, if you see something, say something.
[35:42] call 1-800-CALL-FBI or provide information online at tips.fbi.gov to help make
[35:53] your community safer and if you're in immediate danger of course not call 9-1-1
[35:58] you've got a great police department here they'll come to your attention
[36:01] immediately. We all want to hear from you and we'll protect you and your
[36:06] anonymity if you come to us. Your call can help us ensure a brighter
[36:10] future for the entire community. Never suffer in silence and do not ignore criminal activity.
[36:16] If you call us, we will do something. Now I know it was mentioned earlier about what
[36:22] we had captured today and some of the activities today. I will tell you with the drugs that
[36:26] we had captured, a portion of it was 16 pounds of methamphetamine, a half pound of cocaine
[36:32] and 100,000 fentanyl pills. And we're continuing to search these matters in our evidence
[36:38] and so that could grow.
[36:41] 21 firearms, one silencer, six long guns, 15 pistols.
[36:48] And of course, we'll answer your question at the end as well.
[36:50] But thank you all.
[36:52] Thank you for your partnerships.
[36:54] My pleasure.
[37:00] And next, I'd like to invite the ATF Special Agent
[37:03] in Charge of the San Francisco Field Division, Jennifer
[37:07] Chikolani.
[37:09] Good afternoon.
[37:10] I'm Jennifer Chikolani, the Special Agent in Charge
[37:12] for San Francisco Field Division with ATF.
[37:15] I did want to echo a little bit of Sak Patel's sentiment in that he and I have been in and
[37:22] out of this division for 20-plus years, and this is across the country the most community
[37:27] engagement I've ever seen, and it's really, it's amazing to see, so thank you all for
[37:32] being here.
[37:34] So last week, Operation 8 Investigation was a part of a large-scale collaborative
[37:39] effort to address violent crime in the city of Vallejo. Started in 2024, this
[37:45] multifaceted violence reduction strategy relies on innovative data-driven
[37:49] strategies to promote public and community safety. Utilizing crime gun
[37:54] intelligence, ATF and the Vallejo Police Department identified a high crime
[37:58] location saturated with illicit activity involving firearms, narcotics,
[38:02] and other crimes. As a result of our investigative efforts, ATF seized 24
[38:08] firearms, including four machine gun conversion devices. These are illegal
[38:13] devices that convert a semi-automatic handgun or rifle into a fully
[38:18] automatic weapon capable of firing an average of 10 to 20 rounds per second.
[38:25] CHIFTA, PSP, and our FBI partners are faithfully promoting interagency
[38:30] coordination by leveraging our unique federal expertise with dedicated
[38:34] prosecutorial resources. ATF is proud to be a part of this effort to
[38:39] prevent and reduce violent crime and we will stay focused on the commitment we made to the community of LA home. So thank you.
[38:52] That concludes our comments and now we will answer questions.
[38:56] Please raise your hand.
[38:58] And I will call on you one at a time.
[39:01] Please state your name and your news organization before asking your question.
[39:06] Today's news conference focuses on combating violent crime through our partnerships with federal state and local law enforcement
[39:15] along with our community leaders.
[39:18] Please keep your questions focused on today's topic.
[39:22] If you have any off-topic questions,
[39:25] I'm happy to work with you after the news conference
[39:28] to get your answers.
[39:31] First question, ma'am.
[39:35] First but keep my next.
[39:36] I just had a couple of questions about specifics
[39:38] when it comes to how many people were arrested.
[39:42] I know you guys said about the number of drugs and guns,
[39:45] but could you also say how many people
[39:47] and how many locations you went to?
[39:55] That's a good question.
[39:57] We had four federal warrants, so four individuals there,
[40:01] and we also had four other state warrants.
[40:05] So, yeah, total of eight.
[40:08] Yeah, please do.
[40:09] Come on in.
[40:10] We'll just answer questions together.
[40:11] So we had a total of four federal arrest warrants
[40:14] and a few search warrants as well.
[40:15] And that was from last week's takedown.
[40:18] Which one is the hotel and which one is the other four?
[40:22] So we were the ones ATF with the hotel.
[40:25] So
[40:28] much that happened in the U.S. which is throwing out there, which is great, right?
[40:31] But can you maybe summarize what really went down here?
[40:34] There are several operations, several people arrested.
[40:36] Can you maybe give us the bullet points of what actually happened here?
[40:39] Yes, so for the Operation 8, that was about a year investigation into an area that we
[40:45] identified through Crime Gun Intelligence.
[40:48] That's things like firearms trafficking indicators.
[40:51] We're talking about NIBIN, which, very simply put, is like a fingerprint of a gun, so when
[40:56] you shoot a gun, it leaves a mark on the back of the cartridge casing, and we can match
[41:01] that to other crime scenes, and we talk about calls for service, and again, this was in
[41:06] coordination with Balejo PD, so we did an investigation into people that were in and
[41:11] around that area, and that's where we came to seize those firearms.
[41:20] Summarize that operation really quick. The arrests were when you arrested how many people and what did you get?
[41:27] So that arrest was last week, last Thursday morning, the 20th. So we did, it was four federal arrests.
[41:36] And that was for firearms trafficking and possession of firearms by prohibited person and then also possession of machine gun conversion devices.
[41:47] The second operation was today, and that's where we had various locations out here in
[41:54] Vallejo, Dixon, Fairfield, Tucson City, where we had the four federal arrests and the four
[41:59] state warrants.
