State Attorney General Rob Bonta said officials have charged 21 and have so far arrested 5 people involved as the Trump administration accused California of not doing enough to crack down on fraud.

Federal officials have launched a nationwide effort to target improper spending in federal benefit programs, arresting eight people last week they said were involved in various health care fraud schemes in and around Los Angeles.

“This isn’t a political game for us. This is about protecting taxpayer dollars, protecting the programs that sick and vulnerable Californians rely on, and protecting our state,” Bonta said in a news release.

After the Department of Health Care Services notified state prosecutors of potential fraud, investigators discovered a scheme in which individuals bought personal information for non-California residents from the dark web and enrolled them in Medi-Cal, the state’s equivalent of Medicaid, Bonta’s office said. The program provides free or low-cost health insurance to low-income individuals and families.

Then, those individuals bought 14 hospice companies and began billing for hospice services for the stolen identities. They billed a total of about $267 million, Bonta’s office said.

The individuals are charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud, money laundering, and identity theft with aggravated white collar crime and money laundering enhancements.

“For years, California has led the charge to protect public programs from fraud and abuse,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in the news release. “We hold accountable to the fullest extent of the law anyone who tries to rip off taxpayers and take advantage of public programs, particularly those as sensitive as hospice care.

Under Bonta, the state has filed 119 hospice-related criminal cases and secured 51 convictions, his office said.

The Trump administration has made California a focus of its national anti-fraud efforts and zeroed in on Medicare hospice fraud in the Los Angeles area. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March to create an anti-fraud task force led by Vice President JD Vance. Most of the efforts have focused on states run by Democrats, though Republican-led Florida was among those asked to share more information on how they identify, prevent and address Medicaid fraud.

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These CHP crime suppression teams will work with local law enforcement in San Diego, the Inland Empire, Los Angeles, the Central Valley, Sacramento and the San Francisco Bay Area, the governor’s office said.

“These operations will be targeted. They’ll be data-driven,” Newsom said.

Newsom also trumpeted progress already made on crime in the state, but said the numbers alone mean little to Californians.

“These are aggregate numbers, but we don’t live in the aggregate. Everybody lives in a different community, with different conditions, different challenges, and we are mindful that we have a lot more work to do,” Newsom said at a news conference in the governor’s office. “That’s precisely why we are announcing this today.”

Newsom’s announcement comes amid frequent jibes from President Trump about crime in blue states such as California, and Trump threatening to expand his use of military forces to target local crime.

During an Oval Office talk this week, Trump described crime as being so rampant in Beverly Hills that residents have been leaving their car doors and trunks open to avoid having them vandalized by thieves. (Times reporters could not find any evidence of this happening in Beverly Hills, an affluent city famous for having law enforcement response times that hover below three minutes.)

Trump sent roughly 5,000 Marines and National Guard troops to L.A. in June amid immigration raids and ensuing protests. He has since expanded his military tactics in the nation’s capital, activating hundreds of National Guard troops in Washington to “reestablish law and order,” despite violent crime having decreased significantly in the city in recent years.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said Thursday that she welcomed the assistance from CHP teams.

“We look forward to working with CHP to identify the best use of these additional resources to support ongoing local law enforcement efforts,” Bass said in a statement. “I want to thank the Governor for being a collaborative partner. The best way to address crime and other top challenges is through partnership and this is an example of that.”

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Newsom pushed back on questions about whether the CHP surge was intended to respond to Trump’s comments, or prevent the president from deploying more troops to the state. Newsom underscored the cooperation of local officials and said the only thing he was responding to were community desires.

“As it relates to the president, in particular, he’s doing things to people, not with people. It’s a point of profound and consequential contrast, the fact of militarizing American cities,” Newsom continued.

In recent years, Newsom has deployed CHP officers and the California National Guard to crack down on the fentanyl crisis in San Francisco, where they worked collaboratively with local agencies to target drug trafficking and drug markets in the city. The governor also has deployed CHP officers to Bakersfield and the East Bay.

Late last year, a CHP surge operation was utilized in San Bernardino, where rates of violent crime were around double the state average.

Newsom highlighted the success of those various operations Thursday, saying that more than 4,000 stolen vehicles in Oakland alone had been recovered as part of the operation, with more than 9,000 arrests made statewide.

