Santa Ana's top news & views blog

Santa Ana's top news & views blog

Category Archives: FBI

Santa Ana comes in at #45 in the FBI’s 2012 Safest Cities report

Posted on by Posted in Crime, FBI, Public Safety, Santa Ana Leave a comment

FBI Seal

If you live in Thousand Oaks, Irvine, Simi Valley, Murrieta, Glendale, or Santa Clarita, you can go ahead and leave your doors unlocked at night: your cities have named some of the safest in America according to the FBI’s newly released 2012 crime statistics, as reported by California City News.

So what about Santa Ana?  Our city came in #45th. Fontana was #46.  Los Angeles was #53.  Southern California cities that were ranked safer than Santa Ana included El Monte (#33); Garden Grove (#41); Temecula (#37); Orange (#24); Torrance (#14); Murrieta (#8);  and Oxnard (#34).  Click here to see all the ratings. Continue reading→

FBI arrests Garden Grove man with possible Al Qaeda ties, in Santa Ana

Posted on by Posted in Crime, FBI, Garden Grove, Public Safety, Santa Ana, Vietnamese 2 Comments

FBI Seal

A Garden Grove man, Sinh Vinh Ngo Nguyen, was charged Friday with trying to support Al Qaeda and making false statements on his passport, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles, as reported by the Los Angeles Times.

Twenty-four-year-old Sinh Vinh Ngo Nguyen of Garden Grove, also known as Hasan Abu Omar Ghannoum, was stopped at a bus station in Santa Ana, Calif. at 7:30 a.m. by members of the Los Angeles Joint Terrorism Task Force and arrested on suspicion of providing material support to al Qaeda, according to NBC.

Nguyen, also known as “Hasan Abu Omar Ghannoum”, was about to board a bus for Mexico at the time of his arrest, Laura Eimiller of the FBI said, according to CBS. Continue reading→

Santa Ana gangs raided as authorities go after the Mexican Mafia again

Posted on by Posted in Alfredo Amezcua, Crime, FBI, Gangs, Michele Martinez, Orange County, Public Safety, Santa Ana 6 Comments

FBI Seal

UPDATE: We have received the official press release regarding this multi-agency gang sweep. It is posted at the end of this article.

Pre-dawn raids at about 75 locations throughout the county Tuesday were the culmination of a multi-agency investigation called “Operation Smokin’ Aces” taking aim at the Mexican Mafia, a notorious prison gang known for its grip on local street gangs, particularly in Santa Ana, authorities said, according to the O.C. Register.

Authorities said it involved dozens of arrests and search warrants that were served throughout Santa Ana neighborhoods. More than 800 officers, deputies and agents of the Santa Ana police; Orange County Sheriff’s Department; FBI; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and U.S. Marshals took part in the investigation and the arrest warrants that were served before sunrise. The arrests were coordinated simultaneously. Continue reading→

The FBI takes aim at the Orange County Supervisors

Posted on by Posted in FBI, Janet Nguyen, Orange County, Politics, Santa Ana Leave a comment

Cartoon Janet Nguyen

FBI Investigating Orange County Supervisors

WRITTEN BY CHRISS W. STREET

The FBI confirmed today that a Task Force has been assembled from the FBI, IRS, District Attorney and U.S. Attorney’s Office to investigate reports of political campaign corruption in Orange County, California. As America’s most Republican County, it is not surprising that a Democrat Attorney General under a Democrat Administration would put powerful Republican politicians in their cross-hairs. But with Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas, a Republican and former Superior Court Judge, as part of the Task Force, my sources believe that over the next two months it is very likely the Supervisors homes will be raided and indictments will be issued for “pay to play” campaign corruption charges. Continue reading→

Santa Ana immigration officer, who was bribed with egg rolls and cash, indicted

Posted on by Posted in Courts, Crime, FBI, Federal Government, immigration, irvine, Santa Ana, Vietnamese Leave a comment

Egg Rolls

An immigration officer who worked in Santa Ana has been indicted on charges that she took bribes in cash and egg rolls from immigrants seeking citizenship and green cards, according to CBS News.

Federal prosecutors say 47-year-old Mai Nhu Nguyen, an Irvine resident who worked in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Santa Ana,  was indicted Wednesday on three counts of solicitation of a bribe by a public official, according to Fox News. Continue reading→

FBI seeks “Chubby Cheeks” bandit who robbed a Chase Bank branch in Santa Ana

Posted on by Posted in Banking, Crime, FBI, Santa Ana Leave a comment

Chubby Cheeks Bandit

FBI Los Angeles
Press Release: June 24, 2013
Contact: Public Affairs Specialist Laura Eimiller, (310) 996-3343

Robbery of Chase Bank Branch in Santa Ana – Female Suspect Known as ‘Chubby Cheeks Bandit’ Sought

The Orange County Bank Robbery Apprehension Team (BRAT) is seeking assistance from the public with information leading to the arrest of a suspect known as the Chubby Cheeks Bandit, an unidentified female bank robber who robbed a Chase Bank at 4:30p.m. on June 17, 2013. Continue reading→

FBI reports minor increase in violent crimes in Santa Ana

Posted on by Posted in Crime, FBI, Federal Government, Public Safety, Santa Ana Leave a comment

FBI Seal

The FBI’s Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report, January-December, 2011-2012, has been released online.  The news is a mixed bag for Santa Ana.  Overall violent crime has gone up marginally by 2% from the previous year, but some categories of violent crime have seen increases of up to 23% while others have dropped by as much as 64%

You can read the data for yourself here.  You can compare this data to past years by looking at the FBI crime data from 2010 and 2011 here.  I put all of the Santa Ana info into a spreadsheet that you can look at here. Continue reading→

The FBI is asking questions about Supervisor Nguyen’s campaign fundraising!

Posted on by Posted in FBI, Federal Government, Janet Nguyen, Orange County, Republican Party, Santa Ana, Vietnamese Leave a comment

Cartoon Janet Nguyen

From the OC Politics Blog

“A contractor who has done work for the County of Orange this week confirmed that FBI officials contacted him late last year with questions about County Supervisor Janet Nguyen,” according to the Voice of OC.

Additionally, another source told Voice of OC that they had a “wide-ranging” discussion with FBI agents about Nguyen’s fundraising activities, specifically in regards to county contracts. Continue reading→