[42:03] Please raise your hand, and we'll get you in order.
[42:06] Mr. Lee.
[42:06] A quick question on the daycare rate.
[42:09] What day was that raid?
[42:10] Can you confirm a mother and son were arrested, and what can you quantify amount
[42:14] and types of drugs and guns that were found?
[42:17] Sure.
[42:17] it was um that was today and to my understanding it was 11 pistols one rifle approximately $100,000 in cash
[42:24] and 11,000 suspected fentanyl pills.
[42:31] I don't have I've got the names of the individuals but I don't
[42:34] have that specific with the mother and son. The
[42:40] mother was arrested on state charges for
[42:44] child endangerment and the son was arrested on federal charges in connection with the
[42:50] to invest the drug trafficking and firearms trafficking
[42:52] investigation.
[42:53] Who
[42:57] was running this operation within the daycare?
[43:00] That's my understanding.
[43:01] It was her daycare or home in-home care of her,
[43:08] where she had child care.
[43:09] I think someone was dropping a child off.
[43:12] It's my understanding right this morning
[43:14] when the operation was happening.
[43:16] And it was her son who was one of the targets
[43:21] of the investigation.
[43:22] go ahead her adult son King open Vallejo Jeff King open Vallejo this for the
[43:28] federal partners I imagine that there are a number of concerned parents
[43:32] regarding this daycare there are two daycares at that location of which I'm
[43:37] aware are you able to identify the daycare I am not I am aware that the
[43:44] state authorities were notified the licensing Bureau for daycares so I think
[43:50] appropriate state action is underway would be my guess. Go ahead sir. Day care
[43:57] was at Lady C's child care 301 Avian Drive is that the correct location? That's
[44:02] the correct address. I
[44:10] wasn't going to refer you the affidavits are publicly
[44:14] filed on the docket. We can give you the case numbers for you to look that up
[44:20] on Pacer. I don't want to misspeak but there are details of the
[44:24] investigation laid out about why that address was on the radar.
[44:33] So there were four locations today, right?
[44:37] Just so I'm clear, there are four locations today,
[44:40] and the previous one was a week ago,
[44:42] and that was the street gang at the hotel.
[44:45] Or do I have it backwards?
[44:58] Combined together in terms of.
[45:00] Taking a bite out of Vallejo crime, if you will.
[45:03] Just to be clear, there are two separate operations to clarify again. The gang operation, the one
[45:13] folk targeting the Serrano-affiliated BVH gang was today. But they are, I think they are impactful,
[45:20] we'll see, but these are people who were injecting illegal and deadly firearms into
[45:26] the community with respect to the ATF investigation. Clearly, I mean, it's dangerous having that
[45:34] amount of fentanyl pills, suspected fentanyl pills and firearms at a daycare location. The
[45:39] danger of that is obvious, but if you go ahead and read the affidavits connected with
[45:44] the complaint in that case, you'll see the level of trafficking of firearms and
[45:50] drugs that are, you know, clearly a threat to the community, 100,000 fentanyl pills,
[45:55] we all know how deadly that is. And, you know, we can arrest our way out of the problem,
[45:59] but what we do is targeted operations to focus on the most serious crime in a community.
[46:05] Sometimes it's not the most serious offenders necessarily, but they're having an impact.
[46:10] So we are combining our resources to make as big of an impact as we can and send
[46:16] a deterrent message to those who are doing similar things that we're going to continue
[46:19] to keep doing these kinds of cases.
[46:28] How about the impact?
[46:29] Could you talk just about the impact that this,
[46:32] you believe these two operations have had on the city,
[46:35] how big of a dent you think it's making,
[46:37] and if you think it is going to continue over these next two years
[46:40] that you have this partnership?
[46:42] Yeah, I think it's going to make a huge impact.
[46:45] We track crime data monthly,
[46:48] and we push that out to the community,
[46:51] so it's a little bit too soon to understand
[46:55] what the ripple effect is or will be. But with one gun, we look at it as every gun we take off the
[47:03] street could be one less shooting, could be one less homicide. And so there are a bunch of guns
[47:11] that were collected. And from my experience, they're dealing in stolen or guns or ghost guns
[47:21] buying and selling. So this stopped that operation. So we're talking about other guns that this
[47:27] has disrupted, that they cannot, future guns that they cannot distribute. So we'll know
[47:32] more next month. I guess is what I'm telling you, but I do suspect that we'll see a significant
[47:38] decrease in drug related crimes and also violent crime.
[47:47] We have any other questions?
[47:50] All right. Well, that concludes. Oh, go ahead, Mr.
[47:53] King.
[48:14] Yeah, so the question is whether or not we're getting help with tracing the firearms, we're
[48:19] getting a significant amount of help.
[48:21] After we were added to the PSP program, all of the technical assistance that we were getting,
[48:29] they were fast-tracked.
[48:30] We had a few cases, very notable cases recently, where there were, I want to say, almost
[48:36] 100 pieces of evidence that we needed to be analyzed through ballistics as well as
[48:42] through DNA analysis so that that takes time and we are put to the front of the
[48:47] line so that has been very fruitful and we're going to continue that at least
[48:52] for two more years so very good well that concludes our press conference I
[48:58] want to thank everybody for being a part of this and coming and helping us make
[49:03] Vallejo safer thank you