[0:23] Check 1-2, check 1-2.

[1:44] Check 1-2.

[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

VPD Press Conference

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