17 people have been indicted in a massive multi-state drug trafficking and money laundering scheme dating back six years. So far, the Drug Enforcement Agency has seized more than 250 pounds of drugs (mostly methamphetamine and fentanyl), according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Check Out the Full News Conference Below: According to court records, over
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A 37-year-old man who shot at an off-duty police officer during an act of road rage on the Ortega (74) Highway near Lake Elsinore pleaded guilty today to felony charges. Keith Frederick Prante of Mission Viejo admitted shooting at an occupied vehicle and unlawfully carrying a firearm under a plea agreement with the Riverside County
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Felony charges were filed today against a 24-year-old man suspected of leading police on a pursuit that ended in a fiery collision at a gas station in Indio. Zeus Rico of Desert Hot Springs was charged with two felony counts of resisting an officer and one count each of eluding a pursuing officer, evading arrest
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A 33-year-old man who assaulted his ex-girlfriend and threw beer bottles at deputies in Coachella was sentenced to three years in state prison today. Estevan Ivan Chavez Jaimes pleaded guilty to one felony count each of assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer, inflicting corporal injury on a spouse, and resisting or deterring
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On July 14th, deputies from the La Quinta Special Enforcement Team arrested a 31-year-old resident from Coachella in connection to a series of mail thefts in the La Quinta community. Prior to the arrest, deputies served a theft search warrant at the 53000 block of Avenida Villa. While conducting the search warrant, they found several
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A 34-year-old man suspected in a July 2020 killing of a man whose body was found inside a burned vehicle in Thermal pleaded not guilty to felony charges today. Ruben Corria Esquivel Jr. of Coachella was charged with one felony count each of murder, arson on a property, having a fire explosive and possessing ammunition
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A 36-year-old man was sentenced to six years in state prison today for harassing his ex-girlfriend while he had a no-contact order against him and ramming his car into a Riverside County Sheriff’s Office patrol vehicle. Jose Lopez Jr. pleaded guilty June 29 at the Larson Justice Center in Indio to one felony count each
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A 30-year-old man was sentenced to 77 years and eight months in state prison today for fatally shooting a man in the living room of a Desert Hot Springs home after finding out the victim was in the same home as his girlfriend. Daniel Ray Martinez of Desert Hot Springs was found guilty June 29
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A 20-year-old man accused in a Cathedral City park shooting that injured a woman and a juvenile in 2021 re-entered not guilty pleas to felony charges today. Ivan Raya-Reynoso of Cathedral City was charged with one felony count each of attempted murder and criminal street gang activity along with two felony counts of assault with
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A man who sold a deadly dose of fentanyl to a 26-year-old Lake Elsinore resident was bound for state prison today to serve an 11-year sentence. Everardo Martinez Rodriguez, 31, of Lake Elsinore pleaded guilty in May to voluntary manslaughter and sentence-enhancing allegations of targeting a vulnerable victim and taking advantage of a position of
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Update 7/14/23 Authorities said a gunfire struck a third vehicle in the area. The occupant was not injured. The suspect’s vehicle was described as a newer red sedan, which fled northbound on Bob HopeDrive. Anyone with information on this crime is asked to call Investigator Hickok at 760-836-1600. Original Report 7/13/23 Deputies are investigating a
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BY JULIE WATSONPublished 4:39 PM PDT, July 13, 2023 SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a man to 15 years in prison for coordinating a smuggling trip in which two dozen migrants were stacked into a Ford Expedition that crashed into a tractor-trailer, killing 13 people outside a California desert town. Jose
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As police continued investigating today, authorities identified an 18-year-old man who was fatally shot at a graduation party in Indio, where three others were injured over the weekend. The Riverside County coroner’s office identified him Thursday as Matthew Hervey of Thousand Palms. Officers responded shortly after midnight Saturday to the 41900 block of Napoli Street
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Riverside County Sheriff’s investigators put out a call to the community for information on a 2019 murder in La Quinta. Anthony Carillo, 19, of Cathedral City was killed in a shooting on Oct. 26, 2019 in the area of Avenida Madero and Calleo Chillon. Deputies at the scene of the shooting (10/26/19) Today would’ve marked
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A 23-year-old man accused of shooting another man with an assault rifle in Desert Hot Springs was ordered today to stand trial on an attempted murder charge. Manual Rivera-Villa of Desert Hot Springs is also facing a sentence-enhancing allegation of discharging a firearm causing great bodily injury. The charge and allegation stem from the April
Continue Reading A 34-year-old man already in custody for murder has now also been charged in a July 2020 killing of a man whose body was found inside a burned vehicle in Thermal. Ruben Corria Esquivel Jr. of Coachella was charged with one felony count each of murder, arson on a property, having a fire explosive, and
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Three Coachella residents suspected in the death of a man found inside a burning vehicle in Thermal re-entered not guilty pleas to felony charges today. Hector Ramiro Yamanaka Ruiz, 44, was charged with one felony count each of murder, arson on property, and having a fire explosive, according to court records. He also faces a
Continue Reading A man already in custody for murder was named as the suspect in a different homicide in the east valley in July 2020. Ruben Esquivel, 34, of Coachella was named as the suspect in the killing of Luis Pinedo, 23, of Mecca. Pinedo’s body was found inside a burning vehicle in Thermal on July 18,
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An investigation is ongoing after a graduation party in Indio ended in a shooting that left one person dead and three others hurt. We were able to hear the latest developments on the investigation from Indio Police and were able to speak to homeowners where the shooting happened. As the investigation goes into its third
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A 40-year-old man accused of killing a Palm Springs retiree in 2008 was afflicted with “a feverish need for money,” so he devised a plan to murder and defraud, a prosecutor said today during opening statements in the man’s retrial — while the defendant’s attorney said his client is not guilty because law enforcement failed
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