RIVERSIDE, CA — This week, a 51-year-old Riverside County man was sentenced to 21 years in federal prison for his lead role in an operation that saw large quantities of methamphetamine trafficked from Mexico into the Inland Empire, prosecutors announced.

Timoteo Gomez, of Riverside, was sentenced Monday by United States District Judge Jesus G. Bernal. He is the 16th conviction in the federal probe that targeted criminal activities of the Riverside-based Casa Blanca Rifa criminal street gang. According to prosecutors, the gang is responsible for drug trafficking and associated violence in Riverside and the surrounding community.

From at least April 2020 until August 2020, Gomez and others purchased methamphetamine from their suppliers in Mexico as well as Los Angeles and Riverside counties and distributed it across the Inland Empire, according to prosecutors.

In April 2020, Gomez and others smuggled 46.6 pounds of methamphetamine from Mexico across the U.S. port of entry at Calexico and into Riverside County. In May 2020, another co-conspirator attempted to drive a 90.4 pounds-load of methamphetamine into the United States from Mexico through the San Ysidro port of entry, prosecutors said.

“In total, law enforcement seized more than 150 pounds of methamphetamine and $31,035 in cash during this investigation,” according to the prosecutors.

Gomez has been in federal custody since his June 2021 arrest. He pleaded guilty in January 2022 to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

The FBI’s Inland Empire Safe Streets Task Force, which includes the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, IRS Criminal Investigation, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, and the Riverside Police Department, led the investigation into the operation.

During the investigation, the task force received assistance from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the U.S. Marshals Service.

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The rate of stolen guns from cars climbed nearly every year and spiked during the coronavirus pandemic along with a major surge in weapons purchases in the U.S., according to the report, which analyzes FBI data from 337 cities in 44 states and was provided to the Associated Press.

The stolen weapons have, in some cases, turned up at crime scenes. In July 2021, a gun taken from an unlocked car in Riverside, Fla., was used to kill a 27-year-old Coast Guard member as she tried to stop a car burglary in her neighborhood.

The alarming trend underscores the need for Americans to safely secure their firearms to prevent them from getting into the hands of dangerous people, said Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Director Steve Dettelbach, whose agency has separately found links between stolen guns and violent crimes.

“People don’t go to a mall and steal a firearm from a locked car to go hunting. Those guns are going straight to the street,” said Dettelbach, whose agency was not involved in the report. “They’re going to violent people who can’t pass a background check. They’re going to gangs. They’re going to drug dealers, and they’re going to hurt and kill the people who live in the next town, the next county or the next state.”

Nearly 112,000 guns were reported stolen in 2022, and just over half of those were from cars — most often when they were parked in driveways or outside people’s homes, the Everytown report found. That’s up from about one-quarter of all thefts in 2013, when homes were the leading spot for firearm thefts, the report says.

Stolen guns have also been linked to tragic accidents, such as when a 14-year-old boy in St. Petersburg, Fla., killed his 11-year-old brother after finding in an alley a gun that had been stolen from an unlocked car a few days before.

At least one firearm was stolen from a car every nine minutes on average in 2022, the most recent year for which data was available. That’s almost certainly an undercount, though, since there’s no federal law requiring people to report stolen guns and only one-third of states require a report.

“Every gun stolen from a car increases the chances it’ll be used in a violent crime,” said Sarah Burd-Sharp, senior director of research at Everytown, which advocates for gun control policies. It’s unclear what’s driving the trend. The report found higher theft rates in states with looser gun laws, which also tend to have higher rates of gun ownership.

The report analyzed crime data from the FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System, which includes details about what was stolen and where it came from. Guns stolen from cars bucked car theft trends overall — the rate of other things stolen from cars has dropped 11% over the last 10 years, even as the rate of gun thefts from cars grew 200%, Everytown found in its analysis of FBI data.

In Savannah, Ga., city leaders last month passed an ordinance requiring people to secure firearms left inside cars after seeing more than 200 guns stolen from unlocked cars in a year. The measure is facing pushback from the state’s attorney general.

The ATF has separately said that theft is a significant source of guns that end up in the hands of criminals. More than 1 million guns were reported stolen between 2017 and 2021, the agency found in a sweeping report on crime guns released last year. And the vast majority of gun thefts are from individuals.

The agency is prohibited by law from publicly releasing detailed information about where stolen guns end up. The information can, however, be shared with police investigating a crime.

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17 Individuals Indicted as part of Drug Trafficking Organization Over 200 Law Enforcement Officers from the Multiple States Involved in Takedown

The United States Attorney Mike Stuart announced a major takedown on September 15, 2019, of drug traffickers resulting in the dismantling of a multi-state drug trafficking organization (DTO) responsible for distributing pounds of methamphetamine from San Diego, California to West Virginia. The indictments and subsequent arrests are the results of a long-term investigation led by Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), the United States Marshals Service, the Beckley/Raleigh County Drug and Violent Crimes Task Force, which is made up of law enforcement officers from the Raleigh County Sheriff’s Office, the Beckley Police Department and the West Virginia State Police, the Central West Virginia Drug Task Force and the Southern Regional Drug and Violent Crimes Task Force.  The operation, dubbed “Operation Shutdown Corner,” resulted in two indictments charging 17 individuals in the DTO alleged to have distributed methamphetamine and heroin.

“The coordinated takedown as part of Operation Shutdown Corner is a significant achievement in our continued effort to rid West Virginia of the drug traffickers, drug dealers and poison peddlers that have caused so much pain and despair among our people,” said the United States Attorney Mike Stuart. “From San Diego to West Virginia, the operation shut down a major drug trafficking organization. Over 200 law enforcement agents from more than five states were involved in this operation without incident and according to plan.  I want to thank the tremendous investigative and law enforcement efforts of all our partners at the federal, state, and local levels. Great work. As a result of these indictments and arrests, West Virginia communities and West Virginia families are safer than they were yesterday. We continue with a sense of urgency to take down and remove those who cause only harm and despair in the interests of greed and making money.”

“Disrupting drug trafficking organizations like this one is a critical part of the FBI’s mission. The heroine, meth, and guns seized are dangerous and can lead to dangerous consequences,” said FBI Pittsburgh Special Agent in Charge Robert Jones. “These arrests should send a message to other groups who think they can do business in West Virginia.  The FBI and our law enforcement partners are pooling all our resources to stop you and the violence that comes with the drug trade you deem as profitable.”

The long-term investigation revealed that a stream of packages containing pounds of methamphetamine was being shipped from the San Diego, California area and being received in the Southern District of West Virginia using common carriers, such as the United States Postal Service and the United Parcel Service (UPS).  Several packages were intercepted by law enforcement and using law enforcement tools, the full nature and scope of the DTO were revealed. The dismantling of the DTO resulted in the seizure of large quantities of controlled substances, illegally possessed firearms, and United States currency, which represents the proceeds of the DTO’s illegal operations. It is believed that the shutting down of this DTO will significantly curtail the methamphetamine scourge in Raleigh County and the surrounding area.

The investigation was a collaborative effort between federal, state, and local law enforcement partners. Actions would not have been possible without the seamless collaboration of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies.  The investigation is ongoing and could result in additional federal and state charges in the future.

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