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 amount of drugs seized included 376 pounds of methamphetamine, 1.4 kilograms of cocaine, 37.4 pounds of fentanyl and 600,000 fentanyl tablets with the potential to provide  ingredients for nearly 10 million lethal doses and were worth an estimated $16 million. 

The news does not end there. These drugs were part of a Mexican cartel trafficking operation and the investigation also resulted in the arrest of 15 people. Unfortunately, the arrests included that of an allegedly corrupt Riverside County Sheriff’s deputy. 

Details of the deputy’s involvement were passed to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department which led to the deputy’s arrest with 104 pounds of fentanyl pills in his possession.

Although Riverside County Sheriff Bianco may spin the story and point to the deputy’s arrest as proof his department is cleaning house, it begs a question regarding why the deputy was operating as a corrections officer in the first place, especially with all the attention placed on the department with the spike in incustody deaths in Riverside jails in 2022, where drug overdoses played a major role as recorded in a Black Voice News in a special report released in January. 

No matter how you slice it, ongoing reports about the antics of Riverside County deputies is bad and getting worse. 

When news broke of this most recent arrest of another Riverside County deputy for their role in illegal activities, it appeared as just another day in an agency that more and more seems rife with malfeasance.  Has the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department become a team of lawless, law enforcement officers who are currently being led by a sheriff with questionable performance as the county’s top law enforcement leader?

I am not challenging what Bianco’s capabilities were as a deputy, etc. while he worked his way up the law enforcement ladder before running for sheriff. We have no way of knowing how he performed as a corrections officer at the Robert Presley Detention Center or while on patrol or working narcotics in the City of Lake Elsinore. Nor can I criticize his performance in his various administrative positions, supervisory or management roles over the years. 

What I will say, however, is that since pinning on the badge of county sheriff, Bianco’s ability to effectively lead an agency with oversight responsibility tor five jail facilities, six court buildings, a civil bureau, the Coroner’s Bureau, Public Administrator’s Office, nearly 20  contract cities, about 4,000 employees and an operating budget of nearly a billion dollars, again and again his leadership acumen is called into question. 

Bianco has remained a lightning rod since he took office in 2019, sparked by a laundry list of curious mishaps that include everything from having to be ordered by a judge during the peak of the COVID-19 crisis to protect people in custody in Riverside County jails to refusing the state vaccine mandate for Sheriff Department employees to having to defend his membership in the now, seditious conspiracy, involved Oath Keepers  to being investigated by the CA Attorney General for alleged Civil Rights violations—the list of his questionable actions has continued to expand.

The infamous list above does not include what appears to be rampant lawlessness by Riverside County sheriff deputies on his watch. 

We can begin by recalling that last September, seven women who had spent time in a Riverside County jail filed federal cases against Riverside County that alleged liability for sexual abuse admitted by correctional deputy, Christian Heidecker, who pleaded guilty to 11 felonies Feb. 23, and was sentenced to five years in prison.  

Also, last September, two Riverside County deputies were arrested and charged with drug possession — Brent Bishop Turnwall, 22, and Jorge Oceguera-Rocha, 25. Although neither were accused of distribution drugs in the jails, Turnwall was arrested while at work at Cois M. Byrd Detention Center. He was charged with being under the influence. 

That same month, another deputy, Oceguera-Rocha, a corrections officer at Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility, was charged with possession of narcotics for sale and transporting it for sale. At the time of his arrest, he purportedly had about 100 pounds of packaged fentanyl pills in his vehicle. 

During an interview with Black Voice News last year, Bianco spoke about the 2022 increase in drug overdoses in the jails stating, “There is a market to purposely smuggle drugs into jail,” he said, claiming that people get arrested so they can bring drugs into the facilities. “They swallow it, they insert it, they’re underneath their fingernails, their toenails. They do everything they can to try and get it in, and unfortunately, sometimes they make it.”

Bianco also acknowledged that the deaths were unfortunate and then went on to say, “but it certainly wasn’t at the hands of our deputies.”  Well, maybe not, but who can say with certainty, because one thing we know for sure is that some of his deputies/corrections officers do not appear to have clean hands.

As rumors began to surface that Bianco is now considering a bid for governor, it leaves one to wonder whether or not this man has any self awareness. Why would we consider electing someone like him to serve as governor when he continues to demonstrate the limits of his leadership skills and abilities to lead the Sheriff’s Department? 

We can not wait to see whether rumors of his run for governor come true. We should act now to spread the word regarding his short comings. This is important because his campaign is certain to be well funded by police unions and other like minded individuals. 

For this reason, it is important that we educate our family, friends and neighbors about the works of Bianco and deputies under his stewardship, so that when, and if, a Bianco campaign for governor is launched, they are well informed and do not believe the hype that is certain to come. 

Of course, this is just my opinion. I’m keeping it real.

The post Keeping it Real: A Culture of Lawlessness in Riverside County Sheriff’s Department appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

File # GB230340001

Details:

On Friday, February 3, at 7:00 AM, Gang Task Force Officers from Region 2 served multiple search warrants in the cities of Beaumont, Calimesa, and Cherry Valley in regards to an ongoing drug sales investigation. Through the search warrants, Gang Task Force Officers seized approximately 28 pounds of methamphetamine, 5.5 pounds of Heroin, approximately 2,000 suspected M30 Fentanyl pills, 2.5 pounds of suspected Fentanyl powder, approximately 400 glass smoking pipes commonly used to smoke methamphetamine, and one unserialized 9mm Polymer-80 Handgun aka “ghost gun” containing a loaded magazine.

Julio Ceasar Castillo, age 51, of Cherry Valley, CA was arrested and booked into the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility for the following charges:

• Felon in Possession of Firearm
• Felon in Possession of Ammunition
• Possession of Several Controlled Substances for Sale

The Riverside County Gang Task Force is a collaborative effort of several law enforcement agencies with the goal of combating criminal street gangs. The San Gorgonio Special Operations Regional Gang Task Force is one of six teams which compose the Riverside County Regional Gang Task Force. The San Gorgonio Special Operations Gang Task Force is staffed with members from the Beaumont Police Department and Riverside County Sheriff’s Office.

Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Officer Christopherson at (951) 776-2553.

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