But even with those results, it was hard not to see an element of political theater to Newsom’s briefing Thursday. At one point he held up colorful fliers, advertising how various GOP-led states and cities have higher crime rates than those in California, or certain California cities.

Newsom said he wanted to present these facts to Trump, since the president might not see them on Fox News.

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The effort builds on “successful” CHP efforts already underway in Oakland, Bakersfield and San Bernardino, according to the governor’s office. CHP officers assigned to these Crime Suppression Teams are expected to saturate high-crime areas, target repeat offenders and seize illicit weapons and narcotics.

“When the state and local communities work together strategically, public safety improves,” Newsom said in a statement. “While the Trump administration undermines cities, California is partnering with them — and delivering real results. With these new deployments, we’re doubling down on these partnerships to build on progress and keep driving crime down.”

CHP teams are expected to operate in the following:

• Identify and suppress criminal activity in high-crime areas through data and intelligence-led policing;
• Conduct proactive enforcement operations designed to deter and disrupt organized crime;
• Provided increased CHP visibility and presence in communities most impacted by crime;
• Support local law enforcement by sharing intelligence, coordinating enforcement, and assisting with investigations; and
• Maintain strict accountability through structured leadership, clear reporting and operational oversight.

“These crime suppression teams will provide critical support to our local partners by focusing on crime where it happens most,” CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee said in a statement. “By combining resources, intelligence, and personnel, we can better disrupt criminal activity and strengthen the safety and security of communities across California.”

These Crime Suppression Teams in Bakersfield, San Bernardino and Oakland resulted in more than 9,000 arrests, recovered 5,800 stolen vehicles and confiscated more than 400 firearms, according to the governor’s office.

In Bakersfield, since April 2024, the partnership resulted in 859 felony arrests, 721 misdemeanor arrests, 2,654 DUI arrests, 1,386 stolen vehicles recovered and 114 firearms seized. The city’s 2024 crime rates were the lowest since 2021, with a 57% decline in homicides and 60% fewer shootings.

In Oakland, by late 2024, crime stood at an overall 34% decrease year-over-year. CHP teams were deployed to the city in February of that year. Since October 2024, the partnership with San Bernardino resulted in 357 felony arrests, 1,627 misdemeanor arrests, 170 DUI arrests, 145 stolen vehicles recovered, and 82 illegal firearms recovered.

Homicide rates, among other crime categories, rose and spiked during the coronavirus pandemic, starting in 2019. However, in the following years, as a result of public safety investments, those figures have steadily decreased, according to data from the California Department of Justice.

Preliminary data for the first six months of 2025 have indicated that overall violent crime is down 12.5% compared to 2024.

The Major Cities Chiefs Association has reported a 20% drop in homicides and 19% decrease in robberies in the state so far in 2025.

The largest overall declines in violent crime were reported by the police departments in Oakland (30%) and San Francisco (22%).

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Giovanni Munoz Leon, 51, and Nury Alejandra Herrera Palacio, 32, both of Ontario, were arrested Thursday following a months-long Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation.

Leon and Palacio were slated to make a joint initial court appearance Monday afternoon at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.

Both are being held in lieu of $500,000 bail — Leon at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta, and Palacio at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.

According to sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Thomas, the defendants allegedly snatched a number of beauty products from the shelves of a Lake Elsinore outlet in late August, then proceeded to flee the location without paying. The estimated loss to the business was $3,000.

Thomas said the ensuing investigation did not turn up sufficient evidence to reveal the perpetrators’ identities, but Leon and Palacio returned to the same store on Sept. 28 and allegedly grabbed $2,000 in merchandise before fleeing again. This time, investigators were able to procure enough information to ultimately identify the alleged thieves, he said.

“They determined that from June to October of this year, Leon and Palacio were responsible for over 50 thefts within California, totaling $123,000 in (stolen) merchandise,” the sergeant said.
Detectives obtained a search warrant for the pair’s shared residence in the 2500 block of East Riverside Drive, “where evidence connecting them to the thefts was recovered,” Thomas said.

“During the search, stolen clothing was located from multiple retail establishments,” he said.

Neither defendant has documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.

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